Category: photography

No fog, just clouds – 27 November 2020

Posted on by Zogman

In a way I’d have preferred fog to the ubiquitous white clouds.

Today we were heading to Kilsyth to get some gin for me. Cheap gin, but I like the taste. With that in mind, we went via Lidl and picked up a fair bit more than a bottle of gin. Waited in the queue, but when we’d loaded our goods onto the belt the flake in front of us put a ‘dead’ card into the machine and screwed up the till. She said she’d kept her old cancelled card and that was what she’d used by mistake. Neither Scamp nor I believed it. It then took the assistant ages to put things right again. I have a feeling there was a scam being played out here. Who keeps their old cancelled bank card unless they’re trying to pull a scam?

Drove to Colzium House for a walk round the grounds and hopefully a couple of pics. I did get a PoD, but that was the good one with around 30 duff shots. After walking round the trees and the almost silted up curling pond, we walked through to have a look at the loch. Banton Loch is manmade and was built to feed the Forth & Clyde canal in the 18th century. I’m sure on a bright summer’s day it’s very photogenic, but today it was just a pool of dull grey water. We walked to the outfall dam and read about the battle of Kilsyth in the ’45 rebellion. Strangely there was a footnote on the commemoration cairn in French. There was nothing to see here and nothing to photograph either. That didn’t stop me taking photos that I just knew would be deleted later. We drove back home for lunch.

Walked to St Mo’s in the afternoon to try out the Sigma 105mm macro on the adapter for the Sony. It performed really well, but the weather and the light hadn’t improved since the morning and I had to give up. PoD went to the leaves we saw at Colzium. Today’s sketch nearly never happened. I just couldn’t find a ‘G’ subject until I saw a tin of beanz when I went to get some glasses from the cupboard. Set up a wee trio of groceries and sketched a thumbnail. As usually happens with these things, the thumbnail became the sketch and after I’d splashed on some paint it looked ok. Actually better than ok. I’m happy with it.

Hoping for some decent light tomorrow to get out and take some photos.

In better tid today – 21 November 2020

Posted on by Zogman

I learned the word ‘Tid’ when we were down in Newton Stewart. It sort of mean ‘state’ and I’ve only heard it in a positive setting.

So, today my head was in a better place, that’s what I was saying. Number one, I had a good sleep and a long one too. Woke fairly refreshed. Secondly, the problem with the NAS drive had resolved itself. Yesterday after the electrician plugged in the hub for the Hive, my NAS changed its IP address and nothing I did would get it back again. Today, I think, the OS had taken a long hard look and consulted its DNS spreadsheet and discovered the new address for the NAS (I apologise if that’s too many UPPER case abbreviations, JIC). Whatever happened, the NAS was online again.

A possible third reason was that our Hive controlled lightbulb arrived and we could play with it. Scamp was the first one to get it installed on her phone, but couldn’t quite remember how she did it. Then my phone registered it too. We had some fun switching it on and off, brightening it and dulling it, and then it was lunch time. Simple things and simple minds!

After lunch I chose to go out for a walk and a rainstorm was just waiting for me to walk about half a mile before dumping on me. I walked to the butchers and waited in the queue which went down quite quickly until some dimwit wanted a whole lamb rack French dressed, and then said she wanted them cut into individual chops. All the while she was chatting up the butcher. Eventually the women who work in the shop could see their wet customers considering leaving and decided they could allow two people in the shop as long as they were socially distant. When the dimwit entered the shop there were two of us waiting outside, when I left there were about nine wet, disgruntled shoppers. Some people just don’t care about others.

Came back home via St Mo’s and as the weather had brightened up considerably, I got some photos in the sunshine for a change. My favourite, and PoD was the tree.

I wasn’t long home when my parcel arrived from Amazon with its autofocus adapter to allow some of my old Nikon lenses to work seamlessly with the Sony A7. I was pleasantly surprised to find that two out of three worked completely. One didn’t quite cover all the bases, but enough to make it a worthwhile investment.

Nick the Chick (no, I wouldn’t risk calling her that to her face!) put a large swathe of Scotland into Level 4 on Friday, yesterday. Unluckily for me, I’m in Level 4 of the Scottish Covid prevention scheme. It’s not total lockdown, but it’s fairly close to it. With that in mind I decided I’d start sketching again. Initially it will be alphabetical subjects.
Today it starts with ‘A’ is for Apple.

Tomorrow may be a case of sunshine and showers, but we can survive that. We may go for a walk.

A beautiful day – 19 November 2020

Posted on by Zogman

If only we could decide what to do with it.

Neither of us could decide where to go on what would be our last free day before Lockdown 2 happened. Finally Scamp said “Take me to the Kelpies” so that’s what I did. We drove to Grangemouth on a cold, day with a temperature in single digits, low single digits.

The giant horse statues looked as magnificent as ever and even better because there were no people standing around them taking selfies or pouting at their phones. We walked round them, admired them and told them just how impressive they were. They already knew, but accepted our praise in dignified silence.

We found a new path that took us round the outskirts of the sewage treatment works that was producing the awful smell. I don’t know if it was the direction the wind was blowing that was causing it, or maybe they only switch on the machinery at night in the summer to cause less offence to visitors, but it was certainly working at full blast today. The path took us along the side of the River Carron. It wasn’t the most interesting walk and we gave up after a while to walk back and go along the canal this time. It was on this path that I got PoD. Looking down the canal towards the Ochil Hills with the sun lighting up the Kelpies. It was good to be in the right place at the right time for once. We were going to have a quick coffee at the information centre, but there were a few folk waiting to get in and it was too cold to hang around. We drove home and had some “Just Soup” instead.

In the afternoon we walked down to the shops for last minute essentials for dinner (veg chilli with one of our own chillies) on the way back, Scamp offered to go straight back which allowed me half an hour to grab some more shots in St Mo’s. The Samyang was carefully supervised and although it did miss focus a couple of times, most of the shots were on target. It didn’t affect the PoD, that remained with the Kelpies.

Tonight we cleared out the boiler cupboard and now there’s garden stuff all over the house. Boiler arrives tomorrow between 7am and 9am. Engineer arrives about 9am and it’s going to be pouring by the look of the weather fairies’ report. It might be a long day.

Because of the above, we have no plans for tomorrow.

Rain, rain, rain then sun – 18 November 2020

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It was one of those days when you just know it’s going to start raining and never stop.

Actually, the rain had started yesterday and continued unabated through the night. I felt it had rather overstayed its welcome when it was still with us this morning. We had planned to drive to The Fort today, but one look out the window convinced us that wouldn’t be happening. If we were desperate for something from that curve of shops, I might have made the effort, but as neither of us were all that bothered, we decided we’d maybe go another day. Scamp had a hair appointment in the afternoon and I was making soup for tonight’s dinner, so that would keep us busy.

Lunchtime came and went with the highlight being Scamp’s apple pie. Not our own apples, those are well gone, but a very tasty wholemeal pastry encasing some lovely Bramley apples. I’m worried that I’m beginning to sound a bit like Nigella here! It was a lovely pie, though. Just as Scamp was leaving for the hairdressers, the sky did seem to lighten a bit. A few minutes later, shadows were appearing outside and we didn’t need the room lights on. It was definitely brightening up.

Not one to pass on an invitation like that, I had my boots on and the bag on my shoulder before it would all fall apart. It didn’t fall apart, the sky was clearing nicely when I walked up the path that leads to St Mo’s. There was a torrent of water coming down that path and it was that torrent that became today’s PoD. One in the bag. There was a wild sky with a low sun when I walked round the pond, wild enough to be the subject of a photo, not just the background and I did take quite a few. Still not altogether happy with the focusing of the 18mm Samyang lens. I may still resort to sending it back to Amazon because they have foolishly extended the returns window to January 2021. Never look a gift horse … etc.

By the time I got home, so was Scamp, sporting her new hairstyle which she said was almost exactly what she’d asked for, but she didn’t like it. I didn’t want to say that the difference between a bad haircut and a good one is only about two weeks. I like it, it frames her face really well. Maybe tomorrow I’ll photograph her, just to prove to her that it works.

Dinner was indeed my version of Scamp’s “Just Soup”, served with crispy croutons, our new favourite. The pudding was another slice of Scamp’s apple pie with cream. Finishing touch was two little meringues each with more cream!

It’s raining again tonight, but the temperature is forecast to drop tomorrow with an overnight low of about 2ºc and remain dry all day then more rain on Friday. No plans for tomorrow, but if there’s anything we need in ‘non-essential shops’ we’d better get it or have to wait for three weeks.

Oh yes, one more thing.  I was just heading for bed last night when I heard a buzzing, but a doppler buzzing, you know what I mean a rise and fall in the pitch of the buzz.  An insect or something flying past me.  It was a big wasp, I don’t think it was a hornet, but it was a big wasp.  I didn’t want to kill it, but I didn’t want to wake up with a bit lump on my nose from a wasp sting either.  I managed to backhand it and trapped in on the carpet under a glass tumbler, eased a bit of cardboard under it and it was trapped.  I opened the bathroom window and helped it to fly away.  It wasn’t too happy about flying off and clung to the cardboard for a while, but I managed to convince it that going would be less painful than staying.  It’s now out there somewhere thinking “It’s a bit chilly for June!”

Leaves, Friends and Glenmorangie – 16 November 2020

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Too many of our days are spoilt by reading in bed.

Today the light was good, so after breakfast I got up, dressed and took my camera out for a walk. Yesterday, on the way back from our walk I saw a little clearing in the woods beside Broadwood Loch, covered with golden brown sycamore leaves. That was my target for today. When I got there the clouds had already rolled in and it didn’t look as if I was going to get a chance to take the photo. But I was there with a camera and I wasn’t going home until I had at least one shot in the bag, and this time it would be in focus. I got quite a few shots looking in both east and west directions. I walked round the boardwalk after that took a few shots of the padlocks rusting together on the square link fence. No great sky, no directional light. I don’t know if there would really have been any because at about 9.30am the sun wouldn’t have risen much and the area I was in would have been in shadow anyway. That was about it for photography. I really need to put that little battery powered light in my bag to give me some portable directional light.

Back home the shots looked ok. Not great, just ok. The main problem apart from a lack of shadows was the white sky behind the trees. Luminar 4 is a great bit of software for adding interesting skies to bland landscapes and it came to the rescue with today’s PoD.

Time to get ready for lunch. Today we were booked for lunch with Crawford and Nancy at The Cotton House in Longcroft. Lovely lunch and a great laugh with the other pair. My Salt and Chilli Chicken with noodles is fast becoming my go-to standard for Chinese / Thai food. Scamp has gone back to the old favourite of Chicken Chow Mein.

When we came out, Nancy had a Christmas parcel for Scamp (a bit early, but who’s counting) and Crawford presented me with a bottle of Glenmorangie as a belated birthday prezzy. I was flabbergasted. I totally hadn’t expected that. We did elbow bumps and left for our respective homes.

The weather was closing in as we neared Cumbersheugh so we waited a while before walking down to the shops for staples which this time included iced buns, chocolate and pancakes. Only the iced buns and the pancakes have been sampled, the chocolate is hiding in the fridge.

The golden leaves and the subtly added sky finished off the PoD and I was happy with it. Must try out PhotoPills on the iPhone to find out if I can indeed get light onto those trees on Thursday, because tomorrow and Wednesday are definitely out with heavy rain both days.

Doesn’t look like we’ll be going far tomorrow.

Light – 10 November 2020

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The fog was there when we woke this morning and it stayed all day

One of those days where there wasn’t much to encourage us to go out. Although it wasn’t cold, it felt damp and uncomfortable. Although I managed to do my ‘8 active hours’ according to the Fitbit, I couldn’t tell you how I achieved them. It felt like a day of sitting around.

It wasn’t until late in the afternoon that I managed to shift myself enough to go out to get some photos. I walked over to St Mo’s looking for some macro subjects to ignite my interest. The subjects were there, but I really needed the light to be better. More light would help and some of it needed to be directional. I had hopes that there might be some late sunshine when the clouds parted slightly to expose a tiny sliver of blue sky. However the tear in the clouds soon healed again and the sun was lost for another day. I found a small toadstool growing on the edge of the pine woods and tried unsuccessfully to get a decent, sharp image of it. That’s when I switched my phone on and used its torch to give me that directional light. It worked and I had my PoD.

Also on my phone came the news that North Lanarkshire was to remain in level 3 of the restrictions after threats that we’d be elevated to level 4 which is basically full lockdown again. Skye, on the other hand were downgraded to level 1 which gives them a bit more freedom. Back home Scamp was talking to Jackie in Skye and congratulating her on her freedom.

She, Scamp, had been to Condorrat while I was out and had bumped into Chris Davies’ mum again. Hadn’t seen her for years and then bumped into her twice in a week. Sometimes life’s like that.

It was Scamp’s turn to make dinner and tonight I got to choose between two different offerings. I chose Kedgeree and it was a great choice and a great dinner. Tasty and just nicely curry flavoured.

Today may have been dull, but tomorrow will be wet, WET, WET. Not a Scottish rock band from the ’80s. More a Scottish weather pattern. We may go out, just to get away from the house for a while.

Stitchery and Boozy Pudding – 8 November 2020

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A day for putting things right. A day for mending. A wet, dull day. A day for getting things done.

The main reason I was mending and putting things right and also for getting (some) things done was that it was indeed a wet, dull day.

Before lunch I’d made some bread, well made the dough at least, well made the dough in the mixer and then adjusted it by hand. That was the delicate, skilled work. The rest was just grunt work. After lunch I adjourned to the sewing room where three pairs of jeans awaited my attentions. Scamp stayed downstairs and talked to herself while she made a … well, let’s contract it to Boozy Christmas Pudding, it’s got a much longer name than that, but cutting to the chase, that’s it. Once assembled it was to be cooked for three and a half hours in a slow cooker. It looked messy, so I let her get on with it.

First thing for me to do was fix a worn pocket in one pair of jeans. As the next pair would need exactly the same repair done, so ideally I should make all my mistakes on the first pair and then sail through the second. For once, that’s exactly what happened. The first pair was a pain in the backside. Cut the wrong shape of patch. Got in a fankle (another good Scots word) sewing the patch onto the pocket. Eventually got it fixed and it looked and felt ok, so I went down to see how the chef was getting on. She was almost ready to put the assembled pudding in the slow cooker. Got it in without too much trouble which meant she had three and a half hours to sit and wait. I started jeans two’s pocket.

This one was easier and soon I had two useable pairs of jeans that had been malingering in the back bedroom for months. The next pair needed a hem turned up. It was a bit of a struggle to get the sewing machine to accept that it could actually pierce the double, double thickness of denim that would form at the doubled up side seams, but with a bit of a run at it, together we achieved a reasonable result. Like the pockets, once I’d done one leg, the other one was a dawdle. Make that three pairs completed!

We were having Duck Legs with Orange Sauce for dinner. Actually M&S had done the hard work. All I had to do was take the duck legs out of the bag and bake them in the oven I’d just taken the loaf out of, for 30 mins. Covered them in Orange Sauce after that and another ten minutes in the oven saw them cooked. They actually tasted really good. I wondered as I was eating mine if they had both come from the same duck. Were they ‘handed’, you know, left and right legs? I hadn’t thought to look. They both looked about the same size, but how would you know these things? We rarely think that what we’re eating walked this earth with us. Maybe I should go vegan. Nope, chicken curry would put an end to that idea!

The time to open the slow cooker had arrived and Scamp carefully undid the string that held the tinfoil lid in place and the smell that wafted out was simply divine! Boozy? Yes. Fruity? Yes. We got a big slice each and slathered it in cream and discovered that it tasted as good as the smell. The rest is now in the fridge for tomorrow, but I fear it won’t taste as good as today’s offering. Pity, Hazy. It’s got eggs in it.

Spoke to JIC tonight just as I was beginning a swearing session at the Sony for not working with the remote app on my phone. The poor boy wasn’t feeling well with clogged sinuses, and on his weekend off too. That’s just not fair. However we talked for a while about Mr Trump, boilers and stuff.

I went back up to the Photography room (because the sewing machine had been put away again) and proceeded to take today’s PoD manually. Came down stairs and tried again, because I’m like a dug wi’ a burst ba’, and lo and behold the bloody thing worked. I’ve a feeling it’s only doing it to annoy me!

Tomorrow evening we are doing a WhatsApp with a man from British Gas to see how much they want to supply and fit a new boiler. The one we have at present is about 20 years old. We’ll be talking big numbers, I’m sure.

A long walk – 7 November 2020

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It was a foggy start that faded to a misty morning.

We had thought of going in to Glasgow today but we waited too long for the mist to clear. Eventually we decided on a walk and if you’re having a Saturday walk it should be a proper one, so this one was a walk around Broadwood Loch.

We set out with our usual walk down to the stadium and I managed to get a ‘one in the bag’ with a few shots of some mushroom/toadstools. Crawling around on the grass with your bum in the air is what gives photos a bad name. We chose to extend our walk to include the loch too.

Although I had one in the bag, the PoD was some cormorants on Cormorant Island on Broadwood Loch stretching and drying their wings in the feeble sunshine. I needed a long lens for that and the Sony can’t quite manage that … yet. I had to resort to the tiny sensor of the Teazer 90, but it didn’t let me down. It’s the best camera in the world. The one in your pocket. The rest of the walk was just ok. Mainly because the sun was on our backs and walking into the sun is always more interesting, photographically.

Dinner was meant to be roast duck legs, but someone forgot to check that they were fully defrosted and we had pizza instead. Hopefully duck legs tomorrow. I couldn’t possibly say who was responsible for the oversight with the frozen duck legs, but you know it was me. Numpty.

We had a wee dance tonight to practise our three jive routines with a couple of successful attempts at quickstep. It was partly to revise our jive and ballroom skills(?) and partly to celebrate Joe Biden’s win over the other Donald.

Not a bad day at all. Hopefully another one tomorrow.

A dull day in the morning – 5 November 2020

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Blue sky looking out the front window but really black at the back.

We decided to wait it out and see if the blue sky or the black clouds would win. Eventually the blues did win the day, but it was lunchtime by then and we stopped our cloudgazing to have a Bruschetta each for lunch. Sounds very posh, but the bread was going stale but would make good toast and the wee tomatoes were just past their sell-by date. A good way to use them up. Full marks to Scamp.

After lunch Scamp decided to make a chicken curry for dinner in the slow cooker and headed off to the shops to get a couple of chicken legs. I gathered my camera gear together and took a walk over to St Mo’s. Today I was mixing my cameras. I had my Oly with a macro lens and the Sony with the kit lens. I was fairly sure the Sony would produce the best landscape shot, and I wasn’t wrong. But I was equally sure the Oly would produce the best macro and again I backed the right horse. In fact, the Oly won the day with PoD going to a conifer trunk with a pattern looking like the flatworms from MC Escher’s lithographs. Google “Escher Flatworms” to see what I mean. I think the tree was a Larch because it was starting to shed its needles.

Back home the chicken curry was beginning to scent the air in the living room, because the great thing about slow cookers is they’re portable. You can plug them in anywhere there’s a power socket and they’ll do their job as well as sitting on the kitchen counter.

For a while we watched the antics of a couple of 70-somethings arguing about who won and I thought: Would I really want either of them to run my country? Boris is a bumbler, but these two are zoomers.

Tonight was Guy Fawkes Night, but since he was a bit of a terrorist and it’s not the done thing to glorify terrorists, the celebration has been renamed Bonfire Night.  That’s what we used to call it anyway, so it’s obviously the right name.  Although we didn’t have an official fireworks display this year, or maybe because we didn’t, there were loads of rockets flying through the air and explosions all around us.  Certainly one of the noisiest Bonfire Nights for many years.

Tomorrow we go out for lunch, but still stay within the boundaries of North Lanarkshire.

The Chicken Curry? Of course it was beautiful. Tasted as good as it smelled!

On the yellow brick road – 4 November 2020

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… with masks on.

Today, you’ve probably guessed, we went to Ikea. That’s what Scamp suggested, and as I had nothing better to do, I agreed. Fairly long queue to get in, but it was moving quite quickly. One absolute numpty literally ran in front of us to get in the queue before us. I don’t know if she’d maybe never been in the Big Yellow House before, but I hope she found what she was looking for or I imagine she’d scream and scream!

We were looking for three things one of which I thought was on the upper floor. I was correct, but we had to walk all the way round the maze and found it at the very end of the upper floor. With Covid restrictions you MUST follow the yellow brick road where before you could double back sometimes. That is totally forbidden now. So two trays for my storage cabinet meant I accumulated about 1,000 steps. We came out with the three items we had gone for … and a few more.

Drove back into Glasgow, heading for Glasgow Green. I followed the map in my head and then missed a lane change and we had to drive right through the city rather than round the edge. It didn’t matter, Scamp knows the city well and told me the lane changes well in advance. As we were walking past the People’s Palace I saw what looked like two sword fencers practicing under some trees. Now, as I said to Scamp, there’s used to be a fair amount of swordplay down on Glasgow Green, but only on Saturday nights. This was in broad daylight. If it was London there would be van loads of polis armed to the teeth surrounding the Green within minutes. In Glasgow it’s just par for the course, apparently!

We went along to Parnie Street because I was looking for a fitment for my Benbo tripod. Unfortunately the didn’t have it. The nearest they had was more than double the price. I could get it from Amazon, but I’d have preferred to have bought it from a small independent shop. Never mind, they said they might have it in two or three weeks. I might wait that long. We walked back through The Green, the fencers were still there and there were still no police marksmen hidden in the bushes with laser sights drawing red dots on the fencers’ heads. Nobody shouting “Throw down your weapons and lie on the ground!”

After lunch I gathered together a collection of ‘small electrical and electronic’ gadgetry that was destined for the council skip. For once there was no queue to get in and I was waved through after showing my proof of ID to show that I was a bona fide Cumbersheugh resident. Junk dumped, I headed for Fannyside Moor where I was aiming to get some photos with the Sony camera and a fifteen year old Sigma lens. The test went well and you can see the result on Flickr. It nearly made PoD, but was just pipped by the fencers. Love that stance!

Scamp and I hung up more of her ball lights on the rowan tree in the back garden. They really do brighten up the garden with such a cheery light.

That was about it for today. No plans for tomorrow, but the weather looks good again so we might go out for another walk, this time in NL.