Category: photography

Another dull, wet day – 15 December 2021

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It rained all day today, but Scamp went out for a walk in the rain.

It was a busy day, though. While Scamp was out posting Christmas cards the engineer arrived to service the boiler. While he was working away Hazy phoned. I just knew she was more interested in getting more information from her mum than talking to me, so I asked her to phone back which she did. Scamp arrived back just in time to save me pulling a cupboard apart to find the maintenance log for the engineer to sign. He gave us a lot of useful information in the time he was here. He showed us a much better way to use the central heating and keep the house warmer too. It’s always good to get information from someone who knows what they’re talking about. In half an hour he passed on more useful knowledge than the bloke from Scottish Gas had given us when he was fitting the boiler. So, the boiler was fine, as you’d expect considering it’s just over a year old, and the house is now a lot warmer without getting too hot.

Once he was on his way, we settled down to hear what was going on in Hazy’s house, while one of her cats was screaming to be fed. Poor wee soul hadn’t been fed for years apparently. Worse still, that bad girl was too busy talking on the phone to do anything about it. Scamp related her tale of woe about NHS waiting lists and the difference if you’re willing to pay. I hardly got a word in edgewise, but that was probably for the best ”It’s always good to get information from someone who knows what they’re talking about”.

After lunch Jackie phoned and I took the opportunity to boot up and go out for a walk in the rain. If it was good enough for Scamp, it was good enough for me. PoD came from that walk and is one of those little weeds I delight in photographing with raindrops clinging to the bracts that used to hold flowers. There is a saying “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” My thoughts today were “If life gives you rain, photograph it.” That’s what I did. Of course the photo is slightly fake edited. I used the new masking tools in Lightroom to blur the background while keeping the subject sharp. It’s not perfect, but it’s a pretty clever tool.

I walked down to the shops and got some frozen sweet corn to make Celeriac and Sweetcorn soup. It sounds awful, but it actually tastes very good. We were both agreed on that.

Years ago I made an adjustable lens hood for one of my Oly lenses. I found the drawing for it tonight and managed to export it from the PC to the Mac and print it out from there. Transferred it to a sheet of neoprene and lo and behold, it fits the new macro lens that didn’t come with a lens hood. I need to get some black velcro tomorrow to finish it.

That’s about it for today. Like I said, it was a busy day. I think we may be going to the Fort tomorrow.

A day in the Toon with Alex – 10 December 2021

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Just a wee saunter round the toon.

We had intended travelling on the subway to Kelvinbridge for today’s photo safari, but instead Alex decided a walk round Glasgow to photograph the lights would be a better use of the day. It was his choice today and I agreed with him. Probably a lot more to see in the city centre than in the West End.

We walked down Bucky street from the Concert Hall were we’d agreed to meet, and went for a coffee in Nero. The market in St Enoch’s Square was just warming up and we managed a few photos before it got too busy. From there we walked along Argyle Street in the general direction of Glasgow Cross then turned on to Parnie Street where we took the opportunity to ogle the toys in Quiggs, now rebranded Merchant City Cameras, but for people of our generation it will forever be ‘Quiggs’. Not wishing to purchase anything today we walked on to take some photos of the McLennan Arch and the Collins Fountain at the entrance to Glasgow Green. Then it was on to the Clyde Walkway to see the graffiti and photograph the better pieces. It’s a bit of a shame that some of the new stuff covers up the old ‘Tiger’ that had been there for years. It’s probably still there, under a couple of coats of paint. I suppose you could argue that it’s had its day in the sun and should really make room for the new works. Still …

By this time we were feeling the need for some food, so we headed for the St Enoch Centre to see what we could find. We ended up in Aulds. Me with a sausage roll (a bit greasy but ok for lunch) and Alex with a cold ham sandwich. Cup of coffee each washed the food down. Back outside Alex wanted another look at the street food market and I wandered round taking street photos. By this time the temperature was dropping and we were heading for home.

One more stop for Alex was the posh House of Frazer. He knew exactly where he was going. Up to the first floor to get a view looking straight down the elegantly draped walls of the clothes shop. I thought we’d have attracted security, but nobody paid any notice, so I took a few shots too. One of them made PoD.

Outside we walked up Bucky Street and I glanced at a street magician trying to attract a crowd. He waved back at me and I turned away. As I did that I realised that his face was familiar. He was a former pupil. I can’t remember his name, but I did teach him. In class he was a quiet individual who seemed to lack confidence. Then at the annual end of term show he appeared on stage and did magic tricks. Everybody, and I mean Everybody was shocked to see this quiet wee boy exuding confidence. And here he was today giving it his best shot. He even said to his crowd “That’s my old teacher.” I stopped, turned, gave him the scary teacher look and said “Less of the OLD, you!” He laughs, I laughed and the crowd joined in. The next time I’m in Glasgow I must look for him. Still can’t remember his name though. It’ll come to me.

I walked Alex to his bus and then headed back to Buchanan Galleries to drive home. Stopped at Condorrat on the way to get a Special Fish Supper and a tub of ice cream. The fish supper was consumed with gusto and the ice cream is in the freezer for tomorrow.

Helped Scamp later to form and coat some rum truffles. That should be RUM truffles, because there was a fair amount of the spirit in them. They did taste good.

Scamp has booked an appointment for Ross Hall Hospital for a second opinion on the cataract situation. Let’s hope they can do the job quicker than Hairmyres.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to go to dance class. Lateral Flow test first just in case.

Encouraged – 6 December 2021

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Woke to rain, heavy rain, thumping down.

This wasn’t going to be a good photographing day by the looks of things. Sat down and got started on yesterday’s unfinished sudoku. There are six sudoku puzzles a week in the Times daily block. Five weekday puzzles were Monday is the easiest and Friday is really hard. You get two days to solve one weekend puzzle which is at times diabolical. On Saturday I started what looked like a remarkably easy one, but I wasn’t fooled. Last night I was still struggling with it. As sometimes happens, when I look at it afresh, like today, it just falls into place. Easy! With that done and after a false start, I got today’s done. That took me to coffee time. By the time I’d finished my coffee the sun had come out properly and the rain had stopped. That’s when I was ’encouraged’ by Scamp to go for a walk while the sun was out.

This was a two camera day. I thought I might get some decent light and with the kit lens on the big camera and the macro on the other one, I was ready for most things. I saw my first opportunity when I was walking up the path to the ’venchie. That was the abbreviated version of Adventure Playground. It’s a bit more upmarket than the one that two of my readers would remember, but is just as well used. By kids in the daylight hours and neds in the evenings. You don’t want to know what goes on in there after dark. You might think you know, but it will always be worse. Anyway, it was just a photo of a leaf and it was just to get the ball rolling so to speak. Next I found an old scarf tied to a tree branch. It has been there for years and is now growing all sorts of fungi and a nicely sprouting hummock of moss on top. Quite photogenic to a photog.

Walked over to St Mo’s where everyone but me had a dog. Dog walkers look at you kind of strange if you’re walking alone and without a dog on a string. Why? Dog-walkers, on the end of that bit of string is a creature that is one stage away from a carnivorous wild animal. And you think I’m strange? Some of them even have two or three of the things. Each of them capable of communicating with each other and planning your demise in a language no translator will be able to understand. I walked on.

I took photos of Cladonia lichen which I love and besides it looks as if I’m photographing a rock. Sometime I talk to myself while I’m doing it. That really spooks the dog-walkers. You can see them pulling their pooches away from the obviously deranged man in the old dirty jacket. You see how photogs get a bad name now? PoD ended up being a monochrome shot of a park bench in St Mo’s. The scarf came a close second and in third place was a rather limp nettle. All can be seen on Flickr.

After lunch I spent the rest of the afternoon trying and failing to avoid writing Christmas cards until dinner time. Spaghetti Carbonara followed by panna cotta.

A strange thing happend last night, just as I was locking up before going to bed.  There was what looked like an envelope lying in the garden.  I went out to have a look and it was indeed an envelope.  No address on the front, just a message Merry Christmas.  Inside was a Christmas card with a message “To you Stranger.  Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year”.  A random act of kindness perhaps?  Scamp suggested we put it in the window in the kitchen.  Hopefully someone will see that it was delivered and read.  There are good people out there.

Tomorrow Scamp has an appointment with the dentist and I’m taxi driver.

 

 

A miserable morning – 1 December 2021

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But then it changed completely, just as the weather fairies had predicted.

I was out fairly early this morning. Collected my meds. Tuesday must be sick day because today, Wednesday, there was no queue outside the chemist and only one person in front of me inside. Next I posted a small parcel down south, Hazy. I’d a short list of things to get in Tesco while I was there and with that done, I drove home with the sky lightening all the time. It was beginning to look as if the weather app on my phone was going to be on the money with its claim for sunshine by 11am.

After a morning coffee I sat and wrote an email to Alex. Just keeping in touch and moaning about the weather. Then I grabbed my cameras and went for a walk in St Mo’s looking for something scenic in the sun.  It was cold, but at least the sun was shining and the sky was blue. On the way there I took a shot or two of the Snowberry bushes that grow beside the paths near the house. They’re well named with their bunches of white berries that look like little balls of snow. Since I was out fairly early, I thought I might get a shot of one of the St Mo’s deer. I did, but it was just a tiny speck in the distance. If you didn’t know it was there you’d miss it. The wee pond up next to the motorway exit slip road was looking good with the blue sky reflecting in it and the rusty coloured larches contrasting. I took quite a few of that scene, knowing that most would be culled in the first editing pass. Took some macro shots of the cow parsley seed heads, but I know I sometimes overdo them. I take so many, most of them fall on the cutting room floor too.

Back home, the DPD man came and took away another, larger parcel away to go down south.  It must be somebody’s birthday soon.  Then, and after lunch we discussed what to have for dinner. There’s not really much to debate, it’s Wednesday, so it’s got to be fish and probably chips. That’s when the postman arrived with a parcel for us from Hazy. It was a culinary advent calendar. Instead of doors, it has little cardboard holders with a sachet of spice or herbs in each one. At least that’s what we’re guessing is in them because Hazy has carefully covered the list of what’s in each day’s sachet. Smart girl! Scamp opened today’s which tasted like curry leaves in sea salt. I chose to make potato wedges instead of chips with the fish and we usually sprinkle them with a basil and salt mixture that Val brings back from Rome for us. Instead, today, we sprinkled Fleur de sel (Roasted Sesame, Coriander, Garlic, Cumin and Fenugreek). It was totally different from our usual basil salt and made a refreshing change. It’s my turn to open tomorrow’s packet. Thank you both!

Today’s PoD turned out to be the Snowberries. I liked it right away, which is always a good sign.

Tomorrow I think we may go shopping. Maybe just to Tesco, although we did book a Tesco delivery today too, but that’s for later in the month.

Tea Dancin’ – 29 November 2021

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With a judge called Isobel.

It was a dull morning, but most of the afternoon would be inside, so we weren’t all that worried.

Picked up Isobel and drove through some soaking drizzly rain to Falkirk. Got to the church with a few minutes to spare and dropped the two ladies off as near as I could to the path to the church hall. Then I went to park the car. I walked back to the church and that’s when Scamp told me the bag with the shoes was still in the car’s boot. So I had to walk back and pick up the bag. Missed the first two dances as a result. Probably my fault. On the way back I managed to get a few photos of the church.

We were on the floor for more than a few different dances. Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot and Rumba, we stumbled through them all. Starting off badly, but improving as we went. That’s what happens when you’ve not danced for a couple of weeks. We also joined in with most of the sequence dances we know. The guy playing the keyboard kept everything going really well.

Things started to fall apart when we left. I had told Scamp that I’d bring the car up to the church to pick them up. Because Falkirk is a maze of one way streets and the fact that it was dark by then and raining, I struggled to find a way to the entrance into the church carpark and tried to phone Scamp to tell her to meet me back on the street where I’d dropped them off, but the phone kept going to voicemail. Apparently her phone was in the shoe bag which was now in the boot of the car. Not knowing that, I left a message on the phone. I finally found the street that took me to the entrance to the church carpark, but when I got there, No Scamp or Isobel. I assumed she’d got the message and had gone to the street where I’d dropped them off earlier in the day. I left and headed for the street . That’s when my phone rang and Scamp speaking on Isobel’s phone, asking me why I’d driven away! They had been sheltering in an alcove on the dark side of the church and had seen me drive in and then drive off again. All in all, it was a comedy of errors, just not funny. Not at all funny.

Just to put the tin lid on things, there was a problem with the SD card in the camera and none of my photos had been recorded. It would have been good if Sony had thought to put a big “NO CARD” message in the middle the screen, instead of a tiny little note in the top left corner of the screen.

They say that problems come in threes. I think I’ve had my three today.

The Christmas cactus stepped into the gap left but the dodgy SD card and that made PoD.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better than today.

Snow – 28 November 2021

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Today we woke to snow, just as the forecasters predicted … for once.

Yes, a layer of the white stuff coated the paths and the grass this morning. The temperature was 1.1ºc. Above zero, but only just. I was thinking that I might go out and get some snowy scene photos, but then again, there was no real need to rush. The snow would probably be there in an hour or so too. Time to finish the chapter in my book.

I eventually pulled on my boots, got my heavy Bergy jacket and my furry hat. Then, armed with both Sony cameras I went off to the snowy wastes of St Mo’s. I did get PoD with the A7, but most of the photos were macros taken with the A6000. Surprisingly, when I got them processed, I had far more ‘keepers’ than I thought I’d have.

Back home, my next task was to decant some of yesterday’s leaves into the compost bin. The easiest way, and much to Scamp’s dismay, was to bring the garden waste wheelie bin through the house to the back garden. Then shovel the leaves into the bin. The contents of the bin were in far better nick than I’d have expected. There was a lot of good looking, well rotted compost in there and also a fair number of worms eating their way through what was left of some vegetable matter. The already chopped up leaves will give them something new in their diet.

Our own diet today was Tomato and Red Pepper soup followed by Pan Fried Chicken Breast with potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower. It sounds fancy, but I was cooking, so some corners were cut and some license has been taken with the description. The chicken was half the breast from the chicken I cooked yesterday. The broccoli and cauliflower were from an M&S packet and the potatoes were mingin’. Too old and mouldy looking. Still, pudding was an M&S Cherry Steamed Pudding. I could never have made that, but I could bake it in the microwave for 1min 30sec.

Spoke to Jamie and found out the full story of Simonne’s injured hand and the extent of the injuries. She’s back to the hospital tomorrow to get the dressing changed and check that healing is properly in progress. Neither dog seems to have any serious injuries.
Things seem to be moving on the house front too with some work already completed and others in the pipeline.

Today’s PoD is a view along the path to Condorrat with a tweak or two in Lightroom. Doesn’t it make it look cold!

Tomorrow we are intending to take Isobel to the tea dance in Falkirk. It’s a test too, to see if Scamp can manage to dance with the new glasses on. If it works we may attempt a class on Saturday. Temperature now is -1ºc. Below zero, but only just.

The last dance – 14 November 2021

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One more breakfast of champions, One more morning walk through Perth, One more tea dance. Then home.

Breakfast was a bit quieter than yesterday with a lot more empty tables, but the same selection of fruit and fries. Not all the tables were fully stocked with cups, cutlery and napkins. Just another little niggle that showed this was indeed a three star hotel. I’ll bet Bonnie Prince Charlie didn’t have to go and nick his cutlery from another table!

Fed and watered, we went for a walk along Perth’s riverside. It was a bit colder than yesterday and a lot duller too. Neither of these inconveniences stopped us walking through the park for half an hour and neither did it stop me from getting a photo or five, more like twenty five though. The one that eventually, after some post processing, made PoD was a slow shutter speed shot (alliteration of ’S’) of the upstream bridge over the Tay with the smooth water that only comes with shutter speeds of 1/8th of a second or longer. I knew you’d want to know that Jamie!

Walked back and we were ready for the final dance of the weekend. First we all observed the Minute’s Silence, then the dance began. I was expecting a couple of dozen folk to be there, but there must have been around fifty. All still raring to go. It was only an hour long session, but it finished off the weekend perfectly. Said goodbye to the folk we knew.  After that we handed back our key and got a QR code to scan into the parking ticket machine which gave us a 50% reduction on our parking costs, once we worked out the sequence of scans to do it.

Drove home via M&S in Dunblane to get tonight’s dinner, because apparently we have to make our own dinner, and breakfast here in Cumbersheugh!

It was an interesting and exhausting three days. Now it’s back to “auld claes and purrich” as my dad would say. Tomorrow we’re hoping to have a more relaxing day.

A day in the Toon – 11 November 2021

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The first for a long while.

We got parked on level 4 of Buchanan Galleries, which a couple of years ago would have been impossible. Today there were lots of spaces on level 4, and I even missed a few on level 3.

First stop was Paesano for a lunchtime pizza. Even Paesano was quiet today. Maybe something to do with COP26 or maybe something to do with the ongoing pandemic. Whatever it is, it’s not a good sign. Pizzas were lovely. My number 3 (anchovy and olive) had a few more slices of garlic than normal and I liked that. Scamp had her new normal number 1 (tomato sugo, no cheese, extra rocket and mushrooms) was perfect for her. Her usual complaint was that the base was too thin.

While I went for a walk in the sunshine down to a charity shop in the merchant city to look for an old manual lenses and then on to Cass Art to see what was going cheap, Scamp was going clothes shopping. We agreed to meet later in Buchanan Galleries.

Only one lens in the charity shop and it was an M42 thread teleconverter. Something that goes between the camera and the lens to increase the focal length. Makes the lens into a telephoto, in other words. Not what I was looking for. Maybe next time.

Cass Art had a sale on with 20% off across the board. Not an ‘up to’ 20% reduction, just an honest 20% off everything. I bought two ‘concertina’ A5 sketch books and a bright red bag to carry then in.

Walking back to meet Scamp, I found today’s PoD, a queue of punters waiting at a bus stop outside Queen Street station with a sign above that read “Now is the time to come”. We’ve all stood at a bus stop willing the bus to come! Scamp hadn’t found any clothes that she was happy to spend money on, but she did find some pretty coloured and smelling shower gel.

Met Scamp and remembered that I needed a black belt for the weekend. Not the most exciting thing, but I found what I was looking for in JL. We went home. The clouds were gathering by then and I think we had had the best of the day.

Later in the afternoon I went for a walk to the shops and it started raining. It’s definitely raining now. Just what the weather fairies predicted.

Tomorrow morning I’m off for my ‘annual’ checkup with the nurse. The first in almost two years.

Walking in sunshine! – 9 November 2021

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Out photographing with Alex.

I’d watched the weather predictions for this week and Tuesday looked like the best day. Alex and I agreed that we’d go and walk round Baron’s Haugh which is another name for the Dalzell estate on the outskirts of Motherwell. It dates from around 840 when it was a Royal Hunting Forest. Today it’s a maze of roads and paths with lots of odd buildings dotted around the grounds. We walked round the south side of the park, taking the path between the wildlife pond and the River Clyde. Lots of evidence of flooding with the path having been swept away recently.

After we reached the end of the path and after Alex had consulted his Photographer’s Ephemeris app, he decided that the light would be just right for some decent photos of the Big Hoose, Dalzell House. On the way we passed the Japanese garden and made a mental not to go back and photograph the Japanese maples there after we’d photographed the house. We did get a few shots of the house, trying for the best angle to capture the light on the building, but lose the cars in the carpark. We were just finishing when a bloke came out of one of the cars with a tall monopod with what looked like a GoPro on top. It was a telescopic monopod, as most of them are, but this one extended to about 15m! Although there was very little breeze today, there was enough to cause a bit of a sway at the top. He seemed to be using a phone to control the camera. I hoped he had set a fast shutter!

We walked on because the best of the light had left the building and we walked back to the Japanese garden. Talked to one of the gardners who was sweeping up those red maple leaves. It turned out he was in charge of a group of volunteers who were cleaning up the garden and the burn that runs through it. He was happy for us to photograph the trees gave us free rein to take photos.

By the time we had finished there and said goodbye to the gardener, the light was definitely on the way to the horizon and it was time to go. Dropped Alex off at his house and drove home with really dark clouds ahead of me and the prospect of rain that didn’t appear.

While I was out with Alex, Scamp was out for coffee with Shona so she could hand over our house warming present. Yes, Jamie, it was towels!

Dinner tonight was Scampi chips and tomatoes. Scampi, which was baked in the oven, we agreed was just ok. Not sure we’d have it again.

PoD was one of the views of the Big Hoose after some delicate Lightroom work to remove offending cars.

Tomorrow looks a bit like today as far as the weather is concerned. Perhaps not quite as much sunshine.

On the road again – 5 November 2021

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Another optician. Another appointment.

We drove to Larkhall to our usual optician to get his opinion on the state of Scamp’s eyes. He came to the conclusion that she has two cataracts, one requiring immediate attention and he will probably have contacted the hospital today after we left. Also, what Scamp was told yesterday was true, she will have to forego the use of contact lenses for four weeks beginning from now. This will be a great hardship for her as you can imagine, but the benefits will outweigh the sacrifice. I don’t think those were her exact words, but by the end of the day that was the gist of her thinking!

Because of the Covid restrictions still in place, I couldn’t be with her at the opticians, so I’d come prepared with camera, tripod, ND filters and their adapters. I drove down to Millheugh which is the area of Larkhall that runs along the Avon Water, but it wasn’t the Avon I was intending to photograph. I knew I had roughly an hour to get what I wanted and get home.

First stop was the salmon ladder on the river with a torrent of water flowing down and over it. It looks as if one of the granite bricks from its wall has come adrift in the spate. It’s not been a very lucky addition to the river. I got a few shots, but standing on a bridge with no pavement and cars whizzing past your tail isn’t a comfortable place to take photos, so I grabbed a few and moved on.

I found the Powforth Burn and followed it up to the bridge, now called the Powforth Bridge, but my mum always called it the Cauve’s Know, (pronounced cawves now) and my Uncle Sandy knew it as the Cloves Mill. I didn’t cross the bridge, but took a path that followed the line of the burn to a dam. To the side of the dam there used to be a deep dark pool that held the water that came from the dam. Apparently there used to be a small mill there many years ago, but I don’t remember it. Maybe that’s where Uncle Sandy’s name for the bridge came from. I took some photos of the dam and the water cascading down its face. I used to fish here in the summer evenings back in the ‘60s. Never caught much, but it was a peaceful place to be. Not so pretty today because the sun was already too low to light it properly. I think I’d need to be there in the morning to get the best light.

Walked back down the road and found a way to scramble down the steep banking to the burn and set up the tripod again with a much better view than the dam. Just looking upstream under the bridge to the highlighted trees beyond. This was the shot I wanted. I took two lots, one with the 28-70mm lens and one with the 18mm. The 18mm won, but only after a fair bit of heart searching and an hour or so of post processing. Got the phone call from Scamp to say she’d meet me at the Co-op. Time up for me. Walked back to the car, passing the Applebank pub, allegedly haunted, where I saw what looked like a skeleton wearing a monk’s habit, looking out of an upstairs window. I didn’t photograph it, nor did I look back. I didn’t want to see an empty window!

Picked up Scamp and we drove home. Discussing the whys and wherefores of the afternoon visit to the optician. He has agreed that she needs new glasses to wear in place of the contacts and he says they will be available as soon as possible. There was still a bit of ranting today, but I let it be. She has been a listening post for me, many times. Now it’s my turn to return the favour.

I went looking for a tablet, a 7” or 8” one to use as a Kindle reader, but not an Amazon Fire. I wanted an Android one. Stopped at Currys in Coatbridge to have a look at the options, but couldn’t decide on one. Came home empty handed.

That was about it for the day. Home made Chicken Tikka Masala from Spice Taylor for dinner was voted just ok.

The view of the bridge and the Powforth Burn won PoD.

Tomorrow we’re out early for a hopefully relaxing dancing lesson.