Friday at the Flicks - Lambs

The videos were taken about three years ago. I wanted to see how the video collage features would work out in trakAxPC:



For this video I ended up with six layers, though not all show at the same time in the finished video.

Three video layers
Text layer
Background colour layer (a simple coloured jpg)
A sound layer

I wish it was as easy to do similar things with photos in Elements! Maybe it's just easier to see what is going on with video files as all layers are in view and it is easy to see what 'extras' have been added to them. Once the basic working of the program had been grasped I found it easy to construct fairly complex videos. As you will probably gather I find it well worth the present discounted price of £31.88 (including VAT).

Water Feature + Flowers

Another short piece of tinkering with trakAxPC to see what it can do in the way of overlaying video and photos:



It has been surprisingly easy to come to terms with a different layout when adding clips, etc.. All modifications can be viewed, tested and altered in real time. I have been very surprised with the speed it operates on my old XP PC. Far better than the clunky, bloated, crashing software I have from Corel. It may not have all the facilities of the more expensive software but more than enough to keep me happy. In fact it works so well I have now bought a licence which allows it to be used on two computers. It can run on the PC and the laptop for the price of one key. Also when buying a new PC the program on the old machine can be deactivated so it can be installed on the new one. Coming soon will be the added facility to use the green screen technique and cropping of videos.

One thing - when checking the price of the software be aware that in the EU VAT will be be added!

Grey Squirrel

Really this is just an excuse to get a bit of practice with trakAxPC video maker. There is a 15 day fully working free trial period. It works very differently to other similar programs I have used but once it has been sussed out it is a very versatile program. The main thing lacking for me is in the text facilities. No drop shadow or outlining but otherwise not too bad.

A first completed result:



Saving the final result can take a while but working on clips and effects is very fast.
There are instructional videos on YouTube which are helpful with getting started using its many facilities.

Macro on Monday - Guess What

Congratulations and the virtual gold star to Adrian, Jan and TexWisGirl for identifying the butterfly bush (Buddleia) In fact this one is a dwarf variety. One of two I managed to buy this year. The full size ones can get very leggy and ungainly but these should only grow to about 30 inches (about 75 cm).





     


This week here is another scrambled photo.
Guess What:


Clue: This proud bobby dazzler was not displaying.
You can click on the picture to see a larger version on Flickr.

Answers in the comments along with the answer will be revealed next Monday.
No prizes - just for fun.

Today is St. Swithin's Day - see my previous post.

St. Swithin's Day

Photo from Wikipedia.


A rhyme dates back at least to the time of Queen Elizabeth I 
(from Project Britain)

St Swithin's Day is 15 July, a day on which people watch the weather for tradition says that whatever the weather is like on St. Swithin's Day, it will continue so for the next forty days.

St Swithin's Day, if thou dost rain,
For forty days it will remain.
St Swithin's Day. if thou be fair,
For forty days 'twill rain nae mair'

Yesterday was overcast until late in the afternoon but today started sunny and promises to be a scorcher.  Will the hot dry weather remain for forty days?

More about St Swithin and British Summer weather can be found on the British Life and Customs site.


Macro on Monday to follow later.

First Pickings

Bit of a scorcher here today. What a difference it makes when the thick cloud doesn't drift in from the North Sea. This graph shows the outside temperature from last Sunday, in deg C



You can see the effect of cloud on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Tomorrow could well be even hotter so we may pass 30C. Hope the air con keeps working!

Today I noticed a decent number of ripe raspberries in the fruit cage so had a short picking session. Went well with a quarter of an Asda apple pie and some single cream.



I usually add chopped banana or tinned fruit to the apple pie but how much nicer to have some fruit which is guaranteed freshly picked. There are at least two different varieties of raspberry cane in the fruit cage and normally they ripen about the same time but this year most still have growing fruit not yet ready to ripen - anyway that means more for another day. Also beginning to ripen are the blackcurrants.

You Never Know ....

..... what you will find hiding in the garden. There really is a lot more wildlife than we might imagine. Yesterday a new water feature arrived and it prompted me to start tidying up part of the garden which had been neglected for a couple of years. That meant removing grass and buttercups which had gone rampant.

As I moved some disused containers, pots and such like there was plenty of life under them, usually slugs, worms and spiders. I know there are quite a few frogs of various ages and sizes which rest in damp shady spots so wasn't surprised to see this one:



I often see one jump out when mowing near the borders of the lawn. What was a suprise was to find a young Smooth Newt under one of the containers.





There have been newts in the garden pond for years and I assumed they would be breeding there but look as I might had never once seen any spawn, tadpoles or young newts, only adults,  so this was the first hard evidence that they are breeding. I would think this youngster is about half to two thirds full size.

Even after a tidy up there are still lots of dark, damp places left where it can find a safe home. And the water feature:



Most of the clutter and grass seen behind it has been removed. I am hoping it will attract birds to drink and give me some more photo opportunities.