Morning Flight

Birds on Duddingston Loch today

Duddingston Loch, which is inside the Holyrood Park in Edinburgh.
http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/features/featurefirst7881.html
It was a lovely morning this morning. I managed to get some nice shots of the local wildfowl too!

Madonna of the Red Sky

If you liked the previous post, you might like this.

I've merged the sky from outside my window with the head of a famous monument in Quito, Equador (my original image on left)(http://www.alovelyworld.com/webequa/htmgb/equa50.htm)

I think it has a nice Christmas look to it.

Let me know what YOU think!

Outside my window

ONLY IN SCOTLAND!

I took this 5 minutes ago outside my window. I left the pylon just to show it is a real photo.

Another Coach

The Coach

The Original Pittsburgh Steeler

Carnegie Hall - UK
You don't need to be American to have heard of the Pittsburgh Steelers
http://media3.steelers.com/

Personally I think Superbowl 13 was their finest game
http://www.superbowl.com/history/recaps/game/sbxiii

However, you have to be a Scotsman it seems to know about the original Pittsburgh 'steeler'
http://www.rampantscotland.com/famous/blfamcarnegie.htm

But I bet most Americans have heard of Carnegie Hall! Did you know there is one in Scotland?

Guess where

http://www.carnegiehall.co.uk/

John Knox's House

This is John Knox's house in Edinburgh. It looks exactly as it did in painting hundreds of years ago!!!
I always take friends or family from abroad to see it (and the castle of course;-))

http://members.fortunecity.co.uk/john_knox_house_museum/

Braveheart the Boat

I took this picture of a boat while on a day trip to a nice little Fife fishing village.

It is called the Braveheart....very Mel Gibson....very Scottish ;-)

It's December so.....

3 crows sat upon..a cloud

Sometimes you can see things from your back window and create something else from the back of your mind!!

Monument in Lisbon 1999

This is an interesting photo, taken in 1999 on a 35mm camera. Even then, I saw digital coming (it takes a while for things to get to Scotland sometimes;-)) so I had the film processed to JPEG on CD

Spaceship Graphic

This is a graphic created in Paint Shop Pro version X

I've exported it to a GIF file and resized to make it a manageable size on the blog.

I've been spending some time learning the graphic side of PSP. I'm an amateur, in that I don't do photo retouching or graphics for a living.

However, I really do believe PSP is good value for money over Photo Shop.....many will disagree ;-)

Edinburgh has had it's first snow today!

A virtual spanner (no longer in the works;-))

A little sunshine on a dull day

Scotland the Brave

This is a post to check if you can hear music from Scotland!!

http://foresaa.co.uk/images/bagpipe2.mp3

Let me know if you can hear it ;-) At some point (if it works) I'll know I can 'talk' to you all!!

Here is my output from a tutorial

This is my output from the tutorial on Loadboy.com. These guys are really, really good!! You can tell the moment you go to their site. Also, I like the fact that they use Paint Shop Pro...

Smokin!!!

I've not posted forsome time, but my exuse is I've been busy - life has had to take priority over fun for a little while ;-)

Here is a little something out of Paint Shop Pro X which I'm converting to from PSP 8

Best graphics site I've seen so far is
http://www.loadboy.com but would be really cool if he listed all his great tutorials.

Re earlier post 'Comment Rant'

My earlier rant re spam comments (http://3rdphoto.blogspot.com/2005/10/comment-rant.html)

They [Blogger folks] fixed it !!!

See http://buzz.blogger.com/2005/10/on-spam.html#links

RSS Feeds - What are they and how do I deal with them

I recently posted a note advising I'd put up an RSS feed.

So, what are they and how do I deal with them?

Well it depends on what you want to do. Do you want to get automatic updates whenever I publish a new post, or do you want to have your Blog RSS capable?

Reading RSS Feeds

For this you need an RSS Reader (I use an Open Source and therefore free reader - http://www.feedreader.com/) It is simple to instal and use

It comes with a large number of feeds already available - new, sport etc and you can add any feed you like.

You also receive notification when feeds (web site RSS feeds) are updated

Have your Blog RSS capable

To make your own Blog RSS capable, you need to subscribe to a feed aggregator (I use FeedBurner, http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/home which is free.

You sign up and enter your Blog address (it works with Blogger).

Periodically FeedBurner checks on your postings and makes them available (aggregated) to folks who use a reader

Give it a try...you only live once ;-)

Serendipity

Somtimes fate just takes a hand. Or God/Allah depending on your beliefs. I took this shot of some flowers picked out of my garden by my neices and look what turned out!! Very reminicient of the great Flemish masters of still life. (See http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/history/lecture40/17.html)

Photo Competition

Harphampix are having a Photo Competion on the theme of "Street Furniture" Really thought this should go in ;-)

It is a sculpture in Ottawa in Canada called "Maman"

Competition details below
http://www.harphampix.com/v2/folder.php?id=702

Photos of Scotland

The BBC web site has an ongoing picture galley with shots taken by the public
you can find it here

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3631797.stm

Another Blogging Beachhead!

Well, I've now activated an RSS feed and you should now be able to read my blog via a news reader!!

Hopefully updates are working and I'll be able to see this when I request fedd update from FeedReader

Fun with Photography

An original, if uninspiring, photo of a swan.
A little PSP magic and you get the much more interesting image shown in Signature Swan posting. It is so easy...even I can do it ;-)

Signature Swan

A little fun ;-)

This comes from an original image of a swan photographed on 10th July on Linlithgow Loch.

A few moments of madness in PSP (Paint Shop Pro - your other great image software) and this is the outcome.

Nice I think....do you agree?

My favourite Scottish beach

This has to be my favourite beach in Scotland! It is a short drive from where I live, local to a number of towns and yet not many people are aware of its existance........so I'm not going to share its location with the Web!!

Nature abounds year round and it always makes me feel so much better when I've gone there

Blue Sky Flying

Something cheerful after my rant in the previous post ;-)

This was shot early June on a boat trip around the 1000 islands in Ottawa in Canada.

I'd like to say I have the kind of expensive camera equipment that allows you to get these kind of shots, but it was truely a happy accident that I caught the gull.

Getting the shot in focus was more of a miracle ;-))

Comment Rant

I'm half smiling and half raging.....will there be some automated junk comment to this 2 seconds after I publish it??

I like the concept of receiving comments and I do get some nice ones like one from Sandy who just left a little uplifting comment, sort of neighbourly like...you know...friendly.

I don't want to stop taking comments..free speech and all that...so does anyone know how to defend your blogsite against these self-publicising comments? If you do I'd really appreciate it.

btw if your browsing and there is a later comment, say within 2 secs of this one....you'll know what I mean

RANT OFF

Celtic Quiz

This scene was shot right in the centre of a very popular and busy east coast Scottish town. It doesn't look it though does it?

A clue can be seen on the horizon ;-)

Drop me a comment if you want to guess....good luck!

By the way, I had to wait ages till people stopped walking by and the scene has been slightly enhanced.

NOTHING has been cloned or airbrushed out....that is the scene that I saw...beautiful isn't it?

Even if you were to go there I bet you'd not even notice it...it took me some time to see the potential of the shot...but that's because of the artist in me ;-))

Sailing at North Berwick

I took a trip to North Berwick today and there was a sailing competition going on. This shot was taken from the harbour wall as two sailors stopped to chat before taking their yaughts out of the water.

Considering the time of year it was a beautiful day for sailing

Sailing in to North Berwick

Arriving back at North Berwick west beach before having a chat (see previous shot)

Timberland Photo Shoot

This is the latest ad from Timberland which was shot in Montreal on 8th June
The ad appeared in the Sunday Times Style supplement on 18th September.
I was in Montreal at the time and they were shooting nearly all day.
Below are some of my own shots taken as the shoot was in progress

Preparing the model

Having a laugh

Close up of the model

Serious camera gear for this

Was this the shot?

Red Hot Pokers (Knopfia) in my garden

I really love these. Just as the garden is dying back and you can see Autumn coming, the Red Hot Pokers decide to pop up out of the ground very, very quickly and cheer you up with a final, beautiful show