100 Weeks of Scotland: After Hogmanay

This week sees Scotland recover from Hogmanay. Pictures: Alan McCredie

Week Sixty Two

Thousands of tourists and revellers descend on the city for one of the world’s largest New Year celebrations, which lasts long into the night, and for many, well into the next morning. Not for me this year though as I was 400 miles away in rural Wiltshire...

So no images of the actual events that took place over New Year although I have included an image of the inevitable aftermath as hundreds of empty bottles overflowed from the city’s recycling bins.

As I drove the final few miles home from England along the cross-country route through Biggar, I spotted out of the corner of my eye, in one of the small villages along the route, a girl, casually pushing a car wheel along. I only had seconds to pull over and grab the shot – which I only half got before the wheel fell onto its side and the girl, obviously bored with such Victorian pastimes, walked on by.

Back to work and I had a shoot in Stirling on the 3rd. After I had finished I drove round an industrial and retail park trying to find a petrol station. Virtually the first thing I spotted was a mobile barbers shop. I had never seen such wonders before. I loved the way it was just parked up, completely isolated in a stretch of waste ground. I took a few images of just the van, which were ok, but frankly a bit dull – I knew I really had to get an image of the owner. So one quick haircut later (a snip at £6.50…) and I had the shot I was after. What’s more it is one of the best haircuts I have had in ages…

Finally this week, an image from central Edinburgh once all the revelry had died down, the tourists had gone, and the old medieval city had returned to its cold and wintry January normality.

• Alan McCredie began the ‘100 weeks of Scotland’ website in October last year, and it will conclude in Autumn 2014. McCredie’s goal is to chronicle two years of Scottish life in the run-up to the independence referendum.

McCredie says ‘one hundred weeks...’ is intended to show all sides of the country over the next two years. On the site, he says: “Whatever the result of the vote Scotland will be a different country afterward. These images will show a snapshot of the country in the run up to the referendum.

“The photos will be of all aspects of Scottish culture - politics, art, social issues, sport and anything else that catches the eye.”

Follow the project at 100weeksofscotland.com. You can also follow Alan on Twitter.

All pictures (c) Alan McCredie/ 100 weeks of Scotland