A SpidersEye View: A picture a day

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Had a really busy day today, got to the site at around 9.30, and from then til around 4.30 I was walking around in the mountains in bakey-hot sunshine before driving back to Edinburgh :)

I managed to have a 15min break roundabout midday and watched some distant buzzards. Though the views were amazing it was too hazy to get any decent pics with the Ixus so tried out a SP instead.
 
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I tried something experimental today, I'm starting a 'dramatic sky' project and hoping to improve on my PP a little bit. This is the first time I've made a proper attempt at it. I used 2 seperate layers, for the city I just darkened it then upped the contrast, and for the sky I increased the brightness and contrast, created a negative image of it then tweaked the contrast some more ... pretty basic (took me ages though) but I'm happy with it as a first. The last thing I did was remove all evidence of dust inside the camera ...
 
10 out of 10 for a different approach, looks like an opening scene from a horror movie.

As Cyclone said, play around with the blending mode, reckon the sky could be even better if it was a little brighter, to bring out even more of that fantastic texture ;)
 
cyclone said:
Try duplicating the background and playing with the blending mode ;)
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ShrubMonkey said:
As Cyclone said, play around with the blending mode, reckon the sky could be even better if it was a little brighter, to bring out even more of that fantastic texture ;)
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Thanks for the tip, I'll have a go at that. Expect more sky pictures soon ;)

ShrubMonkey said:
10 out of 10 for a different approach, looks like an opening scene from a horror movie.
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Chillimonster said:
Very post-apocolyptic looking sky there - all thats missing are some 'Terminators'
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Thankyou, that was kind of the look I was aiming for ... it was that kind of day ...
 
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Just a quick one taken on the way home from work. I've been looking through plant ID books quite a bit today, trying to get to grips with sedges again. This is one of the easier ones to identify :)
 
Nice sedge, I have to show my wife all these shots of grasses etc now, as that's her thing too :)
 
Most of the grasses are nicely in fllower now; hopefully I'll be out at the weekend having a look and getting some snaps before the hay fever kicks in :)
 
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I spent a good few hours today looking at badger setts. This is in an area of woodland that they're building houses on all sides of, so 2 of us took a trip over to see if anything's changed since we were there last year. The badgers have been quite busy; this hole is new, and the leaves in the entrance are what they've been taking down into the sett to use as bedding. It isn't easy taking an interesting picture of a hole in the ground, and this is more of a record shot really, but I quite like the dappled shadows :)
 
Another picture to show my wife, in fact I think she will just need to follow your 365 :)

I like the shadows too ;)
 
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I had a much-needed quiet day in today; went out this morning to get some paint, and after trying 3 places that were out of stock of the type I wanted I gave up and went home and did some writing and other such things, so no pics of newly-painted parts of my car (you're probably glad about that).

I decided to try out some lighting experiments, which has given me an idea for another wee project. This one was really technical: 10 second exposure, shining a torch through a glass of rose wine to get the pink effect, and I left the TV on to get the blue area on the steel (which is actually an egg timer on its side).

It's funny what ideas come to mind when you've had most of a bottle of wine! :)
 
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I had a trip over to the Botanic Gardens this afternoon. We've had a good sunny day here and the light shining through the canopy was quite pretty :)
 
Some lovely shots over the last few days SpidersEye :) (y)

Really like the pendulous sedge and the troubled sky :)
 
Ooops .... missed day 94, I was going to get a picture of the sky at midnight as there's still quite alot of light left just now, but I was tired, so ... :|

2 pictures coming up later today :)
 
It's interesting that your watching badger movements, my Grandparents have had them visiting for about 15 years!
 
cyclone said:
It's interesting that your watching badger movements, my Grandparents have had them visiting for about 15 years!
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Wow, that's great. I think badgers are fascinating, they're great to monitor aswell, they leave great signs as to where they've been and what they're up to. I don't really see too many of them unfortunately, just signs :)
 
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I haven't been feeling that inspired today (lots going on :shake:). I saw this when I was walking past the cricket field on the way home and thought it might make an abstract of sorts, but I'm not too sure now.
 
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They've been busy demolishing Broughton High School for some time now, and the old building is all but gone. I'm not sure what they'll do with the space, but I'm sure something new will be built there before long.
 
Day 96 ... I did get a picture for today but as I didn't get home til 1am (17hrs after I left home this morning) it isn't quite ready for showing and I'm too tired out to finish tweaking it now :(

I'm away for the weekend from tomorrow, so my next update will be either Saturday or Sunday, which will be day 100 I believe :)

Edit: Day 96 of 365

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Another gloomy sky attempt (using blend mode ;)). This was taken from Princes Street Gardens looking straight up at Edinburgh Castle.
 
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I've been away since Thursday on a work outing to the Cairngorms. Yesterday afterrnoon everyone went Canadian Canoeing at Loch an Eilein, except for the 2 of us that opted out and had a wander round the Loch instead. It was a superb day and the water was a great shade of blue :)
 
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Photographing birds in flight is incredibly difficult :thinking:

I know that technically this picture doesn't have a whole lot going for it, but I couldn't be any happier that I managed to get this :D

It was really drizzly and gloomy this morning when we were watching it, which didn't help matters, so I've altered the brightness/contrast and sharpness a little, but I don't want to do any more to it :)
 
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Day 100 - I'm really quite happy that I've managed to make it this far :D

I haven't taken a picture for today, instead I decided to have a bit of fun and do a montage of detail from my last 99 pictures. I've really enjoyed this challenge so far, and also pleased I haven't run out of ideas yet :)

So thanks for following ... :)
 
Kay - congratulations on your century!!:clap::clap:

You never fail to inspire, surpirse and delight me every time I drop in on your thread. Of the last few, I'm bowled over by: 99, 96, 93, 90, 88 - all outstanding, and the others are good, well-observed, varied and well shot.

Keep up the good work. :)

Jean
 
JDholic said:
Give us a tip Kay! I've ran out of ideas countless times!!

Montage looks good. (y)
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Thankyou :)

I have a 'to do' list of things that I want to try out, which at the moment involves improving my PP skills as I haven't really done that much before. I'm enjoying playing with skies at the moment :)

ShrubMonkey said:
Nice montage Kay :)
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Thanks very much, I had fun making it :)

jeangenie said:
Kay - congratulations on your century!!:clap::clap:

You never fail to inspire, surpirse and delight me every time I drop in on your thread. Of the last few, I'm bowled over by: 99, 96, 93, 90, 88 - all outstanding, and the others are good, well-observed, varied and well shot.

Keep up the good work. :)

Jean
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Thank you Jean, it's much appreciated.

I'm glad you like the osprey and the gloomy castle pic, they're 2 of my recent favourites :)
 
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For yesterday ...

The building where I work is currently being renovated / redecorated and there are strange objects turning up everywhere. This is a piece of lead flashing that's been left on a windowsill. All I've really done is messed around with the contrast, hue & saturation and sharpened it to bring out the texture and make it look a bit less like lead.
 
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This was taken yesterday but I didn't get round to posting it. Just a quick one before I left work. Reflections of windows in windows, taken through a window :LOL:
 
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Edinburgh seems to be a great place for invasive plants. This one's just starting to grow quite tall along the Water of Leith just now. The seeds 'explode' out of the seed pods and get carried downstream, and more plants grow, and before long they start to swamp out native plants. They have quite pretty flowers though; I'll get a picture of an open one later in the month :)
 
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This was taken through the kitchen window, just before midnight tonight. I was going to get one at midnight so it was on the right day but the clouds were heading in so this one's a day early!

This was a 6 second exposure; it's had nothing done to it. It just shows how much light's left in the sky now though, it doesn't really get dark :)
 
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