School Trip to an Asylum

Well, the title sounds like a Goosebumps level horror novel, but I assure you, a good day was had. 

Long story short, my neice had to do an assignment for her high school photography portfolio - the theme of which is nature reclaiming old ruins. She was technically late on the project and my mum had offered to help her out, which actually meant that she wanted myself to help out. I was a bit salty about it originally, as I felt obliged to give up a planned quiet day (well, a trip to the vampires at Scotblood and a movie type quiet day) in order to prevent a falling out. 

However, I can't say no to my neices and nephews. They are my Achilles heel. And photography. On a cool dog walk? Well, so long as I survived the ghosts to get to the vampires on time, I was game.

Hubby and I trawled the internet to see if we could still access Banchory Hospital, the abandoned asylum. Its featured here a few times as the perfect place for a spooky walk that was injury and bad weather friendly. Well, we discovered that the planned demolition was on hold until March 2023, so we had time for visit.

I love my photography, so we discussed framing and leading lines. My neice didn't have her camera, and so borrowed mine which, whilst a little dated these days, is a bit more high tech than what she's used to. Or perhaps too old school as she really struggled with a manual zoom and having to look through a viewfinder. I'm not averse to crawling about in mud for a perfect photo, so it was funny to watch her try and work around not having a screen to get those shots without crawling about. Strangely enough, the tripod was also a highlight for her.

Whilst digital is a brilliant thing, the phone camera generation have really missed out on the basics. 

It wasn't all work and no play, as you can see with the ghost shots. I got my mum and neice to stand in as my ghosts whilst Missy waited perfectly still. My neice, who has played about with the effect before, loved the outcome whilst my mum was just amazed at the whole thing. My mum took a lot of "behind the scenes" photos and in them I'm in full director mode. Even as stills with no sound you can see me pointing out shots and indicating details to try and capture. 

Misson successful.

And yes. We did get to the vampires on time. 

Today was a wee trip to Perth to see the girls. No photos. Just lots of tea, cake and good company. The perfect sort of day.

That's all, been a busy weekend, but a good one.