Rob MacKillop
Edinburgh Correspondent
I go to the botanical gardens in Edinburgh once a week on average. I seem to need it for health reasons - physical and psychological. I love the place.
Today I set my camera for colour - we seem to be experiencing a weird mixture of Spring and Autumn all at once. There are colourful buds and flowers competing for the knackered bees, but also lots of browns and russets from the fallen leaves. It's really beautiful.
I decided to take an admittedly rather boring shot, just to remind myself of the beautiful colours. It wasn't until I got home I realised I had my first glimpse of The Girl:
As she passed, she asked me if I was a photographer. I replied in the affirmative. Then she surprised me by saying, "Can I take pictures of you?". "Really?! OK".
We got talking...
She is a 2nd-year photography student, doing a project on people in the botanics. Most people refuse her request for photos. All the while we were talking I was thinking how beautiful she was, and her slight Polish accent was also beautiful. Being a happily married man, and twice the age of this delightful girl, I felt comfortable chatting to her. It was all "meaningful stuff', as it should be when you are a 2nd-year photography student. She suffers from a mysterious fainting illness, and is finding photography forms part of her healing process - something I can relate to from my anxiety attacks.
She took a number of shots of me in various locations around the gardens, using a digital camera she hates (it belongs to the art school) and her Polish twin-lens reflex, with the word Smart (or something like that) written across the front, which she much preferred. She did say she would send me some prints.
So, I asked if I could take a couple of shots of her. They didn't all turn out too well, as the sun was really bright at times, and I had no filter. Consequently her skin would over-expose. But I do think I got some decent shots of this beautiful young woman, whose name I forgot the instant she told me (not uncommon - but I'll remember her cool grey eyes for the rest of my life) and who may or may not get in touch again. I never asked for her contact details, in case that made her uncomfortable, but asked her to email me so that I could send her some of my images of her. Such as these:
DP3M
Today I set my camera for colour - we seem to be experiencing a weird mixture of Spring and Autumn all at once. There are colourful buds and flowers competing for the knackered bees, but also lots of browns and russets from the fallen leaves. It's really beautiful.
I decided to take an admittedly rather boring shot, just to remind myself of the beautiful colours. It wasn't until I got home I realised I had my first glimpse of The Girl:
As she passed, she asked me if I was a photographer. I replied in the affirmative. Then she surprised me by saying, "Can I take pictures of you?". "Really?! OK".
We got talking...
She is a 2nd-year photography student, doing a project on people in the botanics. Most people refuse her request for photos. All the while we were talking I was thinking how beautiful she was, and her slight Polish accent was also beautiful. Being a happily married man, and twice the age of this delightful girl, I felt comfortable chatting to her. It was all "meaningful stuff', as it should be when you are a 2nd-year photography student. She suffers from a mysterious fainting illness, and is finding photography forms part of her healing process - something I can relate to from my anxiety attacks.
She took a number of shots of me in various locations around the gardens, using a digital camera she hates (it belongs to the art school) and her Polish twin-lens reflex, with the word Smart (or something like that) written across the front, which she much preferred. She did say she would send me some prints.
So, I asked if I could take a couple of shots of her. They didn't all turn out too well, as the sun was really bright at times, and I had no filter. Consequently her skin would over-expose. But I do think I got some decent shots of this beautiful young woman, whose name I forgot the instant she told me (not uncommon - but I'll remember her cool grey eyes for the rest of my life) and who may or may not get in touch again. I never asked for her contact details, in case that made her uncomfortable, but asked her to email me so that I could send her some of my images of her. Such as these:
DP3M
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