Fun Stuff: January 2011 Archives
I took my photoMate 887 (lite) GPS tracker along on Saturday and recorded the whole trip. Yesterday I downloaded the track and tied it to all the photos I took. It actually worked really well. I used the GPS Photo Tagger that came with the tracker (well sort of - I had to download it). It seemed to save all the GPS data, as verified by GeoSetter. Although for some reason this data didn't show up on all the pics that went up on the RiotACT today (it's there in the full details page on the Picasa album, but not on the regular photo information bar).
Today I took my poor little laser out on the crazy rock roads to Bendora Dam!! (Not much dirt - much has been washed away recently - they were even regrading chunks of it). So averaged probably 40km/h on most of it.
First stop was at Piccadilly Circus to photograph the signs, and some flutterbys
Then onto the dam.
The dam is still full to overflowing.
Saw a cool bird. Possibly an Australian Kestrel.
Edit: according to Chris it's a young Osprey
Walked down to try and get a view of the front of the dam. Climbed on a concrete pedestal to get a view over the fence.
Then continued wandering down the road.
Past some of the water pipes. Some of our drinking water goes through this.
Further down there's a little causeway that was overflowing.
Went back up the hill and found a stairway under the bridge downstream from the river that went down to the river.
Found a skink that had lost its tail recently.
And an unobstructed view of the dam. This place would have been flooded last month when all five spillways were spilling.
Stopped there for something to eat, and several lizards came out to investigate.
My car struggled somewhat getting back to the top of the ridge between the ACT and NSW, but it made it.
Stopped at the old arboretum at the top of the hill.
And when there was a view of Canberra
And at Cotter Dam
And the Cotter River (which was at much more normal levels than the last time I was there)
Phewf!! 177km later! 3782m ascent, 3286m decent (odd, since I started and finished at home). Probably won't get out there again any time soon!
It's Friday but it doesn't really feel like it. I'm sure I'm going to wake up tomorrow thinking I'm going to have to go to work.
Spent this evening scanning another 67 photos from (mostly) 1991. Last year of high school, so a few of the last weeks of school. Lots of memories there. I tried emailing Chris (Crust) on her last birthday earlier this week but got no response, so no idea if the email address works (I got it a year or so ago) or if she just doesn't like me anymore heh (I'm terrible at keeping contact with people). Oh crap, that reminds me, I never wrote to Linenoise! Gah!
And also the study camp where I met my first boyfriend Mark, and our high school formal.
And a few other bits and pieces. Including some experimental photos my brother took, probably in mid-late 1991, of the stars and other long exposure experiments.
And a picture of my collection of models in 1992, with considerably less dust on them than they do now..
So other than our food shopping, didn't do much else today.
I did do the first couple of water colours in my new calendar...
I'd been looking at this calendar since late last year and umming and ahhing about whether to get it. I almost got it a couple of times. Then when the calendar place dropped to 70% off I decided to get it.
There's three a week - one for Monday/Tuesday, Wednesday/Thursday and Friday/Saturday/Sunday. I doubt that I'll be able to keep up with that (I only did two today!). I was reminded of why I'm not the hugest fan of water colour paints - they're actually pretty tricky to work with to get strong enough colours - yellow especially is awful. I prefer runny paints. Not that I've painted anything in twenty years apart from model kits.
Anyways.
Here's the first two (original to copy on the left, my lame attempts on the right)
This time with my high school photos.
Urgh high school hey. Plenty of good memories .. plenty of bad ones..
2011 will be twenty years since we finished high school in 1991. Our year was the last year to go through year 12 in the girls school, as after that they merged with the boys school across the road to become "The Jannali High School".
Sadly it looks like I never got around to labelling this photo. Oh well.. Have uploaded them all to Friends Reunited anyway.
The SIL has been playing with all sorts of photographic effects for a while now. My brother is not impressed. I can see where my brother is coming from. Why take a photo of something then abuse it so it doesn't really resemble what you took a picture of. And to some extent I agree (my biggest gripes are with the photos that take the image then mirror it or flip it around.. I really don't see the point of those). But on the other hand, if you're just having a bit of fun, and the pictures you're taking really aren't *of* anything in particular, then putting some effects on them makes them a bit more interesting.
Like this photo of Stu taken at Knead Patisserie today. I take plenty of pictures of Stu, but to be a bit different, I added an Instagram effect (can't remember which one!). Not a very exciting (or even very good) photo, but the original is even less so.
Or these pics of the Belconnen Markets. The original was created with Pro HDR. The HDR exposes for both the shadows of the shops and the bright sail. So it's already looking better than a regular photo would. But really the content isn't that exciting. Why not apply an old-school filter to it, then you could look at it think it was out of someone's photo collection from the 1960s or 1970s.
I really liked this picture of a random guy sitting at a table. With the "antique" Lightroom filter it looks more interesting than the original below it.
And a picture of Stu's coffee. Again, completely boring subject matter, but livened up with an Instagram filter.
So I can see its point as art. Because you're not trying to faithfully recreate the original scene. You're manipulating something that would otherwise have little interest and have some fun with it.
Ok this is just gross. Moral of the story: don't walk outside in bare feet. Fortunately I didn't step on any (even with shoes on that would have been just gross). There was a good ten or so of these in a couple of metres of path outside.
.. birthday David Bowie!
.. blogiversary to me!
This will be part one I think.. will give me material for another blog entry or two that way ;)
DaveO the other day asked if I'd been out to Coppins Crossing, because the bridge was damaged and could make a good photo-op.
Sure enough, it was a bit of a mess...
Saw this cute little birdie too.. no idea what it is.. I might have sent it into the RiotACT but they're getting much better bird pics so probably won't bother (besides this is almost full pixels).