gardening's going to be difficult

As our move to Fuerteventura approaches, I start thinking about all the stuff that I'll miss. And plentiful supply of fresh water is going to be one. I like growing things. Granted, occasionally I neglect my plants, but I do like the fact that I can grow them.

Yes, I can grow cacti there, but, you know, somehow that doesn't seem like proper gardening.

There is water on Fuerteventura, of course, but not in plenty.

Anyway, I was thinking (mind you, I am no engineer, so what follows is probably completely impossible, but bear with me): You get a cold beer on Fuerteventura, you have a lot of condensation on the glass, so humidity's not zero, and this water can be used. But I can't possibly water my plants by getting a fresh beer every ten minutes or so. So, maybe some sort of solar-power operated device exists? Like of the doodle below - sun battery operates *something* that cools a surface where condensation is formed, water drops drip to the ground and there you are.

Now, it is entirely possible that it's not only doable, but is, in fact, done, and I can't find those things for sale because I don't know how they are called etc - looking in the wrong place (then please tell me if you know where to look). It is also possible that an efficient enough refrigerator (that's what it is, right?) is not possible. I would want to know that, too.



pics from Fuerteventura on shutterstock

directly overhead

today is the first time this year that I could give my right elbow a chance to tan by sticking it out of open car window while driving. And we had our late morning coffee outside. Maybe spring finally started for real. Or maybe not, if I look at bbc forecast for tomorrow

spring flowers on shutterstock

morning cuppa

I really liked the way steam was caught in paella picture, so we repeated the setup today with my morning cup of coffee. I am pleased with the steam, not so pleased with the burned-out area in upper left corner. Have to think of a quick setup where all the background, apart from the area immediately under the cup will be black. I know one, but it won't be very fast to set. Hm.

coffee images on shutterstock

paella

well, ok, maybe not quite. The pan's not right, there's no saffron in there and I added way too much liquid, but - it was delicious. Proof of the paella.

It's the first time we gave this cast-iron pan a try. It is a flattish wok, very nice looking (the reason for buying it in the first place). I think it worked beautifully

food images at shutterstock

Lucia and Althea

My little niece had a doll with her when she was visiting here. Doll's name is Althea and here she is for you to admire. I am guessing that an extremely pink and frilly skirt that my niece made her mum to buy can be seen as a consequence of an overly prolonged admiration session.

They brought another doll with them - this one was for me. Please welcome Lucia.





Both were hand-made by my sister's neighbour. Labels say that they were made by cтудия "Мама" (Studio "Mum"), but I can't find their site - maybe they don't have one.

PS For Russian readers - name "Лючия" on the label is written in such a way that I read it as "Люша" without any hesitation whatsoever.

UPD - well, what do you know. I misread the name of the studio too! It's actually "студия Тата" (Studio Tata). And all there is at the moment is an email - kyklatata@gmail.com

Ely cathedral

Ely cathedral (or, to be precise The Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Ely, is one of the places we tend to bring our visitors to. It's beautiful and Ely town is cute, too. The only thing that I don't like about it is that they charge rather steep admission fees. Understandable, considering the costs, but it piles when it's a group of you. There's no charge to enter cathedral on Sunday though, something I might want to keep in mind next time somebody comes to visit.

There were some work being done inside - not sure what exactly, but builders silhouetted nicely against stained glass windows.

hot chocolate

went to Ely yesterday. It was sunny and cold, and we had hot chocolate in a tearoom. Here's my charming little niece, sporting chocolate moustache worthy of Salvador Dali himself. It was good chocolate, you can easily tell

moving and staying still

just two more pictures from Somerset (again, no particular order obeserved)

when we first came to Dulverton, there was a lot of old cars around, coming over the Barle bridge. Some of them stopped there, drivers presumably going for a nice cuppa. I've asked one of them what was going on. He said that these are "trials" - won't pretend I knew what it is up till few minutes ago - but now I sort of do. Looks like we saw something called "Exmoor Fringe" - you can click through if interested. The format of those events explains why the cars were so dirty, anyways. There were apparently over a hundred cars participating, and we saw a few since our road coincided with theirs for a while



What was unexpected for me about this shot is that I did a following with the lens without realizing it. It's probably not visible at this resolution, but everybody in the car is in perfect focus - including the kid on the backseat making a victory sign. Everything else - including, strangely, the car itself - is motion-blurred. Another surprise was the make of the car - it was an old Ford apparently. I would have never guessed.



there's no particular reason for pairing moving car picture with this one. but let me

River Barle

this is an almost mandatory long-exposure shot of moving water - Barle river upstream from Dulverton. We went for a walk, aiming to get to the next village along the riverside path, and trying to figure out if we can get to Tarr Steps, but turned back when a small stream crossed the path. I readily admit to lack of perseverance on my part - we could have crossed that little stream, but I was worried there are more along the way.

Anyway. Camera on timer sitting on my backpack (no tripod being at hand). Backpack lying on the ground so sort of difficult to aim and this is more or less the best shot out of fifteen or so I made. I would have stayed for another while, but kids were getting impatient.

Somerset, old cottage - bit of brekky

Cottage we stayed in was full of old things. Some of them were just old, like the frying pan below - it had uneven bottom, so all the eggs tended to congregate in one spot. They are not all for me, btw, in case you are wondering





Some of the stuff though were real retro-antique-what-have-you. Don't know if old books that we saw there have any monetary value, but they definitely had bags of charm



Illustrator who drew this probably never had a chance to look at a real shark, or even a good picture of a real one, but aaaah! - transparent paper covering the next illustration and the blue of the sea when it's lifted

Chinese New Year - few more pics

A few more pictures from Sunday and that's it (it was dark).

Those guys were clinging to a post of the last gates (Paifang) we passed before moving on to Trafalgar square. Don't know if the guy with the camera is anything to do with television.



Unexpected variation on "year of the rabbit" theme :)



This hat was being passed from one person to another and pictures taken by pretty much everybody around - don't know if it was a photography spot or sort of installation project for somebody, we were dragged along by two hungry kids in search of a place to eat



Musician in front of National portrait gallery



We must have missed some sort of parade with balloons - got the moment of one of them being taken away



There was a big scene on Trafalgar square itself, facing National Gallery and steps, and there was a big screen as well. It was a lot less crowded there, and I think I can see why - looking at this more official and organized performance was not as interesting as being in the crown in Chinatown itself.

portrait - conversion to monochrome

although I prefer color photographs to monochrome, monochrome has its points. When I look at those two portraits of Natalia Bull, I find it hard to choose which one I prefer - it really depends on the purpose. Color one has more information in it and would look great in a color layout, monochrome is probably more suitable for printing out and hanging on a wall.

I don't have full photoshop, but photoshop elements once again proved to be an adequate tool for the purpose. To get the soft skin tones, I had a lot of red and very little of green and blue in the mix during the conversion. If it was a freckly child portrait and I wanted to emphasize the freckles, I would have done the opposite - lots of green, less red.

One consequence of this conversion if that lips were de-emphasized. There was a thin layer of pale gloss on them, and contrast with skin is even lower in monochrome. Funnily enough, fire-engine red lipstick would would go as pale, so if we repeat the session at some point and want a higher contrast, we'd need a colder tone with less red - plum shade will work.

Toning was done with gradient map layer.

Natalia Bull is zumba instructor, and we had a lot more colorful zumba session with her as well - you can find it here

feeding frenzy

Very occasionally, when we go to garden center, we buy fish food and feed the fish in the big tanks. And tell you what - those guys behave like we are the only people ever to feed them. Here they were, placid and hardly moving (above video). And look what happens when you drop a few bit of food into the tank. They push and shove and don't behave at all. Shocking really for such expensive animals.

HOW much did you say?

"... has told me that you also owe Workshop £28-50 for a damaged bow..."

Timur's getting to be a really reluctant model - something Yuri was for ages by now. He probably won't agree to pose today at all if I didn't remind him that he lost 28.50 by fooling around at music workshop, dropping his violin bow and damaging it beyond repair. I suppose I should have made him pay that from his allowance money but - well, I think he agreed to pose only because he thought that I will do precisely that otherwise.

Timur's (mostly) pics at shutterstock

The terms sardine and pilchard are not precise, and the usual meanings vary by region. Britain's Sea Fish Industry Authority for example classifies sardines as young pilchards

Yesterday I bought those and fried them.

Today Universe is grey and smells of sardines

fishy (but not smelly) pics at shutterstock

yellow one

now yellow phalaenopsis is starting to bloom.

Timur is an unusual boy - he quite likes shopping. But his concept of shopping is the most primitive one - if you go shopping, you gotta buy somethings, and that's that. To go and look at what's there and go away empty-handed - that type of shopping he doesn't understand.

Consequently, when we are in the shops, he keeps suggesting things that we can buy. Last time in scotsdales garden center, when we were looking around houseplant section, he said "Mum you do have orchid, don't you? Look - there's orchid food".

I manage to wriggle out of buying it. We have orchid plants, but they bloomed a few times each without any "food", so I figure I shouldn't start spoiling them now. I am not sure how they get whatever they need, but their aerial roots are doing nicely. Maybe they catch an occasional fly with them or something - I don't really want to know

orchid pics at shutterstock

Madeira fireworks

it's just a cover picture, not really taken in Funchal.

I want to write something about amazing NY fireworks which we saw three years ago. I didn't write anything back then, want to fill the gap now.

We did know that NY fireworks were going to be spectacular, and we also heard that the best way to enjoy them is from the water - booking a ticket with one of the tourist boats. But by the time we arrived, most of the larger boats were fully booked, and the ones that were still available failed to impress. So we made plan B - to go down to the harbor in the evening and stay there till midnight. And then _somehow_ get back to the place where we lived - self-catering cottage inside a large quinta (estate), far-ish from the harbor and, more importantly, long way up from it.

Luckily for us, the quinta owner turned up on the 31st and invited us to watch fireworks from the grounds of his house. I think he invited pretty much everybody who stayed on the estate, and about fifteen people turned up.

In the evening I tried to get kids to have a little sleep. Didn't work really, for two reasons: a. it seems that locals had private supplies of fireworks comparable in volume to official ones, which they were exploding with increasing frequency as the midnight approached, and b. the place was full of extremely nervous and loud dogs. Deafening combination.

So. I don't know what it looks like from the boat, but I think we got a better deal. From the terrace we could see all of Funchal, illuminated and decorated. We could see the cruise ships that came there and formed a big semicircle in front of the harbor - illuminated and decorated, or course. We could see most if not all the firing points for Funchal, and we could see a big burning year sign quite clear - so clear in fact that Yuri was worried that it will start a forest fire. Fireworks were incredible. They only last about 15 minutes, but there was never a pause and they keep changing and they are color-coordinated, etc, etc.

For other photo maniacs out there - tripod and remote release essential, and set your camera beforehand. Don't try to zoom in and out and search for blasts with hand-held camera, you will not enjoy the show and won't get many good pics either, there is no time.

And my personal recommendation is _not_ to book a ticket on a boat. We were simply lucky, granted, but I think if you do some homework you can find a place which is well up from the water and has unobstructed view towards the town.

fireworks at shutterstock

New Year Cardiff

Last Year we went to Edinburgh for New Year. It was nice, but this year, what with all the travel disruption, we decided to go closer and less to the north. London fireworks would be a great option, but everywhere you look you see warning of how crowded those are, and after being in large crowd last year at Hogmanay we didn't really want a repetition of the experience. So we went to Cardiff.

I was a good choice. We stayed at the Cardiff Bay area, which is full of restaurants and have a particular attraction for Timur (and Yuri, although he won't admit it, what with being in his teens) - Techniquest. It was open till 5pm on New Years eve, so we had just about enough time to press the buttons, pull the levers and bash things with other things.

There were two firework displays - one in the evening at about 6, I think, close to the Castle, where you had to pay. didn't go to that one, went for an enormous meal instead. Another one was to bring in the NY, at the Civic Center, or "by winter wonderland" as locals, including person I spoke to in the tourist info, referred to the location. I tried to find out where exactly it was, but I shouldn't have bothered since taxi drivers know anyway (well, they have The knowledge).

Said winter wonderland is a big funfair, with ice-skating, some live music and "John Lewis Wheel" - tall-ish ferris wheel. We had a spin on that.

Fireworks themselves were short - I didn't time, but I think about ten minutes maximum. I liked it, but I must say that nothing I've seen so far beats Madeira New Year celebration which we've seen a few years ago. That was also just about 15 mins or so, but the amount of fireworks exploded was enormous. But then, it's perhaps an unfair comparison, Madeira's fireworks being in guinness book.

Maybe we'll write to the council and suggest they do fireworks in the bay next year though. It'd look a lot better and there seem to be plenty of space.



I didn't take my camera with me, so don't have anything new to show. This picture was taken on Cardiff Castle grounds, and it's three-years younger Timur who's walking the paved road.

at shutterstock

on snow, disrupted travel and isolation on white

along with thousands of other travelers in Europe we didn't travel anywhere. So we are probably not really qualify to be called travelers at all.

We were supposed to fly to Fuerteventura on Sunday morning (very early morning, so favoured by cheap airlines). We didn't, because the evening before a lot (I mean A LOT) or snow fallen and settled on the ground. It was very respectable amount of snow for single snowfall, even if I apply russian standard to it.

Anyways. On Sunday, while the snow was still fresh, I went out with my camera, and got pictures of a few trees, isolated on white background, small twigs and all. And just wanted to stress again how easy it is if the original lighting is right - be it natural milky-white sky or studio setup.

I am pretty sure I first saw a variant of this technique described by Laurin Rinder on shutterstock forum. He wrote something like "just call up Levels dialogue in photoshop, take a white pipette and click on background". And it works perfectly well if background was white and uniformly lit.

A goodish while ago wrote up a slight variation on this here - that works nicely even is there are dirty patches on the background.

I continue to use more or less the same technique now when conditions are right. I call up Levels dialogue, and start dragging the white point (upwards arrow on the right of the diagram), while holding Alt key (for PC) visually controlling the results. Sometimes it works just like that, sometimes I need to play with a few layers, but it works very nicely. Hope it helps if someone is still struggling with isolation.

drip drop splash

spent some happy time photographing water drops today. while stock photographer in me keeps saying "you never get those past inspectors", art photographer in me says - "but how beautiful".

I followed the tutorial from here (first video), with some differences. First one - I used a studio flash to light (doesn't really matter though). Second - couldn't find a suitable frame to hold bag of water in the air, so used upright floor lamp that has a squiggly flexible bit.

The resulting pics don't really stand scrutiny at 100%. Don't know it that's because it's a first try or what. One theory I have is that the lamp I used to hold the water bag is too tall, and drops were hitting the water at too high speed as a result, making 1/200 exposure (flash duration) too slow. Lens could be better too, but I am pretty sure it's capable of better performance if I can get the physical setup right. I'll have another go for sure. Watch this space