One Cold and Frosty Morning

Over the last few days, we've had a magical display of hoar frost.
I suppose that after the recent deluge, the air must have been super-saturated so when the temperature plummeted we were rewarded with the theatrically beautiful ice show.

As I'm not sure of the science, I'm including a link which might help to explain the phenomenon.
http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/reports/wxfacts/Hoar-Frost.htm

It was an opportunity not to be missed, so armed with trusty Dog and faithful camera (or is it the other way around?) I headed for the fields.
I was thinking about one of my favourite, wintry, children's poems;

          Winter Time

  by Robert Louis Stevenson,

 

Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,
A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;
Blinks but an hour or two; and then,
A blood-red orange, sets again.

Before the stars have left the skies,
At morning in the dark I rise;
And shivering in my nakedness,
By the cold candle, bathe and dress.

Close by the jolly fire I sit
To warm my frozen bones a bit;
Or with a reindeer-sled, explore
The colder countries round the door.

When to go out, my nurse doth wrap
Me in my comforter and cap;
The cold wind burns my face, and blows
Its frosty pepper up my nose.

Black are my steps on silver sod;
Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;
And tree and house, and hill and lake,
Are frosted like a wedding cake.

                                                        

I'm still trying to achieve better mood/atmosphere in my photos and to get away from the matter of fact representation of what I see, so in this shot of the teasels, I gave a little tweak to the RAW file using curves in photoshop. This reduced the contrast a touch and hopefully shows the shivery cold of the morning.
The other two pictures are just trigger happy fun on a beautifully cold and frosty morning.

Keep warm!

Burning Questions

Well, gausian blur still remains one of those delicious names, like Will o' the Wisp; flitting just out of reach and eluding my complete understanding.
However, I've been having a play recently, with dodging and burning. (I love whoever it was who made up these delightful names).

My first attempt was on a sunset scene, so something completely different for me to start with.
 I hesitated about making any changes, as I really didn't want a lurid straight-out-the-paintbox image. As I hovered over the burn tool, the feeling was like sitting in the hairdresser's chair, nervously asking for exciting new colours to brighten up my image, but not so much as you'd notice, please!

So, I chose a fairly big circle and swept it quickly over the sky. Phew. Done. But I couldn't see any real difference. I think I'd expected it to turn neon or something, and was quite relieved to find it was more subtle than I'd imagined. I then had a go at brightening the white paint and the marker buoys of the fishing boat, and left it at that.

I'm not sure how it could or should have been done, but here it is the way I did it:

My next attempt was a disaster...I'm going to need some proper advice.

Here's the "before" from the RAW, with just the recovery slider used, as the sky was quite burnt out.

 

...and here's the result of my own attempts at bringing out the robin a bit.

 

Not good

 





 

 

So look out kind friends at Chesterfield Photographic Society, here I come.
Maybe there's a Christmas card in there somewhere....

or maybe ......

Not!!!

 

Thoughts on catching light.

 

I know all too well that the time has come, and I can no longer keep procrastinating, to learn about digital image processing.

I’ve set myself two tasks recently; to capture light and to capture music in a photograph.

Wendy Cope’s  http://literature.britishcouncil.org/wendy-cope    beautiful poem, New Season inspired me to try to capture the image that she has so eloquently portrayed in words.

New Season Wendy Cope       

No coats today. Buds bulge on chestnut trees,

and on the doorstep of a big, old house

        a young man stands and plays his flute.

I watch the silver notes fly up

and circle in blue sky above the traffic,

        travelling where they will.

And suddenly this paving-stone

midway between my front door and the bus stop

                  is a starting-point.

From here I can go anywhere I choose.

 

In my mind’s eye, I can see the image I’d like to create; it would have a general mistiness and a very short depth of field. The overall colour would be silvery and there would be lots of lovely light and movement through the frame.

So far so good!

The name, Gausian Blur pops into my mind; I must find out what it is and how to apply it, as I think it might be something that could help to achieve the desired result. Meantime it’s just nice to let the words roll off my tongue, they have a delightfully ethereal charm, while I experiment with the camera settings.

To date, my shots lack the mood and essence of what I’d like to portray and by putting this in words for others to see, it’ll make me do something about it!

Here are a few of my attempts at catching light and catching music.

This is a starting point. From here I can go anywhere I choose.

Let’s hope it’s onward and upward!

 

Catching Light

 

 

                                                           A Little Light Music

  

 

How missing the boat led to a grand day out.

"Hello...Alison?"...I'm sorry to say, the trip to the Bass Rock has been cancelled...."
The rest of the phone message became a blur in my left ear as I half listened in disbelief.
A heavy sea swell was forecast, which would make the tricky landing impossible onto the craggy face of the Bass Rock. So, that was it; nothing to do for a whole day and that's far too long to sit and mope!

I was staying in the ancient fortress town of Dunbar and quickly discovered that the present day life of the town is still firmly anchored in its colourful past, with Black Agnes featuring large in everyone's mind.

It was in March this year that the newly built St Ayles rowing skiff, "Black Agnes" was launched in Dunbar, under the watchful eye perhaps of her 14th Century namesake standing on the still defiant remains of Dunbar castle.

Well, it's an ill wind blaws naebody gude, and if the Bass Rock trip hadn't been cancelled, I would have missed the spectacle of Dunbar Coastal Rowing Club's Regatta.

The sleek St Ayles skiffs, all immaculate and lovingly built by townspeople around the Scottish coast, had gathered and were manoeuvring into position. At the sound of the starting canon and yells from the coxes of "Row!" the teams pulled the little boats into the waves and battle commenced.

Jostling for the lead and negotiating tight turns around Scart Rock and marker buoys, the teams rowed the nimble boats round the course and headed for home in a nail biting finish.

I'm hooked!
Such excitement, and such a wonderful atmosphere.

I was told that one of the skiffs will be taking part in the Great River Race in London on 15th September.

I'll be there, and you'll hear me cheering her on!

                                                                 To Boldly Row
                                  The Dunbar team in Black Agnes head out of the harbour

                                                             Skiffing Over the Water
                                                    The Queensferry team in Ferry Lass

Monday 20th August 2012

"Alison Ashton?"
I cringed, sinking for a moment behind my magazine, which might have been upside down for all the attention I'd paid it.
There was no denying the fact, I am indeed Alison Ashton and it was my turn to be escorted up the narrow staircase to the gaping chair.

I dutifully donned the blue plastic visa and awaited my fate.

"Open wide"

I just about managed to prize my clenched teeth apart before some shiny metallic instrument was employed to do the job for me.
Oh well, over to you now, Mr Dentist. I give up, give in and give myself over to you. I'll pick up my gleeming smile on the way out.

But what was all the terror about?

The worst was already over by the time I'd been strapped in by cheery words and anaesthetised by Barry Manilow in the corner.
Gradually, I began to peep out from my murky blue world, and came face to face with a quizical little alien creature, hovering inches from my frozen mouth.

My laugh came out more like a gurgled choke, the dentist apologised, "Painful?"

"Uhuh"
How do you say "Oh no, it's absolutely fine - I've just met a charming little alien who looks like Batteries Not Included", when your mouth's full of someone else's fist?

His sticky out ears and gently drooping eyelids gave him a delightfully innocent appearance and through his gappy little teeth shone a bright starburst of light.

"Nearly done!"
What, already?

And then came the hightlight of the show.
Mr Dentist could have been playing out some fantasy of being Luke Skywalker when an exquisite fibre optic of sapphire light beamed into my smile.

The flitting light, like Tinkerbell on a Christmas stage, danced briefly and was gone too soon.
Such beauty, such fun, and all before lunch... if I could ever find my tongue again.

 

 

Dentist's Little Helper

 

                                                           To Boldly Go....to the dentist