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I don’t know if I’ll ever be cured of CaltonHillitus - this chronic condition affects hundreds of photographers.

I have taken thousands…nay...tens of thousands of images up on Calton Hill in the centre of Edinburgh, but keep being drawn back for more. There is such a wide range of panoramas & interesting objects to feature, but as the years pass the more I tend towards narrower and more detailed perspectives.

Word has been out for many years that Calton is THE place for sunset in Edinburgh and most evenings there are throngs of folk pointing lenses towards the city and the setting sun. When the sky is a bit bleh and there are hordes of people I sometimes switch to capturing people capturing the sunset.

There’s no doubt that the wide view of the city is a beezer It changes with the seasons, the weather, and with events and displays. The city buildings light up after sunset with a variety of colours and intensities which balance against the brightness in the sky.

In December there is an event at Edinburgh Castle that transforms the view. The Castle of Light beams upwards into the night sky and sweeps over the city centre, complimenting the Christmas displays in Princes St Gardens. You can see the Christmas tree on The Mound that’s a traditional gift from Vestland in Norway.

One of my favourite shots I’ve taken up on Calton was during Yvette Mattern’s Global Rainbow which fired a rainbow laser display from Edinburgh Castle. It blasted over the National Monument on Calton Hill and then for many miles out to sea. If you’d like to see it in full 360 degrees from up here and other parts of the city click this link.

The city centre isn’t the only view worth carving wee slices from. Looking north towards the Forth estuary and over to the coast of Fife the New Town of Edinburgh and Broughton have their own share of spires. It’s easy to spot the remaining sodium streetlamps in Edinburgh when it’s foggy, as they glow orange rather than the bluer cast of the new LED lamps. The purple cast in this shot is a building that is lit by colured led lights.

The hill is also a brilliant feature on the Edinburgh horizon with its various monuments and buildings. The haar that sweeps in from the North Sea can briefly make it an island above a sea of cloud.

I’m resigned to my fate with my addiction to Calton - a collection of viewpoints rather than a single perspective - and I’ll be showing you hundreds of images in the future. I may also show you some of the work captured by clients doing one-to-one tuition sessions. It’s the ideal place to learn about your own camera and how to move from relying on automatic mode, so please get in touch if you want to arrange a session for yourself or as a gift voucher for someone else.

Someone emailed to suggest I add a wee tips payment option - for those of you who don’t want to subscribe but would like to offer something as a “Cheers mate, enjoyed that” option. So here it is.