Category: Technospeak

The Time Lapse

Posted on by Zogman

comboToday 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.

Endorphins again

Posted on by Zogman

Page_1-2- flickr--108A dull morning.  Cold and dull.

Afternoon was spent trying to ignore the ignorant Rangers supporters next door stamping and shouting their team on to an eventual win, while we watched the F1 cars whizzing around a hot track in China.  Neither of these sporting events really improved my mood.

Scamp wanted to go to the Sunday Social at Mercado in Glasgow.  I wasn’t totally over the moon about driving and parking in Glasgow city centre just after an Old Firm game.  We’d never been to Mercado, but had heard that the floor wasn’t great for dancing.  I thought I might just have enough time to go out and get today’s PoD, but just as I was going out, the rain came on.  Plan 2.  I’d left the ‘weemen’ setup and tripod in position in the spare room.  I took three of four shots of the same scene as before with differing focus points.  At least I’d have a potential PoD.

On the off chance that it would improve my mood, I drove in to Glasgow.  Tried to park in an NCP carpark just round from Mercado.  Luckily I didn’t have enough change to pay the exorbitant £6 for 2 hours.  Drove back round and parked on the street 100m away.  Parking free on a Sunday.  A bit further to walk, but a saving of £6.  NCP Normal Costly Parking.

Maybe it was the endorphins again, but after 2 hours of almost non-stop dancing, I walked out in a totally different mood.  Maybe it’s not anything so scientific, but there’s something in this salsa dancing that gives me sore feet, but lifts my spirits.  Watched a few ‘rubber men’ wandering around bemused with smiles on their faces and Rangers scarfs.  Maybe they were experiencing the effects of endorphins too.  Saw a few sad looking green and white dressed men too.  It’s a strange game this football.

The image  for this PoD is two shots.  One focused on the Queen and one on Shug and Tam.  I exported them from Lightroom as layers into Photoshop and painted a mask on Shug and Tam’s layer to allow the Queen to show through from the lower layer.  This gave the effect of sharp focus on the front pair and on the Queen at the rear of the stage while the ‘subjects’ were out of focus, a physical impossibility, but essential to the conversation.  The text was laid on using Comic Life V1 which, thankfully, I’d retained when I updated to V2.  Sometimes updates do more damage than good.  That’s why I’m still using Mountain Lion instead of the allegedly borked El Capitan on the Mac.  I’ll continue to use it until it isn’t practical anymore.

Hopefully a warmer day tomorrow.

Moody Monday – 4 April 2016

Posted on by Zogman

P4040124- flickr--95It has rained almost all day, but that’s ok, because it produced today’s PoD which is a water drop of the curve of a tulip leaf with another tulip leaf or two behind.  Taken with the somewhat bypassed E-PL5.  That shouldn’t be the case, because the E-PL5 is an excellent camera.  In some ways it surpasses the E-M10 in that the rear screen has even more flexibility than the ’10’s and the EVF can flip vertically to allow the camera to be at ground level with the photog looking down through the viewfinder and out through the lens rather than lying prone to get one eye to the viewfinder as is the case with the ’10.  Without the EVF, it’s just that little bit nearer too which is a great advantage for taking candid shots which I occasionally do.  I used the kit lens for the above shot and it makes a fine fist of the job.  For some reason, the ’10 doesn’t like the kit lens and produces dark blobs which look like dust bunnies but aren’t.  I’ve checked with my sensor checker lupe and the sensor is clean.  The lens also had a problem with the aperture leafs sticking which caused the ’10 to overexpose occasionally, but the ‘5 hasn’t shown either of these faults so far.  I’ll keep a weather eye open for problems in the next week or so.

Like I said, it was a wet day today, and as is Monday which is Scamp’s day for Gems, I made myself scarce this afternoon and did a little bit of work in the gym and then had bit of a swim and then 15 minutes in the sauna to round off my session for the day.  Pool was very busy, but that’s to be expected with the school Easter holidays on.

Hoping to go to salsa tonight and maybe try to remember what we did in bachata last week.  Hoping for better weather tomorrow and the chance to get my bike out.

Another day in the sun – 10 March 2016

Posted on by Zogman

combo bToday started like yesterday with a search for a couple of sun beds together. We found them by the pool just outside the flat and that is where we stayed most of the day. The day began earlier with a sensible preparation for the sun. Rather than be caught out like yesterday we got thoroughly covered in sun cream. Then it was off to breakfast before we faced the sun.  The sun was not so constant today which was a blessing really because it was too hot yesterday.

WARNING!  MAY CONTAIN TECHNOSPEAK
After lunch we rested for a while beside the pool and then Scamp decided it was time for a walk. I’d said I wanted to do some painting on the dunes, so we headed up the road to the mini Sahara again. I didn’t get any painting done, but I did confirm my suspicions that this end of the dunes is a nudist beach. Couldn’t settle on a suitable spot for a painting and was getting exasperated with the camera occasionally overexposing. So started off back when I hit on the idea of doing a complete factory reset. I’d just done it when I realised that the over exposure only happened with the old kit lens. I checked it and sure enough, no matter what aperture setting I set on the camera, the lens aperture was stuck wide open. That would explain the overexposure. At least the overexposure in the camera. The overexposure of the blokes in the bushes was another matter entirely. Anyway, the reset seems to have made the E-M10 useable again.

Dinner tonight was in the Spanish restaurant where we had tapas to start with and then I had shoulder of lamb that simply fell of the bone – delicious and Scamp had salmon which apparently was quite good too. Pudding was banana flambé which was good, but with little evidence of any flames. Not like mine at all!

Tonight’s show was billed as Radio Gaga, but announce as We Will Rock You. Actually, it was better than the full length show we went to see in The King’s in Glasgow. The cast were all miming, but that didn’t affect our enjoyment. Sometimes enthusiasm is better than ability.

More pictures of the architect’s house, a desert shot and a cat for Hazy!