The lengths we go to to get a good picture, Saturday 29th December 2018

Hi Folks,

Just thought I would add a blog on the website as it is Christmas as nothing is going on.

When entering competitions using images such as statues always make the images one’s own, said Alan our judge.

Well on holiday, I knew of an icon in the rocks which I just had to get a picture of and on the map it was showing a distance of 5km away.

I can walk that distance, I said to my wife. however, setting out  I found I had already walked 2 kms before I came across this sign showing I still had more than 5 kms to walk.

and so the walk went on, I then had to branch left up a hill for another 4 kms.

Then walk the full length of a resort to the peninsular in the image below

Finally getting the picture I wanted of a shark created out of rocks. Somebody had recently painted in the shark’s features was it ‘Banksy’ lol

Then it was another 8 kms walk back to my wife sitting by the swimming pool.

During the holiday, every time I sat down, I was thinking, how could I make this my own.

On the penultimate day of my holiday, I had an idea. I had an old black tee shirt and if I could get some chalk I could write on it ‘Delboy was here’.

So I asked reception if there was a chalk shop. There was but as it was Sunday and it was closed. ‘Too late’, said my wife.

It was 5 pm when I said to my wife, if I could buy a cheap white tee shirt I could use a Biro to put the message on.

So I set off around the town looking for a plain white tee shirt, some had patterns on the front and plain white on the back but they wanted silly money for them.

Finally, I found a shop that had them for 8€s.

‘What size did I want’, asked the shop keeper.

‘It does not really matter’, I said, ‘but large if you have one’.

As he pulled one off a pile I asked by chance, ‘do you put writing on it ?’

‘Yes’ he said.

‘Could you do it for me now ‘, I asked.

‘Yes’,  he said, ‘it will be 4€s extra ,what do you want me to put on it’.

‘Delboy was here’, I replied.

‘ Oh that will be 6€s for all of that’, he declared.

That will be fine, go ahead.

‘Do you want it printed on the front or back’,  he asked.

‘It does not matter as I won’t be wearing it’, I said.

A bemused shopkeeper just had to ask, ‘ what do you want if for ?’.

My reply had him chuckling and the job was done.

Next morning

It was another 8 km walk

It was blowing a strong breeze and my hat blew off and nearly went into the sea but finally I got my picture that I wanted.

Really happy I walked the 8 km home.

When I got home looking at the image I thought, I wished I had left my hat in the picture.

Then I realised I could overlay it in and then took a photograph of my hat on the dining room table. Then I removed the table background just leaving the hat.

so then overlaying it in software

Now once my brain has an idea I just can’t leave things alone.

soon I was thinking It needed blood in the image and then working out to achieve it I needed to turn the whole image red.

I then in software overlayed the original image over the red image.

Overlaying is like having a red image sitting underneath the original. If I scrape parts of the original away it leaves red bits. If I did it carefully using different brushes (scrapers) I could make a blood type effect. There are probably many ways of doing this.

I spent hours chuckling to myself creating it, so a good bit of fun and thought this Christmas I would share my story.

Every idea I have using the software is now turning into a lot more entertainment for me.