Seven crows
Written by John MacphersonI was asked to photograph a Scottish castle, for a whisky company. A long way from home. On Christmas Eve. It was snowing when I left home in the Land Rover.
In the afternoon I got lost, just before another blizzard hit. Stupidly I took a wrong turning up a small farm road. I was lost before the turning, but several miles after the turning I was really lost. So I decided to carry on anyway, just round one more corner (as you do), where I might find a flat bit to turn round. Because where I was was mostly steep, in deep snow, and too slithery. And it was growing eerily greybluewhite, the colour of blizzards.
And round that next corner I saw seven crows, and a fence.
Seven crows. And a fence. © John MacPherson
It was really quite beautiful.
Every cloud has a silver lining so they say!
But this particular one was black, black, black, black, black, black, black as a murder of winter crows.
Author — John Macpherson
John MacPherson was born and lives in the Scottish Highlands. He trained as a welder in the Glasgow shipyards, before completing an apprenticeship as a carpenter, and then qualified as a Social Worker in Disability Services. Along the way he has cooked on canal barges, trained as an Alpine Ski Leader & worked as an Instructor for Skiers with disabilities, been a canoe instructor, and tutor of night classes in carpentry, stained glass design and manufacture, and archery. He has travelled extensively on various continents, undertaking solo trips by bicycle, or motorcycle. He has had narrow escapes from an ambush by terrorists, been hit by lightning, caught in an erupting volcano, trapped in a mobile home by a tornado, kidnapped by a dog's hairdresser, rammed by a basking shark and was once bitten by a wild otter. He has combined all this with professional photography, which he has practised for over 35 years. He teaches photography and acts as a photography guide & tutor in the UK and abroad. His biggest challenge is keeping his 30 year old Land Rover 110 on the road. He loves telling and hearing stories.
Discussion (2 Comments)
John, this is a beautiful picture. Are you selling prints?
Long answer: I started trying to a few years back with a big (80 pound weight) archival Epson printer. The saga of that year, with the four printers I had one after the other, two of them fighting for space in my office at one point, and the service engineer I held hostage over Easter whilst he tried to make any one of them work (unsuccessfully), will either terrify you or make you laugh hysterically!
Short answer: I can if anyone wants one! But I may not being printing it myself.
PS Thanks for the compliment!