Photographing "The Kelpies", a photo from Falkirk, Scotland

Photographer's Note

Please click here for a larger version of this photograph on "beta" TE.

This extraordinary artwork is "The Kelpies", the World's largest pair of equine sculptures, together standing 30 metres tall and weighing 300 tonnes. They are situated on an extension of the eastern part of the Forth and Clyde Canal near Falkirk in a newly formed park called the "Helix". The sculptures were designed by sculptor Andy Scott and were completed in October 2013 as a monument to horse-powered heritage across Scotland. "The Kelpies" represent the lineage of the heavy horse of Scottish industry and economy, pulling the wagons, ploughs, barges and coal ships that shaped the geographical layout of the Falkirk area.

These gigantic sculptures consist of a steel framework upon which are fixed multiple plates of stainless steel. Although on-site construction in 2013 only took around 5 months, the steel frame and cladding panels were several years in the making.

Interestingly, "Kelpie", or "water kelpie", is the Scots name given to a mythical shape-shifting and demonic water spirit inhabiting the lochs and pools of Scotland. It has usually been described as appearing as a horse, but is supposedly able to adopt human form.

And it was actually two retired Clydesdale heavy horses whom Andy Scott used as models in the design of this sculpture: the horses, Duke and Baron, resided at Glasgow's Pollok Country Park and are now immortalised in this artwork - Baron being the "head up" Kelpie and Duke the "head down" one. Sadly, Baron died in 2017.

If you click on "Map: view" you can use Google's "little yellow man" to explore the Helix site and the Kelpies.

A couple more pictures in the workshop here and here.

These pictures, incidentally, were taken during a very short but delightful "micro" TE meeting when my wife and I met up with Bev (Royaldevon) and Len Robinson (lennoland) during their most recent tour of southern Scotland earlier this month.

ISO 100, 1/320 sec at f/8, focal length 30mm.

holmertz, drt100, papagolf21, COSTANTINO, jean113, pajaran, ktanska, macjake, worldcitizen, alvaraalto trouve(nt) cette note utile

Critiques | Translate

Silvio1953 (221593) 2019-09-14 12:58

Ciao caro John, great view of fantastic sculptures, lovely composition with insertion of photographer in action that add scale, excellent clarity, splendid light and wonderful colors, very well done, my friend, ciao Silvio

Tue (92360) 2019-09-14 13:08

Hello John,
What an impressive work of art, those two huge horses. I visited Falkirk around 10-12 years ago, too bad they weren't there yet. The grey sky is a great backdrop for the silvery horses. Also the fellow photographer was well included, adding a great sense of scale.
Lars

holmertz (102700) 2019-09-14 13:16

Hello John,
These statues are truly impressive, and not just because of their immense size. They are really good works of art too, capturing as far as I can tell the natural expressions of horses. They look amazingly alive. Both WS photos are basically just as good, but I prefer this photo for showing them both, and from the front. I think the light was also the most favourable from this angle, and I am sure the cloudy sky has served the photo well. I like the mild colours and lack of harsh shadows. By what I judge to have been a very careful PP job you managed cleverly to avoid a washed out sky.
Kind regards,
Gert

lousat (139266) 2019-09-14 15:12

Hi John,not a first time on TE for this amazing artwork but a very perfect post,showing the classic full view in the main post and 2 useful post looking for the small details of horse statues,an incredible piece of art taken in a perfect way and useful note too as usual. Have a nice SUnday and thanks,Luciano

Gerrit (62042) 2019-09-14 16:23

Hello John,
Impressive these giant horse heads, looking down and up. Wonderful,piede of art,
Thanks nad regards,
Gerrit

drt100 (4038) 2019-09-14 19:32

Wow, what artwork. Great. The slight tilt in the horizon line really brings the horses stance straight. Looks like giant chess pieces. Very clear and a nice sky background helps contrast the pair. Well done

drt100 David

Nicou (193806) 2019-09-14 20:42

Hello

Quelle oeuvre d'art le photographe en premier plan donne très bien la taille et l’échelle quelle compo ces deux chevaux quels portrait ce gris blanc avec les petit traces noire quelle attitude ces têtes quelle vue
Bravo et amitié
Nciou

papagolf21 (152607) 2019-09-14 21:43

Bonjour, cher john,
Voilà des sculptures que l'on ne peut ignorer eu égard à leur importance et à leur beauté particulière.
Ces têtes chevalines sont impressionnantes (j'aime la taille du photographe à proximité de ces sculptures géantes).
Très bien fait.
Amitiés.
Philippe

COSTANTINO (116490) 2019-09-14 22:45

Hello dear John and have a nice time
extraodinary artwork The kelpies!!!
greetings to the artist
who was inspired such a difficult
artwork
regards
Costantino

emka (158156) 2019-09-14 23:49

Hello John, I checked if it was the TE meeting with Viviane, as she has shown these strange horses from exactly the same place. The photographer allows us to realize how huge this sculpture is.
There are many micro meetings on TE. Maybe I will come one day? But how it will be after Brexit :(.
Fantastic composition.
Kind regards Malgo

jean113 (27853) 2019-09-15 0:40

Hello John, three delightful pictures that show us the Kelpies from different angles and help us to appreciate what amazing pieces they are.
I cannot begin to imagine how you would be able to create such beautiful horses’ heads from plates of stainless steel. It must have been like a 3 dimensional jigsaw puzzle!
To be able to watch the heads grow as they were constructing the pieces would have made some very interesting shots.
All three shots in perfect focus.
Excellent notes.
Kind regards, Jean.

dta (98848) 2019-09-15 1:41

Hello John ,
This is an excellent version of this famous and beautiful sculptures . The combination of light and sky is perfect . As the framing and sharpness . The human presence gives the scale .
Well done.
Regards

ktanska (44766) 2019-09-15 2:15

Hi John,
Wow those heads are huge! And the way they are constructed from those pieces is very interesting. You chose a perfect angle as the left horse looks right at you.
Kari

macjake (98456) 2019-09-15 3:19

Hi John
tell me John, how on earth did I miss these during my trip to Scotland - my goodness. I would have had so much fun here. and is that Len in the WS photo, I think it is :)
these are beautiful, they've been on TE a few times and each time i see them I want to hop on a plane. Personally, the WS are even better than this main shot, but the main shot has both of them together, so thats nice. its fun how the left horse is looking directly at us. Man these are good John. cheers
Craig

Royaldevon (85932) 2019-09-15 5:41

Hello John,

I'm so pleased that we went to see these amazing sculptures.
They are magnificent and your photograph reveals their size, their materials and their beautiful form with excellent clarity.
It is quite possible to tell, from your photograph, that the Kelpies are made from metal plates, which I don't think I had recognised before.
The sky wasn't bright and bluet but the grey clouds seem quite apt, giving a more ethereal quality to the sculptures.

I have quite a few shots, too, but wasn't able to include the young chappie!

My warm regards,
Bev :-)

BennyV (34748) 2019-09-15 6:23

Great capture, John. I also like the inclusion of the man in the front, giving us an idea of the size of things. Dramatic, grey sky.

Benny

CLODO (45116) 2019-09-15 8:45

Hiya John

So you had visitors! I like then photgrapher giving the scale of these giant sculpture and the aspect of the left horse head which seems alive.
Cheers
CLODO

worldcitizen (16072) 2019-09-22 12:56

Hello John,
It's always impressive to see these horses. Their large size and excellent quality make them excellent subjects. Any people included in the scenes look so very tiny compared to these giants. I like that in the main shot your are taking a photo of someone else taking a photo. :-)

kasianowak (17676) 2019-11-02 3:02

Great idea to include human figures in this and the WS photo to show scale. Even reading about the size, 30 metres, wow, that's quite a height, higher than a 10 storey building. What a magnificent work of art.
Strangely enough the horses look really good on the canvas of grey overcast sky. Duke seems to be looking at the photographer below thinking "what's this little bug on the ground?".

dragonslayero (3592) 2019-11-03 12:34

Hello John

This is a location I tend to see more of lately (But being away for years on end tends to do that to people...)
What I find facinating is how you have approached the light conditions. Overall well done, especially how you have managed to make the heads "pop" from the background. I can see some halo effects, but that is kept to a minimum.
Well done.

Thank you for sharing.

OJJ

alvaraalto (42804) 2019-11-05 5:02

Hello John
A meeting with Bev and Len is a pleasant event as I have experienced.
It is nice to see your different presentations of these giant horse heads here.
Your three photos beautifully show the total and the details of this fascinating sculpture.
Excellent presentation
Have a nice day, groet Rob

Ilonka1974 (10289) 2020-04-27 13:21

Hi John,
Lovely composition and very good presentation .
Clarity, light and sharpness are perfect.
Well done
Best regards
Janusz