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.
Scamp and I went in to Glasgow today on the bus to avoid worrying about contravening Scotland’s new drink driving laws, because I had had a drink last Friday and there just might have been a millionth of a milligram of alcohol still lurking there. You can’t be too careful. It seems that if you even look at a bottle of beer in the supermarket, that’s enough to put you over the limit if you are breathalysed the next day <end of rant 1>
Sub-zero temperatures and heating not working on the bus so frozen by the time we got to Glasgow.
Had lunch in Charcoals where the heating didn’t seem to be working either. Food was excellent though. Picked up my new toy – a Tamron SP AF 70-300 F/4-5.6 Di VC USD (Please manufacturers reduce the length of these names).
The bus home got half way there before it broke down. After 10 minutes of waiting with no information from the driver who seemed to be phoning in the breakdown, we managed to get a seat in another bus which was full of exhaust fumes, but at least it was a bus! Just before our stop, someone told the driver that there were more fumes in the rear of the bus. The driver said he hadn’t noticed it (Oh really!) and told us that he’d have to shut the engine off. We got off and walked home. How can the government expect us to use public transport when the transport system is simply not up to the job. <end of rant 2>
On to the photos:
A little bit of roof structure reflected in a new glass building on Ingram Street – Glasgow. I think there may be some great opportunities there soon.
Looking down what used to be Candleriggs in Glasgow. Hardly any of the buildings left now. Goldbergs? Bremners? Granny Black’s? All gone.
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Another cold day, but a much later rise. Ordered a Tamron 70-200mm USD lens. Hopefully it will be available to pick up tomorrow. Took the Oly out for a walk today to give the Nikon a rest.
Chicken wire laid down to provide a grip on a wooden walkway. I liked the clean lines of the frost against the black.
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These birds caught my eye. It looked like they were waiting for better weather.
As usual, that’s only part of the story. After I looked at the shot in LIghtroom, I thought it looked a bit dull and uninspiring with a milky white sky, but very like what I had seen. I dumped it into Lightroom as a layer along with the pic of pansies I shot last week. With the flower shot on top, I blurred the pansies with Gaussian blur in PS, changed the layer type to Hard Light and reduced the opacity to provide a cloud-like background. Not satisfied with that, I created another layer on top, set it to Overlay and gave it a circular graduated fill from white at the top to orange at the bottom, then reduced its opacity too. Saved it all and back in Lightroom I cropped and adjusted curves to brighten the image. It’s not what I saw, and it certainly is a fake, but nothing is real in photography.
I was up early today. Scamp’s car door wouldn’t lock. Probably frozen since the thermometer was showing -3ºc. A kettle full of water and half a can of WD40 later and she was on her way. However, as I was dressed, it seemed a shame to go back to bed, so I read my emails, had breakfast and when the sun came up I defrosted my own car. I know, the sensible way would have been to defrost it first, THEN have breakfast, but it was early and my grey cells were still asleep. Anyway, drove down to Auchinstarry and had a very pleasant walk along the old railway. Saw some deer and took some photos. Does life get better than this? This is what retirement is for!
From the top left:
1. Not the same deer as yesterday, unless they had decided to go for a long morning stroll.
2. Cowparsley stems looking very skeletal. I liked the high-key look here. 365/019
3. Versatile cowparsley stems look good against a dark background too.
4. Despite the number of times I’ve passed this way, this is the first time I’ve noticed this tree. I’m guessing it’s been there all this time.
5. Looking like a wee lollipop or maybe a candy apple, a frosted hawthorn berry.
6. I heard these swans before I saw them and managed a few shots before they disappeared.
Awoke this morning to find that the dumper driver who brings the snow had managed to wangle a Sunday shift and had already completed his Cumbernauld delivery. Mair Snaw! Did think of going further afield, but settled for a leisurely stroll around St Mo’s.
Leaf framed by frozen branches. Managed to get the Live View to work on the Nikon with the old kit lens.
Two deer not sure whether to feed or flee. I took one step towards them and the decision was made in favour of the latter.
Titled “Go down to the woods” on Flickr, here is the basic description:
Setting sun behind the trees. Such a tranquil scene.
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What I missed out was this:
Processed in Lightroom to control the highlights and lighten the shadows. Exported to Intensify to boost the colours and clarity. Imported back into Lightroom and neutralised the white of the snow that had a blue cast from Intensify. That changed the warm glow of the sunlight to a more yellow hue, so I used one graduated filter in the sky area to create a more orange sunset colour and another grad on the foreground to clean up the snow and lighten the shadows on the trees.
Who said it was just a case of pressing a button?
The snow lorry came round again this morning and dumped a bit more snow on us, but luckily it didn’t lie on the wet stuff underneath. Decided we’d risk going in to Stirling to grab a curry and get something for the dinner tomorrow and that’s what we did. Nothing much happened really. Life’s sometimes like that.
Managed to grab a couple of shots of the Ochil Hills from Stirling today, looking very painterly with the glancing sunlight and snow. Actually there was a street light blocking the view, but it was easily removed with Snapheal, a Mac only prog which is probably THE best app for removing unwanted objects from a photo.
These pansies have survived 60mph winds, sub-zero temperatures, rain, sleet, hail and snow in the last week or so and still they come back smiling.
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There was a threat of snow this morning, but very little more than a threat. Ok, there were some flakes for a short time, but nothing at all serious. Not even enough to make the weans shout out “Ur they gonnae shut the school?”. So, I decided to go for a walk in the afternoon under blue skies …
It wasn’t snowing when I started my walk, but within 15 minutes, this happened. We haven’t had very much snow this winter, but when we get it, it seems to arrive on a dump truck. Anyway, it brought a swift end to today’s walk … after I’d taken some photos of course. We must get our priorities right.
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This is usually a small sandy beach beside the pond. Today, because of the amount of rain we’ve had recently, followed by sub-zero temperatures, it became an ice floe. However it did make pretty patterns, hence it achieved fame as NPOD (Nearly Picture Of the Day).