Goodbye 2008

A beautiful day ending a pretty crap year.

Surprise Meeting

Thia afternoon I was heading back to Priddy Pool for yet another attempt at photographing the plants frozen into the ice which covers the whole pond, when in the distance I noticed someone coming in my direction with a dog offlead. I got Blue and Rosie to sit quietly as he approached. When we were close enough to speak, and started to discuss dogs, I noticed his eyes - very blue, and something familiar about them. He was young (25 he later told me), a kind face and easy to talk to, we chatted for several minutes and then things started to fall into place. Rob (his name) is the nephew of a person I knew when I was just a teenager, a boyfriend called Tony, amazingly he knew of me and said that I was mentioned sometimes - "That Caroline" !!

Anyway I hope Rob or Stephen or Tony might read this and know that it really made my day to have a brush with my past, even though it was rather fleeting. If you want to contact me anytime, email or phone is fine, it would be good to reminisce :-)

Mendip Walk - Charterhouse to Cheddar and Back

A bright and frosty start to the day with a bitter wind that at times felt it was tearing the skin from my face. The recorded temperature was -2°C but the 'real feel' according to Accuweather was -9°C.



The route:- Charterhouse - Velvet Bottom - Black Rock - Cheddar Cliffs - Cheddar - skirting Batts Combe Quarry and then Piney Sleight - joining the West Mendip Way alongside Longwood - Velvet Bottom and back to Charterhouse.

It was quite hazy in the distance making photography of the potentially stunning views from the route along the top of the Gorge difficult. However, this didn't lessen the enjoyment of a classic Mendip walk.

Chritmas at Home

Christmas Day started typically for up here on the Mendips, dull, grey and cold but soon brightened up and by lunchtime a brisk walk was calling. There was barely a cloud in the sky, a fresh wind and a chill in the air. The light was quite good for photography but for landscapes I need some clouds - blue skies just don't do it for me :-(

The dogs were all on fine form, it must have been a good day for scenting as they were all very busy exploring bramble patches, rabbit holes etc. Lots of people were out enjoying the sunshine and there was generally a very happy atmosphere, greetings being exchanged with passing walkers and dogs.

Boxing Day - in keeping with tradition, the Mendip Farmers Hunt meet was at the New Inn in Priddy. Since hunting was banned in 2004 it seems the number of people coming to the meet increases year on year, there was also a large number of riders too. I walked into the village rather than driving which meant one less car contributing to the gridlock that always follows when the riders move off. It's almost impossible to take photographs because of the crowds of people and everyone seems to be trying to grab a shot of the Master, hounds, the horses decked out for Christmas. It's a great social gathering, with mulled wine and a pig roast to help keep warm.


Looking down on the Green was the best way to see the sheer number of people and riders.




What are you looking at ?


I was nearly flattened by this group of riders trying to catch up with the field.


Cam Valley Morris have danced at the Meet for as long as I can remember, they were a bit short of dancers this year but 'The Beast' made up for that. Created by Ama and Peter Bolton and inhabited by Jim Shurmer.

Christmas Eve - A White Christmas ?

Our crazy English weather has switched back to mild and dismal for the past several days, truly making this blog live up to its name. However the forecast is at least for it to get colder as today progresses so it may begin to feel a little seasonal. I can remember a very bad winter back in my childhood when it snowed on Boxing Day and remained for months, but in recent years we seem to get snow in a very fleeting manner in March or April.


From Deer Leap towards Glastonbury


Looking across the Levels from Deer Leap

Happy Dancing

A dear friend from a Yahoo List sent me this video link - apparently it's impossible not to smile while watching it .......


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Certainly brought a smile to my face.

Images in a Sphere - A new Technique

I love to take photographs of flowers, especially those that grow in my garden. Looking back on them reminds me that spring is about 3 months away and distracts me from the dismally grey weather we have today. Its definitely a Blog for the Fog day today!
However I thought I would share a technique I came across recently which seems to be a fun way of creating unusual images from some of the flowers images that I already have.

Software Required:-
1. Gimp (free download available from Gimp)
2. Photoshop or any photo editing program that can throw a lighting effect onto the image.

Method:-
Pick yourself a good image with lots of colour etc. (Does not have to be flowers can be anything.

A. Open up GIMP and load your selected image.
B. Then go to FILTER / MAP / MAKE SEAMLESS
C. You will now see the image has been distorted a bit but do not worry.
D. Then go to FILTER / DISTORTS / POLAR COORDINATES and play with the offset angle to get your desired image and then click OK.
E. Your image will now load as a sphere probably with a white background. Personally I think they look so much better with a black background so click on the BUCKET FILL TOOL and make sure your background colour is set to black and click in the white area. Your background will now be black.
F. Save the image.

Open Photoshop, and load your new image. Go to FILTER / RENDER / LIGHTING EFFECTS. Change the light type to spotlight and adjust to taste.

It is a very simple procedure, the knack is choosing the right image. Thanks to Steve Smith at RedBubble for sharing this technique, you can see some of his images here