So this was a friends trip to a small seaside park in Scotland. I think it was about early June'ish, before we left high-school.
These are probably the photos I treasure the most, just because I actually tried to nail out the aesthetic I had been working on for a while.
Actually this whole trip probably means a lot to me in general. Felt like a nice way to finally finish my teenage years.
Important context is that this was my friend's family's summer holiday, where they grabbed a caravan for a couple days, and went for expeditions around the area.
Sunset with Pink Overtones
My magnum opus, the first picture I took on this trip as well, yet I have no fucking idea how this was captured.
It was the first night of us camping, and I had just decided to make this a "photography" holiday.
The funny thing about this is that the sky didn't even look nice, it was mainly grey with a couple of overtones, and we'd just been hit with torrential rain for the last 3 hours trying to put up tents.
I don't know how much it bucketed it down but it was awful.
We ended up making friends with two old Christians during the flash flood who gave us tea and coffee, and just stayed inside their tent and chatted. I think I was the first to make friends, and then one by one my friends trickled in, eager for relief from the pissing cold.
I'll be honest, that little bit of kindness really touched me in a way, I don't know.
Just strangers helping strangers.
I kinda wish I could see them again.
Abandoned Grave
So this was the second day out, and our friend wanted to show us the places around Portban she explored with her sisters when she was younger.
First up on that list was the weird, old abandoned church thing she used to go with her sisters.
It was about a couple hundred meters out from where we were set up, a good 15 minute walk across the beaches and grassy dunes.
I remember a lot of sheep droppings, we had to basically hop from one space to another, and then through a broken wire fence.
When we got there, it looked like this 12th century mausoleum. The roof had been destroyed from hundreds of years of weathering, and one of us managed to jump from a grassy stone into the grave.
I don't know how he contorted himself to the top of the building, I think I have a video of it somewhere on my hard drive, but it was a cute and funny moment.
The Rock Climbers
This was the second day out.
Our friend told us about a place she used to go as a kid with her sisters, about a two-mile trek across rocks and hills.
The destination was a beach filled with seals that she hadn't went to in a while.
I think this was about a mile into our journey; I was jumping rock to rock like a mountain goat for some reason.
I'm not too sure why, everyone else just walked like normal people, but it was genuinely just so fucking fun.
This is a picture of two of my friends navigating one of the rock ledges towards the beach.
I think I slipped on one of the rocks after this photo, didn't hit anything but was at the very least entertaining for a minute.
The Sheep's Home
[haven't written this one yet mb look at the cute sheep]
Calm Waves
This was the end of the second day.
At one point, the two younger kids in our group were trying to steal some firewood from a neighbouring DofE group, which they successfully got a couple of twigs and maybe one log?
After that was all over, I took a couple swings of what I think was Cherry Sourz, a weird sour liqueur.
I just sat by the beach listening to this song for a while.
That year had been particularly hard for me, for reasons I don't really wish to explain.
I think in that moment I somewhat made peace with it.
Just watching the waves go back and forth, over and over again.
It does something to you, not just calming or relaxing, but a weird ambivelent third option.
Green Alcove
This is an odd one, considering the whole time we were walking it did not look as good as this.
This photo is an actual, genuine miracle.
This was the last day we were out, I think we had all packed up the tents and were doing one final walk to some cool ancient rock carvings a couple roads from the holiday park.
We were all exhausted by that point, half-relieved, half-dissapointed at the end of our time away.
So the 6 of us were walking and I think it was about two-thirds of the way there when I spotted it.
In the thicket of all those trees was this... paradise.
Now, Scotland has this beautiful feature about it, where it can go from looking deathly miserable to beautiful in a matter of seconds; I always assumed it was a myth, but for once I think I actually experienced it.
A couple minutes later we finally got to the stones, which I'll be honest they were just stones I can't kid myself they were boring as hell.
