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 some ‘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 the 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.
A 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 it 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.
Came 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.
The least said about today, the better. Went to Embra. Had lunch, came home. ‘Nuf said. Saw this wee man standing in the rain just off Princes Street. He was stuck looking up at a Kelpies maquette. Thought he looked quite good with the raindrops. Also saw a couple of posers on penny farthings. Only in Embra!
On this last day of July, we had planned to go to Glasgow on the bus. Since the X3, the only bus that runs through our estate (you don’t call them schemes any more – that has totally the wrong connotations) takes about three days to drag its sorry wheels into town, we decided instead to get one of the other X buses, any one in fact. This meant we had to get the bus from the Town Centre also known as Castle Greyskull. This is where it gets complicated and all the timing starts. Scamp’s car needed petrol, so I opted to run her to work and get petrol on the way back. Then drive to the gym for my Gym ‘n’ Swim in my own car. Get back, hopefully have a cup of tea, then get the bus up the toonie, meet Scamp and travel in to Glasgow. For once, given our poor history of making these plans stick, it worked and we raced into town in about 20 minutes rather than the three days on the X3.
In town, we wandered around the almost deserted Merchant City Festival site, waiting for the Car Men comic opera singers. This ‘festival’ is not a patch on what was there last year. Fewer stalls and almost no attractions. Last year there were street performers mingling with the punters, this year it’s just minging. Scamp thinks it’s because last year was Commonwealth Games year in Glasgow and there was a bigger push and also more cash flung at it. She could be right. There is also the added factor of the winter weather this summer. That probably puts a lot of folk off. The Car Men were quite funny, although their set went on for a while. Scamp seemed to enjoy it which was surprising as it was comedy and she doesn’t usually do comedy.
Lunch in Charcoals Cafe was not up to their usual high standard. Chicken Bhuna lacked salt and taste. The sauce seemed to comprise entirely of liquidized carrots without peppers or onions. No wonder then that we were the only customers. Must do better. Later we had coffee and shared a cake in Patisserie Valerie and that was up to their usual high standard.
This one was 1/200 @ f9 ISO 250. In other words, Normal.1/4000 @ f9 ISO25600. The grain or digital noise is obvious ;-(
For a few months now I’ve been setting my camera to Manual exposure, choosing a shutter speed around 1/250th and an aperture of around f9, then allowing the camera to choose the ISO to achieve those settings. I’d used it on the Nikon first because the E-PL1 didn’t have the ability to adjust the ISO in camera. When I got the E-PL5 back in early June, and after researching the ‘hidden menu‘, I found that it could do what the Nikon did. Since then, I’ve used the manual mode almost exclusively. Today after a morning of success and failure in painting, then digging up our tatties (just got enough for two dinners – not good) I went out on the bike hoping to get close to nature and get some photos of ‘beasties‘ using the E-PL5 with the Pano lens and extension tubes. After dosing myself with
The lacewing was ISO 8000. Acceptable, just.
insect repellant – a strange thing to do if you are hoping to get closeups of insects, but it keeps away the biting insects … sometimes. The first two or three shots were fine, then I must have accidentally changed the shutter speed from 1/250th to 1/4000th. This gave an underexposure of over 4 stops which meant the camera compensated by increasing the ISO proportionally. Silly Boy! The result of this is that the grain/noise on the shots was a lot more than normal, and I do mean a LOT! The shutter speed has now been returned to normal and I’ll be more careful in future.
Sorry JIC and others, I should have posted a technospeak alert! 😉
Other than that it was just a normal day, but at least there was no rain and for a while we got some sun. I don’t think it will be like that tomorrow, so I grabbed the sun while it was there. Oh, one last thing. Had a starter tonight of Black Pudding Pakora. Don’t, just don’t. It’s not a lovely, lovely thing as John Torode would say.
It’s not often we all get together, typically twice or three times a year, but when we do all get off the leash at the same time, drink is taken, jokes are told and you must leave your sensibilities at the door. That’s how it was today when we all arrived, well almost all of us at the Horseshoe Bar in Drury Street in Glasgow. It’s our usual pub and has the longest bar in Europe, 104 feet and 3 inches. For those readers who prefer measurements in metric, but a calculator. The Horseshoe Bar also has the cheapest lunch deals I’ve seen in Glasgow, £4.50 for three courses is hard to beat. After we had all caught up with each other’s lives, had lunch and a few beers, we went for a walk through the Merchant City to see what was going on in the festival. Not a lot going on when we started out, but on the way back we watched the hilarious Moustachioed Spies creating havoc and a great deal of hilarity with the children who were watching them. After that we split up and went our own way with the stated intention of having another meeting in a couple of months.
Next I met Scamp who had driven into town and we got the subway to Kelvinbridge to meet up with another old friend and then we went together to salsa class. Great fun again.
A good day with good folk. Oh yes, and the sun shone for a while. It did rain too, of course!
Reflection of the old sandstone buildings in my favourite glass fronted new building.
Another rainy day. Went to the gym and found that Windows was trying to shut down the computer at the gym. It looked remarkably like the shut down screen on Windows 95! Only 20 years out of date. Anyway, when Scamp went to the gym later in the morning, someone was trying to breathe some life into the old system and was hoping to get outside help to do so. Maybe the system will be running by the end of the year.
I felt like I was getting cabin fever today, so hitched the bike on to the carrier and drove to Auchinstarry for a wet, but warm run along the railway line past Dumbreck Marshes and on to the canal tow path. While I was there I watched some bees buzzing around the flowers. I thought it would be a good test of the high speed ‘motor drive’ on the E-PL5. I remember a few years ago I was in a group of photogs where there was a challenge among us to see who who would be the first to catch an insect on the wing. Lots of heavy duty technology was being used, but nobody got that shot. Today with a second hand Oly E-PL5 and a second hand Panasonic lens, I got the shot. I don’t suppose the wager still stands.
Sometimes after a particularly busy weekend, like this one was, we just want to relax on a Monday. Today that relaxation was somewhat forced upon us. From when I woke at 7.45am until now at around 10.00pm it has rained non-stop. What’s worse, is that we have the same to look forward to tomorrow apparently and little let up on Wednesday. On Thursday the rain will halt for a while to allow the entrance of northerly gales. Oh what fun, and this is summer? Personally I blame the Tories and Nicola Sturgeon. Probably Alex Salmond is in the mix somewhere too, because there isn’t a pie he hasn’t got his finger in. I’m hoping against hope that we’ll get an Indian Summer. Some lovely balmy breezes in late September and early October. We’ll probably need them to melt the snow.
The only photos I got today were these ones of sparrow scuds (young birds) waiting impatiently to be fed.
You know when you’ve been Kelpied – 26 July 2015
Today we were going to visit the Kelpies because neither JIC nor Sim had seen them up close, and up close IS the only way to see these icons. Drove there and parked in the paid car park as close as you can get to the massive statues. In case you have been living under Read More
Introducing Harry the Happy Kelpie.
Today we were going to visit the Kelpies because neither JIC nor Sim had seen them up close, and up close IS the only way to see these icons. Drove there and parked in the paid car park as close as you can get to the massive statues. In case you have been living under a stone for the past few years, the Kelpies are 30m high horse heads, brainchild, or should that be brainchildren, of Andy Scott. No matter how many times we visit them, there’s always something different to see in them. I find it fascinating that people start taking photos of them almost as soon as they get out of their car. It’s as if they think they have to record them in case they run away. That may sound stupid until you’ve seen them. Then you will understand just how lifelike and dynamic these structures are. In fact, it’s hard to see them as simply structures, the have this organic life about them – quite scarily lifelike when you’re close to them.
Next stop was Vecchia Bologna in Bridge-of-Allan for Sunday lunch and for the first time I had their home made Tiramisu. I can tell you it won’t be the last time if I have anything to do with it. Quite delicious. Almost as good as Scamp’s. After that, sadly, it was time to run JIC and Sim to the airport for their plane home. All good things … etc.
It was a decent morning and we had decided to go for a drive along Loch Lomond side as JIC hadn’t been there for years and Sim had never been to the ‘Bonnie, Bonnie Banks’. Unfortunately, as we got within about a mile of the roundabout at the south end of the loch, we hit a looooong traffic jam. The traffic heading up the lochside was at a standstill. A swift change of direction was necessary, so we moved into the almost empty outside lane and turned right at the roundabout heading for Balloch, intending to drive to Balmaha. I always thought ‘Balmaha’ sounded really exotic, conjuring up images of swaying palm trees, but it’s really just a wee lochside village with cars parked everywhere. Anyway, before we got to the Balmaha turn off, I spotted the turning for Balloch Castle and remembered Scamp and I going there a few years ago. Drove in and got parked quite easily. Went for a walk and heard music. At first we thought it was coming from Duck Bay Marina across the loch, then realised it was coming from the lochside down below us. Scamp talked to a lady and found out it was a Dragon Boat race and got direction from her, so we headed off and watched a couple of races. It was a charity event with teams in fancy dress. Managed to get a few photos of the boats. Also got some shaky shots of the two seaplanes taking off on short pleasure trips from the loch.
Scamp was feeling hungry, and once you’ve seen a couple of the races, unless you’re involved, it gets a bit boring so we went in search of food. Scamp said the best place was Lomond Shores and that is where we went along with hundreds of others. On the way, we could see that the queue was still at the roundabout, so we had made the right decision taking the diversion! Lunch was in the cafe at Jenners and was quite decent. After lunch we split up and wandered round the shops for a while then drove home after JIC found £15 just lying on the ground. Lucky boy. I thought that the queue at the roundabout would have dissipated by the time we were going home, but no, it had grown to well over 2 miles long by then. Some people were going to have a dismal Saturday afternoon.
Later in the afternoon, we drove the other two into Glasgow so they could meet up with old friends. Scamp and I walked around the Merchant City Festival in town and took in the sights and sounds for a while before returning home again.
Blue reflections Ingram StreetPink meets pink. One of the waitresses on the Camp Cooks food van.
some ‘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 
the 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.
