Saturday was our last day together as a group. We have been through a lot this week and have bonded remarkably well. Photographers are not natural herd animals but we have helped each other a lot more than I have experienced at other such events. At one very educational dinner without any of our tutors present, we tried out our new portraiture skills on each other and the restaurant staff - deploying flash guns, soft boxes, large diffusers and reflectors at table to much amusement.

Our final shoot was in the New Town and our assignment on a muted, rainy morning was to demonstrate with our photographs how softer light saturates colour, whereas the harsh light we have experienced all week bleaches it out.

Our final critique was in the afternoon, following which Joe made himself available for an "ask the oracle" session while his colleagues put together a final slideshow of our week's work. Several of us took advantage of this and I plucked up the courage to ask him to review my portfolio. This was about as impertinent as asking Shakespeare to direct your school play, but he was gracious, helpful and encouraging.

At 5pm we reconvened to see the slide show, which for copyright reasons I sadly won't be able to post here. We then set off to a restaurant for our final dinner together followed by drinks at a lively Edinburgh pub. I rolled home in a very jolly mood and made a first draft of my previous post but was as least wise enough not to hit the "publish" button until I had revised it while sober.

I really enjoyed my week in Scotland and learned a lot in the process. Now I am off to Wales to visit my parents and have a new tyre fitted to Speranza before returning to London to prepare for a road trip to Germany next week, during which I hope to max her out on the autobahns. Of which, more anon.

The map of my tour is here and all of my photos are here.