Just Grey – 20 September 2015

comboSuch a relaxing day a Sunday. I did a bit of gardening. Me? Gardening? In the same sentence? Well, it was just a little bit of trimming. First the roses round the back door and then chopping down the remains of an apple blossom bush that Scamp wanted rid of. The next thing was to get rid of the garden rubbish and that’s when the problem arose. I couldn’t get out of the estate because there was a 10K road race in progress, so it was back home and have lunch. Later, when the coast was clear I went out in the rain and dumped the rubbish then went for a drive to get some photos. Walked along a bit of the canal and took what I could get, which wasn’t much today under a milk white sky. No direct sunlight and no shadows, just grey. Still, I got some shots along the canal.

After dinner we watched a disappointing Singapore GP. Not disappointing because Lewis didn’t win, that was a little bonus. No, just disappointing because it was a boring race. It was a bit like today. No direct sunlight and no shadows, just grey.

It might sound dull, but dull’s sometimes all we have.

I realise it’s a bit difficult to see the detail in the pics today, but either click on the mosaic or go here.  All rights reserved and all photos copyright of D. Campbell (that’s me).

Scooting around Stirling – 19 September 2015

ComboWe both agreed that Bridge of Allan would be our destination today and we’d lunch at Vecchia Bologna. We had a quick walk through the town. Quite a pretty little town but with ideas above its station if you get my drift. However, lunch was excellent as usual. I don’t think we’ve ever had a poor lunch in this restaurant. From there, we went to Stirling. Scamp needed new shoes and M&S had a sale on. I managed to get myself a cheap Casio watch to replace the Decathlon one that fell to bits last week. Yes, I did get the battery replaced on the Pulsar, but the battery has been replaced three times since I bought the watch and it’s no longer waterproof, so I can’t wear it when swimming, so the cheap Casio is a decent every day watch and I can keep the Pulsar for dressed up occasions. We watched an old guy in Stirling regaling a street preacher and starting an argument with him. Street entertainment I’d describe it as. Went to Waitrose in Stirling and lo and behold, they had Adnams beer which I’d sampled when we were at JIC and Sim’s. They also had a nice bottle of Aberlour 12 yo whisky!

On the way home we chanced upon, for the third time today, the Lambretta Club outing and this time we stopped to take photos. An amazing variety of scooters in a every stage of degradation. From pristine Concours d’ Elegance to virtual rustbuckets. Some fairly new and a lot that were quite ancient with everything in-between. After checking when I got home, I was quite surprised at the money that’s tied up in these scooters.

Still, an interesting day and an excellent lunch. Tagliatelle with Spinach and Salsiccia for me. The usual Spaghetti del Chef for Scamp.

I realise it’s a bit difficult to see the detail in the pics today, but either click on the mosaic or go here.  All rights reserved and all photos copyright of D. Campbell (that’s me).

Piaggios, Peace and a Pint – 18 September 2015

combo2It was a cloudy, disappointing start to the day, but by 9.15 it had brightened up and I was dressed, the bike was on the rack and the rack was on the car and I was off. Drove to Auchinstarry and intended to cycle to Kirkintilloch. I got to Dumbreck and decided to have a rest and watch the world go by, because other people, not as lucky as me were starting their working day. Then I heard a strange engine note from a plane. I spotted it coming over Barr Hill and, yes, it had pusher propellors and the tiny winglet on the nose of a Piaggio. I’d never seen one flying before and only seen a static in Genoa airport this summer. I didn’t have time to grab my camera out of the bag and change the lens, so I settled for just watching it. I remember reading an interview in Photo Technique with (maybe) Annie Leibovitz away back in the 1970s. In the article she said that she looked forward to a time when she wouldn’t want to photograph a scene, but would be happy to simply see it. That’s what I did today. After that, time stood still for a while and I just took some photos. Some with the Panasonic 45-200 and some with the new toy 9mm. A really relaxing morning, as if I needed to relax. There was a time when I really needed chill time. A time when I was tightly wound up. Not so much now, but it’s still good to just sit. That’s a definition of meditation – Just Sitting. Cycled back along the canal, hoping to catch a glimpse of the kingfisher that lives along this stretch, at least used to live along here. I think it must be about three years ago since I’ve seen it. Home for lunch – Corned Beef Sandwich. Very salty and obviously bad for you, because it tastes so good covered with brown sauce. Healthy eating has its place, but so does a corned beef sandwich. Spent a happy hour or so reading on the front step with a cup of peppermint tea. The healthy option. We needed milk, so when Scamp came back from the gym, we walked down to the M&S shop at the garage and dropped in at the Broadwood on the way home. Me for a pint of Guinness and Scamp for a G&T. Weather not so good again, clouding over, but the Weather Fairies say it will be good tomorrow.

We’ll see.

I realise it’s a bit difficult to see the detail in the pics today, but either click on the mosaic or go here .  All rights reserved and all photos copyright of D. Campbell (that’s me).

A Blast from the Past – 17 September 2015

comboYou know how it is when you’re browsing the ‘net’. Sometimes you just follow your nose to see where the journey takes you. Sometimes you start out looking for a particular item or a solution to a problem and get sidetracked. Either way, the serendipitous nature of this vast storehouse of knowledge means that sometimes you solve a problem you didn’t know you had and sometimes you find a solution to a problem you forgot you had. Hopefully you also solve your original problem too, but that’s not so likely. So where am I going with this? I’ll tell you.

Many, many years ago, I bought myself a marvellous camera. It was a Sony F707. I bought it for a king’s ransom in Jessops in Dundee. It looked like a tin of soup with a box at the back. The ‘tin’ was a high quality zoom lens. A Carl Zeiss lens to be exact and that’s a name that should raise the eyebrows of any photographer. When I bought it, away back in the early days of this century, it was revolutionary. The ‘box’ at the back rotated vertically through nearly 180º and contained not only a viewing screen, but also an electronic viewfinder. One of the really revolutionary things about the 707 was the fact that it could take photos in total darkness using two infra-red transmitters and Night Shot mode. Unfortunately, Sony discovered that this mode could, under some conditions, take what the tabloids called ‘x-ray photos that could see through clothing’. It didn’t really, it just allowed the infra-red from the body to partly record a heat image. X-rays, Infra-red. Very similar to those wishing to be scandalised. In this litigious society, Sony decided to emasculate the IR capability of the 707 and forced Night Shot mode to only work with f2.8 @ 1/30th sec, making it all but useless for taking shots in daylight. I just wanted to take IR landscape photos, not some dodgy shot of bloated bodies in lycra. I tried various methods, some more successful than others, to circumvent the restrictions. The most successful was to use two opposed polariser filters to cut out 90% of the visible light. That worked. Using an infra-re filter didn’t as, although it was nearly black, it allowed the IR light to pass through. So no IR landscape with the 707. Until last night.

When I was following my nose around Flickr, I came upon a link to a page purporting to show that the infra-red blocking filter could be locked off in the 707 without a complete strip down of the camera. All it involved was placing a strong magnet near the USB slot in the camera. This apparently disables the solenoid that holds the filter in place. I tried it today and lo and behold it works. Now I just have to work out how to focus the camera as IR light focuses at a different distance from visible light. More work needed tomorrow. The leaves picture at the top of the page shows a mono near-IR shot, just to prove it does work.

As to the rest of the day. Met Fred for a coffee in Costa. Just our usual occasional meeting to discuss retirement, painting, life, the universe and everything. Sat for an enjoyable hour and a half setting the world to rights. I’m sure it was much better after we had sorted out its problems.

Didn’t do much else except make a rather excellent veggie curry.

Perth – 16 September 2015

comboOff to Perth today. Poor weather predicted, but aside from some misty, foggy stuff before we left, it looked good. Arrived in Perth in sunshine too. I’d broken my favourite watch’s strap on Monday and I wasn’t totally happy with the substitute watch I’d found. Last night I searched for and found my old Pulsar which has a metal bracelet, so that’s not going to break very easily. Unfortunately it needed a battery, so on my list of to-dos today was a battery for said watch. Scamp recommended Timpsons for the replacement. I eventually found Timpsons shop in Perth more by dead reckoning than by using my iPhone which couldn’t get a 3G signal in the centre of the town. All the phone companies are busy offering 4G-ready phones. Not much use when there’s not even a 3G mast nearby. Maybe it would be ok in Engaland (sic), but in Scotland it’s a no-no. Anyway, the nice man in Timpsons changed two batteries, yes TWO, one for the digital side and one for the analog apparently. I could say that he did it in double quick time, but that would be a pun too far 🙂 It’s a heavy watch, but at least I can read it without peering at it and the strap won’t come apart very easily. Sorted!

Lunch at Café Tabou was good, but the service, for once, was very poor. If this had been our first time at this restaurant, I don’t think we would have been back. The waitress made the excuse that one of the cooks was off and she hadn’t been able to get a replacement. What she really meant was the check had got missed in the kitchen. It happens. She did give us a discount on the bill which more than made up for the wait. Which reminds me, I had emailed Zizzi head office about the pulled pork pizza with the invisible pulled pork and yesterday I got a £30 voucher and an apology. Squeaky wheel … grease. Next on the list is an email to Vodafone about the service at their Glasgow shop. Maybe I’ll get a free iPhone 6s for my trouble!

Took some photos in Perth round about the bridge over the river and then stopped on the way home I took some more of the corn fields just outside Blackford. The 9mm lens makes beautiful skies.

Salsa at night, but our usual teacher still wasn’t back from his sojourn to Engerland (sic again – and I was). Teacher was dire. Luckily there were too many men and I managed to exempt myself from the proceedings and sat out the first class. Scamp called it a day after that class and we went home. Let’s hope JG is back on Monday.

A bit of culture – 15 September 2015

comboI had been meaning to visit two exhibitions in Edinburgh (notice I gave it the Sunday name for a change!) and today I’d chosen to go see the David Bailey *Stardust *exhibition. We’ve become used to getting off the train at Haymarket rather than travelling in to Waverley and that’s what I did today. I also wanted to go and get tea at my favourite tea shop in Edinburgh. The guy in the shop doesn’t deal in these new fangled metric measurements, he still uses pounds and ounces. He’s also got an opinion on everything and a story to go with that opinion. It’s an experience visiting his shop and always a pleasant one. I can’t remember what today’s story was about, but it started with me commenting on his choice of shirt which was much like my own favourite. It ended with him telling me that although the shop sign said OPEN, he didn’t start serving until 11.00. I apologised but he told me that it didn’t matter as I had money in my pocket! After getting my tea and a bit of convivial conversation, I walked up and on to the Grassmarket and there was still no sign of grass being sold, but there were beautiful golden colours in the trees. From there, I walked to Greyfriars Church and had a walk round the churchyard. I was tempted to take some photos there as the light and colours from the trees were good but I’m always a bit uneasy taking photos in a graveyard, so I kept the camera in the bag. Then on to the Playfair Steps to take me down to the exhibition, remember the exhibition? The first room in Stardust was wonderful. All monochrome shots. Some small, some big, some gigantic. My favourites were Henri Cartier-Bresson and Man Ray. The HC-B was especially cleverly shot with the secretive man shielding half of his face with his camera. The luminosity of Man Ray’s eye was fascinating. I wasn’t so taken with the large colour shots, but the technical quality of the large fashion images was fantastic. About his paintings, the least said the better. Stick to the camera David. Speaking about cameras, in one of the display tables was DB’s Asahi Pentax SLR. Lovely piece of equipment but well used. Quick jaunt to John Lewis to see if there was anything going cheap – there wasn’t (no surprise there). Cup of coffee and a panini in Nero and it was time to get the train home. An enjoyable day getting a bit of culture – what else in Edinburgh? Next time I’m hoping to take in an M C Escher exhibition all being well. See me? See culture?

Painting, Squirrels and Salsa – 14 September 2015

comboI did get up quite early(ish). Well, before 9.00 anyway. Started an oil painting on a square canvas. I tend to shy away from square photos and paintings. I always think a square shape is quite boring. Not as dynamic as a vertical rectangle (portrait format), nor as relaxed as a horizontal one (landscape). However, I’d seen an interesting oil at the weekend and was impressed with the way it used the square format, so I set to work. I was using water-based oils which might seem a contradiction, but they work well. I like the smell of oil paint and also natural turps, but I know that not all people find it so favourable, so I experimented with the water-based oils and quite liked them. They seem to dry quicker than normal oils, and that’s a pity, because I like the fact that you can work into previous layers and change them. That’s the difference between oils of any variety and acrylic. Acrylic dries quickly, too quickly for me. What I do like acrylic for is the ability to layer washes when using the paint very dilute – as watercolour in fact. Once a wash has dried, you can layer another on top without the fear of one mixing with the other and diluting it. I digress. This one was to be in oils and it’s sort of half finished at present. I’ll take a fresh look tomorrow.

Watched a squirrel trying to steal some peanuts from the bird feeder. Managed to get a few shots of its acrobatics.

Went to the gym in the afternoon and found the pool was full of people. So it was exercise and no relaxation after. Then I went to the solicitors to pay our bill for signing off the house. Ha, the mortgage is only part of the expense in house buying. Hopefully that will be it bought now and properly signed over to us.

Salsa at night and our usual teacher was off galavanting somewhere down south, so we had a mystery teacher. One we’d never had before, although we had seen him dancin’ I mean reeeeely dancin’ at the Christmas ball and were both impressed. We were both impressed with him tonight too. Complicated move that looked oh so simple to start with. Unfortunately, he only stayed for one class. Colin took the other and oh dear, it was “Look how clever I am” and “Let’s just add another bit to this on to make it a bit better.” Then it was “Oh, you’ve almost got it, but you just need to turn a tiny wee bit more …” I don’t mind people making corrections when they are necessary, but when it’s just to allow them to preen, it doesn’t impress me. That’s an hour of my life I won’t get back.

The best of the day – 13 September 2015

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It’s a long time since we’d been to Glasgow Green on a Sunday morning, so today we up and went for a walk. Yesterday was Proms in the Park and the fencing was still there from the event, but to be honest, there’s always some sort of event with the staging or fencing for it in the park. It was a beautiful morning. Blue skies and a warm breeze, 18ºc on the thermometer in the car. Lots of people rowing on the Clyde. We spent a while standing on the suspension bridge watching them going up and down stream. While we were there, who should I see but Mike McGivern, the ghost teacher from school. It was a great privilege to see the man in the flesh, so to speak. He has become a mythical person to me. I wonder who’s life he’s making a misery of now. I’m sure he hasn’t retired, he makes too much money as a ghost teacher. I think he clocked me, but I didn’t speak to him. What could I say? You can’t swear on a Sunday, so that would have severely limited my conversation!

After the usual lunch of Roll ‘n’ Sausage in the Wintergarden of the People’s Palace with toast and jam for Scamp, we headed home. We had just closed the front door when the rain started. It continued to rain for the rest of the day, on and off. I think we had the best of the day.

A wet day in the Toon – 12 September 2015

comboAs with most Saturday mornings, this one started gently with a long lie in. This was partly because I’d been to a retiral dinner on Friday when much drink was taken.
The weather this morning was, as predicted, wet. I think it was partly Scamp’s fault and partly mine. She because she had watered the garden on Friday and Thursday because it was so dry. Me, because I had washed my bike on Friday. Both these acts were completed using the hose. That self same hose that we bought in April and hadn’t used since then, because it had rained almost every day. We had broken the dry spell by using the hose! Broken the ‘spell’ that is!

We had sort of planned to go to Perth today, but that was back in the middle of the week when the weather was much better. Today, we decided, we’d just go to Glasgow on the train for lunch. Seemed like the best way to deal with such a dull day.

Went to Zizzi’s in Exchange Square for lunch. Scamp found out just how hot red chillies can be and my pulled pork pizza was more like a teased piglet pizza. Really, I should have taken a shot of it and sent it to the Zizzi management to see if they could identify the actual pork without the aid of a microscope or DNA analysis. I think this may be the last time for a while we will be gracing their premises. I realise that times are tough in the restaurant sector, but if you advertise the pizza as pulled pork, then that meat should be its prime topping. That said, the Italian sausage was tasty, but, I’ve just checked the menu on Zizzi website and there is mention of crispy prosciutto and that wasn’t in evidence either. Maybe the pig ate it then ran away. I’ve written a complaint to Zizzi head office.

Bumped into Ruth from Salsa – she was going to a refugee rally in George Square.  Hardly recognised her.  She’s a shadow of her former self, but in a good way.  She seemed a bit put out that we were walking away from the rally.  It’s our choice, our life, our day.

On the train back, we were sitting beside two loud americans ex-teenagers. They drawled on and on in loud voices discussing the education system in Scotland and its failing. Why are american teenagers and ex-teenagers so annoying. Empty head and empty talk full of jargon and little else. I was tempted to put on the Ned voice and drawl back at them: “Hey mate. Ur youse americans? So ur ye jist here tae git a bit o’ ejicayshin? Cause you’re baith talking’ pure crap man. See me, ah’ve dun the ejicayshin thing an ah can tell when sumdi’s talking’ shite, an youse ur.” Scamp would not have been pleased and would have maintained a stony silence for the rest of the evening.

Top left picture is of my favourite building of the moment taken with the 9mm lens.  Processed in Tonality Pro.  The processing suited it in my opinion.  Top right is a religious zealot who regularly preaches in Buchanan Street.  I think he got more than he bargained for today when he took on the man on the right.  Bottom right is the same building as the first one, but with a bit cleaner processing and a different viewpoint.

It was a no’ bad day in the Toon.