May 2015 – My Photo Blog

An Uneventful Sunday – 31 May 2015

Posted on May 31, 2015May 31, 2015 by Zogman

I’d hoped to get out cycling again today, but the weather was against it as predicted by the weather report last night. High winds, gusty high winds which is worse and squally rain. Up at 8.00 to put on my dinner – pork osso bucco in a red wine sauce. Why such an ungodly hour of a Sunday morning? Well, it was so it could be slow cooked for about 6 hours. After that, I did a bit of painting. Just a couple of sketches. See below. I don’t see them setting the art world afire with their beauty or demonstration of skill, but they’re mine and I’m quite pleased. I’ve seen fit to display them below. Please don’t download them and colour print them. Giclee dear, giclee. Printing is for letters and spreadsheets.

Dancing later this afternoon at the Garage and for once I really did enjoy it. On the way to the Garage, I passed this lane and decided to add it to my album entitled “Peein’ up closes and lanes” on Flickr. The title comes from “The Copper’s Song” by the late Hamish Imlach. Just another wee bit of nonsense. When we came out, I saw a better shot, but there was a bloke pacing up and down the lane and I didn’t want folk asking any awkward questions. “Here mate, whit ur ye daein’?” “Is that a camera or a fone?” “Gonnae gie us yer fone mate or dae ye want me tae gie you a dooin?'” It is Glasgow after all and Rangers had just lost an important match to Motherwell, so discretion is the better part … etc. the photo needed a bit of post processing, it being from an iPhone, not a ‘real’ camera. Did levels and stuff then used Sergé’s settings for shadows and highlights. Then I noticed that the sky was plain white. Chopped a bit of believable grey cloud from another photo and pasted it in in Photoshop. Looked much better then.

Got home to much more peaceful weather and even a bit of late sun. First of June tomorrow and snow predicted for high ground. Oh dear!

A Sunny Saturday – 30 May 2015

Posted on May 30, 2015May 30, 2015 by Zogman

It’s Saturday and I’d decided I wanted to go to Stirling for a curry at the Indian Cottage. It used to be good and I had become addicted to the Chicken Tikka Chilli Boona, but they recently changed the menu. Gone is the CTCB also gone is Scamp’s Vegetable Dhansak. We had lunch there a few weeks ago and weren’t all that impressed, but decided to give it another go. Bad move. The lunch was much worse than before. This time we may be gone for good. This used to be one of the busiest curry shops in Stirling. If you weren’t there by 1.30pm you would have to queue for a seat. Now it’s half empty. Maybe that’s an indictment of the maxim “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Hey get me with ‘indictment’ and ‘maxim’, and this from the boy that didn’t get his O Grade English!

Got back early, and dissatisfied but at least it gave me time to go out cycling for a while. A chance to see if all that gym work was worth while. Headwind going out, as per normal and it was a struggle. So disappointed. For God’s sake, I’ve been going to the gym for two whole weeks now! That’s forty minutes not the cycling machine thing. Surely I would be fit by now? What did I pay my gym fees for if it doesn’t make me fit? Total waste of my time and money. I’m not a happy ‘gym bunny’. Anyway, the cycling is becoming a means to an end, not an end in itself. It’s a device for getting me to places to take photos, but the Kona is still a lovely bike. Much better than the heavy mountain bike with front suspension. It never ceases to amaze me how well it accelerates,even in a headwind.

On to the photos, and a warning to JIC and Hazy – There will be technospeak :

I like these three trees and I’ve photographed them many times. Today I didn’t have a lens that covered them adequately, so I did the next best thing and shot nine frames with the Panasonic 45-200mm with the intention of stitching them later. This time I took the long route and used Autopano. It’s a bit more circuitous than just plain “merge to panorama in Photoshop” from Lightroom, but it does have the advantage of giving more control. I was impressed with the basic output, but tweaked the exposure in Lightroom to give a more interesting result. I’m pleased with it. That’s why it’s my photo of the day. 365/150

The next ones were just luckies. I saw them while tramping through the grass, thinking that I had to be very careful as I’d listened to a program on the radio yesterday about sheep ticks infecting people with Lyme disease. I’d got a tick bite about a year ago when we were in Skye and became ultra cautious, checking every day for the telltale ‘target mark’. Thankfully it never appeared, so it looks like I’m clear this time. Having said that, it pays to be cautious, and take these things seriously. With all my antics chasing deer with my camera, I forget that these wee beasties are attracted to deer as well as sheep and can make your life a misery. Anyway, no ticks were found today, but I almost missed the ladybird making its way down a grass stem and next to it a couple of Bonking Beetles, bonking. Yes, I know they are also called Soldier Beetles, but that’s not half as much fun. I liked the luminosity of the grass and the colour contrast with the insects. Both shots taken with the 45-200mm Panasonic lens with extension tubes to get the close up shot I wanted.

A good day’s cycling and a tailwind to look forward to on the way home. Hooray!

Edited with Ecto.

Payback day – 29 May 2015

Posted on May 29, 2015May 29, 2015 by Zogman

Yesterday, Scamp was my taxi driver. Today I was her driver. Seems fair. She was going in to town for a ‘witches day out’. That would take too long to explain, so I won’t bother. Enough to say that she had a great day and I had a day to do what I wanted. what is known as a Win-Win situation, I believe.

As it happened, without trying too hard, I got a lot of stuff done. Painting, grass cutting (gasp!), meeting friends for coffee and a natter, organising appointments. I could almost do with a secretary these days. Where did I find time to work?

I was thinking I would go out cycling today, but the weather just kept getting in the way, as weather sometimes does. I took some photos as I usually do, instead of cycling. The lavender flowers were interesting in terms of colour and of texture. The pigeon just happened to be there and was interesting because of the contrast between the feathers and the dark background.

Hopefully more generally interesting stuff tomorrow.

Hazy, this was Ecto.

Stravaigin’ – 28 May 2015

Posted on May 28, 2015May 28, 2015 by Zogman

It was one of those days when you can’t settle down to anything.
Started off making a mat for one of my first acrylic paintings, in fact
it might have been my first since I retired. Selected some photos from
Skye to use for painting and sent them to Dropbox to share on the
Samsung Note. So much easier to paint from the 10″ screen than from the
7″ screen of the Nexus. Dropbox is one of my favourite apps of the
moment. It was good before the Note appeared, but with the extra 48GB
for connecting the Note, it’s much more interesting. Only for 2 years, but we’ll deal with that when the time comes.

So, I decided to go in to Glasgow for a wander – Stravaigin’. Nothing to go for, but I thought I might get some photos in the sunny spells, or OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA even if I was daring, in the showers too. Scamp offered to drive me to the station so I could get the train in and be there in 15mins rather than in the 45 boring mins it takes on the bus. Sorted. I pay her back tomorrow by driving her to the station.

Walked through the town down to the Clyde and got some shots on the Clyde Walkway. Wandered round the centre of town for a while, window shopping, then got the train home.

When I got home the light in the garden was wonderful for a short while, so I made the most of it and managed another set of flower shots, but more carefully taken than some of my “stop-gap” last minute shots … I hope!

The day after the long drive – 27 May 2015

Posted on May 27, 2015May 27, 2015 by Zogman

As usual on the day after a long drive, it was a lazy day where Scamp did most of the driving. Lazy morning then off to the gym for half an hour and after that, a swim to relax the muscles, not that we did very much. When we came out the rain had started, so we went local for lunch and watched the rain in the afternoon. I also struggled with the vagaries of off-line blogging progs – apps. Still not settled, but either Ecto or MarsEdit are the front runners at present. Kizomba and Salsa at night. Who says we don’t have an active life style?

Today’s shots are grab shots from the garden. Both taken in the rain. Both taken with the 70-300mm lens which behaved perfectly. What is its problem?

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Homeward Bound – 26 May 2015

Posted on May 27, 2015May 27, 2015 by Zogman

DSC_2570- blog-146.jpg All good things must come to an end, and so it was for us as we left Digg and Staffin and Skye behind and headed back down the road. We stopped for a while at Eilean Donan castle for coffee and a scone. I wandered round the exhibition of photos celebrating 100 years of something – wasn’t really interested in what. Most of the photos were clichéd shots of the castle, with only a couple that held my interest for any time. Needless to say, those were B&W. The worst ones by far were the ones that had accidentally (I hope) fallen into a bucket of Photomatix and had turned out all grungy with too light shadows, too saturated colour and too sharp detail. Just dunk them in the HDR mix, drag them out and that’s it done. Hmm, I used to play with HDR too, but you have to be so careful not to produce rubbish from what could be a decent photo. End of rant.

I took some photos of the castle. It’s difficult to get a ‘different’ viewpoint for this well known piece of stonework, but I tried.

Coffee over and photos taken, we got back on the road and after stopping for lunch at Spean Bridge, and re-fuelling at Fort William our next stop was Loch Lubnaig where we parked up at the new parking place at the side of the loch. A wee bit clean and tidy, but much better than the way it was before with a load of dodgy characters overnight camping and leaving the area in a real mess. The sun came out when we were there and I did manage a few shots in good lighting before we drove the final few miles home.

Loch Lubnaig photos:

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The ups and downs of walking in Skye – 25 May 2015

Posted on May 26, 2015May 26, 2015 by Zogman

A dull day. Not unknown on Skye, but as we’ve found in the past, even dull days can be turned around. Wandered round Portree taking to occasional shot. I wanted to visit the bakery tea room as one of my Flickr acquaintances has done a sketch/painting from there. It was P5252377- blog-146.jpg mobbed, but I got the view he’d painted. I’d like to have the guts to sketch in such a public place. Maybe some day … Anyway, I got myself a new shirt in Skye Batiks. Rather a grungy red and black one with a white batik pattern on the back. Such comfortable shirts. Expensive, but comfortable. Then is was on the road back to DSC_2434-2- blog-146.jpg Staffin. We stopped at the waterfall because I wanted to try a ‘new’ method of shooting multiple images and then blending them in Photoshop to simulate a long exposure. I’d initially intended using a variable density ND filter to do the job in one shot, but forgot to pack the ND. It’s just a cheapo, so it’s not great, leaving light blotches on the finished image, but it’s good for experimenting. The results, while not perfect, show that I am on the right road and with a little more tweaking, ok, a lot more tweaking, I can dispense with the bog awful variable ND filter entirely. Well, after all, that’s what Photoshop is for isn’t it?!

Just in case anyone is wondering why I’m belting out so much text, it’s to pad out the blog to see how Ecto – my latest contender for Offline Blog Editor is going to handle the text and images. So far it’s very favourable, almost as good as MarsEdit.

After I managed to work out the practicality of making the multiple shots – camera manuals as PDFs and tablets that can read them are a godsend – we headed back up to Staffin.

A day at Trumpan – 24 May 2015

Posted on May 24, 2015May 25, 2015 by Zogman

Looking out from Trumpan over Ardmore Bay.

Today, I’d decided we were off to Trumpan on the west coast of Skye. Tried to go up over Quairaing, but some eejits had not read the memo about passing places and were having an argie-bargie about right of way. Three point turn and head back to Trumpan via Portree. Trumpan is a beautiful isolated area where silence is king. Usually! When we passed Waternish and were almost at Trumpan, I could see that we wouldn’t be alone today. The carpark looked jam packed with cars and camper vans. What is it about camper vans these days? Everyone seems to want to travel in them. Granted, they are better than caravans, but not by much. They seem to be getting ever longer and wider, yes, definitely wider. They are becoming a menace. Also, unlike the ubiquitous caravan, camper vans are easier to park and therefore can be dumped anywhere overnight. As my brother-in-law says, “one wheel off the road and it’s parked”. However, we did get parked and thankfully Scamp had filled a flask and Murd had insisted we take some chocolate biscuits. Not the healthiest lunch, but it filled a wee space.

Took some photos around the church, but not of it.

DSC_2377- blog-145 copy — Some lovely reflections on the wet sand

Drove back to ‘civilisation’ and after dinner I went for a walk along from the slip on to the rocks. By the time I got to the slip, there were already three camper vans parked up for the night. I can see why the locals don’t like them. They come on to the island, wild park at night, paying no site fees. They bring all their food with them. They even but their fuel off the island. To sum it up, they bring nothing but grief to the island and give nothing back.

The rain was pouring down all the way to the rocks. I didn’t see anything worth shooting, so headed back. Just when I got back the skies opened and a rainbow appeared over Kilt Rock. Superb. After that, I drove to the beach and got a few more photos before heading home. Another brilliant day in Skye.

I saw the rainbow over kilt rock and then I saw the little cloud. I waited until the little white cloud floated over the rainbow, and took my shot. Impressed with the result. 365/144 — I saw the rainbow over kilt rock and then I saw the little cloud. I waited until the little white cloud floated over the rainbow, and took my shot. Impressed with the result.
365/144

A typical Skye day – 23 May 2015

Posted on May 23, 2015May 27, 2015 by Zogman

Bernie

It was a typical Skye day. It started out clear, but by early afternoon when we were leaving Portree, the first drops of rain were falling. By the time we got to Staffin Slip, the rain was being battered down by a blustery west wind. Sat for an hour and watched the gulls diving for fish or crabs, not sure which. Came back myself later to get at least one painting done. Took some photos of the river and attempted to catch the swallows or swifts or housemartins – birds at least – unsuccessfully. By this time the wind had really picked up and was reaching gale force IMO and it was soon time to leave.

When I returned to the croft, I was mobbed by Bernie – afterBernie Ecklestone apparently! Bernie is a quite vociferous pet lamb on the croft. Bernie was rejected by his mother at birth, then developed an infection, but after some care and attention by Murd, he is now well on the way to a noisy recovery. Seems to think every man is his adopted father! I spent a pleasant half hour or so watching the swallows (or swifts, or housemarting) catching insects, just inches above the waters of the River Brogaig in the rain. 365/143

I spent a pleasant half hour or so watching the swallows (or swifts, or housemartins) catching insects, just inches above the waters of the River Brogaig in the rain.365/143

Heading for Skye

Posted on May 23, 2015May 23, 2015 by Zogman

Up and out to the gym and then found that I had a chunk out of my tyre, so it was down to the village to get it replaced. £60 lighter, but feeling more secure, I headed home

DSC 2253 blog 142 — They’ve been cutting down loads of trees on Skye and stacked them in tempting piles like this. Such a photo opportunity.

to pack for our trip to Skye. Set off around 12.30pm which was an hour later than we had planned. Trip was fine except the Tamron 70-300mm started acting up again and had to be replaced with the old Tamron 18-200mm which is not a bad lens at all, not as good as the 70-300mm, but at least the focus motor works properly! Stopped at Dornie to take some photos of the ubiquitous Eilean Donan castle (see below) and again at Storr to photograph the timber piled at the side of the road. Finally made it to

Staffin at about 7.00pm to a well earned dinner and a wee dram. Tired, but happy to be in this beautiful place with brilliant people. Onward to Glen Brittle tomorrow I believe.

Biscuit tin castle — The castle that has graced more than its fair share of biscuit tins. It’s Eilean Donan, of course. 365/142