An ancient castle, volcanic hills and even cows — Bermudian Stephanie Ann Hunter has found much to inspire her in Edinburgh.

When she moved to Scotland’s capital city four years ago, her passion for photography went into overdrive.

“I used to go walking all over with my camera,” said Ms Hunter, 49. “When I left the Island a lot of people asked what I would take photos of without Bermuda’s beautiful scenery. I was on a mission to find out.”

She is now beginning to make a name for herself in Edinburgh. Last summer, some of her photographs were shown in an exhibition at La Galerie 1940.

Her love of photography stems from an interest in painting.

“In Bermuda I started taking photos of things to paint because I never had time to paint plein air,” she said.

“Then I worked for [photographer] Ian Macdonald-Smith for a while and was really inspired to give it a try.

“I seemed to have a pretty good eye for composition and colour and it’s worked out pretty well.”

In 2009 she was one of several artists whose work was featured in a calendar by insurers Freisenbruch-Meyer; the next year she was the sole contributor.

She moved to Edinburgh to be with her family. Her mother Patricia is Bermudian and her father Alexander is Scottish. They live there as do her brothers, Jonathan and Christopher. A third brother, Alex, still lives in Bermuda.

Edinburgh has a population of 778,000. It once had such bad air pollution it earned the nickname “Auld Reekie” (old smokey). The pollution left a black stain on many buildings but there has been a restoration effort over the past 20 years.

“Many of the historic buildings in the city are actually made of sandstone, which naturally has a pretty, golden colour,” Ms Hunter said. “It is pretty much cleaned up now, although some buildings could not be cleaned.”

Ms Hunter works as a medical secretary for an orthopaedic surgeon, and takes photographs in her spare time.

“Edinburgh is great for photography because it is so varied,” she said. “It is so full of history and old buildings and a huge castle in the middle of the main street.

“On the other hand, it has Holyrood Park, a huge, open public park with a beautiful, big volcanic upthrusting. It is amazing in there. It is also beautiful up in the Pentland Hills. There is an artificial ski slope there as well, and a herd of Highland cows, which are beautiful.”

Ms Hunter said it was easy enough to get out of the city and into the countryside fairly quickly.

“The train system here is great,” she said. “It is great to jump on a train and go up north. Down the coast is gorgeous.”

She described Edinburgh as very friendly.

“It has a big city flavour to it even though it is quite small compared with a lot of other major cities,” Ms Hunter said. “There are parts that have a small town feel.”

One of these, areas, she said, was Portobello. It was a town in its own right before it was swallowed up by the city.

“It is lovely in its own way,” she said. “It has a beach, although it’s not like a beach in Bermuda. It has dark sand.”

Although people swim there, she said Bermudians might not find it so tempting. She once stuck her big toe in the water — and that was enough. In the middle of the summer the average sea temperature only reaches about 59F.

Ms Hunter said it was hard to be bored in Edinburgh because there was always something going on.

It is sometimes known as the city of festivals. Right now the Six Nations Rugby tournament is on, played by six teams — Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, Italy and England.

Every August a number of events draw visitors from around the world — the Edinburgh International Festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

“The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is fabulous and really good fun,” said Ms Hunter. “You could fill your day walking around looking at the different shows. On the high street they do little snippets of the different plays.”

It’s advisable to book a hotel several months in advance, for any of the events.

Although Scottish weather generally has a bad reputation, it’s better than many people think, Ms Hunter said.

“When it is a lovely day there is no more beautiful city to be in because it is just stunning,” she said. “Edinburgh Castle in the sunshine can’t be beaten anywhere.”