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Acrylic on card.

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Remarkably clear sky and little mist today which was a great change from yesterday’s rain. After spending most of my day wrestling with Lightroom, trying unsuccessfully to produce a more subtle solarization effect than yesterday’s, I decided to go out.

I drove up to Fannyside and saw this vista. It looked quite good in colour, but so much better in mono.

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Having said there was little mist around, turn 90º and it looks like there is  mist lying over the loch at Fannside.  Yes, there was a very little mist there, but really this is the effect of using the clarity slider in Lightroom.  It seems to increase the contrast local to tonal differences, much the same as the acutance I used to get when developing B&W film in Paterson Acutol.  This shot looked terrible in colour and it was a relief to see it looking so much better in mono.  It’s still a little dark, but I think it looks ok, especially on a black ground.

Troon might have had weather for the ducks today (Saturday), but it looks like it was also suitable for starlings. These birds were having a great time.

The bird second from the left wasn’t actually in this shot, he/she was cloned in from another shot.  Also, the DOF was faked using McPhun Focus, a free download from McPhun (Legally Free, that is!).  It’s not absolutely true, but what is in photography.

It was comforting on the drive home to see the CITRAC signs through torrential rain informing us “Heavy rain expected”. Without that information I’d never have noticed!

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Saw these on a walk along the Forth & Clyde canal today. Parked at the Stables near Kirky and walked along the towpath, then back to the Stables for a spot of lunch. Most enjoyable.

Mushrooms or toadstools? I don’t know what they are, but I’m not taking any risks, only taking photos.

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My last day in London. Up early and getting packed, I saw this spider web shining in the morning sun. I was surprised to see frost on the roofs in London, but it came with a bright blue sky. On the train travelling north to Edinburgh, the bright blue sky gradually disappeared to be replaced by rain. Now there’s a surprise ;-|.
Back to “Auld claes and purrich” as my dad would say.

Spider webs at my daughter’s house tie the fig tree to the wall. They looked very good illuminated by morning light.

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A bright start to the day in London.  However, later in the day the temperature dropped quite a bit.  Went for  walk with Hazel and then sat and dug deeper into the mystery that is my blog and its surroundings.  Later I faced the cold to get a couple of pics of the minifigs on their visit to the big smoke.

Fred the Fisherman managed a bit of fishing in Hazel’s pond.  Didn’t catch much, but it’s the being there that counts isn’t it?  Dennis was on hand to record the event of course.

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Kings Cross station gets ready for Armistice Day.

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Dennis and Fred prepare for the long journey down to London.

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Our long (six hour) journey home began in glorious sunshine which partly made up for the challenging photographic conditions we had had for most of the few days we had been on Skye, but the whisky was good!

This is the sight that met me at the front door of the croft, as I was packing the car and of course, the camera was in the boot. I new I wouldn’t have time to get the camera out because the light would have changed (did I mention it’s all about the light)t, so I grabbed the shot using my iPhone and then backed it up with shots from the Oly. It was only when I got home and checked the shots on the computer, I realised the iPhone shot had better colour balance than the Oly, and this from an old iPhone 4. The good weather didn’t last!

By the time we had reached Sligahan, the light had changed a lot and the rain didn’t look far away. I took quite a few shots of this, trying to make the most of the dramatic lighting. It took quite a bit of post processing in Lightroom and then Intensify to get some detail out of the shadow area without losing it in the highlights. In the end, I was pleased with the effect. The rest of the run down was the usual driving drag. One day they will make a motorway, all the way to Kyle.

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