THE WALL. (04/07/14)

I have decided to stop at Dunnet Bay till Sunday. The weather isn’t terrible but it is very windy and there is not much joy in driving into the teeth of a gale. There isn’t anything to do here but walk on miles of deserted beach. It suits me. I was going to Altnaharra but will save that till early August. They were full.

    

     The Wriggly Wall. If I’d seen this ten years ago I would have been septic; sorry, sceptical I still know the children’s drawings are computer polished and done on a CAM router. Now I look and wonder if the twenty year olds ever come back to look at what Miss made them draw. I think time makes them better. They show both the wonderful naivety of children and their acute observation. There are several dedicated panels with just a hand print. I think these must be from what is now called Special Needs Children. It would be interesting to research the wall and find out what has become of the handprint ones. I guess most are fine and suspect several just had better things to do.

I’ll have to say that as a section of society they terrify me. I’m not a Rolf Harris but neither am I a Myra Hindley or a Christian Brother. I just wish they would get on with what amuses them and do it quietly. My dogs think they are brilliant. Not too surprising when they have to put up with Mr Grumpy for the six months of the year kids aren’t in school.

Dunnet Bay.

  And Again.

Dunnet Bay shot through a Harris filter. No. The effect was created using Channels in Photoshop. I used to be able to do these in minutes in PS Elements. It took me an hour in CS6.

I’m busy; I’m making a little indoor studio out of an old cardboard box, a front surfaced mirror or two, some black cloth a piece of fertilizer bag and sticky backed plastic. I noticed Tesco are selling some cheap desk lamps with LEDs that I can shine in through the top. There is a Tesco just down the road in Thurso.

It needs further experimentation I would like to get the subject with a top and front view  but also with a back and underneath view all perfect. I was messing for ages yesterday and all I got were images spoiled by the camera intruding. Mirrors are little devils for reflecting things. I think if I popped a piece of plane glass at forty five degrees to the camera I might solve the problem by using the Peppers Ghost thingy. I’ll try that later.

I’m off to read an easy Peter Robinson Inspector Banks book.

Have a great weekend.