Travelogue: Portobello, Edinburgh
Date: 30 October 2024
I grew up in Atlanta, which is a landlocked city in the south-east of the US. Growing up, we would travel to Florida a fair bit and that almost always involved going to the beach.
In my travels as an adult I’ve always sought out beaches. It’s not because I want to sit down and tan, it’s because I want to listen, breathe in the air and walk on the sand. There’s something incredibly calming and majestic about being near the water. Whether it’s a river or a waterfall or the ocean or the sea.
Another favourite spot in the Edinburgh area is Portobello.
When I visited Edinburgh in 2023 I found this neighbourhood, it’s a short bus ride from Princes Street and is an area that once you hop off that bus there’s shops and bakeries and galleries and good coffee.
On this occasion, I popped into a bakery called Bayne’s, which started in the early 1920’s, as a part of a butchery, in the mid-1960’s the founder focused on the bakery side of the business, which now has over 60 locations. The bakery offers sweets and savoury treats. You can get beef, pork, or vegetarian sausage rolls, doughnuts, yum-yums, cupcakes, and more. On this outing, I picked up a sausage roll.
Once I had my breakfast treat, I wandered over to the beachfront area and found a bench. I sat and took a while just watching the water, and people, and taking in the sea air.
I of course took photos.
After I had my little breakfast. I wandered out onto the sand. The tide was out quite a bit and I just started looking for details.
As a travelling photographer I’m always looking for the details.
When we travel, we photograph those popular tourist spots, but the challenge to myself (and to you) is to find new ways of capturing them. For me, one of those ways is to focus on details, unique light, and compositions. Thinking about images I’ve seen and trying to do something I haven’t seen, or done before.
When I’m on the beach and the tide is out, I look for mini tide pools in the sand and play around with creative photographic compositions to capture those details.
To me that’s a fantastic way to spend the day listening to the sea wandering in the sand and capturing my perspective of that time.
Steps: 13,166
~ Kate