Category: Uncategorized

Today was quite warm with little sunshine and no wind.  I decided to go out for a walk along the old railway line between Kilsyth and Twechar.  It’s a decent length of walk without being too strenuous.  Anyway, I stopped for a while at Dumbreck Marsh and sat among these blue flowers watching the honeybees, wasps and hoverflies feeding.  Such a peaceful place.  It’s hard to imagine you are only about 10 miles from Glasgow.

I had chosen to take the Sigma 105mm macro lens with me and it was a good choice.  Also, because there has been very little rain it was quite easy to get down low beside the flowerheads without getting too mucky.  I think this a hoverfly, judging by the way it flew and the size of its eyes.  They always remind me of the HUD helmet of a fighter pilot.

On the way back, I wasted spent some time flicking the seedpods of Himilayan Balsam to watch them explode.  It took me back to Larkhall when I was about 5 or 6, walking down to Daisy Cottage with my mum and dad and doing the exact same thing.  A good day.

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I’ve been experimenting with the Intensify app and it was that prog I used extensively in this photo.  I also used Lightroom to get the tonal balance I wanted and to create the slight vignette at the bottom corners.  Some of the effects in Intensify are a bit extreme, but no more so than any other HDR or image altering progs.  Lightroom remains my go-to prog for photo editing and cataloging.

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I liked the wee house behind the pond, but the image seemed to lack some depth, so I turned 90º and snapped a shot of the Campsie Hills and then faked it in with PS.  Quite liked the finished article.  Not a photographic record, but a more balanced shot IMO.

I took the shot(s) after visiting the school.  Don’t know what’s wrong there, but there is definitely a feeling of tension, or maybe distrust.  Can’t quite put my finger on it, but everyone seemed edgy.

Dull day.  Milky sky with not a lot of contrast/detail.  Faked in some with LR using a graduated thingy with lots of Clarity and some underExposure.  Took the shot(s) with the old Oly tele-zoom.

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Went for a walk down ‘The Green’ this morning.  First time we’ve been there for ages.  Scamp decided that a spot of gardening was in order, so I beat a sharp exit and went bramble hunting on my bike.  Managed to pick over 1kg of good fat brambles.  Then went for a cycle along the usual routes.  Found lots of ladybirds today.  This one was extremely co-operative and after some initial dodging, gave in and allowed me to take a few shots.  This was taken with the old Oly 45-150 lens with a 10mm ext tube.  I’m quite impressed with the quality.

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There’s always one scene stealer who wants to be in the front and this orange lily(?) was determined to be in the forefront of this scene no matter what.

We went to Chryston Flower Show today.  Weather didn’t look as if it wanted to cheer up at all, so it was a no-brainer.  The flower show is always really good and this year for perhaps the first time, certainly the first time for us, it was in Chryston High School, not in Muirhead Community Hall.  Flower entries were down on last year, blamed on the hot summer.  Some folk are never satisfied.  Stopped off at Soave’s for ice cream and sweeties on the way home.  A good day, despite the weather.

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It was a disappointing rainy morning today with low cloud covering the hills. I’d decided to avoid a walk in the rain and then I saw this Jenny Longlegs – not Daddy Longlegs, we’re in Scotland! It was stretched out on the glass of the back door. I cleaned the inside of the glass as best I could, but obviously couldn’t do anything about the outside and tried a few shots against the sky. Dull, dull, dull. I tried a few shots with the garden out of focus in the background. Dull, dull, dull.

Finally I opted for the original shots against the sky, dropped the image into PS and layered a brightly coloured OOF background on top. Changed the layer type to Soft Light and bingo, it was a bright summer’s day again.
Amazing what you can pick up browsing the mags in WH Smith!

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iText, you text, everyone texts. It’s a way of life these days. This guy is texting his mate from outside the GOMA to say “Some bloke is taking a photo of me. Look out for it later on his blog.”

Went in to Glasgow today to meet an old friend for a coffee and a long catchup. It was an interesting day hearing how our lives had diverged over the intervening 40 years. Some things change, some things remain the same.

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Went visiting to Newmilns in Ayrshire today. Beautiful sunny day. Good day to test out the Pana 45-200 – yes, STILL testing. Good clear air, but this time the sun was the problem. You see, it heats the land and that causes a heat haze, blurring the landscape. I should have listened to an old friend from long ago who advised me that the best time to take long distance photos was after rain when the air is clear and the ground is relatively cold reducing air pollution and heat haze. Never happy, are we? Anyway, the lens seemed to perform well today.

Must stop testing and start composing again.

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We were walking past this church today in Falkirk and I thought it deserved a photo.  It really looked immaculate in the late summer sun.

I was really impressed with the quality produced by the 20mm Pana lens and with the way Lightroom 5 handled the converging verticals of the church — automatically.

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We went to Ayr today on the bus. It wasn’t too cold, but it was very windy. I was one of the hardy souls who dipped a toe in the sea, but not for long. The beach was full of dead jellyfish, some quite big ones, luckily neither of us stepped on one.

I think I’ve finally worked out what’s wrong with the new zoom – nothing. The problem seems to be when you use the stabilizing device on the lens AND the stabilizing setting on the camera, they seem to conflict with one another. Since the camera is made by Olympus and the lens by Panasonic, they don’t ‘talk’ to each other. So much, as one forum contributor on the Internet said, for my 4/3 “system”. At least I know now to use one system and not both.

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