ABOUT ME

I live in a camper van with a West Highland Terrier for company.
My passion is creating images but it is a work in progress.
I am always willing to share what knowledge I have and can be contacted through the comments on this post or e-mail ADRIAN
ALL IMAGES WILL ENLARGE WITH A LEFT CLICK

Wednesday 12 November 2014

THE CHAIN BRIDGE. (12/11/14)

It is still raining but I decided to have a wander up to the abbey. It costs £5.00p to get in but given a reasonable day looks well worth a visit. We carried on past it to have a look at the River Tweed. There was plenty of water in it, not surprisingly as it is a week since we had a dry day.tweedpan   I didn’t take these two shots with stitching in mind but they have gone together after a fashion.    

_MG_0851     Melrose Chain Bridge.

_MG_0846

_MG_0847

_MG_0848

_MG_0849      I was very impressed and even more impressed that it was repaired free by Redpath, Brown &Co. One hundred and two years after they supplied it. The chain suspension looks original but the walkway dates from 1991. I have a soft spot for wrought or puddled iron chains.

_MG_0852     It is a wonderful bridge and well worth visiting Melrose for.

By now we were getting a bit damp so headed back to the van.

_MG_0857                     Melrose Parish Church. It’s nothing like any church I have seen before apart from it having a clock and a spire. The letters above the door are MDCCCX. To save you squinting, if you have to look up Roman Numerals then it was built in 1810. I hope. I usually use an ’L’ for fifty but I’m not a Roman. It could be a typo.

Whilst I was wandering about trying to get it into frame I found a gathering of these monsters.

_MG_0858   It is one of the Giant Funnel Caps. I will go for Clitocybe geotropa. The twenty pence coin is 20mm in diameter. None of them were in the first flush of youth but a good find.

I was browsing my e-mails when I found that Christmas had come early. Black Magic the video camera manufacturers recently bought out Eyeon the software company responsible for Fusion. I have looked at it in the past but could not justify the several hundred pounds it cost. It is now free for Windows, Mac users have to pay £20k as they have plenty of money. It is a wonderful after effects compositing package and I had a quick play this morning. No I can’t work it very well, if I’m honest I can’t work it at all but it looks as if I may get the chance to this winter. I hope I crack this moving pictures malarkey. I’ll have to get a system organised to make finding clips and bits of clips easy. I think computer literate folk have a system called files and folders with meaningful names. I tend to be in a rush and just dump stuff onto my desktop. It’s not good when one has to move icons to find what you have lost. Then I get in a bigger rush as I can’t find what I’m looking for.

Anyone know what the little button with VGA on is for? I guess it’s something to do with graphics cards but it doesn’t seem to do much except light up. It’s quite a pleasant shade of green so I’ve left it on.

That’s all for today.

37 comments:

  1. Dumping stuff on the Desktop is not a good method indeed :) I use folders, which are titled by year, location and certain keywords. That's a great looking chain bridge, and I like that it's just for pedestrians.

    Mersad
    Mersad Donko Photography

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  2. Mersad, the desktop is fine if there isn't much on it but I end up with rendered clips and all sorts. It is no method at all. I do use a couple of plug in drives and am a little less cavalier with those. I am not really that interested once I've finished processing stuff but some 3D or video projects can generate an awful lot of files.
    It is a grand bridge, better than I expected.

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  3. VGA =VIDEO GRAPHICS ARRAY. Something to do with the way your computer monitor displays the graphics on your monitor...best I can do. The church reminds me more if a community Hall then church. The bridge for a foot bridge is beautiful in design was it always a foot bridge or was it used for something else in a previous life

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    1. Just pressed it again Douglas. Seems to make little difference. Thanks anyway.
      The church is massive and very odd.
      The bridge was always a foot bridge. There was a paved ford for heavy traffic.
      The grand thing is that there were boxes holding stilts for those too mean to pay the bridge toll.

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  4. I hope you and your two sidekicks broke step when you crossed that bridge Adrian?
    It's an impressive looking bridge, they don't make them like that anymore!
    Another software package to get the old grey matter churning....you're certainly a glutton for punishment? Good luck!....[;o)

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    1. Trevor, it is beautiful. We only went to the middle and turned back. I told the dogs to break step but Alf misunderstood and farted.
      It's for free so what the hell. I have used nodes editors before in Blender 3D. It is a bit of a brain ache. I got my smooth header down to a sensible size using nodes. It's a great pity I can't remember how I did it. I guess you have to attend a Huniversity to get learned. I just love what tools are out there.
      I started my life with files and scrapers graduated to sextants and compasses and managed to work out all the incarnations of satellite navigation and ASI on radar. I didn't ever feel either the sense of achievement on a safe docking or the sheer terror of a near miss in fog. Driving ships is just a video game now and has been for twenty years. No fun at all.

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  5. Hello. I just came over from Tom's place. I'm a marginal amateur photographer--your pictures are lovely. The bridge and the church are both impressive pieces of architecture.

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    1. Joanne, I am also marginal but I should be better. I refer to myself as "Middling". I have so much camera stuff from medium format film to two old but serviceable Canon digitals..I then look for software. It's a healthy hobby for an old man.
      The church looks a bit like a masonic hall. It's weird. I'm here till Monday so will take a wider angle lens out and try and fit it in.

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  6. Very Good App? Voluminous Green Aperture?

    That bridge reminds me too much of heights.

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    1. Frances, I've had this laptop for coming on two years and only just noticed the wee VGA button. It's lovely, if I press it it can change to a tangerine colour, I prefer it green it's a charming lime green.
      You ride horses. I have never been as frightened as when a horse clipped the top of a fence as I approached a steep bank on a cross country course. I'd walked it round before saying speed up here, just go for it and slow down and think. Poor horse survived but I have never ridden them in anger since. Fast bikes and cars are better and no harm done if you trash one.

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    2. PS. I had tackled a similar obstacle at Chatsworth. It was on a different horse. The horse made it and so did I but unfortunately separately. Very painful was the landing. The spectators loved it. I got a clap.

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    3. Adrian, you were a lot braver than I am!

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    4. Frances you still ride them. I wasn't brave I was young and stupid.

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  7. Hi I love all the bridge shots and the church.

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    1. Margaret, It's a good place. The church is a bit odd but worth another look. I just wish they would leave them open so one could have a look inside.

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  8. I'm guessing it turns the VGA output port on and off. If you don't have the laptop connected to anything else you won't see a difference, and your monitor is probably running from a DVI or HDMI port annd not the VGA port, so again no difference.

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    1. Mark I use an HDMI cable. I am amazed I never noticed it before. Thank you for clearing the matter up.

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  9. Handsome church, spectacular walking bridge. Too bad the weather wasn't nicer.

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    1. R.Mac, the weather is not too bad for November but it isn't really Photography weather.

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  10. I love suspension bridges. This bridge is fabulous. Great pictures, as always Adrian.

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  11. That is a "different" church, there must be a story behind it. It annoys me when churches are locked and I can't get to see inside. I wonder if the inside is as unusual as the outside.? You must gain access. Are Redpath, Brown &Co still in business? Amazing that they repaired it so long after the installation. That really is standing by your workmanship.

    I knew I'd heard of Melrose, Googled it and it's where seven-a-side rugby originated.

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    1. There is or was a church on this site for hundreds if not thousands of years. They built a new one in 1810 but it burned down and only the steeple survived. The rest of the building is twentieth century.
      I think the company is now Redpath Dorman Long.
      Yes it is home of rugby sevens. I am staying just over the road from the ground.

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  12. Great photos of the bridge. Now I noticed you didn't tell us what it was like to walk over. somebody must have shown some individuality when they built this church as it's very different from other churches.

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    1. Red, it is fine to walk on, just like any other bridge.
      The church is a bit of a miss mash. As the church around the tower and spire burnt down and was rebuilt.

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  13. What an amazing and wonderful bridge find! I have learned more about Melrose Parish Church and found this tidbit about its history (lots of info): In 1810 a new Parish Church was opened on this site. This Church was square in shape, had a central pulpit entered from the present tower, and large galleries. It was destroyed by fire in 1908. Only the tower, bearing the date MDCCCX, survived and was incorporated in the present Church which was dedicated in 1911.

    I've been enjoying the beautiful scenery you are sharing :)

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    1. Glo, yes, I too looked it up. Thanks for taking the trouble to clarify it's history.

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  14. Love your bridge Adrian, a pedestrian delight.

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  15. It's certainly an unusual church. I love that sort of suspension bridge. The first one I can recall is outside Llangollen and there's another over the Ness in Inverness. The latter really moves around if there's more than a few people on it.

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    1. Graham, there were a few people using this one and it is very stable. I think the new walkway is a bit too rigid.. I feel happier if such structures do sway a bit; they look as if they should and it's disconcerting when they don't.

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  16. Impresionante el puente. Buen caudal lleva el rio y buen encuadre en la foto 3!!
    Un abrazo.

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    1. Laura, un puente mágico. Eso me hizo feliz verlo. Lo sentimos, pero creo que mi español se confundió de nuevo.

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  17. Never realised there was a chain bridge here, looks like a fine example, is it a walk out of town?

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    1. Jay, no not really. I usually start at the rugby ground and walk up through the park on it's left. cross the road and just follow the path over a slight rise with the war memorial and church on your left. You soon get to the Tweed. Then follow the river downstream. You can walk back via the abbey. takes about an hour with photo breaks and chatting.

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