Scottish Landscape Photography Blog | Photography by Grant Glendinning

Glasgow Prints

A few of my very latest photographs taken from around Glasgow.
The first image on display is of course the beautiful Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum building lit up at night. I took this image after some rainfall which produced some interesting reflections and combined with the long exposure gives a kind of glossy sheen to the overall image, which I like.

The next image is of course the Clyde Arc Bridge lit up just at evening twilight. I have taken many shots of this bridge as shown in my Night-shots gallery , but what I love particularly with this shot and the 5th one below is, it is the first in the series I have taken with the bridge displaying a kaleidoscope of colours, just like a rainbow, and also the wonderfully rendered diffraction spikes (Sun-stars) from the street lights on the bridge, thanks to my Canon’s 16-35mm f4.0 IS L 9 diaphragm blades, which produces beautiful 18 point spikes.

The two Red Pontiac 1950 classic car images below were completely unexpected as I had been photographing the rear of the Glasgow Riverside Museum in frequent showers, I had decided to leave and go home, but as I walked around the front of the building I noticed this beautiful classic car sitting outside the building, which needed to be photographed as it looked striking against the dark sky while being lit up with the soft lighting from the building and street lights. The showers also helped make the shots more atmospheric and produced light reflections on the rain soaked ground. The last shot I took of this car (3rd image below) was in the pouring rain, fortunately I had an umbrella with me to cover my equipment for the duration of the 60 second exposure.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
Night shot of the Glasgow Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
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Clyde Arc Bridge
The Glasgow Clyde Arc Bridge reflecting on the River Clyde at evening twilight
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Pontiac 1950
Night shot of a red Pontiac classic car from 1950 outside the Glasgow Riverside Transport Museum reflecting on the rain soaked ground.
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Clyde Arc Bridge
A long exposure of the Glasgow Clyde Arc Bridge reflecting on the River Clyde at evening twilight
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Clyde Arc Bridge
The Glasgow Clyde Arc Bridge reflecting on the River Clyde at evening twilight
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Pontiac 1950
Night shot of a red Pontiac classic car from 1950 outside the Glasgow Riverside Transport Museum reflecting on the rain soaked ground.
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Clyde Arc Bridge
The Glasgow Clyde Arc Bridge reflecting on the River Clyde after Sunset.
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Canon 16-35mm f4.0 IS L

Having used the excellent Canon 17-40mm f4.0 L lens for most of my landscape photography since 2006, I have now upgraded to the rather superb Canon 16-35mm f4.0 IS L lens. Until this lens came along I had no intention of considering another wide-angle lens from Canon, with the exception of the TS-E 17mm f4.0 L and Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II, two lenses that I have dreamt of owning. The 16-35mm f4.0 IS L lens, however, got my attention when it was announced recently, and was proclaimed as Canon’s finest ultra wide-angle zoom lens to date, with superior optics to the 17-40mm f4.0 L and indeed the 16-35mm f2.8 L II.

The first thing I noticed about 16-35mm f4.0 IS L compared with my 17-40mm f4.0 L when I received it is the increase in length compared with the 17-40mm f4.0, as shown on my side-by-side comparison image above, it’s little heavier than the 17-40mm, too. The build quality feels the same as the 17-40mm, is quite solid, and is resistant to dust and water. I love the lens hood on this lens as it is much slimmer than the 17-40mm making it easier to store. The lens hood also has a little push tab that locks the hood in place and removing the hood requires pushing the tab. The 4-stop image stabilization is a nice feature to have especially in places where a tripod might be prohibitive or in situations where you do not have time to set up a tripod and just have to grab and go.

Shortly after receiving the lens I promptly set off down to the West Coast as the weather forecast was looking good for a nice Sunset. The Sunset was not spectacular as I had wished for but I didn’t care anyway as I was eager to take some photos to see how the lens compared with my 17-40mm f4.0 L and to examine the RAW files at 100% when I got back home. The image below is the one from the coast, 118-second exposure at f16, ISO 100, 20mm. Even before doing a comparison with my 17-40mm lens, I knew this lens was optically superior when viewing my coastal image.

I preferred the warm white balance that I had set in the camera for this shot.

Click on the image for a larger preview

To try and find out the optical quality of this lens compared with my 17-40mm f4.0 L lens, I decided to take a series of test shots (full res files available below) at various apertures and focal lengths and then compare them side by side. The settings for each lens were: 16mm, 17mm, 35mm, 40mm, f4.0, f8.0, and f16. shot with mirror lockup and tripod mounted. Please note, there is slight CA (chromatic aberration) exhibiting from the far left of the 16-35mm f4.0 IS L images and none from the 17-40mm f4.0, even though the lens aberration correction is enabled in the camera, I think this is because Canon has not released the 16-35mm f4.0 IS L lens data for DPP yet. All these images have been processed in Canon’s DPP with the same settings for each image. These samples are only to show the sharpness across the frame and are not useful for comparing vignetting or CA, due to the varying light.

Click on the links below and “save as”. These images are for personal inspection only and are not to be used on other websites or publications without my permission.

16/17mm f4.0 comparison 35/40mm f4.0 16/17mm f8.0 35/40mm f8.0 16/17mm f16 35/40mm f16

As you can see with the full-resolution sample images, the 16-35mm shows much better detail right across the frame to the edges with better contrast too, although at f16 and at 16/17mm, the difference is much less pronounced.

I’m very happy with this lens so far and think it’s a worthy upgrade to my 17-40mm f4.0 L lens, but at twice the price of the 17-40mm, (£1,199.00 UK prices) it’s not twice as good! Shop around or wait till the price falls. Amazon has it in stock for £682

Update: I have 100% crops of the above samples which you can roll over below with your mouse to check the extreme corners of the 16-35 and 17-40

Canon 16-35 f4.0 16mm @f4. mouse over for 17-40mm @ f4

Canon 16-35 f4.0 16mm @f8. mouse over for 17-40mm @ f8

Canon 16-35 f4.0 16mm @f16. mouse over for 17-40mm @ f16

Loch Lomond Canvas Prints

The spellbinding Milarrochy Bay tree partially submerged on the East bank shore of Loch Lomond.

        This photograph of the Milarrochy tree was shot after a few days of heavy rain during the late afternoon at Loch Lomond. For this particular
        image I decided to take a long exposure totaling 154 seconds at f13 using an ND filter, I also used a polarizing filter to show and bring out the detail
          of the pebbles under the water, as seen in the image below.

This is just one of many photographs of the Milarrochy Bay tree at Loch Lomond which you will find in my portfolio taken at different times of the
day and all through the seasons.

Please click on the image below for a larger view. To purchase and select print options please click HERE

Milarrochy bay tree Loch Lomond
A long exposure of the Milarrochy tree on the shore of Loch Lomond.
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More photographs of the Milarrochy Bay tree and Loch Lomond below. Click on images for larger preview and to purchase a print.

Loch Lomond tree at sunset
A long exposure of a partially submerged tree at Milarrochy bay
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Loch Lomond
A three minute long exposure of a partially submerged tree by the shore of Loch Lomond.
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Loch lomond sunset
Sunset at Duck Bay Marina, Loch Lomond.
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Loch Lomond Jetty
A long exposure of an old jetty on the shores of Loch Lomond.
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Duck bay marina Loch Lomond
A mist covered Duckbay marina.
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Loch Lomond
A long monochrome exposure of a flooded jetty from the shore of Loch Lomond, Scotland
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Tarbet Jetty Loch Lomond
A minimalist black and white shot of an old stone jetty leading into the mist covered water of Loch Lomond with four pleasure cruise boats in the distance.
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Tarbet Pier Loch Lomond
A misty morning from the pier at Tarbet, Loch Lomond
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Loch Lomond Sail Boats
Two sailing boats reflecting on the calm mist covered water of Loch Lomond in the morning light.
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Loch Laomainn
A 347 second long exposure from the west bank shore of Loch Lomond with a small rock island and rocks in the foreground.
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Lone Tree Afterglow
A long exposure of a lone tree by the shore of Loch Lomond at Sunset.
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Loch Lomond Tree
A lone tree partially submerged on a mist covered Loch at Milarrochy bay, Loch Lomond, Scotland.
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Loch Lomond Afterglow
A lone tree reflecting on the calm water of Loch Lomond after Sunset.
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Loch Lomond trees in the mist
Lone trees shedding the last of their autumn leaves reflecting on the mist covered water of Loch Lomond.
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