Kelpies!

Because we were weather-delayed flying to Shetland we had a couple of days to fill.  Some of that time was spent with a trip to see “The Kelpies”.  Kelpies are mythical shape-shifting water horses inhabiting lochs in Scottish folklore.  These Kelpies are a pair of monumental steel horse-heads between the Scottish towns of Falkirk and Grangemouth.  The sculptures were designed by sculptor Andy Scott and were completed in October 2013.  They stand next to the M9 motorway and form the eastern gateway of the Forth and Clyde Canal, which meets the River Carron here. Each head is 30 metres high and weighs 300 tonnes.  They are positioned either side of a specially constructed lock and basin and the forms were inspired by Clydesdale (draught) horses.

It was a very grey day, somewhat rainy, with very soft light.  I over-exposed the horses by about three stops which meant detail in the sky was removed.  In Photoshop I converted the image to Black and White and increased the contrast, so the horses rendered as white, grey and black.  It simplified the composition against the plain white sky.

I was using the Olympus 9-18mm wide-angle zoom lens.  I found that if I stood underneath the horse that was looking down, and set the lens to its widest angle setting, the horse’s nose looked like a fairly benign  alien; its nostrils became eyes!  It’s always worth trying an unusual viewpoint of something that’s been photographed a lot.

I’m a big fan of signs, and if there’s a way I can juxtapose a sign on a subject to make it a photographic joke then all the better.  The sign refers to the bridge it’s on and not to the raised lip/head of the kelpie, but it does make for a fun image.

They are definitely worth a trip.