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).