St Mary's Loch

Transformation

of a simple photograph

Had there been a railroad to St Mary's Loch, a GNER poster for the area might have looked something like this. However, the area itself would, as a consequence of such a poster, no longer resemble the poster.

The picture was made with a digital camera in the Summer of 2003 and posterized in Photoshop. The font used on the poster is the old favourite Gill Sans, with a vertical scale of 150%, tracking of -25%, and a 1 pixel outline in a dark colour.

In case you're wondering: yes, everyone of the people mentioned have walked around this St. Mary's Loch that so few people know about.

William Wallace was proclaimed "Guardian of Scotland" at St Mary's Chapel (only a few headstones of the graveyard of the little kirk remain); it was this loch (lake) out of which the arm rose to catch King Arthur's sword Excalibur when the legendary King was dying; Mary Queen of Scot's visits to the surrounding woods and to Rodono Chapel along the loch are well documented (in fact, other Royalty has been hunting here as well); William Wordsworth wrote 3 poems about the Yarrow River that flows through this loch; Lee Davies is my friend and is still leaving footsteps; and Sir Walter Scott has spent many happy hours here (see Marmion). Finally, James Hogg, who taught the wandering winds to sing, has been immortalised with a statue, which you might still visit, situated opposite the strip of land that separates St. Mary's Loch from its smaller sister, the Loch of the Lowes.