The lockdown continues and with hair salons being closed and no one having any idea when they might open Rosemarie took things into her own hands and got some hair dye.
Surprisingly, as I assisted, things went well and when I wasn’t assisting I took some photographs. Stock sites need more pictures of people dying their hair.
With hair rinsed and dried she did her own makeup.
Home hair dying
On a more glamorous note. In an article about the supermodel Naomi Campbell in DP Review yesterday we are told she did her own hair and makeup and took her own photograph with an iPhone for the cover of Essence magazine. The Coronavirus lock down prevented the magazine from dispatching the team that had been booked. You could say it was Supermodel DIY.
Naomi Campbell was one of the super, supermodels of the nineties along with Linda Evangelista and Christie Turlington. They were as famous as film stars and pop singers. Evangelista is remembered for the quote “We don’t wake up for less than $10,000 a day.”
Naomi Campbell is not alone. Actor Robert Patinson is on the cover of GQ Magazine having also photographed himself although he used a DSLR rather than a phone. I’ve no idea how much he gets paid for waking up but he looked like he just got out of bed. Somebody said that’s the look many aspire to nowadays.
Some photographers expressed concern about celebrities taking their own pictures. If supermodels can still demand $10,000 for getting out of bed they shouldn’t worry.
One of my Lumix GX80 cameras is starting to show wear. The rear control wheel has developed a mind of its own. I have it set to adjust shutter speed and when you turn it, it doesn’t matter in what direction, the speed may go up or down depending on what the camera feels like it wants to do. I now use it for video so I can keep the speed at 1/50 second permanently.
The internet tells me this is a common enough fault and anticipating more problems I’ve been viewing a replacement.
The Lumix G9 is well up my list. It’s a lot of camera for the money. It has dropped considerably in price over the last year or so and is equally adept producing stills or video. I haven’t pulled the trigger because with the current lock down I wouldn’t get out much to use it and anyway I’m hopeful of further price reductions.
Using a Panasonic Lumix camera
That was my thinking until today when I watched a Nigel Danson video on YouTube. He was able to produce A2 prints (he went even bigger with one photograph) from images made with an iPhone and a Google Pixel phone. He was very pleased with the quality. He was so pleased he said he would be happy to hang them on his wall.
I have processed mobile phone images and got them printed for other people in the past and been surprised with the quality attained. I got 5 x 7 prints but they could have been printed larger and Indeed most problems were caused by the photographer not holding the phone steady. Modern camera phones are considerably better and I believe images up to A4 would be easily possible if care is taken.
I don’t for one minute believe that A2 prints produced with images from a mobile phone will become commonplace anytime soon, but most prints are produced much smaller anyway. What Nigel Danson did demonstrate is what is possible.
His video encouraged me to re-examine my decision to buy a replacement camera and I’m considering keeping my current cameras and upgrading my phone to use for video. My current phone is over three years old and I already have a phone gimbal.
Most stock agencies are reluctant to accept images from a phone into their main library but that’s not the case with video. I hear the iPhone 11 is very good for video as are the current Samsung and Google Pixel phones and probably others I don’t know. I shoot 10 to 20 second clips, not movies so a phone should easily be adequate in most cases.
I don’t think I’d be happy using a mobile phone for photography. A camera produces much better images, at present anyway and is much more flexible. Phones have ousted point and shoot cameras and I wouldn’t like that trend to continue to the next level anytime soon.
I still haven’t made my mind up. I was leaning towards buying a Lumix G9 in the not too distant future. Now I’m looking at premium mobile phones and thinking of pushing any purchase further into the future. But if a nicely priced G9 or GH5 should become available……
This site is built or published (I’m not sure which) using WordPress. Recently I’ve started to host images on Smugmug. As well as providing me with another copy for backup it will be quicker and easier to get photographs on the site as I can upload directly from Lightroom.
While playing around to learn how my new workflow will actually function I decided to embed a gallery on my Introduction page. I didn’t expect any problems as I’ve embedded galleries in WordPress before, although not with Smugmug.
I got it up and running with very little trouble and left it to go in search of my image for the day (a topic for a future post).
Later I brought the site up on my iPad and no gallery. I checked the computer and it was working as it should. iPad again and still no gallery. I checked it on an Android tablet I have and again no gallery. It was late so I left it for the day.
Next morning the gallery was still showing on my computer, using Chrome. I tried Microsoft Edge but no gallery.
Not knowing if the problem was with Smugmug, my computer, or some issue with browsers but suspecting it may well be down to me, and completely at a loss, I stepped back. I’ve been here before. You don’t understand why something doesn’t work but continue to tinker in the hope you’ll find a solution by trial and error. Often you quickly find yourself in deep water and discover that you’ve created problems more difficult to fix than the situation you originally faced. I wimped out, I emailed Smugmug help.
Praise where praise is due. Within 30 minutes I had a response, an answer. The problem, as I suspected and everyone reading this will know, was me.
While working on the galleries I had kept them all private. I had copied (Smugmug talks about collecting) the images I wanted to display to another gallery, made this public and embedded it in the page. What I hadn’t even thought of was the images, in their original galleries, were still private. I made the various galleries public and success, gallery displaying. It had worked correctly on my computer because I was logged in on another browser window.
I’m happy to have got it working but I’ve been left with the vaguely uneasy feeling that a few years ago I would’ve seen where the problem lay fairly quickly and not had to contact the Help Desk. On a more positive note I realise as I get older I’m prepared to ask for help sooner.
Anyway crisis over.
You will see gradual changes in the site as I move some images from WordPress over to Smugmug. Hopefully there will not be too many problems.
Lock down continues as does the good weather and fortunately the weather has been very good with near constant sunshine. People are usually happier when the sun is out and Its a lot nicer going for walks when its sunny.
I’ve been spending a lot of time in the garden generally tidying things up and doing those little jobs that you don’t seem to get round to in normal times. A few years ago we removed the flowerbeds and now just have grass. We place pots around the garden with plants or flowers in them to add some interest and colour. With no flowerbeds gardening is a lot less work and you can easily change the look of the place by moving the plant pots around. It was all my wife, Rosemarie’s idea. She’s in charge of the garden.
Plant pots being prepared on grass.
We have a garden shed and a summer house and some wooden fences all needing stained. I’ve given the garden shed and the back fence a coat so far. They’ll need a second coat. The summerhouse and two other fences have yet to be done. The summer house is really just an upmarket shed but it has lots glass and a small porch area with handrails which make it time consuming to stain. I’ve been told that painting is therapeutic but I’m not convinced.
I suppose its sensible to get all the work done during lock down have free time when its lifted and we can get out and about again.
Our neighbour has a blossom tree in their back garden and in the morning when I wake I pull the curtains to see what the day is like. I have a clear view of the tree and in March I see the buds coming out. In no time at all it’s blossoming and that’s when I feel Spring has arrived. I’ve been spending some time photographing the petals in the garden and on the summerhouse.
It was reported on the news this evening that the restrictions were to last another three weeks but there is talk now of an exit strategy so things are looking up.
Recently on the Today programme there was a report about a tiger in New York Zoo that had been infected with Coronavirus by its keeper. The report said there was no evidence to suggest the virus could be transferred from cats, big or small, to humans but they quoted a vet as saying that cats should be kept indoors where possible.
The cat below is called Fluff. Fluff adopted us about five years ago and she’s now about six.
Fluff the cat. Fluff came to live with us about five years ago and is about six years old. She has a very long, thick fur that gets badly matted when she loses her winter coat in the Spring. Its impossible to comb out so she goes to the Vet for a haircut. This is why she looks a bit ragged.
She looks a bit bedraggled in the photograph. This is partly down to prowling in ditches and through hedges but mainly because she’s recently had a haircut. She has a very long, thick coat and has difficulty grooming. I comb her but when she starts to lose her winter coat the fur gets badly matted and is impossible to deal with.
This means every year, in early Spring, a trip to the Vet, a general anaesthetic and a trim. Just now she’s got a Mohican. You can’t see in this photograph but both sides have been shaved.
Jump forward to a few days ago and as we were eating lunch a woman walked past. My wife remarked that people’s hair was getting untidy as hairdressing salons were closed because of the lock down. I hadn’t noticed, I haven’t got much hair anyway. It’s funny how your mind makes connections. As soon as she said this I thought – they wouldn’t need an anaesthetic like the cat did to get a hair do.
My wife’s comment on untidy hair was enough for the Coronavirus conversation to kick off. It’s on everyone’s mind. How long will the lock down last? How long will it take to develop a vaccine? When will people be able to get tested for antibodies? How long will it take to get back to normal?
We’re into the third week of lock down and no one knows how long it may last. The priority now is to stop the spread of the virus and keep people safe. It is possible that we will have to live with this illness, perhaps for many months – eighteen months is often mentioned – until a vaccine can be developed. We can’t stay in lock down for that long.
Empty Bloomfield Shopping Centre car park
The people in the NHS are doing a fantastic job but they’re running at full throttle and we can’t ask them to do that indefinitely.
At first I couldn’t believe what was happening, it felt unreal, it still does sometimes. There were many like me. Now as it sinks in, people are starting to talk about the economic carnage and the problems that will follow as we try to move back towards some normality.
The medical emergency will have a knock on effect for years because many treatments have been postponed as medical staff deal with the pandemic and waiting times for some treatments were lengthy prior to the Coronavirus outbreak.
Keep your hands clean. Hand sanitiser on desk with computer mouse
Who knows how long the economic emergency will last? The billions spent to support us all during the pandemic will have to be repaid. Factories, retailers, education, the NHS, the economy in general will not recover overnight.
We’ve been in lockdown now for nearly two weeks because of Coronavirus or Covid 19. We were told it would be for three weeks but now there are mutterings of it lasting much longer, possibly until the end of April. They say this will save lives so no argument from me.
I heard an epidemiologist on Radio 4 recently talking about the pandemic. He said it would get worse and then it would get better. Simple and to the point. His words had the ring of truth.
Few will have seen anything like this in their lifetime. I’m in my sixties and I certainly haven’t. I stare in disbelief at closed shops, closed schools, the queues at supermarkets and people wearing masks. And it’s happening everywhere. It feels like the world is closing down.
I’m practising social distancing as are most people. It is amazing how quickly talking to someone from six feet away has become the norm. People avoid getting too close to each other when passing on the pavement.
Some Health professionals are putting their lives on the line every shift they do. Some have died. Essential workers, many doing, what were previously classed as everyday jobs, expose themselves to danger by continuing to work and are now spoken of with a new respect.
A woman taking her own temperature
I’ve become very selective where I get my news. Online forums are overflowing with advice on how to deal with the pandemic. Many keyboard warriors have moved from Brexit and climate change to Coronavirus. I have little interest in politics but It quickly becomes obvious that many opinions on what action should be taken to fight the pandemic are coloured by dislike of those currently in power rather than any basis in fact.
The coffee shops are all closed or at least the ones I go to and I’m working on learning how to make a decent cup of coffee. Lesson one is that it tastes much better when someone else makes it.
On the photographic front things are quiet. I go out most days for a walk as my daily exercise and of course bring a camera. Having said that most images are from around the house and garden as my routes for walking don’t offer many opportunities for photography.
I’ve written about Castle Espie before. It is a Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust Centre on the shores of Strangford Lough about 10 miles from my home. I try to visit a couple of times a month and while I go mainly to take photographs as do many others, a lot of people come to simply walk in the grounds and see the wildfowl and the views over the lough.
It’s a popular place to see the Brent Geese as thousands of them winter on the lough and the Trust has The Brent Discovery Hide right on the shore where you can watch them in reasonable comfort.
The Centre is good for photography. When you enter there are large ponds where you can feed the ducks and geese. This area is separated from the main reserve and the birds are used to being fed so you can get fairly close.
I’ve tried before to photograph the ducks and geese using a wide angle lens and it didn’t work out well for me. The birds had been fed and my attempts to coax them to come close with grain I had bought didn’t work.
This was my second attempt. These photographs were taken using a Canon 17-40 lens at the short end. Since I took these images I’ve thought of a few ways to make improvements. I need to get the camera lower and closer for a start and I need more birds in the frame. I know I could clone some of the birds from elsewhere in the photograph but I’d prefer to get it right in camera if possible.
I’ll try again and call this work in progress
Wildfowl, Castle Espie WWT CentreWildfowl, Castle Espie WWT Centre
It often rains in January and and its usually cold. I think I’ve said it before that I don’t remember anyone ever telling me they came to Ireland for the weather.
Last week I had an appointment in Belfast and with some time to kill had a walk around the city centre. It was raining – that light drizzle that soaks you without you realising it until its too late. There were more people about than I expected on such a day, perhaps drawn by the New Year sales
What I was surprised to see were people, obviously visitors to the city, posing and and taking pictures at the Big Fish.
Shortly afterwards I came across a walking tour preparing to set off from the city hall and I saw another couple of walking tours as I wandered around.
Belfast suffered badly during “The troubles” with few tourists in the height of summer, never mind January. To people that remember those times these visitors bring a sense of normality.
Good to see.
A walking tour prepares to set off from the city hall
