Since the beginning of the year I've been posting into a Getty account which I now realise doesn't have a link to from this website ....all change now as here it is.

Getty Images latest accepted.

​So a lot of new Scottish imagery , there will be more during the year as I trek around woodland and villages giving them an online presence.

My photography has been on the serious side these last 6 months, sharp where it need to be, composition where it has to be, say tataa as it goes off to live it's life amongst all those other agency photographs. Well I've not let the new Nikon flex it's pecs, even though it has all the gear needed to waft , wobble and multi image in camera....well a trip to Kelvingrove in Glasgow changed that. All images created in camera and they are either walking multi images or zoom multis...5 shots whacked into one in camera.

There are maybe a hoard of images I have on various hard drives that have never seen the light of day or been shared on any platform. But they are there, latent images we used to call them back in the days of film an exposure waiting to be developed, still there but as yet unseen.
So I am taking time to trawl through, what can only be described , as a haphazard filing system, something of my own construct but lacking that tiny pinch of common sense that would make things so much easier to find.
So I have started to put together images that I hope will work well together as albums and I've started with the wibbly wobbly ICM /multi image files. It all started in 2010 with a chunk of welding glass off of that ebay...once you dialled out the colour cast things became interesting and there I was at the bottom of the learning curve.
​So I will work through and find those lost latent images and , fingers crossed, create some albums of images that show how I see things

I shot a lot of Panoramas on my jollies last week and , to put it mildly, most are 'bin jobs'. So rather than plough through them, the Tears of Despair flooding my keyboard, I moved on to something new.

Keen eyed viewers will have noticed that there isn't a 2022 Gallery or an addition to the Back History section concerning new work, time to change that and onto a lot of images that I've created using shots of the Scottish coast and countryside with the teeny tiny Fuji X100v

So they may look complex and even complicated images, the complexity is creating the initial image 'in camera' by multi image shooting and then combining 2 of those images in Photoshop with a blend mode of your choice. Minor fiff and faffling and  photographs morph into Images. I know, personal taste, and a lot of you will don heavy shades and exit stage right but for a few of you it may be inspirational....I'll never know
​Have a wander through and sooner rather than later a 2022 gallery may appear.

​#fujifilm #fujix100v #multiimaging #scotland

10 days away up at Moray and back to all the stuff I loaded into the all new singing and dancing Lightroom version whatever before I went off on my jollies. Experimentation (again) as I tried out the different blend modes in the multi exposure setting of the Fuji X100v. Take your pick from Light, Dark Additive and Average all giving some eye watering results when used on the right (or wrong) subject matter. Maybe I should shoot one subject in the 4 different modes....maybe I will, anyway some for your viewing pleasure.

Bit of nature next then onto Moray images.

#fujix100v #blendmodes #squareformat #fujifilm #maxblack #scottishimages

Having loaded all my Joiner panorama images into Lightroom I thought it would be a doddle to get them edited and then stacked straight into Photoshop but it appears I've overwhelmed the capabilities of my Graphics card and internal workings of the box and they steadfastly refuse to open with the old whirling blue wheel of death...I'll work around it
So here are a few of yesterdays in camera multis, I hadn't popped the curves and contrast in camera, save that for a wet play day so with a clarity and contrast tweak in Lightroom classic and no cropping here are a few below, I will batter these panorama joiners into some semblance of imagery, but maybe not today,

I meant to start these the other day but time and circumstances dictated otherwise, anyway the Fuji X100v....it has a lot under the hood which make it a very capable creative imaging tool.
Going in to Drive one of the options is to shoot in Panorama mode, either Left to right, right to left or up and down and yes you guessed....down and up ! so these are shot as Up to Down panoramas, I wanted to ensure the exposure set by the camera was based on a reading of the sky and a tickle in Lightroom to rescue and shadow detail loss.
Now these are shot as Jpegs, I suppose I'd better find out what a RAW/ DNG file size would be but I'm sure they would be a 'Biggie'
 I created a new file in Photoshop, A2 size and exported the panoramas from Lightroom as a layer stack, dragged over to the A2 base and then dragged and moved individually into position.
Now there are no blending modes or opacity applied to these layers, just as they were from import but that's something I'm planning on doing next although the weather has a big say in this at the moment.
So this is a start not an ending with opacity, blending and up and downs overlaying left and rights.....maybe throw in some Infra Red and blur....or maybe not!!!

Here are some Wide angle Multi Joiner Panoramas from back in the day 
​
​Fuji X100v f 8 1/250th ISO auto Panorama mode.

Keen eyed followers will have already seen in a previous post the slow rumbling beginnings of some Infra red work.
Now the light is diminishing and the days shortening it's maybe time I parked the handheld high ISO stuff I've been doing and get on with some tripod based work. I know, tripods, some go a bit queasy at the mere mention of their name, but with the IR filter having a similar effect to an ND filter well it's something that has to be tackled. Before then here are a few of the handheld ones , mainly from my tree filled garden.
Now as autumn takes hold. leaves and greenery will be on the way out so if you are thinking of doing some IR work, well here in the northern hemisphere it might be time to lock and load and get out there.
​Fuji X100v Hoya IR-67 filter, ISO 3200 various apertures and shutter speeds.

It's not all wobbly blurriness on here, sometimes I remember to switch on the AF.....boom tish.

Sheep, there are shed loads of the wooly critters around here, all sorts on all kinds of terrain, munching away converting all that grass into wool and meat. As an aside I'm running an experiment using Zwartbles wool in my compost layers, it's a milking sheep so the wool is a bit rough, anyhow the worms seem to love it so we'll have to see what the compost turns out like later this year...I'm digressing again...so sheep portraits, I know you'll have a favourite, just keep quiet about it.

Fuji X100v, F8, 1/60th ISO auto.

Windchill factor ...... just saying

Not what I was intending to do but my, that Northerly wind was finding it's way into all the nooks and crannies. I was all set to do some large joiner multi imaging, but this was not a day to be hanging about. So Jpeg multi imaging in camera working with between 3 to 9 images all taken and processed in camera, well there was a spank of Lightroom to up the contrast and clarity but I will set the camera up to do this next time and , with crossed fingers, hope the results are acceptable.
A wander around Girvan taking in the Jetty, harbour and play area and then the 'Showers' started, good thing is that you can see them looming over Arran as the set off scudding to here.
Long exposures and joiner multis on the way as long as I don't freeze to death first.
​16 x 9 Jpegs, Fuji X100v, f 8, 1/250th and ISO Auto and Fuji Classic Chrome.

A trip up the coast to Kelburn Castle close to Largs to support our daughter who was setting up a designer / artisan event at the pavilion. First time here and we will be going back for a proper walkabout later this year.
So the camera is set on multi image mode, RAW this time, ISO on auto and working the shutter and aperture between 1/60th to 1/250th and f5.6 to f11.
Shooting RAW in multi image mode gives you all the separate shots on the card before making a combined image at the end of the stack. So you can shoot between 1-9 images to create a multi shot in camera instead of hoicking them all into Photoshop as a stack of layers. So these are all straight from the camera into Lightroom, they do need a pop of contrast and clarity although the option is there to do that in camera as well.
Multi mode allows you also to take just one shot, if you hit the disp/back button after you shoot it will then store the image as a single RAW file. 
​As the return of Bake-Off, Only Connects and Strictly Come Dancing tell us that we are already into Autumn, it's maybe a good time to get out and grab some of those Autumnal colours.

The Robbie Burns centre, so many Americans...the culture of Burns and his writings is a big draw in this part of Scotland and although I'd been to the café before I'd never done the Museum, Brig O' Doon, monument and cottage......a lot of Americans...just saying....
So Fuji X100V. JPEGS, multi image mode set to additive, film simulation Classic Chrome  and off I toddled, a very mild spank in Lightroom Classic mainly to get something out of the shadows...so maybe this and the addition of the inbuilt ND filter...now there's a challenge.

Went on a road trip with added off grid campervanning to Argyll and Bute with stop offs at Forestry Commission car parks and met some nice folks and had glimpses of dark skies...just glimpses. I took my old Nikon D700, 20mm, 50mm, and 105mm lenses and after about 30 minutes of huffing and puffing realised the reason I had bought a Fuji X100V... so light so usable and a lot less stressful on the ol' knackerty knees. Got home and the pins of my CF reader bent so still not downloaded anything, grrrrrrrr
So back to the Fuji and a blast of utilising all the stuff that this little thing has under the hood. So inbuilt ND filter, Digital lenses and multi imaging ...all at once, why not...one annoying thing is if the camera goes into sleep mode you have to reset things all over again....did I say I'm shooting 16 x 9 JPEGS!!!!!!! In Jpeg mode you have a 72 mm and 100mm whilst in RAW its 50mm and 70mm...who knows why.
Still a wander down at Girvan and the Funfair is in town to see how I can push the camera, have to say no tripod work just all hand held and the film mode is Classic Chrome, pretty bright low sun day so the inbuilt ND did a fine job. Have the Infra Red filter to work on some early Autumn stuff so maybe another post soon. Here's some more from the beach wander.

​#fujix100v #fuji #ayrshire

Was it only 20 odd years ago that Photo sharing sites emerged from the primordial swamp of the Internet?????
How important Likes , Shares and newly found 'Internet' friends became...or did they. I burned my first Flickr account, there was madness out there, I'd done a series of Images of Manchester buildings appearing to be emerging from under a bright blue sea.....too much time on my hands and Photoshop to faff with... they gathered pace on viewing figures, being shared all over the place and I was batting away questions from all and sundry when, 1 image got to 250,000 views I thought the only way to escape was to burn my online account...so I did...freedom....until that is I opened a new flickr account..
​Meh, all these images had to go somewhere, but then I discovered agents and selling sites and the rest is history...or is it.

Facebook seemed a place to share but has now buried its presence under an avalanche of advertising, Instagram is trying to stand fast against the TikTok tsunami of human madness by upping video content and alienating all those stills photographers at the same time so what is left....
​Have a look at the image above, posted on 16/07/2022 it now has 23,000 views, no comments to answer, no likes to get hot and bothered about, just views, pure and simple. Back in the day you would go around to someone's house, all of a sudden a packet with Max Spielman or Snappy Snaps would be produced and you'd view someone's holiday, wedding or kids party, if you wanted to share then a trip back to the lab for a reprint was needed and a 'Like' was passed on verbally. I have looked at a lot of work by Photographers and it always saddens me that the driver behind posting is to be liked and vaunted rather than move their image making forwards. We live in the golden age of Democratic Photography, got a phone, you are a photographer, anyone has the ability to press a button but understanding the difference between a photograph and an Image is in the hands of the person who presses the button, not in all the 'Likes' attributed to the picture you upload.
​So as some sort of conclusion, the place to Post Images is Google maps, stick 'em on there, be seen by the world , no need to bat away questions, no 'friends' to query and a way of sharing your view on the familiar...I wonder if my Myspace page is getting any hits still???

A trip to Glasgow to breathe in some culture at the Kelvingrove and meet some old friends. Dressed for driving rain and mild to cold weather as per Meteo advice, we were somewhat surprised to get off the train to see folk dressed in summer gear and some wispy sunshine...ah well...
​Walked to the Kelvingrove from Central Station and took a few snaps along the way.

fA quick trip up to Glasgow for a bit of 'non country mouse' based culture and meet some friends.
​I mentioned the amount of times my images of the pedestrian tunnel at the SECC had featured on book covers around the world so, as you do, we went down and created a new one!!  Here's my friend Phil doing his best 'running man' which seems to be a crime novel cliché. and below aster a bit of faffology his own medic based book cover

Way back in my recent past I purchased a Hoya IR 72 infra red filter which I paired up with my old Nikon D750, now I can't say the results blew me away, Dovestones reservoir maybe not the best of subjects. It was consigned to the 'Man drawer of stuff' and although hoicked from England to France and now up to Scotland has remained unused and unloved, that is until now.
I have my point and shoot Fuji X100V which hasn't had much of a run-around for the last couple of months as I started looking at the macro world again with a Nikon 105VR f2,8.
But I was having a root about for some old connectors for some even older hard drives and there winking at me from the darkness was the Hoya filter. Well why not just screw it onto the Fuji and see what happens.
A wander into the garden and it became obvious that a tripod would be needed unless the ISO was ramped and the shutter flung open. So the image above is hand held ISO 3200 f2.8 shutter on auto but here is the kicker. I used the Fuji native pre-set of Acros mono with it on the red setting in the menu, shot in RAW, I uploaded to Lightroom but as a DNG. Just needed a pop of contrast, a wee bit of lens correction and there you have it.
​I can see possibilities in ICM and multi image shooting but also capturing the fabulous scenery around here where I live. So brace yourselves, IR ICM multi layered images may be served up soon but first some good old tripod mounted landscapery...if only it would stop raining.

So more wandering the streets of Glasgow but this time shot with a Nikon D700 and not the Fuji X100v...a bit more difficult as the D700 really is more of an intrusion into the social whirl of street shooting than the X100v would ever be. Black and White because it seems to add to the atmosphere of these shots and a majority of square images which is a throwback to shooting from the hip with a Bronica S2a. Oh final point, Nikon D700...do you really need more than 12 megapixels???