Still Alive

Months and months after my last post here I am again. So what has been the problem?

I didn’t give up photography. Far from it in fact, and in the interim I’ve been thwarted by mist on Skye (twice), blown off my feet in storm conditions on a Northumberland beach, lost gear (including my beloved Valleret photography gloves) all over the UK, and changed filter systems only to then stand on £125 of circular polariser. In short I’m as passionate about photography and as clumsy as ever. It’s that passion that caused me problems however.

Last year I upgraded my camera body. A significant investment that used all my spare cash. And that’s where I went wrong. I didn’t think it through.

That upgraded camera produces beautiful (to my eye) high quality images. Images that are twice the size of those produced by my previous camera. Load one into photoshop and you’re already using twice as much memory, Duplicate a layer to do some blending or light adjustments and you’ve doubled again. What’s more that shiny camera shots bursts of images at high speed. I’ve returned from days out with hundreds of images on my memory card and as soon as they’re loaded into Lightroom the software demands really start ramping up.

I’d never come across the term “scratch disc” before. It soon became a regular need to free up space on them. Everything ground to such a halt to such an extent that the last thing I wanted to do after processing was to spend more time staring at the screen. So I didn’t.

But nearly a year later my now not so new and shiny camera has been matched by a shiny new Mac Studio. And I have to say it’s a dream to be working normally once again. Actually much quicker than what had become normal. I’m encouraged to add more images here at last. I may even add some new categories to my galleries.

You have been warned.