180 degrees plus sweep of the lake

Went out for a little spin and visited Blagdon Lake for the first time in years. Took a sweep shot probably around 200 degrees I expect.
Back through Butcombe, Nempnett Thrubwell, Row of Ashes and Redhill. 15 to 20 m.p.h. through the little lanes until I got out onto the A38 again. Really enjoyable.

Exploding the Myth.

There has always been an air of mystery about infra red photography. Perhaps justified in the days of film but wholly unwarranted now that digital cameras have made things so much easier.

That which we call light expands on wavelengths to each side of what the human eye can register. Light on the shorter wavelength is Ultra Violet and on the longer wavelength Infra Red.

Digital cameras with suitable filters that will stop “our light” can record light that we cannot see. For taking pictures the filter requires to stop light lower than say, under a 700 nanometre wavelength from registering. The filter used will seem to be black to us but it allows infrared light to pass through and record on our digital camera. Basically the darker the appearance of the filter the higher the number, but also the longer the exposure required to register an image.

I found that a Hoya filter numbered 72 needed an exposure in normal sunny conditions of around 20 seconds at f8. Now this is a time consuming action, because I always bracket by at least a half under and a half over exposure.

This you can see needs a 10 second, a 20 second, and a 30 second series.

However to be certain of getting a useable picture it is well worth spending the time.

Another point is that our eyes adapt to light conditions so that it can be hard to guess exactly how bright [or dull] the day is. For this reason I set up my Weston Master 5 light meter and did a test series. I found that with the light recording at 12 it required 20 second at f8. I set the meter to read accordingly and now I have an accurate exposure time for any light condition. If the light goes to 13 then the time changes to 12 seconds. The light drops to 11 the time goes to 30 seconds and so on.

Many of the old lenses had a small red dot on them to change the focus point to IR. As we will be working at manual on our camera we can use these lenses in spite of them maybe not being auto focus. Focus manually get the distance and then move the focus point to the red dot. Easy isn’t it?

Now we come to editing. It can be simple or involved depending what you want the finished image to look like. A lot of the mystery of IR is founded on the fact that the image comes out red.

So what? Our editing programmes allow us to change digital images to greyscale very easily. I work with Paint Shop Pro 8 with no problem. However when you change to greyscale you cannot treat the image as though it was coloured. If you make a 10% sepia change afterward though in Artistic Effects you find that the picture is then recognized as a colour image in spite of very little change of tone.

One of the options in PSP8 is Enhance Photo. Click on this and you will find most of the things you wish to do. 

One step photo fix.

Colour balance

Saturation

Clarify.

Those four actions can cover a lot of editing. I make it a point to seldom write over the original red image. I save the new image with a short addition to the DSC number. Such as –sat-grey-step-clar. In some changes I also put the number of colour balance change. 

 

Here is an example of greyscale to the IR image with a very light touch of yellow coloured edges from PSP8 Artistic Effects

When I upgraded my digital camera I had my Sony A350 adapted to take only infrared pictures. I was made aware of the firm that did this in England for just over £300. As my interest in IR had increased I thought it well worth the cost to be able to carry with me the choice of instant IR pix rather than going through the cumbersome and time wasting changeover and necessity for using a tripod. As I am able to set the camera to •7 for under and over bracketing for a 3 bracket exposure it also saves a lot of time. It is almost always the first exposure that is the best, but it is worth the extra to be certain by having the choice of the others if needed. Focusing is also more accurate and the short exposures stop the blurring of foliage in the wind.

It also permits taking casual pix just “in case” they might turn out to be of interest when editing later. One instance was an old cottage that looked to be a possible picturesque scene but lacked enough bite when changed to grey.

A little jiggling when editing by using the Flood fill tool in PSP together with judicious use of light blue coloured edges produced a suggestive shot of a moonlit lane with an intriguing sense of mystery about it.

20 minutes of work by jiggling has produced a reasonable pic from a failure, as well as allowing practice of editing skills I called this one “Ill met by Moonlight” from the suggestion of creepiness in the way the formerly bright sunshine has been changed to blue

An Infrared pic does not have to be purely monochrome as this one shows.
Driel Church in Gelderland Holland, from the Westerbouwing heights on the other side of the Rhine.

However monochrome or sepia allows a building to stand out simply because stone absorbs little infrared light like the chlorophyll of a plant does. It is this that makes the tower of Driel Church in Holland stand out from what normally would be a mass of various shades  of green.

So why not have a try? You will find it intriguing and maybe mystifying to see the difference that infrared can make to scenery around you. Views that have become blasé take on a new appearance in infrared and can give an inspiration and freshness to your picture taking.

So according to the bank of England they have done pensioners good by pumping money out.

They have not done me any good. 

The whole trouble in the world today as far as "collapse" is concerned is because people were spending money they didn't have and going into debt even as nations were.

Now the same folk and countries, that were spending prodigiously are moaning at everybody and refusing to take the blame on themselves.

Greece has unrealistic retirement ages and spent money as though there was no worries. The inhabitants have been so spoiled they can't see if they don't curb their excesses it is going to get far worse. 

The U,K, won't face up to reality as the government allows civil servants to rule the roost instead of ordering them to do what they have been instructed to do.

Brussels dictates to us what we must do, yet France gets around things like deporting criminals that our courts get stalled on. 

The world is not going to hell in a hand basket, but in a shit bucket.

His supporters  are making a big fuss about Assange. They are  acting as though he was special and should be allowed to get away with alleged crimes. Yet I will bet that if they had a daughter say, that had been attacked, and the prosecution service refused to take the person who was alleged to have done it to court, they would start playing hell about it.
I don't know if he was guilty or not, but, the truth will never come out until a court hears the evidence.
Personally I would not put it past the USA to have rigged the case.  Has anyone made a deep enquiry into the plaintiffs' behavior or situation?   

However I don't think the Swedes would be inclined to roll over or bark 'wuff wuff' just because they were told to by the CIA or any other American organisation told them to.

\Union of South Africa when she went through Yatton some years ago.

Had a request for Union of South Africa jigsaw. When she came through Yatton the sky was a clear very light blue so I jiggled it out and copied the pic. Then pasted it on to a landscape pic with suitable cloudscape.
If I say it myself I think I did a good job of it.The main telltale is that the shadow is on the wrong side of the clouds but it does not notice very strongly.

From 3 year olds to pensioners they turned up in numbers

Bittern glides through yatton Station.

Oliver Cromwell rested on Sunday 19th and was replaced by Bittern. I went up onto the passenger footbridge to get my pix. That way no-one could get in front of me.

15 to 20 minutes before Bittern was due they were already in numbers along the south platform.

I got a  picture of them and then quickly moved back to the east side of the bridge. Got some pix of her coming under the road bridge but the best of them is this one.

I had some of the Union of South Africa some years back but this is the first of Bittern at Yatton Station. Carol Deacon used my Oliver Cromwell pix at Nailsea in the Nailsea People website.  I thought I would send her these as well. See what happens. I aksed for a credit to Jusben Morguefile.com not to Derek Lilly. She told me that she uses morguefile pix quite often.

What a bloody fool Pietersen was. NO. IS.

As soon as anything is posted on the net other people can access it - Or did the recipient start flapping their lip about the mail? 

As far as being caustic about fellow players well that is one thing but to send details in an EMail is absolutely asking for trouble.

Makes me think of Bellafonte's song "When will they ever learn".

Oliver Cromwell preserved Britannia class steam loco with the Royal Duchy Express at Naislea/Backwell Station

Went over to Nailsea-Backwell Station this time to get steam pix. Last week Yatton Station was jam packed.

Not many people there only about 10 photographers at most I reckon. When I got there at about 8.35 a.m. there was only 1 on the platform. He asked me if I knew what time the 1st steam would be. I told him about 9. Then he asked about the 2nd one. When I told him there was only one this week he said. "The paper said there is two" I said "No the Torbay isn't running this week acording to Steaminfo UK.. It will be back again next week"
He repeated that the "Paper had said there was two" I left him to it. I bet the paper was the Western Daily Press. They can always get things wrong. 
 

Young Orb spider repairing web

Female hover fly Episyrphus balteatus

The last couple of days I have noticed some small hover flies darting about. This morning one was flitting around by the everlasting sweet pea plants.I grabbed the A77 and the Tamron 90mm lens and managed to get a couple of pix. Turned out to be a Marmalade Hover fly. I had thought it might be a Platycheirus species until I saw the pic.

Trouble is they are so small until you see an enlargement you can't tell exactly what they are.

Quite a few Orb Spiders catching up on repairs by the cottoneaster bush.

How these idiots like to boast on Twitter of their misdeeds.

Then they get surprised when taken up on them.

See that doctor that could not keep her mouth/pen quiet.

Now there is a swimmer that admits he cheated in the Olympics.

What they should remember is

It is not a secret when more than one person knows about it.

Found a very interesting link concerning picture rights.

http://www.squidoo.com/finding-and-usin ... t-pictures 


It gives a very serious run down on why Royalty Free does not mean public domain.

I tried a new sandwich spread recipe Sunday, I find making my own gives me a better variety. of tastes. 


Recipe 1
Onion, cheese and Ham
4 ounce onion, 3 ounces cheese,   a slice of lean ham,
Cut all into pieces  and put in blender or shredder. Spin but end when the things are still coarse, (according to choice)

 Recipe 2, 
4 ounce onion, 3 ounces Mature cheese, 3 Frankfurter sausages.
Cut into pieces, blend/shred until fairly fine. I prefer about 4 to 5 seconds.

New recipe.
4 ounce onion, approximately 3 ounce corned beef, approximately   3 ounve Morrisons Roast back Bacon.
Cut up and blend until a paste. This makes a very good, soft, meat pate. 


I always use a good tasty fresh onion this gives moisture to the mix as welling as adding a certain tartness to the flavour..

Duke of Gloucester runs through Yatton station with the Torbay Express.

Having had my Uploading trouble solved for me I went down to Yatton to take steam pix.

Very lucky 2 steam trains running with a half hour spacing between them.

So many people there on the first one - Oliver Cromwell they swamped the place, I had a good spot until someone plonked themselves down in my way.

For the secong one - Duke of Gloucester I went up onto the footbridge over the line.

That way no-one could get in front of me unless they were held up by sky-hooks.

Thank the Lord problem solved. JPPI asked me if I had "Flash Player" installed and updated.
As I suspected that an updating had caused my virus I had ignored it when the panel came up during re-loading my programmes.
I went to Google to make sure I was connected to the Adobe site and uploaded the latest edition.
Everything now OK on Morguefile but still no access to BT Yahoo except via FireFox.

Problems with uploading

First it was trouble getting connected to BT Yahoo, I have to do it via FireFox.
Now it is problems uploading to Morguefile, although i can upload to Flickr with no bother.
Morguefile is a very good website devoted to royalty free pix for any-ones use. No restriction EXCEPT they cannot be used as a free standing pic for sale. Although there are some people that download them and create posters etc

Very much delayed posting. On Saturday 28th I was caught by a virus. Sunday after coming back from a steam safari I opened my PC to find it going round in circles. Loading cancelling, shutting down, reloading and so on.
I managed to re-format after about an hour of dodging but of course lost all my hard drive files. However my work files I had saved on 2 Novatech caddies holding HDs of 500 G.B.s each.
At least this time my JPGs are safe and sound.
I blamed a scam Email supposed to come from Fed-ex but I have been told since that it was more likely a fake Adobe update that is circulating.
I just curse the Basketing Drongos that have done this. Re-format meant I lost my sound and also my internet connection.
I was working until 4 o'clcok Sunday reloading programmes. Then another hour later on.
Had to take it up to the PC shop for re-installing sound etc because I don't have the modem and sound drivers.
Cost me £56 to get it done. Curse you again you Basketing Drongos. My your vital parts itch eternally until they drop off.