Undiscovered Scotland

 

"Scotland From the Air" by Shahbaz Majeed is a magnificent book that would make the perfect gift for Scotlandophiles everywhere, for descendents of the Scottish diaspora worldwide, or simply for lovers of really good photography. If you have any of these in your life, you should go out and buy this book for them.

In the modern world photography is ubiquitous. Almost everyone carries more than one camera around with them at almost all times - a high quality one on the back of their phone and one for selfies on the front. Meanwhile Google Earth and Google Streetview mean we can call up aerial and ground photographs of almost any location we want from our computers or or mobile devices, and many variants of just about any photograph you might care to imagine are available via simple online searches.

Is there really as much scope as there might have been in the past for printed collections of photographs? You'll have seen from our opening paragraph above that we think there is, though they do have to really good: and Shahbaz Majeed's aerial photographs of Scotland are exactly that. Some were taken from helicopters but most recent ones were taken using drones: such are the relative economics of the two modes of flight. The images are uniformly superb, taken in a variety of lights and in all seasons. The photographs are mainly landscape in format with each filling a page, and captions are confined to an overprinted identification of the location. We were unable to detect any geographical order: this is simply a book of beautiful photographs to be enjoyed.

The publisher's description says the following: "Scotland is without doubt a beautiful country and it can often look more stunning from the air, from that special bird’s-eye view. With today’s technology, drones have opened up the world, providing us new and unique perspectives on the landscape and allowing us to capture the views that continue to draw people from all over. In Scotland from the Air, photographer Shahbaz Majeed has used drone and helicopter to take readers on an altogether different journey. Through these pictures, you can see the sweep of the land and how the layers of history have been embedded in and become part of these landscapes. From its varied and dramatic coastline, to its iconic landmarks, historic buildings, towns, cities and industries, the aerial views on these pages show the beauty and fascination of Scotland in another way."