DISPARITY PART 1. (29/06/15)

I notice that several bloggers are disciplined enough to take a theme or subject and divide it into multiple posts. I decided this was an excellent idea and so determined to follow suit.

It has been a funny sort of weekend with sunshine but also heavy rain. I was playing about in Photoshop when I found a cunning little feature. I use brushes a lot and usually resize, harden or soften them using the square brackets. Okay this is quick and easier than using the brush sub menu. There is a more colourful way of adjusting brushes. Press alt and the right mouse button and the brush turns a lovely shade of red. If you slide up and down it alters the brush size and left and right the hardness…..Well I never!

Sunday morning the farmer next door came round to borrow the post driver. I was a little dubious as working on a Sunday is frowned upon by the Wee Frees. I decided it would be fine as the machine was doing most of the work and the Tractor God isn’t a Wee Free as far as I know. Tractors are far more intelligent than to follow a God that dictates what one should do on any given day.

The sun came out just after lunch so I decided to go and look for dragonflies. I didn’t find any but took lots of pictures and on my way home called on Polly to beg a jug of cider.

Flowers.

Maisie’s House.

Polly’s House.

A Track.

When I got back I fortified myself with a glass of cider and decided to see if I could get any results from the Hi-Speed Sync setting on the strobe. I set everything to manual and dialled out the ambient light then tried the flash at half power. No good I upped it to full power and it was just about adequate. I always start at half power with strobes and because I’m a bit thick adjust them one at a time. If you start at full power you can end up taking several test shots instead of just the one or maybe two. I use ETTL for macro and if I have strobes on stands and folk are moving about. Otherwise manual is better.

A Neap chopper. See, I found a red adjustment thingy in Photoshop and used a red gel on the strobe. I ought to have used another strobe high up camera right but didn’t want to lose the theme.

It’s a cool Monday morning.

I was woken early by this moth flitting around and trying to crawl up my nose. I caught it and popped it in the fridge whilst I had a shower. I then asked it to sit on a bit of leaf while it had it’s picture taken. Very good it was but then it fluttered off and is still in the van somewhere. I can see me taking it’s picture again tomorrow.

There wasn’t much about on our walk but these are attractive little flies. Attractive but skittish.

I spent a good ten minutes waiting for this Spotted Crane Fly to land either beam on or head on but no, it always parked bum on.

Frog Hopper nymph or it’s bubbles.

That’s all for today. I hope you enjoyed my disciplined approach.

Have a great week.