Chris (with Hannah in tow), Andrew, Delia and Petro (and of course Arthur)

Apologies:

Cheryl, Yvonne and Andrew C

Introduction:

Nothing to say this month so straight in to our monthly topic.

Monthly topic:                FOOD

Chris led off with these two based around produce from the home garden:

He was pleased with the colour and textures but disappointed that even having taken great care with aperture settings, the depth of field wasn’t sufficient for all the raspberries to be in focus in the first shot and the teeth in the second.  All good experience!

Delia was inspired by some illustrations from one of her cookbooks:

Looked good enough to eat and featured a terrific array of coloured preserves in the background.  Delia admitted that she had resorted to ‘post production’ for the first time in her life: she had overlooked some cracker crumbs, and once she had it up on screen they proved very distracting so she cloned them out.  She also had another offering:

Which looked fun and a fantastic composition.

Petro had recently won an Arnotts Lunch Kit so photographed that for posterity:

We all thought the carpet made a particularly effective background and went on to chew over (pun intended!) the problems of angle of   light and 3D effect / depth perception; overhead and it is all too ‘flat’, at too shallow an angle and you can get big shadows.

Andrew presented a series that all featured tight crops and natural light:

By now we were all salivating feely and keen to move outside to the Thursday Night Market!

From the Web

Nothing to report this month

A O B

Chris reported gloomily that due to the floods in Thailand disrupting production for Sony (and Nikon), he was unlikely to be able to get his new camera, Sony DSLT – A77, until February!

Chris went on (as he usually does!) to also report on some problems he had encountered recently when shooting some pictures of Charlotte’s end of year ballet production: no flash allowed, frequently moving subjects, high ISO and difficulty with getting the right white balance.

Advice for next time was to set a custom white balance on the camera at the start for that particular scenario.

Topics:

We all agreed that as January was ‘summer hols time’ or ‘getting back to work time’ depending on your level in the grand scheme of things, we would skip January’s meeting but have two topics.

December:          Decoration

January:              Animals

Date of Next Meeting:

Thurs 9 Feb 2012  5.15pm at Lakes (Delia gave her apologies in advance – she will be off grave hunting in the Wairarapa)

Andrew, Cheryl, Chris, Delia, Petro (and Arthur)

Apologies:

Yvonne and Andrew C

Introduction

Chris showed his latest gadget – a set of ‘exposure cards’.  Basically a black, a white and a 15% grey.  The idea is that when confronted with tricky light situations and / or confusing white balance, you take a shot with the cards in it.  Once you have completed your photos (without the exposure cards in them!) you open the first one in PS/PSE and set the black, white and grey points on a levels adjustment layer and then use this adjustment layer on your actual photos.

Monthly Topic: Waterfalls

Cheryl led off with these two offerings:

We all thought the borders added to the scene and the fast shutter speed freezing the water drops very effective.

Next Delia showed us:

Post meeting this photo won the enlargement section and overall top photo in the Rotorua Tramping and Skiing Club photo competition. It will be entered the national Federation of Mountain Clubs photo competition next year.  Well done Delia!  Her other shot was equally as noteworthy:

We liked the ‘rule of thirds’ that had been applied to the composition and how your eye is led back thorough the photo to the source of the water.

Petro (with Colin and Arthur) had mounted an expedition and come back with these two beauties even though they didn’t get to where they thought they were going!

and

Skilful use of Colin to emphasise the scale of these Falls and slower shutter speed to give the water that milky, gooey sort of look.

Chris had the following to offer:

Not truly a waterfall but he had always wanted to have gooey water.  Taken at the Buried Village during a Y11 Geography field trip with RGHS with the camera resting on the railings (didn’t have a tripod with him!) and then a teeny bit of HDR processing to bring up the colours of the foliage.  More recently this one at Huka Falls.  Now that’s a waterfall!!

Again a little HDR tweak after the event to put some texture and colour back in to the water and the boat (almost) on a ‘third intersection’ to emphasis the scale or insignificance of humans against the falls.

Andrew Chadwick had sent in this:

Not sure where but there was some thought that it might be up at Okere Falls.

Yvonne had these to offer:

This one definitely is at the lower Falls at Okere.  Nice how the board provides a splash (pun intended!) of colour.

Another from the Okere series but we were not sure which one.  Terrific timing, capturing the OMG moment and the spirit of adventure (or is that stupidity??!)

This one is up at Waipa (back of the Redwoods) and is some sort of storm drain that is producing its own waterfall surrounded by loads of lovely brown tones.

Andrew G (hereafter known as ‘radiographer Andrew!), without any collusion, went to the same spot but had this offering from a different angle:

Interesting to note the different colour tones presumably due to the different ambient light on the days they were there.

Web and other stuff

Nothing from the web this month although Chris reported that our Prez Notes had attracted some interest from outside our immediate group!  We are obviously gaining in international fame!!

Andrew advised that there was going to be a major exhibition at the Rotorua Museum in Government Gardens featuring the work of Brian Brake of ‘Lens on the World’ fame.  See more about him at http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/WhatsOn/exhibitions/BrianBrake/Pages/default.aspx .  The exhibition in Rotorua would start in early December.

Next Month’s Subject: (chosen by Andrew)  FOOD

Date of Next Meeting: Thurs 1 Dec at 5.15pm at Lakes Radiology

Cheryl, Andrew, Petro (and of course Arthur), Delia (new member), and Chris

Apologies:

Yvonne

Introduction

Whilst everyone was settling down, Delia explained her interest in photography (mainly from recording Landscapes when out with the Tramping Club plus some ‘people’ type shoots for the Club’s newsletters).  She had recently upgraded her camera from a Canon P&S to a rather flash Fuji, also a P&S but basically ‘bomb proof’ (waterproof to 5 metres, shock proof from ~2 metres and dust proof).  As well as being a garish, readily locatable colour, it featured a multitude of ‘automatic’ modes but Delia was finding it difficult to select the right one, leading to disappointment with her pictures.  Andrew & Chris had a look and provided some advice and we look forward to seeing some more of Delia’s pictures.

Monthly Subject: Friends

Yvonne had sent in her offering:

Great capture, with a ‘heart like’ outline to the two heads.

Petro offered two shots of her dogs when they lived in SA:

The title of which could be some form of ‘long suffering’!

Cheryl had three of Jenna and friend in various ‘friends’ poses:

All three silently underline ‘Friends’; we all thought the BW vignetted treatment was particularly effective.

Andrew had the following to offer:

The dogs look particularly contented and the two ladies ensconced in the late afternoon sun, keeping warm whilst no doubt finishing off the picnic.

Chris had the following to show:

The first was taken from an upstairs window without the children knowing.  The second was a candid taken on the return trip from White Island; Chris had his camera on his knee (visible bottom left!) but the young lady was a keen photographer and he thinks she had spotted him!

Printing

Over previous meetings we had all, at various times, reported difficulties with printing and in particular our prints not coming out as they appear on screen.  Chris had recently signed up to Snapfish (so he could get 50 free prints and Petro could get 20 for introducing him!).  He had undertaken a trial, printing the following two photos first on Snapfish, secondly from Windows File Manager on his super dupah, far too clever Epson and finally from Photoshop Elements on the Epson.

He had picked these images because of their wide range of skin types/tones, different textures, and vibrant colours (the sulphur and the girls hats).  There was not much difference between the Snapfish and Windows prints – most of us thought the Snapfish was slightly warmer particularly with the skin tones but it was not unpleasant; the sulphur was not quite how Chris remembered it from the Island and the screen. The surprise was the Photoshop version which was noticeably darker particularly the girls’ faces.  The Epson prints were with Espon ink on Epson paper (and by default all the recommended settings on the printer and printer dialogue box) and the file had not been edited once the first prints had been run off.

Web:

Just one link to peruse thismonth:

http://www.missaniela.com/

This photographer was one of the contributors to the inaugral edition of the magazine Chris was showing last month (Practical Photoshop http://www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/design/practical-photoshop-magazine-subscription/?gclid=CNXuobO5-KsCFQhLpgodoTtQlg).  Some very eye catching treatments of her photographs.

On the subject of image manipulation (always guaranteed to get Cheryl on her feet!), Chris showed an example of one he took (and shamelessly subsequently manipulated!) at a friend’s wedding earlier in the year. First the basic picture:

A lovely capture of the Bride’s cousin enjoying a joke at the reception.  Although she didn’t seem too fussed about here temporary lack of front teeth, Chris reckoned that she might, in future, like to be remembered with a full set and so through the wonders of PSE:

You decide!

This month’s subject:      Waterfalls  (Chosen by Delia)

Date of next meeting:      Thursday 3 November 2011, 5.15pm in the Lakes Radiology Staff Room

Present:

Cheryl O’Connell

Petro Bell (and Arthur)

Andrew Griffiths

Chris Sutton

Gadgets and Toys

We started off the meeting with Chris demonstrating two of his latest ‘gizmos’, in keeping with his growing reputation amongst the club as ‘gadget man’.  The first was a nifty idea for when you need some form of steadying and don’t have a tripod / monopod with you.  The Steadepod uses a strong thin wire which you stand on (or attach to your belt), lock at the required height and then pull up against whilst taking your picture(s).  You can see more at http://steadepod.com/ but it really makes a difference; it wouldn’t ever replace a tripod but it is a great half way house.  Cost was the equivalent of ~NZ$29

The other gadget freshly delivered from UK by his long suffering sister-in-law was a variable ND filter.  Most filters have now been rendered superfluous by the ability to ‘photoshop’ them in at the post processing stage however, two, in my humble opinion, remain invaluable (discounting the ubiquitous UV filter we all have on the front to protect our front elements) : firstly the polarising filter for when you are near water or want to take some glare out of a lovely clear NZ sky.  The second is the Neutral Density (ND) for when you want to have greater control over your depth of field and in particular make it shallower.  Most NDs come in set strengths and you can be sure that on the day you want to use this technique, the ND you have got in your bag is either too strong or too weak.  Enter the variable ND filter: here you twist the front of the filter similar to a polariser and vary the strength.  See also http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=777_1&products_id=111244

July Project: Motion

Andrew led off, having taken a different interpretation from the norm; the motion was the camera during the exposure:

Cheryl had taken time out from her duties assisting the Badminton team at Nationals in Palmerston North and used some of the team members for these studies:

Petro had used her ready made photogenic subject (Arthur) to give us his interpretation of motion:

Chris had initially tried the classic panning technique, swiveling the camera following a moving subject but with a slow shutter speed to blur the background and give the impression of motion:

and while this achieved the desired result, he thought it was a bit too boring; he then took a sequence with a very slow shutter speed (1/4 sec):

and got something far more ‘motioney’.

August project: Leaving

Due to the late notice of this one only Cheryl and Chris had produced anything.  Cheryl had a classic nautical scene:

Chris had managed to fit in a quick trip to the bus station that morning and got the following:

A bit ‘hackneyed’ but he also had this moody offering:

Internet

Only two items this month.  Chris reported that there was a new on-line NZ photography magazine.  You have to sign up but it is free; you can look at it on line or download it as a pdf.  They are now on their 3rd issue and seem to be pitching it very much at the cross over between amateurs and professionals or put another way people like us – somewhere in the middle!  Called F11 Magazine, you can see it at http://www.f11magazine.com/site/all.html.

Andrew then showed us a site he has been using to build the website for his B&B business.  Called ‘rocket spot’, it looked impressive however, I have singularly failed to find it again to provide the link!  Maybe next time and then Andrew will have more of his site up for us to see.

September project: Friends

Date of Next Meeting:  Thursday 6 October 2011, 5.15pm at Lakes Radiology

Arthur is becoming an avid member of the Society!

Present:  AG  CoC  CS  PB & Arthur

Projects

‘Double’ meeting this month, having failed to achieve one in May.  Two projects to report: Cars (May) and Portraits (June).

Petro led off with some recent portraits and group shots from the family Pixel Foto visit.  She had printed them via Snapfish and we all noted how well they had been done.  Petro was of the opinion that the colour rendition was pretty accurate too.  She had also recently used Bachelors in the Central Mall with similar success.  The Pixel Foto (in Hamilton) was a very simple set-up: there was a white backdrop that was lit by a single spotlight that was able to have a variety of coloured gels placed over it to change the background colour; the most interesting was a chocolate brown gel to give a blue background.  There was then a single flash bounced back on to the subjects via a single umbrella.  Package cost was $345 for the whole affair and provided one large group shot free; sitting time was ~15 mins.  In Rotorua, Tracey Robinson charges $220 for the sitting and provides one free 7×5.  The prices of subsequent prints can not be recalled (‘cos I didn’t write them down!).  Natasha (Bachelors) has no studio (so the ‘sitting’ is outdoors) but charges $300 for a 1 hour sitting and you get a CD at the end with all your images on it.

Andrew had taken a close up of Mandy about to tuck in to a hot chocolate with a triangular pose / composition.  He also brought two mounted prints from his film era (~1985) of two local ladies in Gambia.  It was quite amazing that the prints had still held there colour and were as vibrant / saturated today as they were when they were printed 26 years ago.

Chris had an ultra close up of Charlotte wearing a ‘faith’ ring plus another of Charlotte and a friend holding Hannah on their shoulders to give a triangular / thirds type composition.  He promised Cheryl that the sky was ‘as taken’ rather than one one of his grafts!

Cheryl hadn’t had time to do this project but had brought along the portrait of Jenna she has framed on her desk; a classic.

On to cars and Cheryl showed us two photos of a car rounding a coastal curve on a sunny day.  After some discussion we all had a preference for the more distant view if only because you couldn’t see so much of the poser driving the flash car!

Petro had dredged back in to her archives for some pictures of Colin (and his friend Evan)’s great restoration of a Mini project some while ago; the burnt out wiring produced some very good, surreal images!

Andrew had managed to get a selection of vintage cars at a recent swap meet plus also some interesting yellow cars complementing some yellow signage.

Chris had a close up of the coachwork and badges of the ’56 Cadillac used recently at a friends wedding plus another shot (actually taken by Charlotte) of the family car racing (well all right doing ~30 kph!!) along 90 Mile Beach.

Web

Not much but CS showed (and subsequently forwarded) a trio of e-mails showing the work of: a Hawaiian surf wave photographer, the ‘invisible man’ (paints himself to camouflage himself in to the scene and then takes the picture) and finally a collection of wild life ‘close calls’.

Other

AG reported that he was still wrestling with trying to / whether to buy a replacement printer; he had his eye on a Canon that was ~$290 which used dye inks.  We all opined that Canon and Epson were all much of a muchness but CS reported that over the years he had had nothing but trouble with HP colour inkjets; mono Laserjets were superb but the colour inkjets a pain in the rectum!

This Month’s Project

Andrew decided on MOTION

Date of Next Meeting

Thurs 28 July 2011, 17:15 in Lakes Radiology Staff Room

Those present were:

AG, COC, CS, PB and Arthur

Monthly Assignment

Our previous month’s project was: Rotorua Museum from a different angle. The concept was that most people go for the ‘down the front path with the museum at the end’ type of shot (usually with ~6 Korean tourist’s heads in the way).

Cheryl led off with the following:

Cheryl commented that it was quite difficult to get in to different positions especially as there was a lot of construction work going on the northern side with scaffolding, builders trucks etc in the way. She presented her photos as 7″ x 5″ glossy prints which she had done at Harvey Norman. On one she had experimentally ticked the ‘sepia tone’ option but wasn’t especially pleased with the results, considering the darker tones were too orange. We all generally agrees and Andrew suggested that the shop printer might have done a better job if Cheryl had converted the picture to black and white first (at home) and then selected sepia in the shop. Chris gave a quick demo of the ‘convert to black & white’ tool in PSE and adding a sepia tone.

Petro had the following photos to offer:

The Group’s favourite was the one (above left) with the ancient tree providing both a pointer to the building and a limiting side edge. The Petanque area added an interesting element to the foreground in the square on (above right).

Chris had the following two prints for discussion:

The view from the front door looking back down the path attracted much comment. Chris admitted to having to apply some HDR processing in PSE to match the darkness of the interior with the brightness outside and still retain the colours in the stain glass windows. The montage was another possible way of presenting all the other shots he took on the day that whilst individually were not especially unusual but laid out on one page possibly were.

Andrew had the following print :

On the Web

Andrew showed us the National Geographic site and in particular the photographers bit. http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/?source=NavPhoHome . Now it is no surprise to realise that professional photographers put having a photo accepted by NG as the ultimate photographic accolade. Browsing the magazine and the galleries on the web site, you can see why. He showed us how to get your own gallery (‘My Shot’ – http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/myshot/) and how NG pick photos from galleries for their ‘Photo of the Day’ feature. Suddenly that accolade isn’t that far fetched!

This month’s Assignment

Car. Any interpretation, any angle, anywhere, anyhow. You decide.

Possible visit

Andrew mentioned that there is a lovely gallery in Ngongotaha run by a charming lady and suggested we have a half day trip one Saturday / Sunday morning for coffee next door and a browse round the gallery. All were in favour. Andrew to suggest dates.

Next meeting

Thurs 9 Jun 11 at 17:05 at Lakes Radiology

Present:  CS, AG, CoC.

Apologies:  PB

Monthly Topic (Triangles)

Cheryl led off with her images:

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Chris then followed:

Letter 4 on a gatepost

Hannah's frogs (in her pen holder)

IALA ''Pass to the South' buoy - Lyttelton Harbour

Disused boat cradle - Tarawera Landing

Intriguingly the one of the shells got Highly Commended in a monthly Camera Club monthly clinic, but the frogs in the pen-holder were dismissed as ‘too busy’.

Hannah's shells - Ohope Beach

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Andrew had brought some prints of a bird at Wingspan (triangular arrangement of wings) and a training shoe clad foot at the end of a race (in a sort of triangle).  He also showed us another print from the end of the same race which he considered a failure due to a failure in selecting the focus point; that said when viewed from a ‘normal’ distance of ~2 metres, we all thought it looked fine.

He is still having trouble with his printer and it is now definitely not long for this world.  Rather than investing a huge sum of money, he is investigating using on-line printing. He will report back.

Chris reported on his efforts as Petro’s photographer of Arthur:

.

.

.

.

Which included some when he was just 12 hours old (no flash so a bit soft in the focus department) and some formal family ones with her Mum and Dad so that they could take prints back to South Africa. He reported that he had had to resort to some ‘photoshopping’ on the formal ones if only to move Colin’s head from one shot to another so that they were all smiling!

.

.

..

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Cheryl then showed us a canvas block print she had had done through an offer on Snapfish.com for ~$35 (Normal price ~$70) for an ~A3 size picture.  Really impressive and we are all now on the look out for the next offer.  She is also currently working on a book project through the same website.

Internet links

Andrew provided us with the following links:

www.arizonahighways.com – natural history calendar pictures

www.gerdludwig.com

www.poyi.org – Picture of the Year from Journalists

www.world-newspapers.com/photography – check out the Editor (Mike Davies) Blog

and finally

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/03/taming-wild-animals/musi-photography

Monthly topic

We decided to have a change this month and rather than taking pictures we are going to review and comment on the GOLD medal winners in Andrew’s special issue of ‘B & W’ magazine; there are 15 categories in the 2011 Single Image Contest Awards.

Next Meeting

Thurs 7 April, 5.15pm, Lakes Radiology Staff Room

HDR is where there is a high dynamic range in the photo.  Typical example is like this:

The first steps I took was to process this RAW file twice to give an overexposed example (+1.95ev)

and an under exposed one(-1.15ev):

First I tried processing all three images in the free open source software Luminance HDR ( http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/download.php ).  It’s quite time consuming and the help pages are very basic but I did end up with a finished article:

Very noisy, grainy and blotchy; I’m sure I could have done better but really struggled with all the technical jargon and options in the software.

Another option is a nifty little plug-in for Photoshop (and Elements) called ReDynamixHDR; it is also quite cheap (~AUD20) and can be found at http://www.mediachance.com/plugins/redynamix.html.  This can be quite harsh in its treatment of HDR photos when the default settings are used but is very controllable.  However, on this occasion it disappointed:

Not much difference from the normally exposed version.

Finally I tried Photoshop Elements ‘Photomerge Exposure’ utility.  I think this was introduced in PSE7 and PS CS4.  The result was very pleasing:

So there you have my take on getting sunsets and other HDR images in to a more presentable form.  Slightly surprisingly, but nobody does it better….than Photoshop (and Elements).

It was all very civil, we discussed such pithy items as the frequency of my night-time bathroom visits, weight, exercise regime, my low blood pressure and the childrens’ schools.  A quick blood test and I was on my way or so I thought.  A week later I got the  call from the Practice Nurse (when do they become competent?) saying my cholesterol was high and that I had ‘glucose intolerance’.  Another, fasting (ie. nil by mouth for 12 hours previous), blood test involving the drinking of a foul fizzy pop like substance, 2 hour wait and then another bruise in my arm from a further blood sample.  Another week passed before a slightly garbled message on my cell phone saying that all was good and I had nothing to worry about…….but I wasn’t anyway.

Three months passed when out of the blue came an impersonal ‘billet doux’ in the post advising me that I was due my 3 monthly blood test.  I queried this but wasn’t able to get a great deal of sense from anyone so went along for another fasting blood test complete with even bigger bruise on my arm.  Another 10 days passed before a breathless message from one of the secretaries at the GPs Practice saying that it was still bad (I presumed they meant the cholesterol) and that if I was confident I had done all I could with my diet then I would have to go on a course of statins.  Suspecting that ‘a hare was off and running’, I tried to call my GP; just like in any country this wasn’t possible for a whole host of reasons.  I set about some research on the web; I spent a happy afternoon dredging in to the merits or otherwise of LVLs, HVLs, side effects etc etc.  Meanwhile a prescription arrived and somewhat lemming like I trotted down to the Pharmacy and got my pills.  Suspiciously there was no ‘patient info’ leaflet enclosed but I was assured by the Pharmacist that they were ‘just like vitamins’.  Ho hum.  Having failed to establish voice contact with my GP I fell back on that other naval stand-by, the letter.

Time passed.  Mindful of the fate that befell a long-term friend (high LVL cholesterol test followed by major heart attack a short time later), I started the course of tablets.  As I was now in possession of the actual brand name, I was able to download a patient info sheet form the company web site.  The side effects made particularly frightening reading until you stop and consider they all do; after all I was now a walking cardiac time bomb wasn’t I?

Whilst being in good health, I do need optical assistance for many day-to-day tasks.  In late July I went for a routine check up at the Opticians.  All was well but like so many health care providers, they had a new toy: a visual field (VF) checker.  I have never been subjected to one of these before but happily went along with the test.  Apart from telling me that I was wearing my contact lens too much, thereby causing wear / deterioration of my cornea, I was asked to come back for a repeat VF test in a couple of weeks time as there were some anomalies.  Later that afternoon, I received a call from the optometrist , whilst watching my daughter receive her dance medals, asking that I contact my GP for an urgent referral to an eye surgeon as there was a definite pattern to my failed VF tests that might indicate pressure on my optic nerves.  Duly I rang the surgery and got an appointment for the end of the week and attended.

My GP discussed at length my letter of some 9 weeks previous and convinced me to keep taking the pills, have another blood test after finishing the initial 3 months supply and have a cardiac risk assessment with the Practice Nurse.  This took place a couple of weeks later and revealed that on the strength of my ‘high cholesterol’ blood test my cardiac risk was a 6% chance of ‘a cardiac event’ in the next 5 years.  This did not strike me as startling odds and certainly I shouldn’t be selling tickets for the impending event.

Then 3 things happened: firstly I finished the initial course of statins, had my blood test and rejoiced in the fact that my LVL was half the figure in July and my cardiac risk assessment was now a paltry 3%; better keep taking pills and forget about my cardiac event.  Secondly I received an appointment to see the eye specialist who because it was so urgent was referring me to his locum.  Thirdly I received an appointment from the hospital for an MRI scan of my brain and pituitary although who had actually ordered it was something of a mystery; the GP and eye surgeon all denied any knowledge.

It all went ‘pear shaped’ on Taranto Night (11 Nov) when an hour after retiring I was awoken by the most excruciating pains in all my joints.  Now, like many of the male form, I am no hero when it comes to pain but this was awful.  My medical professional wife announced that she was not going to do anything until morning and ordered that I make less noise or I might wake the children.  When day finally broke I staggered in to the shower, made a half-hearted attempt at washing and then had to be assisted with dressing.  Eventually made it downstairs to be greeted with two worried little faces and another edict from the medical profession that I could only have water in case the hospital wanted to do anything more with me.

We arrived at ED just before 09:00 to a deserted waiting room.  I was whisked away shortly after the ‘warm’ welcome from the receptionist (do they do a course to be so rude and uninterested?) and after answering seemingly interminable questions, the young doctor announced that he was pretty sure it was an allergic reaction to the statins.  A blood test followed (not much of a bruise this time) and, 2¾hours later after the lab processed it, he was back confirming that was the reason, oh and by the way Mr Sutton your liver function is a bit off.  I was discharged with a wad of painkillers and told to make an appointment with my GP.

My GP had the sense to look concerned and after discussing my ceasing taking the statins any more (would you?) I was bundled next door for another blood test (biggest bruise of the lot) and then in to the Physiotherapy clinic which just happens to be collocated there – I was still having trouble getting my limbs to do every day tasks like pegging up the washing.  Eventually, 4 days later, my GP phoned to say that my blood test was back and whilst my liver function was better, it still wasn’t where they would like it to be and would I like to have another in a weeks time?  What the hell?  My arm was shot now anyway so what’s one more bruise?

Meanwhile I saw the eye surgeon; delightful chap with an excellent ‘bedside manner’ and a thoroughly charming assistant (his wife).  No he couldn’t see what all the fuss was about and whilst my VF wasn’t great it was OK.  A few days later I had my MRI (it had been ordered by the Outpatients dept at the local hospital after a referral from my GP).  My wife’s boss did it and pronounced it all perfectly normal indeed for someone my age (and who in younger years abused his body with alcohol at various mess dinners including Taranto nights) it was in remarkably good condition.

Another blood test before having a therapeutic shoulder massage at the local health spa and that afternoon a Practise Nurse called to say all was normal.

So now here I am $320 poorer and but feeling fine! In fact isn’t it time for your annual WMC dear?

Once again I have been lured by panoramas and the thrill of just doing it ‘on the hoof’ (ie. little or no pre-planning or setting up of the camera and no tripod) and utilising different methods to stitch it.  In this case it was a series of 3 images with the camera on full auto (exposure, white balance, ISO, focus etc) and in the dreaded JPEG format.  Stitched via Hugin (Above Left) and PSE7 (Above Right) but I did no other processing of the basic JPEG files.  In terms of the stitch both are ‘seamless’ but Hugin appears to have tinkered with the contrast, particularly noticeable in the sky.  Time wise, PSE7 was a fraction quicker than Hugin but as both methods were totally ‘hands off’, I made a cup of coffee whilst the software did its stuff so it really was a case of “who’s counting”?

All in all great fun and very pleasing results whichever method you choose.