Category: Family

Family related posts; generally only of interest to fellow members of the Brown Clan and relations by Marriage into this mad house.

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Coffee – Coffee Makers: The Chemex

As I have in the past mentioned I love the finer things in life.

Good Coffee, good wine, good whisky and good chocolate. This week I have been indulging in my coffee habit again, not with more coffee but much to my wife’s displeasure a new coffee maker, to join our growing collection of French Presses, Coffee Percolator, AeroPress and Expresso and Filter Coffee machine’s. Its not like she dislikes my coffee habit, its just the sheer number of coffee making devices and different styles of coffee cups littering our kitchen. I had to admit we did not really have room for more!

The problem was since buying the AeroPress for work, I had become somewhat spoilt. It really did make one of the best coffee’s I had every tasted at home. It really make my filter coffee machine seem poor quality. I enjoy a French Press at home but sometimes you want something with a little more clarity, that lets the clean notes of the coffee shine through, and a French Press just cannot do that.

From frequenting a few coffee internet forums (yes I really am that sad), I quickly learned that for the cleanest cup of coffee you need either a vac pot or a Chemex. Well a Vac Pot I feel is something for later, so I went and bought a Chemex from those lovely people at Hasbean Coffee.

My first attempt yesterday was nothing special, while better then my filter coffee machine I felt it was not as good as the AeroPress. Well after a search on Youtube for different ideas on using this type of Brewer, I had another go this morning. This time I nailed it. Possibly the best filter coffee I have ever tasted. Though the excellent El Salvador San Rafael Bourbon 2011-2012 may have helped.

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Family Birthday Party

We had a family party today to celebrate a birthday.  While the children were playing I took a few snaps.  Unusually for me I set the camera and flash to auto and just shot away.  As usual it was a mistake.  Shots like the one above, shooting into the sun, are always tricky for cameras.  I really should learn to trust myself.

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Horse Riding on the Beach

Now if you knew me you would know that I am the last person you are likely to see on a horse but our photographic trip to the Outer Hebrides and the chance to ride in the surf on the beach was too good an opportunity to miss.

Caroline being the experienced horse woman was ready to jump straight on a horse and ride on out.

I needed a few lessons round the training circuit before I headed on out.

Caroline took the opportunity to snap a few photographs of me going round the training ring.

This is one of few photographs you will ever see of me on a horse!

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Heading home and Processing the Pictures

The last two days has seen us slowly heading home.  We caught the lunchtime ship, from Tarbet on the Isle of Harris on Saturday, and we had the highlight of seeing Dolphins during the crossing.  As always my wildlife photography was not up to the task and all I have is a blurred fin, disappearing under the wake of the ship, but the memory will remain with me forever.

We spent Saturday night in a small Bed and Breakfast in Ballachulish called Fern Villa, in Glencoe.  The owner is a keen photographer and has many photographers staying with him.

The area is very popular with walkers, climbers and photographers.  I took the opportunity on the way though the previous week to shoot a few Landscapes.  I thought they might work as HDR shots, so bracketed widely.

I heavily processed one, and lightly processed the other, not sure which I prefer, but Caroline hates the heavily processed photo, and I have to admit its got that HDR Look!

Sunday we travelled to the Cumbria and stopped at the delightful Yew Tree Chapel, a most wonderful place to stay and two wonderful hosts.

Today we finally headed home after almost two weeks away photographing Landscapes and Wildlife.

We took the opportunity to head over to Mount Grace Priory a English Heritage property well worth a visit.  The weather was not up to much so just a few reference shots but I will definitely be heading back.

Now that we are home we have the problem of dealing with all the hundreds of images that were taken over the holiday.

For a change I did not take a laptop with me but just our new iPad.  All photographs at the end of each day were imported onto the device and basic metadata and keywords were applied using the great PhotoSmith app.  Now as I type this PhotoSmith is uploading all my work into my Adobe Lightroom Library.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be uploaded the odd photo from the trip for you to enjoy but now the difficult part of the trip, processing the digital and medium format film photographs from the trip.

 

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Dolphins playing in the wake

Today we crossed from Harris to the Isle of Skye. Not as much bird life present on this crossing as before but we still managed to spot Puffins, Gannet and Terns, but the highlight was two Dolphins who came to play briefly in the bow-wave of the ship.

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Now we find ourselves relaxing in the bar of the Glencoe Hotel, enjoying a bottle wine while waiting for the sunset.

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The Butt of Lewis

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Today we donned our walking gear and ruck sacks and spent the day walking round the Butt of Lewis and part of the coastal footpath.

The weather was glorious, very windy but warm and sunny.

On part of the route we climbed down into one of the bays and enjoyed lunch on the pure White sandy beach, looking out over the blue-green Ocean. As we ate the Oystercatchers also wheeled overhead also looking for lunch, but as we climbed up the cliff back to the top, I turned to see two Oystercatchers mating where we had been having lunch.

The Butt of Lewis is certainly a place to return to, with a long lens and flask of tea. I could spend many a happy hour wildlife spotting.

We saw, Cormorants, Oystercatchers, Ring Plovers and Gannets. The previous day Orca’s and seals were spotted.

This year has been the first time that we have not spotted seals and Otters in Scotland, but to make up for that we have seen Puffins a first for us, but there is still time.

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Exploring by Foot, Car and Horse

The last few days we have been exploring Harris & Lewis on foot, by car and by horseback.

Tuesday saw us exploring Stornaway, on the Isle of Lewis. First we set out on foot for a short walk round the harbour and bay of Stornaway. The majority of the walk was inside the grounds of Stornaway castle, so an easy walk but that’s not to say it was without stunning scenery.

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We had a few heavy rain showers at the start, always a test when you have not been walking for a while, but the sun soon came out to leave us bathed in wonderful warm sunshine.

Wednesday we jumped in the car and went down to the Isle of Harris, the home of the famous Harris Tweed.

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The beaches were fantastic, Luskentyre beach looking over the Sound of Taransay has to be one of the finest beaches I have ever seen. We also heard our first Cuckoo.

We took a few snaps and in one of the better spots, I saw another photographer setup with tripod, waiting for the sun to emerge.

We drove to the other side of the Sound and stopped briefly at an Art Gallery called Hebridean Art. Some lovely paintings and we indulged in some retail therapy, buying a book of prints and a pretty ceramic dish.

They also served food and drink, and we had one of the best soups I had ever tasted. I had the vegetable and Caroline the Mushroom; served with fresh coffee and some lovely hot and fresh focaccia bread.

We carried on travelling round the Isle and reached a lovely little church called St Clement’s in Roghadal. We carried in the cameras and tripod, and I took the opportunity to practiced my HDR.

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We ended the day treating ourselves to some classic Harris Tweed Jackets, while on Harris and a meal out in a lovely restaurant called Digby Chicks back on Lewis. The food was lovely, much better then the name of the restaurant suggests. I can recommend the Lamb and the Duck.

Thursday. Exploring the bay on horse back.

Today was a new experience for us both. We hired a couple of horses from the Hebridean Equestrian Centre, and after a quick lesson for me, as Caroline is the experienced horse rider not me, we headed through the country side. After a river crossing we headed for a large bay and spent the morning riding through the surf, an unforgettable experience for us both.

Thanks goes to Paddy (my steed), Jinty (Caroline’s steed), and Lucy our guide Carol’s steed.

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a Blackbird came to Visit

After a hard day at work we took to the garden and in the late evening sunlight we did some gardening. As we worked a rather brave blackbird followed us, only a few feet away eating the insects we had brought to the surface.

Rather sweet.

Relaxing now and doing some more testing of the Photosmith App. I am intending to leave the laptop at home on my next photography trip and just use the iPad with this app.

I have also been using an unsupported kludge to give me reverse sync from Lightroom to the iPad. This has allowed me to test it’s handling of large batches of images.

I had an email from the developers yesterday, the first update is going to be bug fixes, people with cameras that produce dng’s are having a lot of issues due to the way iOS deals with dng’s but after that the next updates will address reverse sync and a degree of batch processing of meta data.

Cannot wait, keep up the good work guys!

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Happy Birthday Angela

Today was a quick trip across to Chesterfield and a family get together.

Over the course of this month it is Alan’s, Caroline’s, Angela’s, and Roberts Birthdays.

So a meet up, lots of cake, and fun and games with the Children and of course Tilly & Molly the two Labradors.

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Happy Birthday Caroline

This week, it is my wonderful wife’s birthday.  We are taking tomorrow off work to go out for a nice meal.

As promised I have the DVD’s you wanted but did I get you an iPad?  You will just have to wait and see.

Lots of Love from all the family.

 

PS for Photographers out there, buying your partner some nice flowers also gives you the opportunity for you to practice your still life techniques.  Just don’t tell them!