The PK Perspective

Carnoustie    Saturday 24th July

As my sister was up with her husband and twins we had arranged to go over to my uncles house to see the Kelman side of the family. As there were too many people for one car me hired a 2nd so each had a baby and 2 adults per car. We got to Kelman central just as my father was pacing a hole into the paving in anticipation of seeing the twins, which he had spent the day before with. I had the most important person (except the babies) with me as I had picked him up on the way. My grandad, who at 94 is the oldest Kelman, so as I also had the younger twin in the car I had the oldest and youngest Kelmans, (well technically Tabby is not a Kelman but close enough). Father forgot to say hello to myself, my sister and his father and was straight to grandchilden.

Oldest and youngest of the clan

After Uncle Alex had managed to feed the clan and ensure we all had something to drink we enjoyed the day out in his garden which thankfully is quite large as with 7 children and a host of adults we needed a lot of space. I got out the camera to capture the gathering, especially grandad with the twins as he had requested such a shot.  The day was hot but muggy and the light awful, but I managed to get some nice shots. I had to keep the aperture a bit higher then I’d like as when you work with children the problem is they keep moving and if the depth of field is too short they go out of focus as they have moved between the setting the focus and pressing the shutter (dam fast things children!). This however left the problem with background being too busy especially with all the people milling around. In the end it was down to a lot of photoshop work to get the best shots. I found myself using a lot of monotone to get a good depth and contrast to the shots and also added a bit of grain to a couple to give them that little something more. Unlike lots of people I like high contrast in portrait shots, like dark shadows even on the face, but The light was too flat for this and the flash was just a bit too much trouble as it just gave babies something else to eat or older kids something else to stand on.

Most of the shots were of the babies of the clans, Tabby, Georgie and my cousins little girl Lottie. They were happy around the camera and were quite eager to eat it and put little fingerprints on the lens. Some of the best shots were taken by using the auto focus and putting the camera down in front of them and relying on the wide angle to give a good shot, but of course this is how the little fingers got all over it. Guess that’s what lens wipes are for though. The older boys (my cousins’ children) were too busy running around and playing football to get their photos taken but we did get a shot of all the kids together at the end.  Most important is we did the photo of grandad and the twins, the meeting of 4 generations. Grandad was wonderful as always and adored being with the new generation, so much so when the adults retired inside he decided to stay outside claiming that he couldn’t hear what everyone was saying inside was just going to say outside. Us Kelmans are a stubborn lot. My cousins husband had a term for this kind of behaviour, a Kelmanism, which is when we say or do something with such certainty others will believe it is right, regardless of weather it is. My eldest sister definitely does this and once made myself and my other sister believe that the sun was the other side of the moon!

Clan children

All in all it was a good day and was great to be with family, even if my own parents forgot to speak to their own children and went straight to the grandchildren. We enjoyed introducing the twins to the clan and gave them some early warning of what is to come and how stubborn and argumentative their family can be, but also how loving and accepting. Us Kelmans don’t worry about what others may think as we know we are the best!!!! (a Kelmanism I believe!)

Perth City Wednesday 21st July

I had been aware that it had been raining heavy all night and when I got up in the morning, running late as usual, I didn’t think about the rain beating down on the roof. I couldn’t find my boots quickly enough so just shoved on my trainers and ducked out the door. The city centre was very wet but just had a few big puddles littering the streets. I got to the bus stop, thankful for my storm proof jacket, and had to jump over a rather large puddle to get on the bus. The driver advised me that the Crieff road was a bit flooded but he would try and pull into a drier part for me. I thanked him and took my seat not thinking it could be that bad. How wrong I was! We came over the railway bridge and into a biblical storm. The rain was lashing and the road was under a foot or so of water. The mini roundabout was barely visible at the edge of the flood and the other 2 roads leading off it were closed and I could see what looked like a river or mini loch happily expanding over Feus Road. The bus driver dropped me off a bit further up the road than usual as the bus stop was under ankle deep water (and that was on the pavement). Hood up tight I walked the 100 yards or so to work which thankfully was on slightly higher ground and not flooded, once there I called my mum who lives down the road and at the worse of the flooding and found she already knew as she had went into her kitchen and found it full of water and when she opened the back door the patio was nowhere to be seen under the new pond. Luckily for her the kitchen is sunken and has a step of a few inches to get into the dinning room or hall and this probably saved the rest of the ground floor.

The rain calmed as the day went on and I supported a service user into town which wasn’t really affected by the flood with the roads and pavements clear with only a few basements needing pumped out. On the way back we noticed a police sign on the Crieff road and were worried that the road was closed but it was just a danger sign as a manhole cover had blown when the flood hit in the morning and the pressure not only moved the cover but also a fair chunk of road and the area was littered with large chunks of tarmac, am very glad I hadn’t been there when that happened.

Sweeping the water under the fence

After work I walked around to mums place to see her and my sister and her family who had flown up from London for a visit. I went round the back as I had no boat to get down the main road which was still flooded and was now full of firemen and pumps. The back street and pavement were clear, as was the main part of garden but the patio was only passable with wellies or by jumping between sandbags. The drains were spewing up water and the vent under the house was throwing out water too. The neighbours daughter was standing sweeping the water under the fence to her garden where a industrial pump was pumping it out to the back street where the drains were still functioning. I jumped the bags and into a slightly sodden Kitchen, the water had dropped enough that at least it was no longer filled with water. Not sure how they got the kids and stuff into house, but they did, but unfortunately without luggage as the airline had misplaced it! Between us we kept sweeping the patio water under the fence until it levels dropped enough that we could move the pump between the gardens without the other one rising dangerously high again. Eventually we could actually see the paving slabs and could take the lino off the kitchen floor and give the floor a sweep and clean.

Out the fr0nt the water levels were high and it was like walking out the front door at a loch side. Fortunately for us the water reached the front garden but not the door, guess the old Victorian drains and foundations aren’t all bad, the people over the street were not so lucky. I got some shots as the water receded a little and I felt a bit safer standing on the sandbags at the front gate. There were pumps and firemen everywhere, all working hard to uncover the street again. It was well into the evening before the street was anywhere near passable but it still had open drains as the manhole covers were missing. We found out from a neighbour that the problem was that the old drain had been slowly blocking with silt and were now 70% Silt, the local councilor who lives in the street had been campaigning to get it fixed and had won and the work was to start next week. Too late unfortunately for the residents.  The old blocked drain could not deal with the quantity and speed of the rainfall and panicked!

The worse of the flooding at the front of the house

Today though is a warm and bright day and it seems impossible that yesterday was so wet, the center is all dry and sunny like nothing ever happened. However for those in the flooded areas there are ruined kitchens and wet foundations and floors to remind them of yesterdays weather tantrum. Thanks and praise have to be given to the fire brigade  and the people in the neighbourhood (especially my mums lovely neighbours) who all chipped in to clear the flood and save as much of the houses as possible.

location: My place   Wed 14/7/10

The Weather had taken a turn for the worse and I was bored of waiting for the cat to give me a urine sample (not an easy thing to do) so I decided to do a multiplicity shot to pass the time. Recently I’ve had some training days that have explored mental health problems, including Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a very interesting mental health problem, when suffering form it the mind does some amazing but very disturbing things. There is the visual hallucinations along with the audible ones and although there are a few recorded incidents about the ‘voices’ saying nice things the vast majority hear and see very negative things, which I feel must say something about humanity. It has existed throughout time and is thought to be what was happening when people were seeing and hearing demons. But guess you could argue it was responsible for people hearing God and angels too. Also psychic mediums could be seen as schizophrenic as they display many of the symptoms, they just know how to control it and make money from it. The training also dispelled the myth that a schizophrenic is more dangerous than someone who isn’t, there is no evidence of this and just like the general public personality plays a part, some are nasty, some nice after all they are just as human as the rest of humanity.  I also learned that 1 in 5 schizophrenics get better within 5 years, 1 in 3 will get better but with some remaining symptoms and only 1 in 5 will continue to have the troublesome symptoms.

Anyway this all inspired me to do a multiplicity on the subject. Multiplicity is made up of several shots put together. To do this 1st you need the shots so it was out with the tripod. I set the camera up with an ISO of 800, as the light was poor to the bad weather, and a F number of 11. After a couple of shots I decided to use the off camera flash to enhance light and detail. As I had no one else to shoot I used myself. In order to do this I used the shutter release remote (another cool gadget I have for the Nikon) which allows me to take a shot without being behind the camera. Then leaving the camera on the tripod I moved around, got changed and changed my hair to get the different characters for the shot.  After about 40 shots I decided I had enough to work with and uploaded them. I then chose the main shot, with the main character and opened it in photoshop. Working with this shot as a center I chose the next character that would fit in to interact with the main one. With this 2nd shot open in photoshop I selected the character in question using the magic wand tool (holding down shift to select more than one area until the whole figure was selected) and copied it over to the main shot on a new layer. Using a new layer for each character means if you make a major mistake you can just delete the layer and not have to start the entire thing from scratch. Once both characters were on the same photo I moved around the 2nd one until in the right position and then using the earser tool rubbed out the bits which needed to seem to be behind the main character. To finish off character 2 I cloned in any bits missed out by the magic wand from the original shot and then brightened her a bit and made her slightly transparent by reducing the opacity of the layer. I then repeated this process for the other 2 characters and once I was happy with them and their positioning I flattened the image before saving it. Then noticed I had a foot missing and had to clone that in too! stupid foot! The finished shot was not perfect but I’m happy enough with it, even if it did take over an hour to work up in photoshop.

The finished image

Location: Loch Turret    Sun 4th July 1400 ish

As my photo bud is working lots and looking after 2 kids when he’s not working I dragged my mother out for photo trip instead. The advantage of going out with mother is that she supplies lunch too, we originally said we would have a picnic but when Sunday morning came it was dull and wet and windy so we agreed to to Gloagburn farm instead, YUM! Gloagburn is between Perth and Crieff at Timbermore and does wonderful home cooking using organic ingredients off of their farm. As we munched on our lovely food and discussed the weeks ongoings the heavens opened and to say it poured down is an understatement. It was rain of a more biblical nature and just as we considered making us an arc it calmed down and left behind it a lovely sunny and warm day. So after lunch we decided to venture out into the world and headed away from the dark bruised clouds that were fleeing to Perth. The sun was shining over Crieff so we went that way instead and on the spur of a moment went to Loch Turret just beyond. I have been there I few times but always in the autumn and winter and have been met with snow, mist and a very full loch. But this time, in summer, it was very different. The glen was lush with greenery and the loch itself was somewhat shrunken revealing little stony beaches underneath its edges. It was beautiful with the sun shining over the hills and sparkling blue water.

Legoesk hydro building

The whole place was maybe a bit too perfect and had an unreal feel about it like someone had painted it on . The colours were bright and harsh in the Scottish light, but the most unreal thing is the Hydro building. The loch is a dammed river and is looked after by Scottish water. At the base of the Dam which looks like a steep green hill is a building which home the pumps and on this day had an alarm going off. It is a stone building of grey and red and with the steep hill behind it and the blue sky above it looks like it is made of lego or some child had painted it on. Very odd! After deciding that the alarm was not a signal that the dam was going to burst open we headed up to the loch and a view point which was sign posted but we never actually found.

The loch looking lovely before the storm

As the day was now so wonderful, though still a bit breezy we walked along the path at the side of the loch, a path which turned in to a small river at times due to the mornings rain. We got about a mile down it when it gave up being a path and turned into a grassy track and eventually into nothing but heather on a hillside. We did find a stream tumbling down to the loch and a little waterfall which I at a couple of shots of with a low ISO and  Shutter speed  although they were a bit blurry as in order to get them with the wide angle (I didn’t have another lens with me) I had to lean over a very slippy stone which was too slippy to stand on and balance the camera on the edge of it at arms length, surprising I managed to get any good ones really! After this stream we thought we should head back as the path was no longer obvious and the sky was darkening. Back up through the heather we went to the path/ river which we had followed up and after passing a few tourists in t shirts and no jackets (fools they are, do they not know about Scottish weather) the sky turned a deep dark navy and the sun disappeared behind some very heavy clouds which closed in around the hills and cried their woes to us. Like someone had ripped them open the clouds threw their contents at us and I was very glad I had brought my waterproof jacket which is big enough to zip up over me and my camera. It seems we did not beat the storm after all.

With thunder rumbling in the distance we speed back around the loch and over the dam to the car and reached it well and truly drenched. And although the scene was pretty spectacular with a moody sky over loch and glen I was not getting my camera out of my jacket and subjecting it to the buckets of water that were being hurled at us. The drive back down the one track road was interesting with the rain bouncing off of its uneven surface and obscuring our view. At the bottom of the glen is the glen Turret distillery and we sought sanctuary there with it’s giant Grouse until the rain eased and revealed yet again a beautiful sunny day with a blue sky and cheerful white, fluffy clouds. If it wasn’t for the soaked ground and drenched people you would think it had always been a lovely day. Good old Scottish weather, just like its people and a bit on the unpredictable side and often full of surprises!

Perthshire – Campsie Linn and Dunning:   Sun 20th June 2010

Our poor Groucho

Although last Sunday was fathers day I actually spent the day with mother. Firstly because Father was not actually available and secondly as mother had had a really bad week that ended in her cat Groucho (named after Groucho Marx as both had a little black tash) having to be put down due to kidney failure. Poor Grouch! She was getting on a bit, that’s the cat and not mum, but none of us expected her to go so early as our previous cats have lived to around 20 and Groucho was only about 11. She was a very noisy cat possibly due to my sister talking and singing to her when she was a kitten (though my sister had no excuse as she was in her 20s!) and she was a little feisty to put it politely, but all in all she was a good cat and loyal when it suited her.  May she rest in peace in little cat heaven where she can eat Paris buns to her hearts content and sit on Indie (our old cat) whenever she wants.

Anyway to order to cheer up mother we went for a picnic at Campsie Linn which is the other side of the river Tay than Stanley Linn. As the Tay was so low we walked easily over to the island which was littered with smashed sandstone on the grey and white riverbed, like a big rock monster had come along and pooed across it! I assume in actuality the force of the river in full flow had dragged the sandstone down and into the harder pebbles. The day was hot but not bright and I only got a few shots but we had a nice lunch which included fresh raspberries from the Strawberry Shop just outside Old Scone. Yum Yum! After a wee explore of the island we headed across country to Dunning.

Ancient Pictish Cross with amazing carvings

In the middle of Dunning and at the heart of its random road system stands St Serfs church which dates back to the 13th Century, though most the building you can see now is somewhat newer than that. This beautiful church with some of the most amazing stained glass windows I’ve seen (especially as the church is so small) also houses the Dupplin Cross which is a very impressive Pictish carved cross which dates from 800AD. It was originally sited a few miles along the road at Forteviot but the local land owner there got fed up of people walking on his land to see it and got it removed, lovely man!!!! The cross is dedicated in latin to the local Pictish King Caustantin, and is one of the best examples of Pictish engraving there is. It’s panels are engraved with legends, biblical stories and signs of unity and considering it is made of sandstone and has spent 1200 years  standing on a Scottish hillside has aged very well indeed, with most of the panel designs being easily seen and identified. It symbolises a great king who united the Picts and the Scots and overcame the Nordic Vikings and ruled justly over the land. It also has various Christian beliefs on it including the celtic triangle of the holy trinity and references to King David. Thankfully Historic Scotland, who’s care  the cross is in, do not mind photographs being taken of the cross or the church. So camera out for me then. The cross is lit by dim lights but I found the flash took out a lot of detail and made it look very flat so I turned the camera to Raw and manual and took the shots with a shutter of about 60th as I had no tripod for lower and an ISO 1600 with a low aperture. This gave me a few good moody shots. I also got some shots of the stained glass windows using a lower ISO as by now the sun was streaming in. And although Jesus had odd feet on one pane (all a bit De Vinci  code with hidden meanings) I got some  lovely shots of the patterns on the glass and the light they shed on the old walls.

Both Church and cross are incredibly interesting places and quite photogenic and the Historic Scotland man very helpful and informative and I would highly recommend a visit. But if that is not your cup of tea then the town of Dunning is quite lovely too and although most of it was burnt down in raids a few 100 years ago along with the church there is one other older building, a cottage. It is said that when the raiders came and set fire to the village the woman who lived in this cottage set a torch burning at the window and the raiders thought they had already torched the house so left it alone, clever girl!!! Also there is the monument to Maggie Wall who is believed to be the last woman to be burnt at the stake for being a witch. There is no record of this but I’m lead to believe that her skull was excavated and the story holds. The painted inscription on this monument which is interestingly topped with a cross  tells us she was burnt in 1657. Mother and I visited this little witch sanctuary before we headed back to Perth and after talking to a very chatty sheep we added our coin of respect and a daisy to the various other items left in memory of a woman unjustly treated in a turbulent time. Poor girl was probably just a normal clever woman and hence must have been a witch in the eyes of a male dominated society.

Once we got back in to Perth it was unfortunately time for me to go to work so I had to leave mum to her own means, but I had managed to cheer her up a bit and distract her from memories of poor Groucho.

Corinna hotel  Sat 19th June

There’s a condition at work which we call “nightshift brain”and this is when during or after working waking nightshifts your brain gives up its higher levels of functioning due to the tiredness, isolation and general messing about of the body clock. The phenomenon can last for a good few days after the last nightshift. Now due to doing 4 waking nights, finishing on the wed morning, then doing a sleepover shift (which is a late shift, sleep at the service then do an early the next day) on Friday, by Saturday my brain had pretty much given out. This all made my shoot of the wonderful R.P.G on Saturday a bit of a challenge.

Although I was faultly RPG weren't

They were again playing the Corinna Hotel in all it’s dodgy glory.  This time they had a warm up act, Patrol, who were just finishing when I turned up. They did sound very good and everyone gave them a glowing review. Sorry I missed you guys! As always the light was shocking there but this time I had come with a plan. I had used coloured acetone to make filters that fit on the flash, ingenious! They would of worked really well too if I didn’t have so many problems with the flash gun. I had put in cheap batteries which the flash just ate through at an amazing rate and only with very fresh batteries did it work to it’s best. Lesson leaned though, you get what you pay for! This along with my faulty brain that set the camera up with ISO 100 instead of 1600 and at no point figured this out until the next day, made for a challenging shoot. But through the technical difficulties and the rather rowdy crowds (my thanks to Pauline and Sandra who acted as my bouncers and stopped me getting stood on even though it put them in the line of danger) I managed to get some great shots.  Again I also used rear flash and slow shutter approach and as the band and crowd were quite lively I got some good movement shots. I did need to do quite a bit of photoshop work to lighten them up though, knew I should of worked in RAW format so I could play around with exposure and that and due to the low ISO and hence darker shots I did tend to transfer a lot of shots in to black & white to get the contrast and detail I wanted.

Although I was not at my best, RPG were. They played their hearts out and put up with the drunks wondering onto the stage area and were gratified with proper screaming fans and demands for more. It sounded like and felt like being at a proper concert, apart from the venue. I’m sure if they did a CD it would do very well, who says you have to be in your youth to make it big in the music world!!!!