dgrblog

My son had been on at me to take him camping so rather than visiting a campsite, I thought it was time to introduce him to wild camping. We had previously been sort of wild camping with toilets, showers and fresh drinking water at Comrie Croft. Comrie Croft We headed for a local wood just outside the city and setup camp. After a cup of tea brewed using water boiled on a pop can stove we gathered wood for a fire later in the evening, went to explore our surroundings and checked how well our camp was concealed. There are a large amount of dog walkers visit the wood but the site we had chosen was not very visable from the dog walking paths. Next it was time for our evening meal just before darkness started to descend. Immediately before it was dark we got the fire going, what a great campfire, it went for hours with some large logs glowing and throwing out a lot of heat. Sleeping was quite comfortable with a mat and sleeping bag inside an old tent inner for bug protection an...

Equipment Tent 8 Man tent 4 Man tent 2 Man tent Nevada 8 man tunnel tent bought from Argos. A great tent for summer family camping. We have used it in hot sunny, cold, wet, and windy conditions without any problems. The great thing about this tent is the space, you can fully stand up anywhere inside, there are 2 individual bedrooms on one end of the tunnel and a large bedroom with a curtain in the middle to separate into two rooms and a large living area in the centre of the tent. This tent has a lightweight metal frame which is easy to construct. With 2 people working together the tent can be erected in 15 minutes. Our 4 Man tent is a dome/tunnel type which is not used much now mainly because of its difficulty in erecting was bought on ebay. The fiberglass poles on this tent have to be fed through narrow loops which even on a calm day is quite difficult and if it is windy it is a nightmare. It is just about possible to stand up straight at the highest point...

Old tree sunrise This week end I decided to make a huge effort and catch some early light photography at two of my favourite locations. Saturday was a clear morning with a lovely sunrise but Sunday was overcast, rainy, misty but little or no wind. Saturday The old tree was my intended photo for Saturday morning but while capturing that I heard geese and ducks up by the loch so headed that way for some extra shots. The swans below made interesting images as the light was getting brighter. The old damaged boat was another super subject. Lairds Loch a frequently fished loch near the Dundee to Coupar Angus road is large area of water where capturing reflections is made quite an easy task with the wooded hills that surround it. Sunday came and it was over the Tay to Wormit in Fife. The rail bridge is always great to photograph as is the old ruined building at the west end of the bay. One of my dogs, Fergie, loves the water. He kept entering the Tay for a sw...

Scanning negatives and slides on a flatbed scanner can be quite challenging. The cost of a dedicated scanner is way out my league so I was interested in reading this article on making a device for providing the light from above the strip of film. Once I have tried this out I will let you know about the results.

Read about this amaxing device today. This video shows the camera in action and there is also an interview with the inventor Ren Ng.  More detailed information can be seen on the Lytro website It is a new way to look at photography. The camera picks up all the light from the scene you are photographing and through a lens array the light is passed onto the sensor. Information recorded at the sensor is not just the light level but also the direction this light travelled in. Rather than focusing before taking the image, focus can be selected at various points in the image after it is taken. The camera is simple to use with only two buttons, shutter release and power. There is also a 8x optical zoom with a constant f2 aperture. The large aperture makes this camera ideal for low light picture taking. Example image Example image from the Lytro website shows what can be done with the images. Click on the image to change the point of focus. This can be don...

The Carnoustie Tournament played on Carnoustie BC green was a great success again. The weather was great, the green had unbelievable pace at times and the players produced some excellent bowling. Ailsa Robertson and Mark Thompson from Dudhope BC not only won the pairs competition but were semi finalists in their respective singles competitions. The singles winners were Harry Grieve from Fairfield BC and Ann Gray from Forfar BC.