Category: Uncategorized

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).

A good day out with old friends.  Maybe I should rephrase that to friends I’ve known for a long time.  ‘Old’ has such negative connotations.  Anyway, a good day with a few beers and lots of great conversation.  Gave me a chance to ignore the awful weather.

If you don’t believe me, check out one of the perfume shops where they give you an equivalent price per litre.  It’s an eye opener.
Perfume was the subject of my blog title for the day, but I suppose the title applies to beer too, although to a lesser extent of course.
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I had tested a new lens in Jessops yesterday.  A Tamron SP AF 70-300 F/4-5.6 Di VC USD.  Two questions.

1. Why do I have to pay a tenner more for the Nikon version than for the Canon fit?

2. Why don’t Tamron give the lens a more sensible and memorable name?

Anyway, yesterday I was just off the leash for a while and hadn’t intended testing said lens, so the manager kindly allowed me to test it on a demo D7000.  Luckily I had an SD card with me and got a few shots.  When I checked them on the computer, they weren’t anything worth writing home about.  I visited again today with my D7000 and tested the lens again. I liked the feel of the lens and the VR function seemed to work well.  Unfortunately, Jessops didn’t have any in stock, but the attendant offered to sell me the demo model from the shop, at no discount!  Although she did say she would give me a discount on a filter.  Big deal.  Not the sort of offer that encourages me to go back again.  Isn’t it inflexibility like that which makes buyers go on-line to the likes of Amazon?  Unfortunately, it was all pretty academic, because when I got the images into Lightroom, they were nothing great at the 300mm end.  Up to 200mm they were fine, but like most long zooms, the quality fell away at the long end.

Stuck for a photo today.  Came out of John Lewis and saw this tower crane. I liked the graphical lines in it and the strong colours.  Unfortunately the sky was dull grey.  I grabbed a sky shot from earlier this week and layered it in Photoshop in “hard light” mode.  It turned a dull winter day into summer.  Pity it couldn’t do anything about the temperature.  Maybe Photoshop CC2 (or is it CC3?) will achieve that.

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Up early to drive Scamp to work.  It was a really nasty looking morning.  That gave me time to create what will hopefully be the last of this year’s calendars.  Went for a run into Glasgow in the afternoon and stopped on the way back hoping to grab some shots of the snowy Campsies.  Unfortunately the light in that direction was past its best.  Nice cloudscape looking south though.  More snow blowing in from the west.  Oh well.  More chances of snowy pics to come all being well.

The Thousand Yard Stare

One of my friend, Ray’s phrases. it seemed to suit this sheep which was patently ignoring me and my camera.  Sometimes the best approach.

Snow Clouds Massing

Snow clouds massing from the west as the last rays of the sun disappeared. Those rays did light up the fields for a few moments in their passing.

At least that was the story. Actually there are quite a few adjustments in Lightroom to get this image. Mainly adjustment brushes and some graduated filters. It’s very rare for me to get an image clean out of the camera.

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Managed to get out for a walk this afternoon, judging it well to miss the snow showers.  You’d hardly guess from this photo that behind me the westerly wind was whipping a blizzard across the Campsie Fells.  Luckily on this side of the River Kelvin it was a bit more benign.  Only a bit ‘though.  It was still pretty cold.  Thermometer in car read 4ºc, but when you take windchill into account, it was well below zero.  Thankfully I’d dragged out my winter Bergy jacket and fleece, but I still needed a wooly bunnet and leather gloves to  be properly insulated.  As well as the two trees shown here, I saw a couple of goosanders at Auchinstarry pond.  I’d had a go at capturing them with the Tamron, but it really isn’t up to working at the long end of the tele at maximum aperture, so the image was good enough to ID them, but not nearly good enough to display.  Still, a good day out in the wilds.

I liked the placement of the tree in the frame and the detail in the grass stems.  I did think it lacked a bit of life in the sky.

Same tree, but slightly different VP.  I made this shot POD because the plough marks lead the eye, not only to the tree, but also to the radiating crepuscular rays in the sky which was the life the previous shot lacked.

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