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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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Another dull day, extremely dull. It’s only redeeming feature was salsa dancing tonight. A chance for some exercise and a stretch.  High winds, rain and low temperatures outside, but heat, loud music and great fun inside.

I saw this from an upstairs room and liked the pattern of the raindrops on the glass.  I had hoped it would be sharper, but this was the best shot.  It still amazes me to think that this was taken with the camera in my phone.

Title is from a track by Serge Chaloff.

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It was another dull day, but thankfully we got some sleep last night, despite next-door’s TV aerial banging around in the wind. NLC failed again to pick up our bins that should have been emptied last Sunday. They are the most disorganized bunch of no-hopers in the world. NLC stands for the “Not Listening or Caring” by the way.
On the bright side, we went to Bridge of Allan today and had lunch in Vecchia Bologna. Quite excellent as usual.

There’s always one bad apple and sometimes you don’t find out until you’ve bitten. Something to do with the way I’m feeling today.

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It was a very wild night last night with the prospect of more storms tonight.  What is the world coming to?

After last night’s storm, it’s a wonder there are any leafs hanging.  Saw this on a really dull January day.

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I went in to Glasgow on the bus today.  The Scottish over 60s bus pass is one of the great wonders of the modern (Scottish) world and possibly the only best thing Wee Eck Salmond did for us.  I went with the stated intention of testing out the Nikon 55-200mm zoom.  After the dire results from the 55-300mm last week, I wasn’t expecting much, but lo and behold the results were a lot better than the longer zoom.  I’d nipped along to Jessops to see if they had one in stock, but was disappointed to find they only had the longer version.  It was when I came out of Jessops, I saw this familar figure in an unfamiliar pose.  Could it be that Darth is reduced to playing the accordion on Bucky Street in Glasgow.  Such a come-down for the Dark Lord and once ruler of the universe.  Strange days indeed.

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… Chocolate Hammer perhaps?

A terrible day weather wise.  Drove to Falkirk, had tea in Tea Jennies’ Tea Shop and came home.  Drenched to the skin.  Rain and wind all day.  Tomorrow is to be better.

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For the first time in ages I managed to get my bike out this morning.  True to type, I got to my photographic target for the day and the heavens opened.  None the less, I was wet anyway, so I managed to get some photos in the sun that followed the rain.

I moved a branch today and found this ladybird underneath. This started a line of research. Do ladybirds hibernate? It wasn’t until then, I realised I had never seen ladybirds in the winter. I suppose it’s sensible because there are no aphids in the winter and aphids are the natural prey for ladybirds. So the answer is, Yes, ladybirds do hibernate. It’s not called hibernation, it’s called a big sciency word, but basically, they do. That’s what’s good about photography, it leads to other connections to investigate.

I liked the clouds in the background helping to isolate the tree. I also liked the composition. Simple rule of thirds, but sometimes simple is good.

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