Month: August 2015

Walking to Twechar – 11 August 2015

Posted on by Zogman

Today I burned Ecto.  It is no more.  Spent almost an hour writing up this blog and when I published it, all that was published was the title.  Back in Ecto, the page was also totally blank.  Ecto is shite.  Last updated 5 years ago, the author isn’t interested in progressing it, just interested in making money.  I can’t believe I actually spent money on it.  I would not recommend it to anyone.  I’m now looking for another blog writer that actually works.  The best one I’ve found is made by Microsoft and won’t work on the Mac.  Such a pity.

DSC_3267- blog--223The day started well.  Not the brightest, but at least I got a painting done.  OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWent for a walk to Twechar along the railway and got some photos of a common blue butterfly.  Not much else worth photographing.  Came home and had a look at the Strawberry Vodka.  It will probably be ready to drink tomorrow.  This is the synopsis of the day which was going well until now.

Tomorrow is another day.

Strawberry Vodka – 9 August 2015

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A day of doing lots some of the things I’d been planning to do and adding some lots more things to my to-do list.

No painting today, but I did get a painting framed. It was actually the sketch for my latest watercolour. Quite often I find that the sketches are fresher and more interesting than the finished product. That was the case here. One of my problems with framing when working from an existing picture frame is doing the calculations for positioning the aperture in the mat card. Today I spent over an hour writing spreadsheet that would solve that particular problem for me in Excel on a Mac. After it was done and shared on the excellent Dropbox, I tried loading it on to Excel on the Samsung tablet. What a surprise, Excel refused to format it properly and wouldn’t allow me to add numbers into the cells. It also wouldn’t allow me to save anything without me logging in or registering. As if I was going to do anything as stupid as that. Microsoft? Stick a fork in them, they’re done. Thankfully I managed to get a totally free app Free Office Plan Maker Mobile (you need to do something with that name folks) to load it and present it as it was on the Mac. It worked perfectly fist time. It only took me about two hours to go from opening Excel on the Mac to getting the margin sizes for the mat from the Samsung. If I’d done it with pencil and paper it would have taken me about 15 minutes max, but where’s the fun in that? Much better to use technology to simplify things … I think.

DSC_3247- blog--221Photography took a bit of a back seat, but I managed to get some shots of DSC_3254- blog--221a dunnock in the garden in the afternoon. I first saw them a couple of years ago and now they seem to be quite common visitors all year, only feeding on the ground, never attempting the bird feeders. Also started a new batch of strawberry vodka – a great summer drink. Basically it’s strawberries soaked in vodka. Keep in the fridge for three days, stirring daily. After three days, decant and drink (responsibly 😉 ) with lemonade.

Warning! DON’T ATTEMPT TO EAT THE STRAWBERRIES!!

Hopefully I’ll remember to take a photo of the finished product, DV.

The evening was spent trying to repair a dodgy old Sony camcorder with refused to accept the video cassette. Thanks Sony for a wasted evening and a realisation that your company has lost a lot of it’s reputation for solid workmanship.

 

The Far East – 8 August 2015

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DSC_3219- blog--220We travelled to the Far East today. To Kirkcaldy, where the good weather was allegedly to be found. It was indeed there. It’s a long time since we’ve been to Kirkcaldy. It’s gone a bit downhill since then, but so have a lot of Scottish towns. There is one place in Kirkcaldy that has remained constant, and that’s the Art Gallery. It’s changed its name to Kirkcaldy Galleries, but the paintings are still there and still worth a visit. Scamp wanted to see the Great Tapestry of Scotland which coincidentally is on display there, and I wanted to see the SJ Peploe paintings in the gallery. The tapestry takes up three rooms in the gallery and is quite interesting, but we both agreed that although it is an impressive body of work, it is quite dull with a distinct lack of colour. Now, this could be due to the poor lighting in the rooms as the display is not that well lit. Unfortunately, because the tapestry takes up so much display space, the paintings have suffered and especially the Scottish Colourists. They are now reduced to only one room in the gallery and at that, some of the best pictures remain in DSC_3224- blog--220storage. At least we know they will be restored to their former glory soon.  After the gallery, we drove to the parking place beside Morrisons and walked along the coastal path to the old castle to see the seals. As usual they were there basking on the rocks in the sun. We took the much quicker, but less scenic way home and allowed Bombay Dreams to provide dinner for us. It rained as I went to pick up the dinner.

That was summer.

I see sunshine – 7 August 2015

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Yes, it’s been sunny all day. Completed a watercolour painting this morning. Not a new one really. It was one of the first ones I did in acrylic, but I always felt it would look better in watercolour. I’d done a sketch of it earlier in the week and it looked ok., Bits of the finished watercolour are good, the sky for instance, but there are other areas that look overworked to my eye. Onward and upward!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWe took a walk down to the pub for lunch. Rather than the usual fish and OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAchips, I had a carvery and just a little bit too much. Scamp was jetting off on the bus to the ‘toonie’ while I walked home, then went out to annoy the deer in St Mo’s. Saw and captured Mr Grey – the heron – a couple of dragonflies a froglet (or toadlet) and finally two deer. I imagine they were quite young, because they let me get quite close and didn’t run away far when I got too close. Two little Bambies!

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By the time I got home, Scamp was already ensconced in the garden, so I set Lightroom to import the pics, and build the 1:1 previews while we decided it was Pimms o’ clock. A very enjoyable hour or so sitting reading in the sun with a Strawberry Pimms. Sometimes life is good.

An unusual day – 6 August 2015

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An unusual day that started like so many this summer with low cloud and dull, dull, dull. Then a change happened. It got lighter and lighter, then the sky turned an unusual colour, a sort of blue colour. Strangest of all, this great shining white ball appeared and hung in the sky and it felt warm – all afternoon! Got out for a walk along the Luggie. Not much to see. I had hoped for a sight of some dragonflies or at least damselflies at the little pond near the road bridge, but none were to be found, in fact there was no life in the pond or its environs. I did get some shots of some interesting seed pods. Hmm, interesting seed pods, eh? Well, that’s what photography is all about. It’s not all beautiful vistas with sun glinting off the waves, or mountain peaks against a dark and ominous sky. Sometimes its the little things, or in this case the contrast between the hard, sharp seed pods and the soft greens surrounding them. In other words, it’s what you make it and working with what you’ve got. Today, walking along the Luggie in the sunshine, seed pods was what I got.

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This was my first shot today and it’s pretty much as it came out of the camera.  Slight adjustment to the levels and a bit of cropping, but like I say, just a plain shot.  I liked the composition in thirds and the slightly out of focus seed pods in the background.

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This one was more difficult.  Cropped and levels in Lightroom, then a bit of editing in Photoshop to remove a distracting out of focus seed head that didn’t improve the composition.  Finally a bit of brush work back in Lightroom.  I liked the finished article.

Hoping for more sun tomorrow. We can always hope.

Rain, Rain, go away – 5 August 2015

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Woke to more drizzle and rain this morning. Will it ever stop? After a breakfast that rivalled the epic Hilton Breakfast, we said goodbye to the Marine Hotel Troon, but I imagine we will be back again, if only for the excellent food. Drove in to Prestwick which looked every bit the run-down Scottish seaside town. The weather helped set the tone with drizzle soon turning to full blown rain. We watched some youngsters setting out in wee yachts or dinghies or some such small boat with a sail. They looked well prepared with wetsuits and buoyancy aids, but it still didn’t DSC_3193- blog--217--217look like fun. Got a few shots of a woman walking her dogs along the sand. The drizzle helped blur the background and also gave a high key look to the photo. After that we drove down to the other end of Prestwick and I saw a shot, but didn’t have the heart to take it. A family – maw, paw, grandpa and the weans – sitting DSC_3201- blog--217--217outside a beachfront cafe in the rain with ice-cream cones trying to look like they were having fun. It put me in mind of the title of yesterday’s post. It looked so sad, I couldn’t bring myself to take the shot.

Left the sad, wet, west coast behind and drove down the A 77M to Glasgow where Scamp thought it would be a good idea to break our journey at Silverburn for a coffee. I’m not the biggest fan of Silverburn. For those who don’t know, it’s a out of town retail park, but a posh looking one. Inside it’s all phone shops, sports shops and fashion outlets. No bookshop! What are they thinking of. It’s always busy, so this only goes to show that the phone buying, sport buying, fashion buying public can’t read. Its only saving grace is Wagamama, but that’s not where we were heading. We went instead to Patisserie Valerie. We’d been to one of this chain recently, but this was a different experience entirely. We were served quite quickly, but after that things ground to a halt. Bear in mind that we only wanted two coffees and two apple danish. That order took about 15mins to prepare. In that time, two customers complained about their food either not being hot enough or not being edible! A third customer was cutting up some filled croissant with a look of disgust on her face. PV in Exchange Square may be an epicurean delight, but this one is a disaster. I thought the ping was the sound of a bell to tell the server that the meals were at the pass – then I realised it was the sound of the microwave! Avoid. After that, it was just the usual drag of a drive through Glasgow. Holiday over for another wee while, and it was still raining.

Will it ever stop?

Down on the beach with our coats on – 4 August 2015

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Scamp booked us a day at the seaside today, at the Marine Hotel in Troon, in fact. It’s been a wild day with gale force winds on the west coast. Not very much rain, but not much ‘summer’ around. We didn’t really manage to get to the beach today. The nearest we got was to have a swim in the hotel pool, and from our upgraded room, we can just about see the beach. Much more comfortable to swim in the pool and stay in the room looking out at the ‘glofers‘ (my word) wandering around the glofcourse (my word again) with their little bags of glof bats. Some of them seemed to be pushing prams with their glofbats in them. Is this really a game, or is it just a challenge to the elements?

Really excellent dinner in the conservatory with a great view of Ailsa Craig and Arran. Back home tomorrow,DSC_3187- blog--217--216 but we are determined to make the most of our days of luxury!

Settings Sorted – 3 August 2015

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I went out today to get some photos in the afternoon. The morning was spent painting in my case and that mysterious action “tidying up” by Scamp. I got one painting completed and one sketch done. Scamp got DSC_3180- blog--215some ‘tidying up’ done, and yes, I did notice the difference. The photographs today were better than yesterday, much better. The ISO was higher, but at least the aperture and the shutter speed were what I had programmed. No deer today, but the dragonflies were out in force as were DSC_3154- blog--215the damsels and some hover flies. All in all, a successful foray into the jungles of St Mo’s. Dancing class at night and knackered after it.

 

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It’s all about settings – 2 August 2015

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DSC_3123- blog--214A couple of days ago I was ranting about timing. Today I’d ranting about settings. The first thing I did when I got up this morning, after getting breakfast for Scamp and before getting my own, was to fry off the ox tail that was to be my dinner tonight. Once that was done and in the slow cooker, I chopped up and fried off the veg and covered the meat with it. Set DSC_3128- blog--214it to cook for 7 hours and then had my breakfast. It was a dull day, but not really raining, just dull. What’s become summer in Scotland this year. It’s not all that cold, just boringly dull. No texture in the sky and no directional light to give form to anything. Very disappointing for all the poor kids and teachers on holiday. Even worse for the parents of those kids who need to devise some form of entertainment for them. However, we shouldn’t complain. That’s what we signed up for when we chose to live (or stay living) in Scotland. We get the scenery, but not the weather.

After the meat had been cooking for about about five hours, I decided to decant it into a cast iron Le Creuset casserole pot and continue to cook it in the oven as we were going out later and the residual heat from the cast iron would keep it cooking nicely. Set the gas to 5 and went for a walk to St Mo’s with the Nikon and the Tamron lens. Got what looked like a good shot of a common blue damselfly and then a dragonfly posed on top of a knapweed flower. Just after that I startled a young deer and added that to my tally. Light was low, but I was still getting 1/250th with a decent ISO reading.

DSC_3136- blog--214Came home and switched off the oven and got ready to go out dancing. I’d deal with the photos when I got back. Came home and found that the meat was dried out and the veg frazzled. Gas mark 5 was not the right setting. Ox tail in the bin. So it was potatoes, cabbage and bacon for dinner – not a bad meal. Checked the photos and discovered why I was getting such a good shutter speed and ISO rating on such a dull day. The aperture was set wide open. Instead of my usual setting of Manual, I had the camera set to Program. Out of the 30 odd shots I managed to get about 8 ones that could be worked on and further reduced that to 4 that were worthwhile posting.

It IS all about the light, but the settings play a big part too, both in cooking or in photography.