trip out as far as Balmoral might be quite a good idea, with a snack lunch-break along the way and stops for photography as and when subjects presented themselves.
      The route I took followed the A93 on the outward leg, through Crathes, Banchory and Aboyne (with one slightly random - but very fortunate - detour onto the B922 for my lunch-break, just before Ballater), and paused at Balmoral car park. On the return leg, I took the B976 as far as the B993 turn-off to the Bridge of Potarch, backtracked from there onto the B976 to Strachan and Banchory, and then headed back into Aberdeen on the A93 for my first Big Mac in several years (and truly yummy it was, too).

west of Aberdeen. The three pan-shots show the car park and craft village itself, looking north; the rail terminus; and a large and eye-relaxing expanse of green grass which isn't very often seen in that sort of quantity on Shetland. I just had to include it.

done so, I'd have missed this shot altogether. As it was, the tree in Morrison's car park and the pattern of clouds behind it presented me with this quite ordinary but very pleasing panshot.

hue to a scene that the actual subject simply doesn't have, and that the camera can't possibly see. Rather than try to mimic this effect with a filter layer, I've decided to leave the shots as the camera saw them for the moment, until I can find a satisfactory way to impose that effect.

     It was at this point in the trip that one of the two (very minor) drawbacks of the F601Z made itself felt. The 'largest' SD card that can be fitted into this camera is only 128 MB capacity (and very expensive indeed, by today's standards) - which at a setting of 6.6 Mpls translates into a maximum of 53 images before the card has to be downloaded and cleared. I'd expected this to happen: so I hooked the camera up to my laptop, to clear the card ready for more images; and then continued with my journey.

     For the technically-minded, the image shown below consists of nine separate shots arranged in three columns of three rows each. I can't remember exactly how the PanoramaMaker program had to be cajoled to get the combined result - whether I created an upper and then a lower row and then combined them, or created three separate columns and then combined them as left and right pairs - but it took quite a bit of experimentation; and I recall wondering whether I'd actually manage to do it.

     ... and so onwards at last, to Balmoral itself, which I reached at about 2:30 in the afternoon, just as the light was beginning to fade behind an advancing white overcast. The estate itself was closed to public traffic, of course, so I contented myself with shooting what you can see below. This was the point at which I ran into the second minor shortcoming of the F601 - the one that I'd completely overlooked - which was the fact that, by this time, I'd shot somewhat more than one hundred frames (with a lot of

zooming to get the shots right), and had, as a result, exhausted the rechargeable battery that powers it. So - as far as the photographic part of the expedition was concerned, that was it ... 'operator head-space' torpedoed the job (slightly), and not the fading light. When I got home, I soon found myself an online deal on a second battery with charger cradle that also plugs into a car cigar-lighter. I'm all set now, equipment-wise, for the next Scottish photo-foray.

     The relaxed backroads return to Aberdeen turned out to be anything but an anti-climax, in spite of the slight annoyance of not having the use of my camera. The roads were practically deserted, and what little traffic there was showed Shetland-style courtesy wherever the going was a bit narrow. From my point of view, it would be a very easy matter to fit into that area, and be content with what it has to offer.

     Scenically, too, the whole trip was a success, in spite of the fact that winter was drawing on and the trees were bare of leaves. In some ways, the lack of foliage helped, by unblocking the view that might otherwise be obscured. A brief shopping excursion around Banchory left me with the impression that that Scottish town in particular would be well worth considering as a place to live.