Snowy Peaks

Today I started a new hobby - Hillwalking.

The alarm was beeping just after 0600 for a 0730 departure. Not long afterwards we found oursleves in the car park at Arrocher with the start of the trail up Ben Arthur aka The Cobbler. A few steep zigs and zags then a few gentle slopes then back onto the zig zags. Come 1125 we reached the actual point where we could not proceed with any further. Throughout the trail, there was very poor visibility and the snow was actually knee - thigh high. However, at this point, we couldn't continue. We got to the top of the flight of steps and were confronted with sheer white. On a good day the path of least resistence would have been visible but not today. It was trecherous from here on in so after a bit of discussion we called it a day and had the adventure of the descent to go. Here's me thinking that going downhill is the easiest part. This is not the case.

Bad weather aside, today was brilliant and hopefully is the start of more to come.

Cold Stones

I've been aware I haven't posted anything in a couple of weeks so thought I'd just put something up to fill the void. The artist formerly known as Shatbass is carrying on my IMDB challenge from last year and having a serious attempt at getting through them all. Inspired by his weekly update, I decided a wee update on my weekend viewing can fill a post. Can I say before I go on that this is like blogging during the war. So far we have had two power cuts in the last 20 minutes and I don't out much hope for finishing the post before another one. So here goes.

Inglorious Basterds
I finally got round to opening the limited edition of the BluRaythat I bought just before Christmas. Before moving onto the movie, I must say that the additional postcards were not worth the extra £2. Anyways, as I have said before, you go into this movie not knowing what to expect and it delivers. That was my initial reaction when I first saw it last year. This weekend's viewing was my second watch and I can honestly saw it was better. Even when you know what to expect, the 153 minute runtime goes flying in and the performance of Christoph Waltz is still outstanding.

Up
I went to a crappy cinema to see this last year which had quite a poor screen quality so this viewing was one of the most anticipated home movie experiences of my life - the Up BluRay. Seeing it the first time was good, but the clarity and soundtrack on my home cinema made this special. The film itself is pure cinematic joy, but the presentation that Disney DVd have put forward on this set make it a must own.

Fish Tank
Next up was Fish Tank. I watched this on Sunday Afternoon and on Sunday evening it had won the BAFTA for Best British Film. This was strange one. It was a good film with the usual British grittiness that often comes across in homegrown movies. What gets me though is the content. Up until about half an hour to go it is good wee story about the girl's life and the relationship with her mother and other people. Then all of a sudden it takes a sinister turn and she becomes a child kidnapper.

Curling
As good as Up and Inglorious Basterds were, the highlight of this week's [and weekend's] viewing is the Curling at the Winter Olympics. As a friend put it, we are all suffering from curling insomnia. This is the most addictive sport ever. The teams basically get a chance to slide the stone down sheet ice and get it in the house. Points are given based on how many stones are closer to the centre than the other teams. If you have not seen, it what have you been doing for the last week.

Read Before Use

Right, hands up who has bought something and skipped right past the bits at the beginning of the manual regarding health warning and caring for your product. You know the kind of thing - the epilesy warning in computer game manuals, the list's of do's and don'ts in phone manuals etc. A bit like this one here:



You will notice that there is a warning regarding the placing of a camera in a back pocket. This is what happens if you don't acknowledge that warning.




It's only took me about a year to post that picture.

iPhone

There is a time in my life, usually every 18 months, that I dread. The time to renew my phone. For the duration of my contract, the phone I have works and there has been no reason to look for alternatives until now. So from having no interest in the current trend of phones, I decided to investigate the market last Sunday and see what was out there. After hours of looking and comparing handsets, there was really only one possible option - iPhone. The fact that it was on Vodafone and I didn't have to flaff about with changing or keeping numbers was what sealed the deal.

So on Tuesday it arrived.



There is nothing to say about it, it may possible be that invention that is 'The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread'. It is not a phone, it is a mini computer and if you connect it to your Wi-Fi in the house, the possibilities are endless.

I know the new Google Nexus and other smartphones such as the Palm Pre are set to compete with it, but for the moment, I love my iPhone.

DxO Filmpack

So, following on from last week's Picasa, it is now the turn of another one of my favourite programs. Dxo's Filmpack 2 is an interesting application for editing your pictures. It is essentially a set of predesigned filters based on the old photographic film styles of the past. Whereas now, you can alter ISO setting, black and white style, sepia style etc with the click of a button on your digital camera, you couldn't do that with a film camera. Back in the day, to achieve a specific style, you had to use the spool that would achieve it for you. Filmpack essentially mimics the styles each spool provided to bring a touch of nostalgia to your pictures.

The following picture was taken on a compact digital camera with auto intelligent setting on.

Using just a few of the 50+ filters contained in Filmpack, you can alter the image.

As well as the pre-defined styles, there is colour styles to convert your colour pictures into black and white or sepia with applying the effect of a coloured filter. Just like using a coloured filter in front of your lens, you can pick the filter which enhances the colours contained within the picture.

This may seem a pointless program to some people but using the right film on the right picture can enhance the dramatic effect. It also provides an easy alternative to converting to black and white photography which beginners to Photoshop may find a bit daunting.

Click here for a free 21 day trial and have a play about with it to see what you think. It can be installed as a standalone program or as an extension to Photoshop if you already use it.

Picasa

Welcome to the first post proper of the newly updated chasethehaggis dot com. As mentioned previously, the new blog is going to be random musings with no proper structure.

The first few posts I have decided on are about programs I have come across while pottering about with my ongoing photography hobby.



The first is Picasa. This is a photo management and organisation tool from Google. I don't know about you, but I thought programs like this were abit overrated and didn't really serve much purpose. I mean, why would you need more than a decent file structure in Windows Explorer. It was only recently that I thought I'd give it a go and see whatthe actual point of it was about. I'm glad I did. It is one of the best things I have installed on here.



It has everything you would need - email photos, photo printing (including borderless if your printer supports it) and you can connect straight to a processing site to order prints or photo gifts from your images. Another feature which is quite handy is the editing functions. Some people get a bit daunted by the thought of using Photoshop for making what would seem simple edits. Picasa has incorporated some of the most common edits you would expect to use on digital images.



The best feature of the program though, has to be the face recognition. When you import your photos from a memory card and they get organised into the folders, Picasa goes a step further than it's competitors. It scans every picture to see if there is a face and if there is it will try and autmatically tag it. If it can't tag it, it will give you the option of choosing who it is. This provides a nice easy way of organising the pictures by person.



Although that may be the best feature, it is not my favourite. My favourite feature of Picasa is the Collage option. The program allows you to make a collage using all the pictures in a selected folder with ease and then save this as a high resolution photo to be printed or saved for future use.

So if you are interested, click the big Picasa logo above and get your pics organised.

Welcome

Hi!!!!!

Most people who lay their eyes on this page in the next few days will be expecting to see pictures of food. Well not anymore. As part of my plan for 2010, I have moved Mr Biscuits Foodology over to it's own domain and will be using that for any culinary posts. In it's place on this domain, I will be running my "main" blog.

This is just a quick post to fill in the emptiness for anyone who visits to let them know where the other blog can be found. Once I fine tune the layout, I will post the proper introduction.