So Sally Can Wait….

Posted on September 24, 2023 by Guthlac

A question for the philosophers out there – When is a photographic image created? I’m really not sure what the answer to this is. As I have mentioned I am currently working on a photographic project called Gartree Explored. This is a photo essay set in the Gartree (Harborough District Council) hundred. It will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me or who might have been following this blog for sometime but I have captured images based in the Harborough area before starting the project. Could or should I use them? Or should I remaster the images from the original DNG and then use them. These images will be brand new images as, in the case of the images here, 14 years has passed with a significant improvement in the image software. They are images made in 2023 just from DNGs that are 14 years old.

I have no answer to that question other than to ask does it matter? To which the answer of course is not one jot. These are constraints I am putting on myself and it will affect no one else.

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Horse Whispering….

Posted on September 23, 2023 by Guthlac

It is very strange but I find talking to a pony is very pleasurable. Very relaxing. Somehow makes sense. I know the pony is just a bit hungry and is eyeing up a potential snack coming its way but they are the most wonderful listening creatures. They are nothing like as nosey as cattle who just can’t help sticking their snouts in and having a good sniff.

So this morning I was up early(ish) and out with the animals in the Welland valley. I had hoped for a bit of mist – not cold enough but the season is still early and we’ll see. Instead I did a bit of communing with all creatures great and small as the sun slowly rose above the horizon.

I ended up in Slawston, a more rural place you couldn’t wish to visit. The last time I drove through there at dawn I shared the main street with a hare casually lolloping along. So bucolic. Only of course it isn’t quite as first reported. Slawston is infact 15 minutes from the train station that will take the Slawston resident to central London in just over an hour.

Still on a crisp autumn morning none of that really mattered. It was just so nice to have a chat to my four legged friends.

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Photographs on the dashboard…

Posted on September 21, 2023 by Guthlac

Not quite night swimming but rather evening walking. A typical best camera situation – my iPhone 13 was excellent but with many pitfalls – not least of which is the small size of the produced by the super wider lens. Still we must enjoy what we can.

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I’m not here for…

Posted on September 20, 2023 by Guthlac

One of the main advantages of using an iPhone to capture an image is spontaneity: You see something that needs to be captured and before you know it you have you iPhone at hand. Click – job done. Are the images any good – yes when judge from this perspective. Taken in the round? Who knows and who cares anymore? (Well of course I do but that is about it.)

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Guess it’s True….

Posted on September 19, 2023 by Guthlac

A season of mellow fruits is now fully upon us. Just to prove it we have fungi, not sure whether it is a mushroom or toadstool, popping up in the lawn.

As for the new Mac Studio what to say? It has been two full days so this is very much first impressions: Firstly, it is silent especially as my old iMac was puffing and blowing all the time – one of the reasons why I upgraded. Now nothing. It has got so bad that my two HDD I use for backup now seem very noisey indeed. Secondly, it is very quick. Yesterday I had to install a software upgrade for my database and it was a blink and you’ll miss it moment. Finally, the base model comes with 32GB of RAM (sorry Unified Memory – old habits but I have been x86 for over 30 years so give an old fart a brake!) and at the moment this is more than enough for my needs. Lightroom is resource hungry but with that running it hardly gets above 24 GB leaving me with a welcome bit of headroom. One thing I have noticed is that Chrome is a piglet when it comes to gobbling up resources. I’ll need keep an eye on that. Overall, first impressions excellent. Let’s hope in 6 years time I still feel the same.

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Get the Stretch…

Posted on September 17, 2023 by Guthlac

Oh no more testing!!!! This time it isn’t the camera but rather my new Mac. Yes I’ve been splashing the cash and have ponied up for a Mac Studio et al. Of course things are never straightforward apart from this time. This has been the simplest change of computer I think I’ve ever experienced.

It is all very well setting the computer up but what is like when undertaking the task it was bought for – editing and managing my photograph collection? To find this out I went out this morning and took around 200 images to put it through its paces. Early impressions – very good. Time will tell just how much an improvement things are but having lived with the machine for almost 24 hours I’m a happy bunny.

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The Last Batch…

Posted on September 15, 2023 by Guthlac

So these are last batch of images I have been using to test my new workflow and some of them date back to the much simpler times of 2018 – a simpler time (haha). It is a strange experience to rework images that had been buried in my archive and then due to a flook of chance they have been given a new lease of life.

Perhaps the most satisfying thing about these images is that I have learnt a great deal about using the latest software to overcome the deficiencies of the iPhone as a camera. It just goes to prove we are never too old to learn.

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Further Tests…

Posted on September 14, 2023 by Guthlac

I mentioned the other day that I have been trying streamline the way that I edited images I captured an iPhone. These are the latest results. This image was captured using an iPhone 8 plus back in the good old days of the pandemic. The image above was developed using the new process whilst the image below was not. I’m not sure whether the difference will show up on the blog images but it certainly does show up with the actual images on screen.

Now of course it can be observed that the software has changed in the almost three years between both of these images were created and that is true. What is really different is the ease at which these images are now transferred between machine and use of the iPad as an editing machine rather than leaving it to the iPhone.

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If you Believe…

Posted on September 14, 2023 by Guthlac

Another day…another wonderlust… Yesterday found our intrepid explorers once more braving the high country to the east. Here they encountered such marvels as great coffee shops and cafes, farmers going about their business and lots and lots of fresh air. Welcome to Gartree Explored!

It is a tough life but someone has got to live it. It was a lovely early autumn day, warm not hot sun, a cooling breeze and a clean air so that from the high points you can see for miles. We even had time to have a nonsense argument over medieval travel plans. The point of all this nonsense is that we were on the road again capturing images (me) and inspiration (David) for our latest creative project. My title is Gartree Explored – David’s is somewhat different but in the end they serve the same purpose: To produce a visual essay on the sights and sounds we found travelling around Harborough District Council.

Yesterday was dominated by the ironstone churches dotted in the small villages that were once the beating heart of what was once one of the richest parts of England – thanks to unfettered access to an expansive European market for our produce, in this case wool. Those were the days (Too soon? Not a bit of it!)

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Time to Sing Along…

Posted on September 12, 2023 by Guthlac

I’m sure there are some of you out there who might read this will recognise what I’m about to say, perhaps not. Anyway, there reaches a point in every person’s life when you realise that songs you thought were only released yesterday (maybe not yesterday but I’m sure you’ll excuse my hyperbole) but instead it is over 30 years ago. As I write this I’m listening to Automatic for the People which, according to Apple Music, was first released in 1992. Ouch.

So the rain has come and the temperatures are falling. This morning’s walk around dawn this morning was undertaken in a gentle shower – very invigorating. I have been exploring the best way to edit iPhone photographs and exporting them into my photo management system. After a bit of fiddling around I think I have come up with the best solution that suits my needs.

If anyone is interested it involves the following steps:

1, Capture image on iPhone;

2, Edit image on iPad – the apple pencil is really much better than a finger in my view;

3, Export the Image to Lightroom app on iPad. Add any additional edits that are not available Apple Photo editing software;

4, Open the Lightroom App on iMac and export image out of app as a DNG file – this preserves the most data.

This might seem a bit long winded but I think the results are worth it. It also requires access to iCloud and Creative Cloud accounts but once you have these the images zip from machine to the next in a matter of moments – well if you have a decent internet speed that is.

So the temperature is more bearable and I have taken another step to enable me create the images with my iPhone I want. Whether they are any good is very subjective and small blog images are not the best way to judge.

As REM said…September’s coming soon…

PS: I’m not claiming this as anything other than a process that works for me. Should you try to replicate you might find it cumbersome and that is fine…your mileage may vary to mine.

PPS: I see I have referenced Automatic for the People 6 times in the last 15 years…interesting?

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