TAKE ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY EIGHT a

Monday's Critters

There were no whooo-maaaans around to use the picnic table, so it was serving a secondary purpose as scratching post!!!

Taken with the 'Nik' on auto.

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SUNdays

The sun heads rimward, whispering on the ear of Brancaster Beach. ...and that is not monochrome!!!

Taken with the 'Nik' on auto.

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Saturday Symmetry

Standing on the slope of Dunoon's Castle House gardens, a wider view of the Victorian pier was easier to capture and emphasises the symmetry of the structure.

















Taken with the 'Nik' on auto.

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"How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind."

(Bob Dylan)

...This song needs sung again...

Plantago Lanceolata ('whip plantain') is a wild flower of childhood memory; the stems can be taken off at base, twisted round themselves and whipped up to catch the heads off, shooting them at an opponent.  We called it 'playing soldiers'. 

Taken with the 'Nik' on macro mode (in a high wind!).

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Due to my being on the road for over a week, I had forgotten to remind you about the additional little challenge I have tagged on to the Thursday Challenge group.

Last Thursday - the day when things can go haywire, or are just plain peculiar! It is open only to those amateurs who partake also in the THURSDAY CHALLENGE.  (Why?  ...just because...) The one slight slack I will give in this is to regular commenters on this blog.  Over at TC this week the prompt was SOFT (anything) and as the premise of Last Thursday of the month is to get creative and play around in software to produce an image the camera could not, I feel the two can combine this month.

This is one of my scanned prints from the archives.  It was taken with my own Minolta SLR, with delayed shutter mechanism.  That is Jasper Cat MacLean, silver ghost, shoulder-hugging cuddle puss extraordinaire. Softest cat I ever had the honor to know. He was 7 months here; he was with me for 17 years more...

I have used FOTOR free software to manipulate this small image into greyed vignette with aperture 1.4 soft focus tilt and added the transparent border. (This all did obscure my watermark - but I trust you...)

Okay folks, over to you!

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Wings on Wednesday - 
YAM's take on the good the bad the ugly and the downright hilarious of photographing birds.

Candle-light and sunsets are so flattering to the aging face...and the common bird.  In this case a wood pigeon.  This was last week at Hunstanton Cliff; one of my favourite moments on the East Anglian trip. (Go on, click it, you will not regret it!)

Taken with the 'Nik' on sunset mode and lens extended 5x optical zoom. 

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The Tuesday Tease

"I asked you once and I ask you again... are. you. looking. at me???"

This baboon was showing signs of being camera shy... Kenya 1981.  A Kodak instamatic scanned print.

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Monday's Critters

Thirty years ago, even before the days of the Minolta SLR, there was a couple of years of the Kodak Instamatic... very hand when on pilgirmage on the island of Iona.  One of my scanned print series.  Look carefull to left by shore - farmer making sure I didn't take liberties with his beauties!

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SUNdays

This was taken at the Kelpies in Helix Park... that wee peek of sunlight was irresistible!


Taken with the 'Nik' on auto... natural colour of the steel in the shadow.

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Saturday Symmetry

...I'm having de ja vu... think I may have posted this before, but am on the tablet in a distant place and don't have my prepared blog images to hand.  Oh well.  It's a find chain.

Taken with the 'Nik' on B&W manual mode set at 400ISO.

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"Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun."
(Pablo Picasso)

Wild Gorse taken with the 'Nik' on macro mode.

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For our Thursday Challenge this week the prompt is TRAIL...

This was a path in the forest up behind Dunoon which appealed to me yet could not be trod due to time constraint.

There was an other-worldly feel to the place and I have advanced this a little with some minor processing using a new bit of software called FOTOR - an app for Windows 8.  I got a new toy y'see. An ASUS tab and am posting from that this week.  Fun and games...

Taken with the 'Nik' on auto then shadow processing later.

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Wings on Wednesday - 
YAMs take on the good, the bad, the ugly and the downright hilarious in photographing birds.

Oyster catchers on the machair by Loch Long...choosing worms for variety!!!

Taken with the 'Nik' on auto and lens out to 15x optical.

Your turn...ornithological offerings only please!

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The Tuesday Tease

...the natives growing restless on the Southern shore, d'ya think?.. 

No, actually; just as last Sunday I shared a phenomenon of light, now the same spot appears to be sucking the very clouds to the ground!

Taken with the 'Nik' on auto.

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Monday's Critters

In Scottish weather, you sail as long as it is not actually waves bigger than your craft.  You also ensure all passengers wear their safety gear...

Taken with the 'Nik' on auto and lens stretched 10x optical; they were far from shore!

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SUNdays

One wet evening late in May I looked Southward from the window... an lo! there shone a light.  An amazing effect; it seemed the setting sun had found an outlet via mist droplets on the far hills.  This was not a rainbow of the traditional pattern.  More your spotlight with side bars kind of thing.  A weird and wonderful moment.

Taken with the 'Nik' on sunset mode.

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Saturday Symmetry

At the foot of Dunoon's main street is this band stand and 'amphitheatre'.  Have yet to witness any happenings here...

Taken with the 'Nik' on auto.

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"For myself, I hold no preferences among flowers, so long as they are wild and free, spontaneous..."
(Edward Abbey)

Taken with the 'Nik' on macro mode.

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Can it really be Thursday again???  The Challenge this week is BRIGHT COLOURS...

In Scottish waters, languostine and crab pots often float and are found again by their brightly coloured markers bouys.

Taken with the 'Nik' on standard focus, manual mode set at 200ISO.

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Wings on Wednesday -

YAM's take on the good, the bad, the ugly and the downright hilarious in respect to photographing birds.

This swan surfed in on the swell of Loch Lomond...it had it's eye beaded on me but lost interest when it realised the white thing in my hand was not bread, but a handkerchief.

Taken with the 'Nik' on auto.


Those of you with posts to share which demonstrate efforts in photographing birds, please do link up (non-themed links will be removed!)

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The Tuesday Tease

...missed the boat...

























Taken with the Minolta SLR, 1986, on the isle of Spetses, Greece.

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Monday's Critters

As you saw on yesterday's post, it can be rather grim round here a lot of the time. Photographic shoots are few and far between at the moment. One is forced to be inventive...

This is one of my altar ornaments.  Solid brass. I am not a huge collector of bric-a-brac 'stuff'.  This one was spotted up at the Kolwan ashram and it moo-ed at me...I swear it did!  It called to the Taurean, it called to the nature-lover it called the woman besotted with animals. Most of all it called in faith.

Taken with the 'Nik' on indoor portrait mode.

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SUNdays

There is far too much of this going on round Dunoon!!!  I shall have to delve into some of the scanned archival stuff I think...

Taken with the 'Nik' on auto. At least the cloud acted as a natural filter and the complete orb of Sol is thus beheld.  Natural colour, I promise you!

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Saturday Symmetry

This fence at Scalpsie Bay kept the lambs from frolicing on the strand.  Isle of Arran beyond the haze...

Taken with the 'Nik' on auto everything.

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"...and why take ye thought for raiment? consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."
(St Matthew; Ch6 v 28-29)

This particular Solomon's Seal is a long-term resident of my parents' garden in Edinburgh...note the little 'pond' lower left...  

Taken with the 'Nik' on macro mode.

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It's Thursday Challenge time again.  This week we are to demonstrate something BROKEN.

Now disused and broken down, this lade lift once hoisted the gate which directed water flow to a mill for sawing timber. Found beside the Leithen Water, Innerleithen, Borders Scotland.

Taken with the 'Nik' on manual, set at 400ISO and using in-fill flash.  

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UPDATE 5TH JUNE - THURSDAY CHALLENGE LINK WON'T WORK FOR CORRECT POST (WT...???) SO PLEASE CLICK FORWARD WITH 'NEWER POST'.  THANK YOU!!!

Wings on Wednesday -

YAM's take on the good, the bad, the ugly and the downright hilarious in respect to photographing birds.

A courting pair of Lesser Black-backed Gull...not quite quick enough to catch his dance, I still managed to capture the male offering a seaweed bouquet.  This is a particularly pleasing shot for me as this species is on the 'amber' list - that is, 'at risk' of extinction.  It can be differentiated from it's larger, bully-boy cousin by the yellow legs (Greater BBGs have pink leg).

Taken with the 'Nik' on auto and lens stretched 5x optical. On the shores of Loch Lomond.

Do you like to have go at photographing birds?  Why not share one here!

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The Tuesday Tease

Highland Mary, ever in search of her lover over the water starts to get a bit browned off with the waiting...



















Taken with the 'Nik' on sepia mode.

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Monday's Critters

There was a mixture of cattle on this shore-side paddock; these calves exhibit mainly Limousin and Charlois traits I believe. Cute, whatever their breeding!

Taken with the 'Nik' on auto and lens stretched to 15x optical.

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SUNdays

Just quietly, this is becoming a bit of a joke for me, as His Majesty is a rare sight indeed in these parts!! That said, there is some drama to be had.

Loch Eck, Argyll & Bute.
























This just begged to be taken in monochrome. The 'Nik' on B&W manual mode set at 400ISO.