A chilly starlit thursday night at the beach saw another fire event with Kevin as the main firebrand, ably assisted by Alan, Michele and Anna.
Burning wire wool, torches for letter writing and sparklers were used. Interesting to see the different versions of the same event, even the colours are sometimes dramatically different.
Thursday 22 November we had a workshop on `Photography using Cross Polarisation organised by Michele Emslie. As you can see this involves using an LCD screen as the light source. This emits polarised light, in other words the light generated by the screen comes out in a narrow angle. We all had polarising filters on our cameras and by rotating these we can block most of the light from the screen so it appears black or a dark magenta (Apple Retina screens).
At the top our light source (the Led’s in the laptop screen). Then the polarising filter (the Liquid Cristal Display), at the bottom the polarising filter on the camera rotated by 90 degrees so the screen appear dark.
If we then put a transparent object in front of the screen that has some degree of polarising capability (because of internal stress or molecular structure) the polarised light gets rotated and not blocked anymore by the polarising filter on the camera. Clear plastic things like cups, cutlery, CD case, safety specs all do this to varying degrees, as you can see from the images captured on the night. The different colours are related to the thickness and the stress in the plastic, the light gets rotated more when the plastic is thicker, as it has to travel a longer path.
This image by Alan Meek shows that the laptop screen appears black, because he has his polarising filter at 90 degrees to the light emitted by the laptop screen. The forks rotate the light a bit so some of it is not blocked by the filter.
A few images of club members in action, we had to turn the lights off in the room to avoid reflections and spoiling the colours, hence it was a bit dark apart from the laptops lighting up the room.
The women’s section: Susan, Kirsty and Eileen. Team Murty Alan Meek at work, with (L2R) Michele, David and Martin in the background. Michele checking if Trevor is following the instructions? Mike from Team Murty at the controls. Trevor fine tuning his set up. You can see that the screen is dark but the plastic cup is bright, as I took this shot with a polarising filter on my camera. Kirsty Russell took this shot after drinking most of the Pimm’s. 😉 Another still life of the Pimm’s jug, this one by Susan. Obviously no Pimm’s left at all now! David Drage made these plastic chess pieces specially for the event!! Crossing forks and crossed polarisers by David Drage. In sharp focus by Trevor Stuchbury. Forked specs by Trevor. Triangular composition by Alan Meek. Clearly empty by Susan Gordon.
We all enjoyed this evening and since this is easy to do once you know how, I’m hoping to see more of these images from our Visionaires. Many thanks to Michele Emslie for organising the evening.
October shots have an autumn theme, red squirels by Hugh Smith and Alan Meek, Madasgaskar talk by Lynda Gordon ( a few of those here). Wildlife, weddings and a few shots from our pole dancing shoot at the club.
August saw a number of outdoor excursions to the Sawmill at Finzean, the Bridges over the Dee, Kincorth nature reserve. Below a small selection plucked from FaceBook
Put these up on our blog as I told the young artists I’d post them on the Visions page but then realised our facebook page is closed. So hopefully they will find this via Google. Maybe this page can be updated with the finished work, when one of us visits the beach.
We wondered what was going on in the shelter, so went up at the next one
It is a community project by the Princes Trust
Fox looks great, with the authors next to it
Everyone was happy to pose with the as yet unfinished artwork.
Another trip from our summer excursions programme, this time organised by Pamela Adam. First a brief stop at the wreck of the fishing boat at Cairnbulg. Light was rather dull here, so we did not linger too long.
The wreck – Kirsty Russell
The wreck shot with a drone – Rob Romani
David Drage took this one with Fraserburgh in the background
Then onwards to Fraserburgh harbour, where we wandered around briefly and took a few shots of boats etc.
Our next and final stop was at the Lighthouse Museum which provided more interesting opportunities as the light had now improved and the setting sun was coming through the clouds. We met Derek Gray here and we all tried our version of a shot he was taking.
Derek Gray in action with his assistant Gregor 😉
Drage and son scouting the location
I did say the light improved – Rob Romani
Kirsty, Eileen, David and son – Gregor McAbery
Rusting buoys – Eileen Rodger
More rust – Eileen Rodgers
Symmetry – Eileen Rodgers
Just for fun I’ve posted three versions of more or less the same shot below:
Our summer outdoor excursions programme took us to the Forest of Birse near Finzean for a look at the water powered 19th century mills. I’d visited these circa 7 years ago as part of the photography course at Grays, and knew it would be good if we could arrange access to the buildings. Guy Haslam, the chairperson of the Birse Community Trust was extremely helpful and arranged to meet us at 7pm outside the mill. The mill is still in operation on a part time basis and manufactures fence posts, brooms and wooden kitchen implements like spurtles and dough rollers. In the past it used to make wooden stoppers for herring barrels.
Further along the river is the bucket mill, which we did not visit on this occasion. The following a bit more info from the Historic Scotland website: “The Finzean Sawmill and Turning Mill, on the N bank of the River Feugh, is a remarkable survival in full working order. The sawmill, and the site of the Bucket Mill were established in the early 19th century to exploit the Glen Ferrick pine woods. From the 1830s to 1871, the sawmill was occupied by a range of different timber contractors who were harvesting timber on Finzean Estate. During this period the sawmiller was Charles Young. In 1871 the operation of the Sawmill passed to Alexander Duncan, who had built the Finzean Turning Mill in the 1830s on the outflow from the sawmill. The Sawmill and Turning Mill is still operated by a member of the Duncan family. In 1999, the ownership of the mills passed from Finzean Estate to Birse Community Trust. Extensive restoration work has been carried out on the mills using local timber milled at the sawmill.”
Guy Haslam (R) Chairman of the Birse Community Trust giving an intro to the water powered mills
After a brief intro he took us upstream to the weir that had just been restored after serious damage by storm Frank in December 2015.
The Feugh by Michele Emsley
This image shows the weir and the first sluice gate to control the amount of water flowing to the mill.
The channel leading to the mill (Steve Roberts)
We then walked back to the main saw mill with the water wheel. It is here I first noticed the annoying midges that started to attack if you stood still for any length of time. Fortunately we soon moved to the inside of the saw mill, with some fearsome looking circular saws. Here the logs get rolled in from outside and sawn into planks.
The saw mill exterior with the logs on the ramp ready to be sawn. (Michele Emsley)
The miller controls the amount of water going down these wooden channels in order to run the machinery at the correct speed. (Steve Roberts)
“Vintage” photo of the water wheel (Susan Gordon)
A modern take by Michele Emsley
The wheel is cast iron with wooden paddles held together with wooden pegs and can’t be allowed to dry out too much as it would fall apart.
The main drive belts at the back of he water wheel (Michele Emslie)
Interior of the saw mill, the ropes control the sluice gate via wooden levers. Everything is belt driven from the main wheel. (Steve Roberts)
The logs are pushed along on the plank running on these wooden rollers (Karen Burgoyne)
One of the two circular saws used to cut the logs into planks (Hugh Smith)
Overview of the saw mill interior with the two saws. The smaller one on the left cuts the planks into sticks to be used in the turning mill next door. (Derek Gray)
Fence posts (Karen Burgoyne)
Kevin Dawson spotted this rare panda in the bamboo forest.
Interior of the turning mill (Rob Romani)
Another view of the interior (Hugh Smith)
Photo of a photographer (Hugh Smith) taking a photo of a photographer (Derek Gray)! – by (Rob Romani)
Tools and drive belts (Gregor McAbery)
Health and safety regulations- 1922
The turning mill – Gregor McAbery
The leaning shed of Finzean, the metal roofed building on the left is the kiln for drying the wood (David Davidson)
This shot of the leaning shed of Finzean would give Lightroom a bit of a headache if you let it auto correct for perspective! (Susan Gordon)
On the road back to Aberdeen: Sunset in my rear view mirror (Susan Gordon)
A good evening out enjoyed by your editor and those present judging from the comments on Facebook. Many thanks to Guy Haslam for treating us to the full tour of the mills.
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