SIMS AND ROUNDABOUTS. (13/05/13)

It has been a squally day with sleet and snow. Sometimes rain and occasional sun. I love the light and the fast changing weather. We are down on the shore of Loch Linnhe. It’s a great view from the van window. I’ve been to Morrisons in Fort William so have a bell ringing practise scheduled for this evening. That is the positive side of life taken care of.

The negative side is my phone got a bit warm in my pocket whilst on our walk this morning. I whipped it out of my trousers and removed the battery. I dried the phone off and it seems to be fine. The SIM card is an ex-sim card. It has a bit of a blister on it’s back that I can swear was not there before. I think it may have been cooked. For those of you that have my phone number it is an ex-number. I have a couple of spare SIM cards somewhere safe. When I recall where the somewhere is I’ll restore service and advise you of the new number.

Before I forget, a couple of you asked me to justify my ravings over PS’s new Raw converter.

    This image is as shot…I know or hope it is 2&2/3rds stops under exposed as it’s part of a three shot HDR shoot. It is as the camera saw it. I tend to shoot at –2/3rds EV as it’s much easier to recover shadows…..it’s impossible to recover blown highlights other than by judicious cloning. Any other recovery I know of just adds 50% grey. Tell me if you know better, I’d love to hear. I’m just starting out….and have been for five years.

    This is what the raw converter rescued. I got the work flow a bit wrong as I’m still getting to grips with CS6. I should have adjusted exposure for the light bits or the dark bits…..can’t see it makes much difference……then painted over the off exposed bits with the Adjustment Brush….I did it the other way round and got a bit of haloing. I was impressed anyway! It has a whole page of different adjustments available to the Adjustment Brush Tool. Next time I see a Waterstones I’m going to get the Adobe Manual. It has a picture of a scabby faced, high key, lady on the cover. The only trouble with Adobe books is they instruct me in words I don’t understand. Rare for an American text book. I’ve always found them accessible.

   Yesterday evening at Glencoe Mountain Resort.

    The same view this morning…similar I should have said. The youth of today love these. Hobbit burrows or something they are called. They are fifty pounds a night. Give or take a fiver the same everywhere and sleep four. I can remember four of us at twenty years old having to save for the petrol to get to Scotland…then find a quiet corner to pitch a couple of tents. These even have heaters in them.

We had to light stoves in minus twenty. We slept with the stoves in our sleeping bags. Little wonder young lasses didn’t get pregnant and blokes had never heard of shirt lifters.

    This panorama was not taken through the van window but adjacent to it. It is an awful shot but the best you are going to get today. I really am beginning to hate the Canon 17-40mm lens. It’s fast but useless. I got it for a few hundred pounds it’s for sale at £300.00. I promise I’m losing money. I’ll include postage or it’s going in the loch. I’m going to investigate medium wide lenses. It is just a two image stitch. Three images would have solved the dip in the loch. Canon stuff isn’t cheap and comes with no certification, naughty they are. The colour could be anyhow….I really don’t know and am seriously considering getting a Spyder 4 Pro. I’ve downloaded the calibration charts with a red or whatever outside and alternate red and black dots inside but to be honest most of the test sheets look the same to me.

I’m lucky, I am a little sight deficient but still have all my own teeth with the exception of the big front right hand one and the little one next to it. Some bastard from Barnsley kicked them out. AND… after the referee had blown his whistle. Vicious, evil, sod didn’t even get sent off…He did buy my beer after the game so perhaps ‘Sod’ is over egging the job.

Have fun. I’m away to look where the Sim cards are safe.