Category: Uncategorized

We went to Dunfermline today.  The last time we were there we commented on how run down it seemed.  I’d hoped it would have picked up a bit, but it looks like the town is still on the downward slide.  So many boarded up shops.  So many charity shops.  Had lunch and came home.  Stopped at Torryburn on the way home and got a few wide shots of the Firth of Forth.  Very cold, but dry although the CITRAC signs were promising more snow.  No comment.

Dropped in at Torryburn on the way home from Dunfermline today. I’m rarely disappointed with the skies on view here on the Forth estuary. It was bitterly cold although the temperature according to the car thermometer was 4ºc. I think the minus icon must have been misbehaving because it felt like it was well below zero.

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This robin plays hide and seek with me all the time, despite the fact that I feed him well, summer and winter. Today I managed to catch him at last feeding from my home-made bird feeder made from an ovaltine tub and a pencil. Why buy when you can make?

After a couple of days posting snow pictures, I feel I’m all snowed out.  I just can’t be bothered taking any more snow shots for the present.  I’ll probably go back to it soon.  Had a good day in Glasgow and lunch in Chaophraya.  Cold, but dry.  The weather, not the restaurant.

I’ve liked these striped flowers since they appeared on the table so today was the day to give them their place in the sun!

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It would appear that our snow due yesterday had become lost in transit.  It was delivered during the night.  I think we got someone else’s snow as well as our own.  Maybe I should stop making jokes about the white stuff and I don’t mean milk.  I think someone in the weather department has it in for me.

I like the pattern of the boardwalks at St Mo’s.  Unfortunately, NLC don’t like them.  I think they cost too much to maintain, and being in Cumbernauld, they get bypassed more than if they were in, say, Motherwell, the centre of the the NLC universe.  Cumbernauld?  Where’s that?

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This is a vertorama made from three individual shots and merged in Photoshop.  Lovely light for an hour this afternoon.

I like this new building being constructed in Queen Street Glasgow.  The ‘S’ shape looked good from a distance, but up close it’s not so clever looking.  I’m sure it will be great when it’s finished.

Two sparrows showing that you if you cooperate, you can both get your nuts at the same time, so to speak!

Despite dire warnings from the weather people, the predicted snow forgot to come.  It may just have been delayed enroute and will surprise us tomorrow.  Who can tell?  Certainly not the BBC weather forecasters who simply hold their hands out the window to tell if it’s raining.

I get really pissed off with some of the group admins on Flickr.  The latest one for Wild Scotland will not allow pics to be posted unless they are geotagged.  That means the first one here will not be appearing.  Nor will the other 18 that were on the site before this strange requirement.  Oh well, their loss.

The other thing that pisses me off about Flickr and may eventually lead me to leaving the site is the recent fashion for ‘favouriting’ pics without leaving a comment.  It seems like a lot of folk join Flickr (other sites have the same problem) simply to ‘collect’ pictures.  Now maybe, like my daughter suggests, it’s just an extension of the Facebook ‘like’, or maybe it’s a more sinister attempt to steal photos.  In an attempt to find out which is which, I’ve decided to drop the size of my standard Flickr images for a week or two.  I’ll see if the smaller images are less interesting to the Favourite Fiends.

I saw three deer on a walk through the woods today.  I managed to photograph this one while unconsciously framing it with the out of focus branches of the pine tree I was hiding behind.

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Sparrow feeding this morning in the garden.

Blue tit demonstrating how to hold your breakfast peanut while you eat it.

St Mo’s pond by evening light.

I drove into Falkirk today and got lost looking for a retail park.  Eventually found it along with the shop where they were selling some good acrylic paint for a quarter the normal shop price.  Still stuck between oils and acrylic.  Oils are much nicer to paint with but they are messy.  Acrylics are easier to work with, but dry too quickly for my style of painting.  Unfortunately, they don’t mix and match, at least I haven’t found a way to do it yet.  Photos taken from the top of the Tak Ma Doon road today.  I accidentally left the AF switch set to manual and screwed up a couple of potentially good shots.  A lesson learned.

I’ve photographed this cottage many times over the years. I wasn’t satisfied with today’s shot, the sky just wasn’t right. So I cropped a bit of more interesting skyscape from another of today’s shots and faded it in to the cottage shot. Much happier with the result.

I had accidentally set the lens to MF before this shot and it was slightly out of focus as a result. It took a bit of post processing to get it looking like I saw it, but I think it’s an improvement over the raw file.

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Took a long walk along the canal in the morning hoping to see the legendary kingfisher.  He/she was out somewhere on business.  However, I did see a pair of swans flying low over the canal and a buzzard off in the distance across the canal and unreachable even at 300mm.

From the top :

1.  One of a pair of swans flying low under the radar on the Forth and Clyde canal.

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2.  Swan flying along the Forth and Clyde canal.

3.  Female goosander looking just a little startled

4.  A beech tree sitting alone under an interesting sky.

5.  Pinecones sitting in a nice horizontal line.

It was one of those 3200+ days.  From the time I got up, I knew I would be lucky to be using anything less than ISO 3200 and I was right.  This one was ISO 8000, but the Nikon handled it well as usual.  Most impressed with the sharpness from the Tamron 70-300mm, again wide open.  Hoping for some sun tomorrow to get some more relevant tests done.

The starlings found the peanuts.  I really meant them for the smaller birds, but the starlings find them every time.

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Snow lying this morning.  We’d decided we were going to Perth, so the snow didn’t bother us as we knew it would be worse there.  Strange logic, but it made sense at the time.  Strangely, as we drove up the M9, the weather improved and Perth itself was fairly pleasant, certainly no snow.  Lunch in Cafe Tabou as usual.  Did visit JRS Photography and was swayed by offer on Pana GX7.  Can’t afford it just now, but it is tempting.  Maybe Santa could help.

Santa spotted today in Perth today, dealing with the backlog no doubt.

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Overnight rain, and more during the morning meant goodbye to the snow for a few days. I’m sure it will be back soon. Braved the rain to go out and get some more wildlife (bird) pictures with the new lens. I’m getting more used to it now.

The proverbial DA.
Mallard drake walking away in disgust at the meagre offerings of bread today.

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Skating coot, looking for food and finding very little. Good sharpness though from the new lens wide open.

And he looked, and he saw, and he said … … Naw! Still a coot. Bummer. 🙁

Nice weather for ducks, but not, it seems for gulls. Or for this one at least judging by the look on its face.

I took the new toy, the Tamron 70-300mm … USD (+ lots more letters and numbers in between!) out today for a few test shots in the wild.  The VC part is rock solid and gives confidence right away.  Found Mr Grey hiding in some trees and managed a couple of shots of him.  When I got the camera home and processed the images I was a little disappointed with the results.  However, on reflection, I think I was expecting a bit too much from this lens.  Yes, the short end shots were sharp and almost perfect.  I forgot that at the long end, almost all zooms are a bit soft.  If you drag back to around 200 – 250mm the sharpness comes back.  With that in mind, I went out in the afternoon for another try.  This time I was in photo taking mode, not in testing mode and the shots improved.  Here are some.  All but the first were with the new lens.

A host of horses in this field on the outskirts of Kilsyth. Quite remarkable light for a short time.  Not the new lens, but the Sigma 10-20mm workhorse.  No pun intended!

Moorhen or coot, coot I think startled from the bank of the Forth and Clyde canal. Seemed to be walking on the water.

He thought I couldn’t catch him, but this is a 300mm lens at full zoom, Mr Grey, not a 200mm. That makes a big difference.  I was impressed with the sharpness of the lens at max zoom and wide open.

This time he thought I couldn’t see him, but there’s no hiding place from the new zoom lens now Mr Grey.

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Christmas cactus, just a couple of weeks late in flowering. That’s forgivable. It had been a strange year.