Today we had an appointment with our financial advisor in Falkirk and it was an early meeting at 10am. Not so early you may think, but working backwards from there it meant allowing 30 min to get there, making and devouring breakfast another 20 mins with essential lie-in, showering and shaving (for me!). All in it would take about an hour and a half, so I set my alarm for 8.30. Of course, we were awake long before that. There’s a special little internal alarm that triggers as soon as you set the physical alarm and doesn’t allow you to go back to sleep after you wake two hours before the physical alarm. So, we went to Falkirk and the news was good, so to celebrate we went to Tea Jenny’s for an early lunch. The food and service were excellent as usual. You really should visit this cafe the next time you’re in Falkirk. I don’t really care if you are from New York or Tokyo, make the effort for heaven’s sake!
When we got home I considered wheeling the bike out and taking it for a run, but there was a cold north wind blowing and I decided to go for a drive and possibly a walk instead. I’d seen the dodgy looking santa last week and wanted a photo of it. Up close it looked even creepier, stuck in a hollow of an old tree. After that I went down to Auchinstarry to try my luck at making a time lapse, like the bloke on Rannoch Moor. When I got to my chosen place, the sky looked interesting and I found a hollow in an old tree to wedge the camera in. I chose the 9mm lens on the Oly to get a decent wide sky and did a six minute timelapse of just 60 shots at 10 second intervals. I calculated that this would give a 6 second film of clouds scudding across the skies. You’ve seen these things on the TV. Very arty. Halfway through the exposure I noticed that I’d bumped the focus lever on the lens to the closest focus setting, about 20mm, so everything was going to be out of focus. However, mastering the process was more important than the actual finished article this time and I was reasonably happy with the result. Next time I’ll prepare more carefully, rain protect the camera and lens, use a sturdy tripod and take care not to nudge the focusing lever.
The bramble leaves shot was just a grab shot to make the most of the brilliant contre-jour lighting. I like the colours you get in bramble leaves.
Hoping for that cycle run tomorrow if the weather is more forgiving.