Frosty Christmas Morning Photo

Photographer’s Note

Seasons greetings!

The village of Stow. Located beside the Gala Water on the A7 road 7 miles (11 km) North of Galashiels or 25 miles (40 km) South of Edinburgh between the Moorfoot and Lammermuir Hills. Formerly one of Scotland's original seats of sanctuary, it is a quiet village which was once linked to St Andrews and was the location of its Bishop's summer residence. Stow was built around the Church of St Mary which was consecrated in 1242 but there was an earlier church here at Torsonce dating from the 7th century AD. Our Lady's Well which was used by these early Christians has recently been renovated and can be visited by a pleasant walk along the riverside. Legend and some historical evidence says that King Arthur fought a bloody battle in the valley of Wedale where the village now lies.
The Church in this picture is yet another, the local Parish Church, quite large for a village of this size.
The pack-horse bridge was constructed by public subscription around 1650 with a low parapet to allow burdened horses to cross in safety and extends wide enough to accommodate the flood level of the Gala. Since it was the lowest bridging point on the Gala Water/Tweed river complex it was this bridge which gave Stow its early prosperity.

asajernigan, AROBN54, OT12, Glint, cobbydale, ollie59 has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

asajernigan (14318) 2006-12-25 15:38

Dougie,
A nice frosty Christmas scene. Nice lighting on the church and the background. The low lighting on the foreground accentuates the frost and cold look.
Merry Christmas,
Asa

AROBN54 (10791) 2006-12-25 18:14

This is a really lovely shot, Dougie. I especially like the frosty look of the foreground and that soft, warm light on the back and on the church spire. The composition is very nice and the contrast is excellent considering the lighting conditions. Great shot!! Merry Christmas! Shelly

OT12 (159) 2006-12-25 18:35 [Comment]

Show Comment

Glint (3076) 2006-12-25 18:35

hello Dougie,
this is an attractive image. It's very well composed and I like the colours.What a lovely frost, just right for Christmas day. But how come you got blue skies when it has been grey, grey, grey here for two days?.I went out today too, more in hope than expectation.
Bev
ps any mispelling due entirely to the port!

cobbydale (1924) 2006-12-26 6:52

Great wintry shot Dougie. Lovely composition and POV with the river providing lead-in to the shot as the eye is drawn up thru the bridge.

Agree with Bev about skies down here, nothing but grey where I am too.

TFS. Leon.

ollie59 (776) 2006-12-26 21:30

wonderful cold scene dougie ,great composition and pov ,i really like that bridge and the light catching the side of the spire and toching the background
well done and happy new year

Aviller (3112) 2006-12-27 8:24

Hi Dougie,

great winter shot. The crystal clear sky's great, although for my taste there's a bit too much of it in this pic. I'd have perhaps tried to move the church a bit more to the center. Nonetheless a really good capture.

craiggc (2507) 2007-01-05 4:16

Hi Dougie,

I love this image, especially the colour palette. It's so finely detailed too, partly due to the weather, partly your equipment, and partly your chosen POV.

The sunlit background and steeple really make this shot first class.

Hope Santa brought lots of nice camera toys :-) Personnaly I got some screen calibration equipment, so can now fully appreciate the shadow and highlight detail in your shot!

Cheers
Craig

jdwyer264 (1082) 2007-01-09 10:05