Going Nowhere Fast

As we trolled over to the village medical centre to stock up with another month's supply of medicinal sweeties I noticed how well the model Jet Provost, which is part of the Village sign, was standing out in the mid afternoon Sunshine:



Me being me, I couldn't leave it as just a straight forward photo.
Oh no, time to try out the 'Circular+' iPad app which not only creates Tiny Planet type pictures but also has the capability to crop, rotate, zoom and make kaleidoscope type effects.
Here with just two sections:



Also various layered effects can be added like birds and Sun effects plus the world globe at the centre of this four way version:



Very fast and easy to use even on my li'l old iPad2.

Anyway back to the village sign unsullied by my 'artistic' bent:

Tuesday Twister - Guess What

As I now have a few apps which can twist and distort photographs on the iPad and an easy way of moving photos between the iPad and the MacBook I though I would start a new, different, type of Guess What. Some will be a lot easier than others. Hopefully this first one won't cause any real problems to identify.

What is this a photo of?




If you want to have a guess please put it in the comments.
No prizes, just for fun.
Just a virtual gold star for correct identification.

Any guesses in the comments, along with the answer, will be revealed next Tuesday.

Roosting Wren

Last night you could have knocked me down with a feather. Out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of movement on the camera monitor. There was a Wren approaching the roosting pocket:



The Wren went straight in the pocket so she may well have investigated it some time in the past without me noticing.  I had moved that pocket in the hopes that some small bird would use it in the Winter as an overnight shelter and wasn't expecting any takers in the Summer.  A few years ago a Wren built a nest in another pocket and then abandoned it so we will have to see whether this one becomes a nesting site.

Cloudy Weather

When I let Penny out at 5.30 a.m. this morning I noticed what appeared to be undulating clouds. Can't be sure whether it was regular variations in cloud thickness or whether they were actually undulating. If the latter then it is the first time I have noticed this particular effect:






As many will know I am always on the look out for interesting iPad apps which are available free for a while. One such recently was Living Planet. (still on promotion for free at the time of writing) An app which makes tiny planet type pictures from ordinary single photos. I have seen one or two which can do this. The added extra in this app is the ability to make tiny planet movie clips from ordinary video files. In fact it gives the choice of two methods, tiny planet and wormhole. Also included are many filters to alter the overall look of the finished result.

Two test videos showing the original 15 second clip and the resulting output.
A colour time lapse of clouds:




A b/w IR time lapse of clouds:



Processing video takes quite a while on my iPad 2. No doubt newer iPads with faster processing would reduce the time taken.

Another very useful app I just have started using is PhotoSync which can transfer items to and from the iPad Camera Roll using WiFi. Along with the app there are programs for Mac and PC.

Orchid Macro

The blooms on my first indoor orchid to flower were fading so I cut them off and decided to take a macro shot of the best one. Usual set up:



The flower:



The macro:



19 shots processed in Zerene Stacker

Friday at the Flicks - Feed Me + Intelligent Rook

It has been great watching many different sets of fledglings arrive in the garden over the past few weeks - especially when they are being fed by the parents. Here is a fledgling House Sparrow and Mama on the bird table:




Yesterday, out of the blue, came a mail request from the BTO to ask if they could use one of my videos for a garden rook behaviour survey they will be running in July. It was taken some years ago when my video equipment wasn't as good as the present gear and the copy on Flickr was poor. I have re-worked it in wide screen and uploaded a new copy to YouTube:



At that time several people locally were finding their seed feeders on the floor every day and I was fortunate to catch one of the culprits in the act. Corvids are an an amazingly intelligent set of birds.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

This little experiment was inspired by Adrian (Adrian's Images) when he photographed Brian the Snail on a mirror. Following that we exchanged some ideas about types of mirror. I purchased a cheap A5 front surfaced acrylic 3mm thick mirror and finally got Round Tuit with an experiment. My subject was a miniature bullrush cut from my garden pond positioned so it would be in focus but the reflection would be well out of focus:

 

The 50D was fitted with 70-200mm lens plus Raynox DCR-150 macro lens. The camera was tethered to the MacBook so a clear large picture could be seen of what the camera was looking at. Four focus stacked shots were taken and processed with Zerene Stacker:




The orange background was from some cupboard doors seen reflected in the mirror.  The only lighting was natural daylight / Sunlight coming through the kitchen window.