My course at Telford College recently came to a close and left me slightly disappointed and needing something else. Our tutor was a nice guy but slightly disorganised and seemed to have not updated the course, or its files, since last time the course ran. I feel we spent waaaay too much time on Photoshop changing, for example, the colour of lamp posts instead of learning about actual photography. I know not everyone is going to be happy all the time but the title "Introduction to Digital Photography" was vague and had little accompanying detail to help make a decision. Hence me getting a bit bored, yet someone else who by week 4 still didn't know how to turn the flash off on her camera. It was hard to say who the course was pitched at really but the "digital" side should have been more clearly emphasised over the "photography" side.
So now I am going to try un-digital photography at Stevenson College - they have a beginners course using black and white film techniques and darkroom processing. Maybe that's what I'm looking for, and in the meantime I'll keep happily snapping away to myself.
Speaking of which, I am really enjoying taking my camera round the streets of Edinburgh where the whole summer / tourist / festival thing is really kicking off. I enjoy taking pictures of people going about their business but of course there are rules. Try sticking a camera suddenly in someone's face and they tend not to like it, and I don't quite have the guts of this guy.
I am learning, though, to sit still and let the people come to me. In a strange reversal, while a moving photographer suddenly photographing a stationary person can be seen as invasive, a moving person walking into a photographer's shot generally apologises for being there...
Showing posts with label Edinburgh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Edinburgh. Show all posts
Saturday, July 03, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Shoe 3
So, here's an odd one. How many shoes would you expect to find within, say, a mile? I think finding one once would be something you'd remember but the cycle path from Cramond Brig to Dalmeny seems to have more that its fair share - four at the moment, to be exact.
Now I am not into shoes, or feet, as anyone who knows me will tell you. In summer my delight at the plunging necklines of basking ladies is wholly spoiled by the accompanying unveiling of crusty toes with the obligatory badly painted nails. Boke.
But I couldn't help noticing these discarded shoes along the path - and from the way they sit they don't appear to have been thrown from a car. Shoe 4 in particular has been placed lovingly on a wall. Shoe 1 still has its price ticket on (£5 in the sale FYI). Shoe 2 is the only right one and only Shoe 3 has signs of ever having been worn.
Three are left, one is right.
Kleptomaniac podophiliac? (Boy is THAT going to get some fun visitors to the blog...) Monopod litterbug? Crimewatch episode waiting to happen?
Or what?
Now I am not into shoes, or feet, as anyone who knows me will tell you. In summer my delight at the plunging necklines of basking ladies is wholly spoiled by the accompanying unveiling of crusty toes with the obligatory badly painted nails. Boke.
But I couldn't help noticing these discarded shoes along the path - and from the way they sit they don't appear to have been thrown from a car. Shoe 4 in particular has been placed lovingly on a wall. Shoe 1 still has its price ticket on (£5 in the sale FYI). Shoe 2 is the only right one and only Shoe 3 has signs of ever having been worn.
Three are left, one is right.
Kleptomaniac podophiliac? (Boy is THAT going to get some fun visitors to the blog...) Monopod litterbug? Crimewatch episode waiting to happen?
Or what?
Monday, June 21, 2010
On a bus
Felt rather naked without my camera on Saturday and had to make to with my phone instead. I enjoy playing with the "Hipstamatic" camera but it gives you a completely false sense of creativity.
Spent the day on a "treasure hunt" round Edinburgh as part of a colleague's retirement day - reading plaques and statues to answer touristy style questions. It was actually good, and the city put on a good show of sun, colour and ice cream.
Then we went to the Jam House where the food was tasty but tiny, the live music was good but too noisy for a meal, and the clientele were over 50 and too horny to even enjoy their beers.
Spent the day on a "treasure hunt" round Edinburgh as part of a colleague's retirement day - reading plaques and statues to answer touristy style questions. It was actually good, and the city put on a good show of sun, colour and ice cream.
Then we went to the Jam House where the food was tasty but tiny, the live music was good but too noisy for a meal, and the clientele were over 50 and too horny to even enjoy their beers.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Google reaches the Zenith of its purpose - me.
I am disproportionally excited to have found myself in Google Street VIew, which has just been published for 25 cities across the UK.
If I look slow it's because the Suzuki had probably just broken down again, and I was coasting to a halt for the 3rd time that day.
View Larger Map
If I look slow it's because the Suzuki had probably just broken down again, and I was coasting to a halt for the 3rd time that day.
View Larger Map
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Palm
A busy few days at Carson Crescent recently.
I pulled a Valentine coup on Saturday night by springing a surprise overnight stay on Lorna, at the Cringletie House Hotel. One of my readers will remember this as the wedding night hotel. She knew nothing about where we were going, or that I had secured Gill and Gary's early evening babysitting as well as Muriel's overnight services. As we were heading through Penicuik she did fear the worst, a chip supper at the bus stop for old time's sake, but all was reveled and as the guy at the hotel began to explain about rooms and breakfast arrangements her surprise was worth all the backroom plotting. Yay.
Saturday also saw us off to Dundee to celebrate Nana's 90th - a family spectacular, and she even gave a speech thanking us all though included the sentiment, with a laugh, "I never wanted to live this long..."
And today we spent time with Mum and Don at the Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh feeding squirrels and looking for snowdrops. The squirrel feeding was not helped by squawking children running about wondering why the squirrels were hard to find...
I pulled a Valentine coup on Saturday night by springing a surprise overnight stay on Lorna, at the Cringletie House Hotel. One of my readers will remember this as the wedding night hotel. She knew nothing about where we were going, or that I had secured Gill and Gary's early evening babysitting as well as Muriel's overnight services. As we were heading through Penicuik she did fear the worst, a chip supper at the bus stop for old time's sake, but all was reveled and as the guy at the hotel began to explain about rooms and breakfast arrangements her surprise was worth all the backroom plotting. Yay.
Saturday also saw us off to Dundee to celebrate Nana's 90th - a family spectacular, and she even gave a speech thanking us all though included the sentiment, with a laugh, "I never wanted to live this long..."
And today we spent time with Mum and Don at the Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh feeding squirrels and looking for snowdrops. The squirrel feeding was not helped by squawking children running about wondering why the squirrels were hard to find...
Monday, June 09, 2008
The League of Barely Perceptible Salutations
It's another cycling post I'm afraid. It has been very interesting (to me) watching the numbers of cyclists increase as the year has gone one. The better weather helps for certain, and on good days there are easily 5 times more bikes on the cycle paths than on wet ones. But I reckon there's a cost implication too, as the ludicrous price of petrol continues its slow bite and people actually begin to experiment with having some money at the end of the month again.
Of course, there is a clear divide between "real" cyclists, the ones with the 1000 yard stare who talk bravely about their experiences cycling in "January", and the new wave of Johnny-come-lately fair-weather lightweight...well, you know. This leads to a kind of sneering bike-snobbery, mainly from people like me, which is unfortunately demonstrating that "road rage", the name given to the act of hitting someone over the head with your wheel brace until they stop moving, is badly named. It's simply "human rage", because it's beginning to infect the formerly friendly, tranquil lanes wending their gentle way through Granton and Drylaw.
It's caused by exactly the same issues as car-human-rage... bad indicating, refusing to give way and all the other petty but actually-very-serious-at-7-in-the-morning trangressions which make you want to...well...hit someone over the head with your bicycle pump until they stop moving. And that would take a while, pumps are not heavy. And you'd have to chase them, sort of like jousting.
Anyway, the in-crowd of the cycle ways can identify each other by the way they refuse to actually ever say hello, and seem to dread being seen to be friendly. But there is also the fear of being seen to be unfriendly, leading to a greeting which falls somewhere between a shrug, a twitch and something in your eye. Hill walkers will be familiar with the concept that the only two people for miles can pass each other in the middle of the Ardnamurchan Peninsula with only a grunt and a wry look to the rain clouds. Any more than that is simply being over familiar. Well, it's the same kind of thing. Heaven help the loser who actually tries to form the word "hello" or dare to identify the time of day with a mumbled "Morning" or "Afternoon". But conversely the regulars expect some sort of greeting which is where the Barely Perceptible Salutation comes in. You can't be taught it, you have to earn it.
Of course, there is a clear divide between "real" cyclists, the ones with the 1000 yard stare who talk bravely about their experiences cycling in "January", and the new wave of Johnny-come-lately fair-weather lightweight...well, you know. This leads to a kind of sneering bike-snobbery, mainly from people like me, which is unfortunately demonstrating that "road rage", the name given to the act of hitting someone over the head with your wheel brace until they stop moving, is badly named. It's simply "human rage", because it's beginning to infect the formerly friendly, tranquil lanes wending their gentle way through Granton and Drylaw.
It's caused by exactly the same issues as car-human-rage... bad indicating, refusing to give way and all the other petty but actually-very-serious-at-7-in-the-morning trangressions which make you want to...well...hit someone over the head with your bicycle pump until they stop moving. And that would take a while, pumps are not heavy. And you'd have to chase them, sort of like jousting.
Anyway, the in-crowd of the cycle ways can identify each other by the way they refuse to actually ever say hello, and seem to dread being seen to be friendly. But there is also the fear of being seen to be unfriendly, leading to a greeting which falls somewhere between a shrug, a twitch and something in your eye. Hill walkers will be familiar with the concept that the only two people for miles can pass each other in the middle of the Ardnamurchan Peninsula with only a grunt and a wry look to the rain clouds. Any more than that is simply being over familiar. Well, it's the same kind of thing. Heaven help the loser who actually tries to form the word "hello" or dare to identify the time of day with a mumbled "Morning" or "Afternoon". But conversely the regulars expect some sort of greeting which is where the Barely Perceptible Salutation comes in. You can't be taught it, you have to earn it.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
I'm a hero with coward's legs.
I am riddled with guilt having not helped someone yesterday. As I was unpacking the car of shopping there was shouting coming from the far end of the streeet. Two guys were running, being chased by another guy who was doing the shouting - it was obvious they had nicked something from him and he was chasing them. "Can you help me please?" he asked. They were running my way.
What I want to be able to say is that I blocked their way, shouted at them, demanded they give him back the personal CD player one was holding, looked menacing and saved the day. But of course, I didn't. Thoughts of knives and the real value of a CD player stopped me. They ran past, split up in different directions and the chasing guy picked one (the right one, as it happened) and kept chasing.
I am really cross and disappointed in myself for not helping, but in the same situation I would probably do the exact same nothing. I guess I am not a 'have-a-go-hero' this time.
What I want to be able to say is that I blocked their way, shouted at them, demanded they give him back the personal CD player one was holding, looked menacing and saved the day. But of course, I didn't. Thoughts of knives and the real value of a CD player stopped me. They ran past, split up in different directions and the chasing guy picked one (the right one, as it happened) and kept chasing.
I am really cross and disappointed in myself for not helping, but in the same situation I would probably do the exact same nothing. I guess I am not a 'have-a-go-hero' this time.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Edinburgh Trams - the vision
Just thought I'd share this with you - it appears to be an early website laying out the vision of trams in Edinburgh...but, come on, surely any moron with Photoshop and a brain could do better then this!? I mean, how did you do the tracks...crayon?
NETCo...>
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