Playing with HDR

 

Spent the day on the laptop trying out "merging to HDR" on some test images using Lightroom, Aurora HDR 2018 and Photomatix Essentials 3.2.

Think the most successful was still Aurora HDR 2018, and I've been watching a few basic video tutorials to try and get to grips with it rather than keep flicking through a myriad of presets. Think I'm getting the hang of it 🤔 The hardest image from the above was the tree image, shot in the woods the green cast was rather difficult to get rid of, without losing too much green in the background. Not a specific HDR problem but one which would have needed sorting anyway.

I also didn't want to have too much detail in the shadow area of the Dockyard tunnel, the aim of this image is to draw the eye to the other end.

So probably the easiest was the yachts along St Mary's Island!

I've learnt out to utilise the basic panel and then dabbled with using layers to apply certain other filter changes and specifically to certain areas using masks. All concepts that I'm familiar with from using Photoshop but you still have to realise the nuances between how they work in different software.

HDR always intrigues me as a genre in photography, I quite like the semi-surreal options one can produce and whilst my cameras have HDR modes they aren't quite as sophisticated as some of the more professional models, although that said, every now and again, they will surprise me with how well they cope with a high dynamic scene. I suspect my biggest problem is using it when it's not strictly necessary and so the result is somewhat underwhelming 🤣 Mind you, I have also gotten some quite favourable results using it on a single image which is quite good.

Anyway, all this experimentation has kept me busy today as I struggle to fill my days when the weather is not conducive to going out. Which it's not really been for most of my Christmas break from work 😥 And as said break is almost at an end I'm finding the continued wet weather somewhat irritating ☔ It will be even more so if it's raining for my trek into the office next week, at least last New Year I was still fully WFH. Now I'm going to have to drag myself in, to what is likely to be a freezing cold office, all in the name of bums on seats 😠

Visit with Mum

 Today saw me take the opportunity to get out for a walk as it wasn't raining, for once, and take a mooch up to the Crematorium to have a natter with Mum.

Cleaned out the leaves from the memorial and recorded my chat as I usually do in my journal app. Lots of floral tributes everywhere around the grounds, Christmas is obviously a popular time for people to remember their loved ones with flowers and cards. So many tributes around the bottom of Mum's tree that you couldn't even see the number!

Back via Asda where I purchased a new XL dressing gown, nice and big so it wraps all the way around, comes down to my ankles and sleeves which just dip past my wrists - lush. Cold remedies for the daughter which I dropped off on my way home, she was busy playing some online game or something 💻

Walked just over 12000 steps so pretty good although my feet ached something chronic.

Christmas Day!

 

A few images from Christmas Day which started with dinner at The Honourable Pilot for seven, sooo much easier than cooking!

Then back to Julia and James's for presents and later on, some tea.

These are a few of us opening presents, including Annie who managed to open most of the treats and we ended up having to ration them 🤣

These are a few photos taken the next day using the new kaleidoscope filter which my Dad gave me and which I'm holding up in the collage above. It's really fun and easy to use, even in front of a compact camera although it needs careful positioning, but usually it's designed to screw onto the front of the lens. In my case via several step-down rings to bring it down from 77mm to whatever my lens happens to be.

This single image rather better shows the effect, it's certainly going to be a fun addition to the camera bag and not too cumbersome to take out on a day snapping once the correct rings are also added.

Christmas Hair!

 

So this is the new look for Christmas and beyond - at least until the red dye washes out leaving the Ombre behind.

Julia popped down on Christmas Eve around tea-time and she proceeded to trim some off the length before adding the Ombre dye followed by this vivid red semi-permanent dye which had been lurking at the back of the bathroom cupboard for some time.

Looks good though and I'm pleased to have it shorter and more manageable.

Santa Paws

 

Annie waiting patiently to go see Santa 🥰

So Christmas Eve we'd booked Annie in to see SANTA!!!

We went over to Dobbies where a wonderful Grotto had been set up, places for us to let Annie sit and we could take our own photos - there was a gazebo bench and a sleigh 😍

A seating area around another corner allowed us to sit with her and again take some photos before she finally got to meet the Big Man Himself 🎅🏻

This is all of us in with Santa - I think we loved it more than Annie, she is a dog after all and so as long as there's something for her (she got a squeaky boomerang) she was always gonna be happy!

All in all it was a good Christmassy event and we're definitely going to be doing it again 😊

Christmas Dinner #1

 

So Sunday saw my brother and his family visit for the day ahead of Christmas. As usual we booked a table out for dinner, The Honourable Pilot being a firm favourite not least because they do a Sunday roast carvery 😋

The waitress was kind enough to take a snap of us all on my phone save me trying to squeeze us all in!

Back to my Dad's post dinner where everyone got raucous over the final of the world cup 😴 Argentina won after much faffing with penalties. Not a good way to end an important game - apparently!

We had a good afternoon and evening opening presents and playing games.

Happy Days!

Crafting

 

Started prepping to make some cardboard snowflakes on Thursday, my first day off on the Christmas break. Painted the outside using some stick paints bought in The Works. Downside was that the cardboard is pretty stiff to try and bend into shape and the glue dots weren't all that sticky but this was the first attempt:

This was before it all started to pop back open and fall apart! Ended up having to staple most of it together as best I could but an 8cm square as the starting point doesn't allow for much room even though I have a Bambi baby stapler. Began to think that making these using a rather stiff paper might work better and to also start with a slightly bigger square.

This was my second attempt, using two sheets of A4 paper, cut into roughly 10cm squares which was enough to produce two snowflakes:

Much easier to manoeuvre the paper this time around and no painting first! I also used the staples right away rather than risk the glue dots again although they should have worked better on the paper.

Crafting isn't really my thing but I'd seen the YouTube video for making these and thought they looked like good fun to make, and once I got into the second round they were quite therapeutic. Kept me occupied for a while ;-)

Frost turns to Snow

 

So Sunday saw the day start out frosty, popped outside with the TG-6 and snapped a few images in mainly the microscope mode which allows for extreme closeups. Fine, OK, I can deal with a bit of frost...

Then in the evening said frost morphed into snow, lots of it, at least 3 inches of the stuff:

Here's a view from the bedroom window, bloody stuff, I hate snow. Yes it looked like a winter wonderland st this point, but the novelty, if there ever is one, soon wears off.

It's been too cold all week to see the stuff even come close to melting, so it's still as is almost a week later and quite frankly I'm sick of it. Had to WFH for the short week I was still working before my Chrimbo holiday kicked in and had to don wellies and trekking poles to make the short journey up the road for a blood test earlier in the week.

Roll on some warmer temperatures and rain to wash it away.

It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas...

 

So have spent most of this weekend putting up the decs in spite of feeling a bit worn out with a cold, caught from having to drag myself into the office where other people insist on bringing their germs into work :-(

Really pleased with my tree, definitely less is more this year, less decorations on it but all of the important ones and that's what matters.

Same goes for the porch, too cold and not enough energy left to keep climbing up the steps over and over so it's a foil garland and a couple of foil balls and a lit village scene that Dad gave me that Margaret seemed to have two of. Add a couple of paper trees et voila:

Sometimes it's the thought that counts ;-)

Red Moon

 

This is a heavy crop from the M50 of what looked like a red moon on Friday evening, spotted it from the front window as I went to close the curtains. Really weird and it didn't stay that colour for more than around 10 minutes tops. Just long enough to snap a photo and upload it to our famalam Whatsapp group.

Another busy weekend!

 

So another busy weekend, first off helping Dad to find a new Christmas tree, 4ft pre-lit, shouldn't be a tall order one would think... Yeah right, we mooched around several garden centres and ended up at The Range where we found the one we'd spotted online - happy days!

Saturday saw Dad and I head along to Fort Luton for their Christmas Craft Fair, really good items for sale and I had a go at axe throwing - uber fun!

Here's one Dad took of me walking back to the throwing position. It's very absorbing although I struggled with my lack of height and ended up throwing it from over my head. Got near the bulls-eye a couple of times, lots of times I missed the target altogether! They have set up permanently at Fort Luton so well worth a visit (you need to book first).

Missing Mum - 35Yrs

 

So 30th November saw Dad and me visit the Crematorium to pay our respects to Mum, gone 35 years ago.

This is a collage of the entry in the Book of Remembrance, my entry in the Chapel notebook and the new memorial for both Mum and Margaret which Dad's had installed this year.

Nice to have somewhere to leave flowers and somewhere more tangible than her tree.

Can't quite believe it's been this many years, not quite sure where the time goes to be honest and it still grates how much she's missed out on because of the stupid cancer.

Missing you now and for always Mum xxXxx

Busy Weekend!

 

So this has been a busy few days...

Thursday evening was late night shopping at Dobbies, went along with Dad and met Julia and James there, also took the opportunity to pay for the Christmas Day Dinner at The Honourable Pilot 😋 Bought a large LED candle (larger than I expected) for the hallway windowsill - takes just 2x AA batteries which is a far cry from the 9x AAA batteries that the three individual ones take 😱

Saturday tea-time saw us all head over to Leeds Castle for their first ever Christmas Lights Trail. In a word awesome - I've been to Bedgebury and it's very similar to that, think they are done by the same lighting team. Really good wander around the grounds and only a little rain towards the end.

And Sunday has been a day at the Royal Engineer's Museum for their 2nd day of the Wartime Christmas weekend. Really good to chat with the stall holders, Dad reminisced over the guns, reminding him of his National Service days. The museum has a lot to see so as the ticket is an annual one we'll no doubt be back again at some point. A good place to visit on a rainy day - which today was!

And Friday evening Dad and I visited Rochester Cathedral for the Lights for Love service by the Wisdom Hospice. Wrote out our messages on some stars which will be hung on the Christmas trees in the Cathedral. Re-lit the candles for loved ones lost and had free tea/coffee and mince pies in the crypt before heading home.

So yeah a very busy weekend, the collage above is a few from Leeds Castle and the Wartime Christmas event. Seeing as how financially the country is supposedly back in the 1950's poverty levels we could do worse than take a few tips from them in the make do and mend, keep it simple ways of living.

Satisfying Weekend

 

So have spent some time today (Sunday) fishing out some easy Christmas decorations for the office desk ready for tomorrow. With only a few weeks left before I pack up for the festive holidays and doing just 2d in the office each week I have to make every day count!

Found a small crossover tree, a little LED house, wind-up Santa and some glass decorations along with a set of blue USB lights from Poundland.

No doubt the Scrooges will be like Bah Humbug it's too early, but it's never too early for Christmas - they should think themselves lucky there's no music involved!

🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻 🎄🎄🎄 🤶🏻🤶🏻🤶🏻

Christmas Shopping @ Bluewater

 

So this week's Off Friday was spent up at Bluewater with my girl doing some Christmas shopping - mainly toys for a charity collection for a local hospital in Ashford for Julia's work. She did well, bought loads of things, The Works came up trumps mostly with their various deals. Ended up with a couple of large bagfuls of stuff for varying ages. Always a real good feel factor when you are doing something good for someone else!

This is one of the Bluewater Christmas decorations, as usual around the T'was the Night Before Christmas poem/story. Probably saves them money reusing the decs each year!

I'm going to be doing the usual Crisis charity donation this year again and probably the RSPCA. We have so much between us and usually buy what we want so it's good to pass on some of that to those in need be they animal or human 💓

Missing Me 'Ol Mukka

 Missing my old boy Max again today, 20 years ago we lost him and I still miss his company and quiet support. He was my shadow always and life has felt so much more empty without him, always just that little piece missing  🐶 😭

Friday Mooch

 

So Friday morning saw me take a mooch out along to Friston Way with the TG-6, not a bad morning mooching around the field looking for Autumn detail shots.

Struggle with the AF Macro mode but the microscope SCN mode works awesomely well :-)

Used it for the little mushroom (Pleated Inkcap) that I saw peeking out from the grass. Difficult to get down that low and especially with a non-moveable LED screen (the camera is waterproof so no obvious moving parts) but got there in the end. Really pleased with these images.

Spent the rest of the weekend shopping on/off at the Savacentre and Ashford Outlet Centre with Dad and Julia respectively.

Back to the office grind tomorrow, gonna be trying out the latest new bag to carry my stuff in with:

A mere £13.99 on Amazon (where else?) and big enough for a 15.6" laptop and the rest of my bits and pieces. Hopefully not too heavy, and bought a lovely short, rectangular scarf from the Demelza Charity Shop to act as a chest strap, at 50p it was a real steal!

Firework Weekend!

 

Friday evening saw Julia, James and me head down to the local Scouts Hut/field for this year's fireworks event, first time it's been back since 2019!

And what a feel good evening, good company, excellent show and burgers/hotdogs to munch on whilst we waited for the fireworks to start.

This is us waiting for the show to kick off and testing out the phone abilities to take decent people photos at night!

Halloween Ready!

 

So Monday morning saw me up at 5:30am to do some makeup and dress up in the witch outfit for the Halloween for Charity at work.

Only me and some other guy dressed up as a Ghostbuster! A few others rocked up for an impromptu photoshoot and we appeared in this week's Rochester Roundup! Although not quite sure what the Mario Bros and a pink tutu have got to do with Halloween??

Glad I dressed up though, it's been a while since I've had a chance to dress up for Halloween now there's no club. Also decorated the table next to me in the office and went armed with jelly skeletons, pumpkin shaped marshmallows and some toffee viennese whirls. Even Tedster got in on the act :-)

Decorating for Halloween

 

Spent some time on Saturday morning decorating the porch for Halloween - one of my favourite times of the year - apart from trick or treating - I don't agree with that concept.

Put up a few more than I was originally going to, including some hanging bits - like I say, trying to avoid the door knockers looking for treats although I think there's supposed to be a pumpkin code by which people indicate their willingness to participate in the shenanigans.

So this is in the evening with the LED tree lights on and set to orange, although the phone makes them look more red.

Also spent some time practising with some makeup ready for dressing up for charity on Monday at work. Witches dress is hanging up already and was trying to decide on main makeup for my eyes/lips and then trying to draw webs and spiders for the additional "look". Not as easy to draw a straight line on your face as the YouTube videos make it look, even with a pencil rather than liquid liner!

My Grim Reaper rucksack is packed with some decorations for my desk and a few snacks for the "team" - not that there's many people in on a Monday so they should last a little while hopefully 🤞🏻

Autumn Walk - Walderslade Woods

 

Friday afternoon and Dad and I headed along the road to Walderslade Woods looking for some autumn colour - which we found in spades!

A carpet of leaves throughout the woodland and a myriad of fungi of differing species.

Thankfully the woods is reasonably busy, Dad got carried away climbing through the brambles and lost his footing, fell back into a ditch and I had to enlist the help of a lovely chap who'd been cycling through the woods with his young son and dog to help pull Dad up onto his feet again! Nothing broken but his pride - thankfully!

We spent a good 2hr mooching right down to the bottom where it comes out onto the street and then back the other way to the car.

Really mild weather too, only needing a light mac for a change. Long may it continue...

Sunrises and Rainbows

 

Thursday morning saw a wonderful sunrise and then a rainbow as it started raining.

Snapped these two on the mobile and made a collage of them.

Beautiful 😍

Paws in the Park - Annie's 5th B'day

 

So Saturday 22nd October was Annie's 5th birthday - where does the time go?

Julia arranged a meet-up with people from her work and mine to go for a mooch around Mote Park. Lots of doggie snacks and pukka doggie bag take homes, including some for most of the random dog walkers we saw enroute as Julia had expected more people from her work to attend but basically they couldn't be bothered. Not unless there was wine - go figure!

But we had a good crowd nonetheless, we all got on, people and dogs, no squabbling and the dogs enjoyed playing in the water down by the old bridge area - especially Annie:

She was soaked!

All the doggies ended up sleeping for England I think when they got home, especially the 15wk old Andrex puppy Nelson 😍

Everyone is up for doing it again so watch this space...

Autumn Break

 

So have almost completed a week off work, using up most of the rest of my holiday before the year ends and my leave starts again.

Not bad weather in the main, mostly dry and temperatures up and down.

Have pottered about at home, tidying away some more of the knicknacks ready for winter, been out and about with Dad to a local camera club exhibition in Allington - good selection of images. Dobbies where the Christmas shopping started, bought the above gem in a charity shop in Allington, for the princely sum of £4 it was a steal, thought it would be handy for outdoor entertaining on the decking!

Sorted out a memorial with Dad at the Crem for Mum & Margaret, saw the tree below on the grounds:

How gorgeous are the colours on this? Autumn is such a wonderful season.

Finally we took a mooch over to Mote Park in the hopes of finding more Autumn colour - we weren't disappointed:

Again we struck lucky with the weather, just starting to drizzle as we were packing up to leave. Irritatingly the new Café facilities are still being finalised, were supposed to have been open this summer. Now looks like it could be nearer Christmas. And only one set of portaloos at the main entrance just isn't enough for a park area as large as Mote Park. Something else they need to remedy and fast.

Still the temporary café under the trees near the play area served up some awesome food, Dad went for the quarter pounder and I had the egg muffin - lush 😋

Likely to be back there next weekend for a doggie birthday party/gathering for Annie 🐶 Can't believe she will be 5yr old already 😱

Fields Cut - Finally

 

Got home after a day in the office to find that the fields had finally been cut, all bang tidy again after getting waayy too long and the opportunity to cut it during the better weather missed for a short while.

Annie will be chuffed, no more bringing home lots of seeds every time she gets a walk over there 🐶

Got to admit that whilst it can be alluring watching the long grass ripple in the breeze, like the waves on the ocean, it does look nice when its been freshly cut :-)

Julia's Birthday

 

So Sunday 2nd October I went to Leeds Castle with Julia and James to take a last look at the Sculptures before they got packed up for this year and to celebrate Julia's birthday on the Monday.

We had a good day, despite the threat of rain we had a good amount of sunshine and enjoyed the walk around the grounds, admiring the sculptures - some of which were outstanding and generally having a good catch-up.

Probably my favourite sculpture, just a section, but oh so amazing. The drips of "rain" on their faces were part of the sculpture itself. Totally amazeballs 💓

On the Monday evening we had dinner at Pizza Express in Maidstone 🍕 😋

Garage Sealing and Decking Closure

 

So this weekend Dad and I spent some time respraying some more sealant along the wall of the garage that backs onto the garden and a good percentage of the floor having realised that some amount of water seepage was still happening post the spray job back in the summer.

As I wanted to be able to store the decking furniture in the garage over the winter months I was aiming to try and get the garage as dry as possible given it's position within the garden. The image above is post spraying and waiting for it to dry.

So the rattan furniture is now safely tucked away in the drier corner of the garage, on some sheeting Dad's lent me with some tarpaulin laid over the top. Dad had a better idea for the stacking of said furniture and this leaves some space to store the solar lights and other lightweight knicknacks. The large wheeled storage box was also brought down and stacked with the others leaving just the mosaic patio table to sit tucked away in the corner of the top deck and the uber large cushion storage box on the lower deck waiting to be covered at some later stage when I'm 100% sure it's too cold to still sit outside 🥶

Bottom image in the collage above is the now, almost empty, decking. I quite like to see it like this, makes me realise just how big the space is :-)

Impressed with how much space I still have to move around in the garage, after all I'm not done yet with having to mow the grass, sweep off the decking etc. but then it was built to accommodate a Bedford van so bound to be big enough for my gardening paraphernalia. 

Hazel's Funeral

 

Monday 12th Sept saw the family saying a very difficult goodbye to a much loved family friend taken far too soon by the Big C.

We'd grown up together, Darren, me, Hazel and her sister Angela and so saying farewell to such a brave and inspiring woman was never going to be easy. Watching her parents having to deal with a loss like no other was as difficult as you'd imagine it to be 😭

We raised a glass after the service, in a local pub, to a woman who enjoyed life to the full even when she knew it was going to be cut short. She truly was one in a million 💔

Classic Cars - Aylesford Priory

 

Sunday 11th Sept saw Darren, Dad, me and Tedster meet up with Julia, James and Annie over at Aylesford Priory for their annual Classic Car Show.

Awesome as usual, plenty to see, another dry sunny day and warm again. It was good to show my 'bro around, he was visiting for the weekend to attend a funeral on the Monday for a dear family friend, so he brought his EOS R6 along to play with too.

A picnic lunch topped off by Sunday Roast at the local village pub, it was a good day all round.

Going to the Zoo!

 

Saturday 10th Sept saw me, Julia & Tedster head to Wingham with the cameras for some zoo photography. Even Julia took the proper camera, her 700D, instead of snapping on her iPhone ;-)

Here are the otters, James's favourites apparently, really sweet though and they make a lovely sound.

Tedster meets the local T-Rex in the dinosaur area!

We had some good weather, fairly warm after lunch and stayed sunny and dry.

It was good to spend some time with my girl and the cameras 📸