'Am I in Trouble?' - August 2010

This month's image in my 12from2010 project was taken at our holiday home in Praia d'El Rey, Portugal.

I decided to only take the Canon G11 with me, rather than drag tons of kit around, and, to be honest, I didn't regret that decision once - It was never found wanting.

The image itself is of Megan, waiting for Breakfast - It is lit by the natural window light to her right - the early morning giving it a wonderful soft glow.



I have processed the image is OnOne Software's outstanding 'PhotoTool 2.5' - This allowed me to brighten the eyes a little, and also burn the edges to get the effect I was after.

I know she doesn't look very happy (Megan is not at her best in the mornings!) - But I think the treatment, pose and expression give a great overall image.

Hope you agree.

Why I Love Photoshop

Is there any thing better than taking a flat, dull image, ready for the 'reject' bin and spending 10 minutes playing in Photoshop?

I wouldn't normally give this sort of image a second glance:



There is little contrast, Caitlin is lost in a dull, lifeless sky...

And yet, I have spent the last two evening following a couple of Webinars by OnOne Software, so I thought I would use this as a 'test image' to see what I had learnt.

I used two tools - Phototools 2.5 - Which allowed me to brush in the contrast that I wanted, and generally make the image somewhere close to where it should be, but I still had the lifeless blown-out sky.

In steps MaskPro - Wow! Simply select the colours to keep (lots of yellow, brown and blue in this case, and tell it which ones to loose (lots of white for the sky).

Then I added a sky from one of my other images on a new layer, and brushed the two together...



Really please with the result - OK, still not a 5* image, but one I will certainly be keeping.

I painted a little lightness into Caitlin's face, and added a very slight vignette to finish things off a little and voila.

Nice end to a cool day

Great end to the day - Megan found a deserted bouncy castle, and Clare and I found a cake and coffee shop



We will certainly visit again - They rent out little boats too, so a cruise up the Great Ouse may be worth a go next time.






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Danish Camp for Lunch

Great ride this morning along route 51;




To the Danish Camp for lunch... Great views over the River Ouse





Perfect for a Jacket Spud and Coffee

It is really odd to think this stuff is on your doorstep and yet you never visit it.

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Location:Mowbray Pl,,United Kingdom

Bike Ride

At last it looks like the rain has stopped - Clare off today too, we are taking the bikes out.

Hope it stays dry, especially as Megan's new shoes are having their first outing.




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Testing

Testing Squarespace, Blogger and Tumblr simultaneous posting from BlogPress on the iPad







- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Bradgate Rd,Bedford,United Kingdom

Grutas de Mira de Aire - Day 7

A day away from the Beach today - bit of drive out to Mira de Aire to see the biggest cave (Grutas) network in Portugal




Obviously lighting was far from ideal for snaps, but the G11 at 800 iso was simply awesome;







At more than 85 metres down the network ended with a lovely fountain and light show (and a very welcome lift back to the surface!)

We even ended up buying the 'souvenir' photo - Something we NEVER do!




Then a quick stop for lunch - Mira de Aire is a very remote town, so I had the chance to order and pay for our lunch totally in Portuguese... Good job the girls like Tosta Mistra and Clare likes Biffanas!

As usual a quick visit to the beach on the way back for an Iced Tea.



Off for dinner now...

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Location:Mira de Aire

Day 6 - Beaches

Beaches and more beaches yesterday... Too busy for photos I am afraid.

Having a great time - weather perfect for us (Sunny and dry, averaging about 26-27).

Woke up this morning to a very wet pool area - Looks like we had a storm overnight. Drying up nicely again now though.

Only 3 days left now, loads to do.


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Day 5 - Obidos

We spent today in the lovely village of Obidos - far hotter there than in Praia D'El Rey, but still pleasant in the shade of the twisting narrow lanes.




It is an old fortified city, with much of the castle and walls remaining... Now with great little restaurants and gift shops.







We then came home after lunch to spend the afternoon in our pool (this is as busy as we have ever seen it!)



Perfect for the girls to play in the boat


Off to Peniche for dinner this evening, then back to the beach tomorrow.


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Portugal 3 & 4

Our trip up to Praia d'El Rai went really smoothly. We made good time (just 4 hours) including stopping off at 'Jumbo' to stock up the essentials;

Wine
Beer (SuperBock Green)
Cereals
Biscuits for the girls

The apartment is as stunning as we remember, lovely location, gorgeous fixtures and fittings:





We spent the day at the girl favourite beach on Sunday (Island Beach) - took loads of photos using Caitlin's Olympus 850sw (love the underwater modes), but forgot to bring the USB lead, so they will have to wait...

Girls enjoyed watching 'Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang' and the iPad... The twin headphone splitter working a treat.





There is no WiFi at the apartment, so updates may be few and far between... But I will see what I can do.

Oh, the weather is lovely by the way (sorry!)


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Location:Óbidos,Portugal

Portugal - Day 2

A very mixed day today;

Starting with a trip back to Faro airport to return our hire car (a Fiat Bravo) - which we found out last night (the first time we drove it in the dark) had no working headlights.

A quick call to Sixt and a replacement was agreed. I left first thing so as to not waste our last day in Albufeira before travelling North to the Silver Coast on Saturday morning.

On arrival I wad presented with a 'Fiat Linea' - about as ugly as cars get, and this one came with a fetching debt/scrape down one side. Not impressed.





Needless to say Sixt won't be used by us again.

Still, the rest of the day was spent at Crazy World in Algoz.

A really nice mixture of 'adventure golf' (Crazy golf on steroids), Pony rides, 3 pools and a cool reptile show.

Now ready for our last night here, Megan sitting patiently waiting for Clare to finish getting ready:





And Caitlin decided that the Boys' Pepper plant needed a water;





Off for Pizza tonight with my two nephews, then back home to get ready for our 4 hour drive north in the morning




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Location:Albufeira,Portugal

Portugal day 1

Nice day today... Zoomarine at Guia during the day.
Really hot though - Keeping two Redheads from burning in 95+ heat isn't easy.
Dinner at Annabell's Bar this evening - Megan tucking into her Strawberries and IceCream - Not exactly traditional Portuguese Fair, but she seemed to enjoy it!


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Location:Albufeira,Portugal