John S Pow Photography

John S Pow Photography Landscape photographer based in Kirkcaldy, Scotland. Mostly Scottish landscapes but I love to travel

Ancient stone. Wild sea. Burning skies.For centuries Dunnottar Castle has watched over this stretch of the Scottish coas...
06/09/2026

Ancient stone. Wild sea. Burning skies.

For centuries Dunnottar Castle has watched over this stretch of the Scottish coast.

For a few minutes, it looked as though the sky had decided to put on its own tribute to it.

One of those moments when you simply stop taking photographs… and stare.

📍 Dunnottar Castle, Scotland

Lily and Harvey are dancing with joy that it is almost Autumn.
02/09/2026

Lily and Harvey are dancing with joy that it is almost Autumn.

31/08/2026

The annual nail appointment 😂

It’s one month since the launch of my 2027 calendar, so I thought it was time for the annual inspection… and apparently I’ve had my nails done again! 😂

My wife is once again doing a much better job of showing off the calendar than I ever could.

For anyone who hasn’t ordered one yet, here’s a little look through some of the photographs inside.

And for those of you who already have yours — thank you so much for your continued support. ❤️

If you’ve been meaning to get one but haven’t quite got round to it yet… this might be your gentle reminder! 😉

https://www.johnspowphotography.com/2027-calendar

Sunset under the Queensferry Crossing.The Forth Bridges
29/08/2026

Sunset under the Queensferry Crossing.

The Forth Bridges

Sometimes bad weather is exactly what you need.The weather forecast wasn't looking particularly inspiring this week, and...
28/08/2026

Sometimes bad weather is exactly what you need.

The weather forecast wasn't looking particularly inspiring this week, and with a couple of other photographic plans cancelled, I decided to give myself a challenge instead.

I took the Nikon and walked across the Forth Road Bridge on a dull Scottish afternoon with simple instructions:
Don't photograph the obvious.
No spectacular views.
No dramatic sunset.
No waiting for perfect light.

Instead, I had to find photographs in an ordinary place by looking at shape, structure, people, movement, colour and moments. So I started looking at the bridge differently. The bolts that hold it together. A walker emerging from the mist.
People using the crossing as part of their everyday lives. The extraordinary geometry of the suspension cables. Workers carrying out jobs most of us never notice. And then, while I was photographing them, one of the workers spotted me and gave me a salute. That tiny moment turned what had been a photograph of a bridge into a photograph about people and the bridge.

I've included some of the photographs I made — including a few that I initially rejected.

And that's probably the biggest lesson I took away from the exercise:
A good photograph isn't necessarily waiting for you in a beautiful place. Sometimes you have to learn to see the photograph that's already there.

I'm genuinely interested to know which one you would choose as your favourite.
Which photograph catches your eye most — and why?

Another view of the ForthLast week I shared a photograph of the Forth Bridge taken after dark, with this same cruise shi...
26/08/2026

Another view of the Forth

Last week I shared a photograph of the Forth Bridge taken after dark, with this same cruise ship passing beneath it.

A few days later, the ship was back — and this time I had the opportunity to photograph it from above.

It's amazing how different the Forth can look from one visit to the next. The same bridge, the same ship, but completely different light, perspective and atmosphere.

For me, this is one of the things I love about photographing familiar places. You can return again and again and still find a different photograph.

The Forth Bridges never really get old. 📷

25/08/2026

Sunset at the Queensferry Crossing last night.

Kirkcaldy through the eyes of an old camera.I've lived in Kirkcaldy for many, many years, and like most people, I suspec...
21/08/2026

Kirkcaldy through the eyes of an old camera.

I've lived in Kirkcaldy for many, many years, and like most people, I suspect I've become accustomed to much of what surrounds me.

So I decided to look at it differently. I took my 50-year-old Olympus OM-2 for a walk around the town, loaded with a roll of Kentmere Pan 100 black-and-white film.

Rather than looking for the obvious views, I simply wandered and photographed the things that caught my eye — the old, the new, the familiar and the slightly quirky.

Somehow, seeing Kirkcaldy through the viewfinder of an old film camera made me look at it with fresh eyes.

Here is Kirkcaldy as I saw it.

I had a bit of a photographic challenge on my hands with this one.My sister is currently cruising on board Holland Ameri...
20/08/2026

I had a bit of a photographic challenge on my hands with this one.

My sister is currently cruising on board Holland America Line’s Nieuw Statendam, and I wanted to get a photograph of the ship passing the Forth Bridges — something that would give her a memorable image of her visit.

Unfortunately, the Nieuw Statendam was moored right out in the middle of the Firth of Forth, which made finding a viewpoint where I could get both the ship and the bridges together rather more difficult than I had hoped.

My original plan involved getting the drone up for a different perspective, but the Scottish weather had other ideas. It was raining, so that option was firmly off the table!

Instead, I headed to Dalgety Bay and went for a much more traditional approach — a long lens from the shore. The distance meant there was no possibility of fitting everything into a single frame, so this photograph is actually a panorama made from nine individual long-lens photographs, carefully stitched together.

And perhaps, in the end, the miserable weather did me a favour. The rain brought some wonderful atmosphere into the sky, while the lights of the Nieuw Statendam and the Forth Bridge glow warmly against the gathering darkness.

Not quite the photograph I originally set out to make — but sometimes those are the ones that turn out to be the most rewarding.

Most importantly, I hope my sister enjoys having a little pic to remember her cruise by. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿📷

I have seen some news reports recently questioning why the Forth Bridge is not fully lit at night anymore and some comme...
14/08/2026

I have seen some news reports recently questioning why the Forth Bridge is not fully lit at night anymore and some comments saying that lighting the bridges is a waste of money.

I am just a photographer and purposefully don't get involved in these debates, but here is a wee reminder of what the bridges looked like away back in December 2018 when the Queensferry Crossing was lit for the first time.

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KY26

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+441592643226

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