Portrait to Panorama.(or content aware scaling)

It's pretty amazing what you can do with modern software, here a portrait format image and a panorama of the same shot, not bad you say, but the truth is they are exactly the same picture, from the exact same jpeg, just stretched and compressed from a normal shot in Photoshop using content aware scaling, I made a simple selection around the lighthouse and used that to "protect" it from the compressing/stretching effects, using the options built in photoshop.

Wayne

Small Planets.

These are called small planets, basically you take a normal photo and turn it into a ball, this one hasn't worked too well because the trees have "ghosted" really you need a certain type of image to work (and this wasn't one lol) but it gives you the idea.

Wayne

Sherlock Holmes 2009 (film review)

I watched the movie Sherlock Holmes today, here's my review.
Sherlock Holmes 2009. Directed by Guy Ritchie and staring Robert Downey jr as Sherlock with Jude Law as Watson.
The film moves away from the "classic" dear stalker Basil Rathbone style, into a darker younger feel, in some ways actually closer to the books of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
The film is action packed and the locations and CGI graphic stunning, really giving the feel of Victorian London.
The movie is fast paced and well acted, I thoroughly enjoyed it, well worth a watch.
My rating 9/10

Police lost touch with reality again.

It seems rosy cheeked Mr Plod is at it again. Obviously real criminals are far too difficult to catch so he's chasing the soft target Mr Motorist yet again.

I'll explain, it seems the police have decided to take a zero tolerance approach to people... eating sweets while driving, yes a humble mint imperial could cost you a £30 fixed penalty fine and 3 points. Perhaps they haven't heard the word Humbug.

This really annoys me, with lots of serious crimes on the increase our boys in blue are busy stopping motorists as usual, scoff a mars bar while driving and you'll hear the two tones siren in no time, call them out for a burglary and they turn up next Thursday if your lucky, they really don't seem to have their priorities right, and sadly they are loosing the respect of the public as a result.

Recently section 44 of the anti terrorist act was overturned in the European court of human rights mainly because the police had used it as a general stop and search tool instead of the anti terror measure it was intended, thus they lost a possibly valued tool by misuse.
They stopped over a 108.000 and 65 were arrested for possible terror offences, although as I understand it none were actually charged with any terror related offence later.

During the bad weather period a mate of mine was stopped and booked for having ice on his window. Fair enough if he couldn't see where he going like those people who clear a little "slit" and peer through that but no, it was a tiny patch of ice/snow in the top corner of his windscreen above where the wipers clean, and that in.... falling heavy snow.
What did they expect on his windscreen in a blizzard a bloody albatross?
You could even still smell the de-icer he'd use to clear the window before setting out.

The next thing you see is the police appealing for help, have you seen so and so? and wondering why the response is bad. Maybe it's because they p****d off all those basically honest people who would have helped them before they became prats?

More snow pics.

A few more snow images from my winter walk, I haven't had much chance to shoot recently so I'm afraid nothing new today.

Wayne

Misty day.

Today was quite misty, heres a few shots taken above the mist showing it sitting in the valley. To be honest I was hoping it would be up the mountain as well, I like taking the trees through the mist with the sun behind them, but sadly I was out of luck.

Wayne

A few more snow pics.

Here are a few more snow pics, I'm not getting much time to shoot these days sadly, weather permitting I'm hoping to get out tomorrow and gets some pics. Hoping for mist/fog!

First Haircut.

First haircut.... no not mine, babies! This is 5 day old baby Maryium, and she's having her first haircut, this is a tradition and helps the hair grow back even thicker I'm told. To be fair she didn't seem to mind at all, and gran (shown here with baby) was very gentle.

Although it looks a bit scary it's actually very slow gentle and carefull, baby didn't even notice.

Wayne

Irresponsible television !

Yesterday I watched ITV's breakfast tv, during the program they showed a film of people skating on a pond somewhere, followed closely by the mention that A Scottish curling team were holding their first meeting on a lake in years.
As they said it I thought thats a really stupid thing to do, every winter people fall through the ice on ponds etc.
Sure enough on the evening news the story of 2 brother in Leicester who drowned that day, then a 6 year old in Berkshire, his condition is unknown. I can't help wondering if they went on the ice after seeing the news item in the morning.

Please don't go on ice, it's really dangerous. even if the ice is thick enough to support your weight theres no telling it's the same thickness all over. It's often very uneven, the thickness is affected by a lot of factors, currents or air pockets under the ice also affect the freezing and thawing.

Snow Joke.

I don't know whats going on with this country, but it's getting well beyond a joke now.

For weeks before the snow gritting lorries were up my street every night, then when the snow fell.... a silence fell, no gritting lorries to be seen. It baffles me, why in the name of all that's holy would you stop gritting when there's snow on the ground, that's when it's needed most.
Some streets around here the snows packed down into sheet ice, and with the temperature dropping (-4c last night and getting colder) it's bloody dangerous. I slid down one road yesterday, ok I was taking it easy, but heaven help if you hit it going quick.

This country is the laughing stock of Europe, many places got a lot more snow than we do but keep going, but here a few inches bring the place to a standstill. Why are we always so unprepared and amateur about everything we do.

Just a passing thought but are we holding the winter Olympics in 2012? they'll be a laugh, the contestants wont be able to get to the venues because everything will have stopped or closed, all they will be able to do is panic buy bread and milk like the rest of us.

Winters tale 2

Heres the second part of my winters walk photos, the waterfalls a good walk from where you can park, probaby a couple of miles, worth the walk though. I did a circular route hoping to find more pics, so will be posting those as I go along.

Wayne

A Winters Tale.

I went a nice short winters walk the other day, it involved driving to Brecon (nearly) on terrible roads then a gentle walk of about 8 miles across the hills. Not too bad unless you fall in a bog like my mate, who lost his sense of humour when I suggested bivy-ing down for the night in minus 4c, but then he hadn't come prepared for a night out... I had lol.

Virus

I managed to get a very agressive computer virus over the weekend, it pretty much killed my PC, it was one of these fake antivirus ones that infect everything, I got it from a link sent by a mate. Had to do a total format and re-install.
Oh for 5 minutes alone with the bastard who made it.

Happy New Year

I'd like to wish you all a very happy new year and good luck for the future.
Last night I went to see a band play, it was rather odd watching 2 of the band "Kiss" Ozzy Osbourne and Snow White playing at the same time on stage, quite surreal I would say.
Hopefully back to normal with more posts soon, it's been a bit hectic the last week or so.
Wayne