Category: Uncategorized

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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This pretty little fly sat for quite some time extracting nectar from the flowers.  It gave me plenty of time to take lots of shots with the new 45-200mm Panasonic lens.  I’m much happier with it after the field test today, but still not sure that the OIS system really works with the Oly.  Yet more experimentation needed I fear.

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Still testing the 45-200 lens.

Still not sure it’s a winner.

Still disappointed after the success of the 20mm f1.7.

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Still searching for that good light. I liked the transparency here, but I’m not to impressed with the sharpness from the new Panasonic 45-200mm lens. Will hopefully get a chance to test it more fully over the weekend.

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I just missed the good light. That’s what you get for doing the dishes at the kitchen window. You see a lovely lighting effect, but by the time you grab your camera, change the lens and get outside, the really good stuff is gone. Not to be outdone, I started messing around with Photoshop and Lightroom to see if I could get an impression of what I saw. I think I’ll keep my camera handy tomorrow night just in case the good, golden light returns, because I couldn’t find it in PS or LR.

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We went to Embra today to witness the madness of the Embra Festival.  One of the great things about being retired is the ability to travel on the less-busy weekdays rather than the mental weekends.  However you have to remember that Scot Rail will try to screw you up at every opportunity.  So, today, mid August, festival in full swing, do Scot Rail put on longer trains to Embra?  ‘Course they don’t, they put on the standard 3 unit train, which means there were folk standing everywhere.  What did we do?  We just sat in First Class and pretended we had FC tickets, knowing there was little chance of the conductor making it through the crowds to chuck us out.  Result!

Had lunch in Valvona Crolla in Embra and had the worst (and most expensive) lunch we’ve had in a long time – we won’t be back.  Only pizza napolitana I’ve ever had without anchovies.  “Oh we’ve got an apprentice pizza chef on today.  Sorry.”  Not the best way to encourage return custom.

Photo of the day was a juggler whose patter was even better than his juggling.  Just one of the maddies we saw today.

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