Went out early this morning for my usual picture taking Christmas day

Sweep with a car looking squashed because it was in 2 sections.

I took some sweep pix and was so set on keeping the camera level I didn't notice that car come along.
Did a little patch and repair from a set I took in attempt to join 5 pix using Aftershot.
Not a success as wide angle changed the link up and it looked a mess.
However I took  a section copied from one of them and pasted it to the sweep.

The patchwork job

Looks reasonable in small size but shows a bit in large.
Sweep gives no choice of ISO whereas I was taking the sets of pix in 6,400 ISO in Program.
I had to lighten the shadows with Elements in most of the sweep shots.
However it does make the best of a bad occurrence.

Taken from between the watch shop and the travel agency, braced against the wall. Thank God no b====y car this time.

Best viewed by right clicking on the pix and then take the option Open link in new window. The path which is actually in a straight line is at 180 degree. I reckon sweeping with the lens set at 11mm gives something like 240 degrees..

Sweep pic of Queens Square

Original slide

Started working a long project this morning.

Jane has a series of colour slides that were taken way back in the 70’s.

I don’t know what camera was used but I expect it was a point & shoot one

I have volunteered to copy them over via my Epson 4870 scanner.

I can get 12 at a time on the glass, takes me about 80 minutes to copy them.

Best part is that the programme with the scanner is Silverfast and it allows adjustment of the image via a histogram. Saves a lot of pix that would otherwise be useless.

The rescued image saved as a 9x6 inch approximate JPG.

Even then on some the highlights can’t be made better.

I suppose I will be able to copy 1 magazine of 36 slides a morning.

Must count how many magazines there are I can then estimate how many days work there will be.

I USED to be happy with Google Chrome as a search engine.
Now all they do is plaster me with suggestions that I start gambling every time I try to open a different page.
 I reckon I will go back to Firefox as my main standby.
Why the hell should I want to gamble on the internet. Not on your nelly. I think it will have to be "Farewell Google Chrome - Come in Firefox"
Went to the M5 Bridge this morning but not pleased with the pix.

M5 Early morning. 16-12-12

 This is probably the best but it was a little too late and it had started to spot with rain. Later pix had light bloom because of odd spots on the lens.
Next time I will try a 30second exposure and allow the lens to stop down.

M5 early Sunday Morning.

Went out early on Sunday to see if the sun came up with a bright red sky.
Nothing - so I tried HDR on the motorway bridge from Court Lane.
ISO was set high so plenty of noise. I will think about trying it again with a lower setting I think it could be very effective with HDR set at 5 and maybe 100 or 200 ISO.
The lights of Portishead, Portbury, Avonmouth backlight the Failand Ridge and illuminate the cloud cover.
Had a message left on Flickr by Michael Rasmussen He likes the pic.
However I posted back thanking him for the comment but suggesting a crop.

Trimmed pic to Grecian standard.

I know folks decry old fashioned standards but looking at the cropped version I feel happier about the composition.

The black bit on the left can be done without, However the similar black expanse on the right is compensated? by the  string of house lights that can lead the eye back into the traffic coming down the hill?

Thoughts on Macro work.

I came across my Osram work light. Thought I had lost it but it turned up where I had put it – in the wrong place – for safe keeping.

The batteries were still producing a bright light. Thought I would record how to use it.

When doing macro it is best to use manual focus setting the focus to the closest and then moving the camera forward to the subject if extreme close-up is being done.

With a 10 dioptre lens it is simple to get life size or even bigger.

However it can be hard to find the subject. The Osram LED work light costs about £14 [$18 to $20] and can give a spot light. 
I was lucky I bought mine in Lidl's superstore for about £6.  This can be seen pretty easily and shows on the camera viewfinder allowing the camera to centre onto the subject. And the flash overpowers the LED’s so it makes no difference to the set-up.

Simple macro shots can be made using AF Minolta lenses on Sony digital cameras. However make no mistake these lenses have markings on them for Macro. They are not true macro lenses but merely close-up. That is a different thing altogether.However consider this The lenses were made to cover a 24x36mm frame Now a cheap Fox dioptre lens set can be purchased for around £15 or $20.

As a digital image is for most cameras half-frame size you will only be using the centre of the dioptre lens ! 

The Fox set is 1, 2, 4, and 10 dioptres.

Using the 10 diotre with this lens set to macro I took an image of a very small Berberis flower. A flower perhaps 9 or 10 mm in size.

The lens was stopped down to almost its minimum

This was done using my PX360 flash mounted with an adaptor. Not Ideal because the light was not directed at enough of a downward angle.

Now look at the inflatable diffuser fitted to the PX360 The curve of the front allows a good portion of the light to be deflected downwards, and the area of the diffuser gives a more scattered illumination.

These can be bought from Hong Kong for £4 to £5 $6 to $8 It is one of the best diffusers I have ever used. When collapsed they will fit in a gadget bag taking little space.

It is easy to determine just what size the picture is. Take a pic of a mm ruler using the various set-ups. The life size will show 24mm. 2x will show 12. 3x will show 8 across the pic. Not exact but it will give a good approximation. 

Shortened line is the way to be sure

Went out to watch the 2nd's match. I found the lack of home matches is frustrating. They were playing up at the school.

The pitch there is in very good state.

Lost 3 - 19 but North Petherton were weighty in the scrum and were succesful in getting the ball and turnovers.