MY BLOG HAS MOVED

MY BLOG HAS MOVED


I have decided to take my blog "in house" and am now hosting it on my own webspace. Please pop along and say hello at garywilliamson.co.uk/blog

Everything here has been transported over so no reason to hang around here really..............

;-)

Family holidays are great. That's what I keep telling myself! They are exhausting, frustrating and even at points plain hard work. Despite this I know we will look back at these times with great affection. To see the kids use their skills to enjoy the various attractions that the alps have to offer and witness them spread their wings and get into activities such as swimming, cycling, walking, climbing is a proud time as a parent.

To see them enjoy an ice lolly is also a simple joy.

Rain in the Alps

Rain in the Alps
Originally uploaded by upnorthme

When it rains in the alps it doesn't do it by half. As a Scotsman you think that you know rain - and my webbed feet indicate a certain adaptation to it - but boy the alps can do VOLUME rain. Our afternoon was stopped on Thursday as thunderstorms developed and roads became rivers for a good 2-3 hours.
This shot shows how heavy it was with the road becoming a river and the rooves shedding streams. Once it was finished there were rocks left on the road that would have been a job to lift there. Mother nature was having a bad day.
The forecast is one of improvements but looks like rain will remain as a feature for the next 3-4 days.

Sunflowers

Sunflowers
Originally uploaded by upnorthme

The girls (My wife and daughters) flew to Geneva so I had to drive over to pick them up. I passed this field just before entering a tunnel and back tracked to find it. Time was not a major problem and I have seen, and admired, so many sunflower shots I had to have a go. The light was falling fast but with my flash and wireless triggers I set up a tripod and used my remote control to hold the light off camera to the left. Shame about the tree but now I have a sunflower shot of my very own!

Mont Blanc

Mont Blanc
Originally uploaded by upnorthme

The king of the alps!
I went for a drive on my first night to scope out potential take off areas for my paramotor. I drove to the top of the hill above my chalet and as I descended the other side this view presented itself through the trees. In full tourist mode the van was parked (abandoned rudely) and the tripod was quickly erected to grab this. In the time it took to fire three shots the light had gone. Hopefully I will get a decent view from the air of this fine mountain.

Summer Holiday - We're off!

Dover Port Entrance
Originally uploaded by upnorthme

I know I extol the virtues of living in the highlands; the fresh air, the majestic scenery, the wonderful lochs. Well everyone needs a holiday now and again so where does someone go to trump that where they normally live? For me it is the alps. No gentle rollings hills or rounded granite mounds worn down and adorned with peat and heather but a younger, sharper, type of mountain landscape.

Where the Scottish Mountains are regal and aged, they live relatively alone at the edge of the European community. The alps however are in the centre of europe and their youthful topography attracts all kinds of outdoor people. From walkers and cyclists to white water rafters, free climbers and of course free-flyers.

We have two weeks to experience these younger neighbours. I hope I am up for the party.

Over the gorms. At last!

For years I have been trying to fly over the Cairngorms in a paraglider. At first it was with good old thermal power. I would make the classic mistakes; take off too early/late in the day, fail to commit or choose the wrong take off site. Well with the addition of power I have less to work out and all I wanted was a clear day and/or high cloud base and little wind so I could make my return.
Last Wednesday was that day. I started in the Mountain Cafe in Aviemore looking out at blanket cloud which the forecast was adamant would clear. I probably shouldn't have accepted Colin's (the shop owner) offer of a second coffee as when I took off most of that cloud had already gone. With hindsight it would have made more interesting imagery but YOU try and resist a Mountain Cafe coffee!
Take off was not quite textbook as the wind whirled around as Sunlight burst upon the ground through the appearing holes but on second attempt I was away. The climb out to the mountains took me over Loch Morlich and the Ski area on Cairngorm. As I climbed the slopes the air was lifting gently so above summit height was soon achieved. I continued up to over 5,000ft where the air was cold but smooth and continued my tour down the Lairig Ghru where I enjoyed beautiful vistas of Ben Macdui, Braeriach Loch Avon and other landmarks within the range.
I circled round the back of Ben Macdui and over the back of cairngorm for my return then over to Loch Einich and Feshie. By the time I had returned to the valley the wind was starting to pick up and I landed in a stiff breeze which signified some big thermals in the mountains. My timing was spot-on. 300 photos in the bag, the only thing missing was another glider. Volunteers for the next trip (probably in winter) please get in touch!

I made a trip to the Western Isles last week. As sunset is after 10pm I made the ffort at the end of the working day to get into the Harris hills and take some shots. The sun had shone unencumbered all day but as I began to walk up some cloud started to develop over the mountains.

Not to be put off I kept going and after a walk up to my vantage point (approx 2,000ft up) it was a matter of waiting for the sun to clear the clouds. Unfortunately the wind was easterly and just blew the clouds in the direction of the setting sun. This shot was the only one where this mountain received any light. Not a classic but I cannot think of a better place to be on the island at that time. Certainly not the hotel bar!

Lucy's new Icar

I have finally gone and bought a Mac! After years of tinkering with PCs the move towards Mac was not taken lightly. In fact I doubt that I will come to any firm conclusions as to the merit of my decision for some time to come.
In any case whilst I download the latest versions of Mac OS and Adobe Photowhatshop it is pleasing to see that at least one person in our household thinks buying an iMac (sorry i-Car!)
was a good decision!

Old ones can be the best ones!

Hard disk space and back-ups are something that you never have enough of. I was trying to clear some space and tidy up my network attached storage in advance of some upgrades and backups. I decided that some photos which had previously not been worked may warrant some of my attention and this one in particular caught my eye. Why did I not see potential to process it before? I am not sure. Perhaps the memory of the view was stronger than the image and I felt it wasn't worthy of time spent in photoshop.
In any case it wasn't long before I saw the obvious panorama shot and the need for a black and white conversion. Funny thing is the more I look at it the more I think I may be back to it in the future.

Greg's promo shot

My lad loves his bike and is of the age where I thought he needed a portrait/promo shot of him with his bike so when at the trails today I decided to catch him while he was resting.

He put on his best tough-guy stare but looks like he's wondering what I am doing!

Any way i am sure the girls will love it :)

Land Here!

Land Here
Originally uploaded by upnorthme.

Not been blogging for a while so hope to catch up here. This shot was taken just before I landed at Achmelvich beach in North West Sutherland after a short flight around Stoer point and Lochinver. The scenery was fantastic - as you might expect - and the day was fairly interesting too.

I stopped off at a couple of customers prior to the flight which was a loose way of mixing business with pleasure and after I landed I visited a bistro for lunch and bumped into my next door neighbours who just happened to be in the area!

Playing with the clouds

Playing with the clouds
Originally uploaded by upnorthme.

A new pilot to our area bought a paramotor but never had the chance through the winter to fly it. He was a little nervous as he ventured out to his first flight yesterday but once in the air there was no stopping him and he even made a bee-line for the few clouds that were there to fly around them (and...ahem...through one!)

He flew until he ran out of fuel which was keen for a first flight and he went for height as well - there will be no stopping him!

Oh. and it was real nice to have company up there... a real treat

Strange Tree (HDR)

I have been so busy setting up my new coffee shop in Inverness (as it if needs another one!) that I have had little time to actuate a shutter.

So I revisited this shot which I had tried to work before but did not like the sky no matter what I did. After hdr'ing the three shots taken of this tree I achieved a moody black sky however the clouds had moved during the three shots and the effect was a sort of blurry twin-vision thing which meant that subtle was out. A firmer push to the extreme resulted in this.

Lunar Eclipse

Lunar Eclipse
Originally uploaded by upnorthme.

Been a little while since I posted so what better to get back on track with but a bit of Red moon. We had just came home from dinner with friends when the eclipse started and as the sky was pretty well clear it seemed foolish not to have a go. I struggled (like many others I have learned) with the balance of ISO (to keep noise down) and shutter speed (to keep movement out). This was about the best compromise.

Midweek Mountains

Winter in the Highlands is a mixed blessing. For days and days you see no sun, get rained on and when snow comes it is normally late. This week however was full of bright days and on Wednesday morning I took some time out to get into the air with the aim to capture some images of our local mountains which had been given a good covering of snow the previous evening.
This shot is of the summit of Ben Wyvis and looking west towards the interior of Wester Ross. You can clearly see the Fannichs, An Teallach and the Ben Dearg range.
The cold drove me back - it was well below - or otherwise I would have been off in a wnder in that direction. Not a bad morning and back to work by lunchtime.

Just another sunset

Sunsets draw photographers like a moth to a flame. Despite this reality I rarely actually try to take a pic of a sunset proper. Usually the time after the sun has set, or indeed just before it rises, is the better time for a more atmospheric picture.
Family and business commitments have meant that my 5D has been firmly in it's bag for a little too long and as I had a little time between coming home from Edinburgh and having to pick up Greg from the bike tracks I thought I would go to my local shoreline and catch the sun going down. This shot was one of the last taken before it disappeared behind the distant mountains and is the least affected by flare . All shots were taken with a 2 stop bracket as I knew that despite using a ND grad filter I would need some layering/hdr work to get anything meaningful.
Should hold me over for a couple of days. ;-)

Quick Trip to London

Jacqui and I had a jaunt to London this week. It was ostensibly a trip to attend a wine tasting but it was also a chance for Mam & dad to get some quality time.
The wine tasting had over 750 wines with a number of winemakers representing most of the major the wine regions including unbelievably China! We made a valiant effort and worked hard at trying the wines we would most likely sell in our deli. The number was too much however and our plan to visit the Fine Wine Room at the end of the day had to be put off - our palletes were shot! No clear favourites however a Brazilian wine will become a must stock and it was also good to meet the people who make the wine. I rarely envy anybody else's life but they have a job that only takes place in sunny climes and the pace of life seems a million miles from the job of selling the stuff!

After a quick shower at the hotel we were out in the city and relaxed over a fine seafood dinner followed by a trip to the cinema - we were too tired for much more.

The next day we visited the Royal Observatory at Greenwich which we would recommend to any visitor to the city not just for the history but also the views of the city from the top of Greenwich Park. We also made a quick visit to the Tate Modern before having to dash back to Gatwick for the tin tube home. I have posted some of my pictures from the trip on my flickr pages and look forward to our next visit to the capital.

Winter in the Cairngorms

After a slow start this morning I set off to the Cairngorms with Greg my oldest who was going snowboarding while Lucy and I went to see the Sled dog racing at Glenmore at the foot of the mountain. Once there it really was a case of once you've seen one set of dogs pulling a sled you've seen them all so Lucy persuaded me to take her Sledging instead.

Despite two great photo opportunities there I was not inclined to taking the camera out given the weather and light so when we got back to the van Lucy wanted to play next to stream where we had parked. The light was overcast and the scene was quite mellow despite the stream having a fairly fast flow.

So after yesterday's departure into a surreal world of electronic surveillance I returned to that highland kingdom that gives me most pleasure; of streams and mountains.

After listening to all the news reports about Big Brother (The reality TV show) it got me thinking how much I enjoyed, and feared, 1984 the movie based on George Orwell's book. The haunting image of Big Brother staring from monitors as Winston and Julia avoid the thought police, etc is one that as a baby of the sixties I found disturbing.

I came home from work tonight with the idea in my head and set up my camera with a snooted flash aimed at myself and took the Big Brother shot. Then I uploaded that shot into an electronic picture frame which had a video out and plugged it into the plasma screen.

The next bit was the difficult bit; to persuade my five year old daughter to turn off the Channel 5 movie (The Goonies) whilst I set up the shot. I tried without flash first but could not balance the light without setting too high an ISO so instead used a remote snooted flash with wireless trigger. Using my remote control for the camera I stood on a chair and held the flash above her head and fired. A couple of "chimps" later and the aperature and exposure were sorted but Lucy was getting annoyed. I had to plead for "just three more shots". She held me to that and it was the last shot that I used (and a bit of the second last which I used to clone out the flash reflection on the screen).

It has not turned out exactly as I had hoped but is pretty close given the dimensions of the room and the props I had to hand. If Lucy will let me there may be another brighter version where I am a more friendly Big Brother.

A fateful breakdown

Today we had a break in the rotten weather that has plagued us for the past month. It was forecast well so I took the day out and planned, once again, to try to get high above the cairngorms which I have wanted to do all winter. I failed again.

The wind from the South was slightly stronger than forecast so I climbed out from take off into wind and decided to get a bit of height to see if I could climb above it. About 20 minutes into the flight and still making south I felt a couple of shudders from my motor. The thought, "That's odd" had hardly been completed when the engine failed completely. Bugger. I tried a restart to no avail. I immediately turned around and started heading back to where I took off from and after just squeezing over a forest I made it.

After landing aquick inspection revealed my magneto had come completely loose and the bolts were missing. Bugger again.

I was only just packing up when a van arrived containing a certain Duncan Cameron whom I had never met. Over coffee he explained that he too was an aviation photographer (fancy that!) but took pictures from his model aircraft. At 70 years old this man looked like he had no intention of slowing down and his enthusiasm soon had me back at his house where I revelled in the many model boats, houses and planes which he built all with his own hands.

Duncan took pictures for fun and for money and had a number of pictures which I could only admire. We discussed our platforms (mine a paramotor and his various model aircraft) and found that we suffered much the same issues - which were mostly highland weather!

I eventually pulled myself away from Duncan but his parting shot, "We must fly together, and you take a picture of my models as I fly them past!" was ringing in my ears. I might just take him up on that!

Fireworks over Castle 2

Fireworks over Castle 2
Originally uploaded by upnorthme.

I attended the launch of Highland 2007 in Inverness on Friday night. As we failed to win City of Culture we decided to do this instead. It started with Inverness Choir, then local band Blazing Fiddles (top ceilidh band and great guys), obligitary pipe band but with a difference as they were spread out on balconies facing the river. Oh and Jack MacConnel said something.

The highlight was to be the Firework show however it started raining just as it started so keeping the lens clear was a nightmare, especially as the wind was howling and I was right in the middle of the bridge (In the VIP section . I blagged my way next to Ken Mackenzie, the boss of the Scottish Co-op and his wife. They were sponsors of Highland 2007 and a very nice couple).

Anyway these are about the best of the bunch. I never stayed later for the street stuff which probably would have been a good idea but went home instead.

Sunday Herald

It is always nice to have your work recognised and to see it in a magazine or newspaper is a thrill which I hope will continue to enjoy. Well a photo that appears on page 3 and page 27 of today's Sunday Herald Magazine is making me happy.

The Herald Picture Editor picked up on the Blog Scotland Group on Flickr where members nominate their favourite photos from the Scotland group. A few of mine have appeared on the blog but I was still surprised when approached to see if I would be prepared to have one of my photos used in this feature. It is especially nice to appear twice as it is a paying gig (albeit at fairly low rates).

The full feature appears here (without photos) and the story behind how it got to this stage along with all the photos that were used are here.

Take the time to have a look at the Scotland blog also. There is some great work here and if you are a fan of or a visitor to Scotland there is no shortage of inspiring pics to get your creative juices flowing.

Groucho Greg

My son Greg had braces fitted yesterday. He is a fairly confident lad but was not looking forward to getting them fitted
- I suppose from the point of view as to what the fairer sex might think. Imagine my surprise when asked by the Orthodontist what colour he wanted for the plastic fillers he replied "Pink!".
Joking with him afterwards I was telling him he'll need a disguise. He referred to the Groucho glasses that he pulled from a cracker over the festive period and so the seed was sown.
I had just received my "upgraded" wireless flash triggers from a certain Hong Kong retailer and was pleased to see they actually worked so decided to press them into action. I usually use a ST-E2 controller for off camera flash and an optical slave for the second strobe (my old 540EZ). On this occassion I set up my 550EX on a stand at half power into a silver brolly on camera right (you can see where in Greg's eyes) and the 540EZ set to 1/4 power on a tripod camera left with a sheet of A4 over it to soften slightly.

Exposure was set to 1/200th to darken background (which is just our living room) and aperature at F6.3 which was about half a stop under in the end. ISO at 100.

The end result was that Greg was happy with the shot (although not so happy that I had put it on tinternet!) and it marks a point in time in a young persons life that they will probably always remember - next to having them taken out!

Family Fortunes

This is a picture of my father-in-law John taken on Hogmanay 2006 (New Years eve for you sassenachs :)). I have become a fan of off-camera flash and bought an infra-red controller earlier in the year to take pictures at the mountain bike events I attend with my son Greg. A family get together seemed a good time to bring it along and with the use of a brolley and stand I had some cheap and cheerful lighting.

I set the camera at 1/200th f8 and iso 160. Quite how I arrived at 160 I cannot remember but anyway I was trying to keep to max flash sync speed for all shots to remove backgrounds as I did not have any - more cheapskate tendancies!

The result is studio like although I should have used a reflector (magazine or such like) to soften the shadows slightly. In any case it was a reminder that with the addition of a brolley and stand (could use tripod in some circumstances) I have a studio wherever I go.

Ghost Falls

Water has a funny fascination for photographers and the way we treat the subject is odd. We try to change it from how it looked so we can convey how it felt to look at it. I think this is what I did here but you will just have to believe me when I say how wet it was. After each of the three shots I had to retreat to dry the camera in order to get this one and each time I had to remember where I stood and recompose the shot.

I have visited Golspie for many years and never knew this was there. It pays to go exploring sometimes.

Last Time Clean

Went to Edinburgh for a quick road trip with the family. We went to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which is highly recommended! Rab C Nesbitt is in it - but his accent is really funny!

On Saturday morning we grabbed some croissants and called in to see some old friends who duly supplied the coffee then on to eldest son Greg's favourite place, a bike shop. He got a new waterproof top but Kerry was the real winner who gained a new Giant Terrago and giro helmet. Then on to Guiliiano's in Leith for some Italian culinary treatment. Pizza for the kids, pasta for mum & dad. Happy all round!

Finally we squeezed in some more retail therapy at Tiso's store in Leith which has more outdoor goodies and tecno gear than any wallet can bear. They will soon be opening their superstore in Inverness so I will at least save the fuel whilst being cleared out.
Made home late last night and the camera never saw the light of day (or night come to that) as like all the best Highlanders our excursions into the lowlands have to be fast, furious and leaving the local populace with no time to counter our advances. Safely at home we tried on all our plunder and made silly jokes about how we all look in our new outfits.
Off now to get Kerry's bike muddy for the first time. Hence the photos this morning.

Boat of Gold...

Boat of Gold...
Originally uploaded by upnorthme.

or alternatively, "That boat is a crock of ...."

Following my usual New Year flu bout - why do you only get sick when not at work? - I took my son up to the cycle trails at Golspie where he went off biking with a pal.
Rather than take of up the trails I went in hunt of a photo for the day, my pot of gold if you like. Although other shots were taken today this one amused me enough to decide to kickstart my blog which I am going to make an effort to contribute to during 2007.
It will be mostly photos, but be warned, I can ramble....

Happy New Year!