Saturday 22 December 2012

Cluster Room

Not much time or good weather to get out recently but I've been back in the cluster room again, getting some shots for the Christmas meeting (none of which were used but, whatever). Some of these really show up the deficiencies of Aperture's RAW processor. Blue LEDs and highlights end up as purple blobs, or with posterisation of what should be smooth graduations of colour.

All of the straight lines also show the lack of distortion removal at wide angles. Hence I've been trialling DxO Optics Pro 8. This has very good distortion removal and handles some of the failings of Aperture much better. DPP from Canon also does a good job of processing wide angle shots very well, although it softens the end image far more than DxO. Still, these are extreme examples and usually for wildlife and landscape work Aperture is good enough, and even on sale, £179 for DxO is just too much to fix a few images and the workflow becomes a lot more complicated. I hate Post Processing enough without adding a whole load extra!

New Force10 Switches

New Force10 Switches

New Force10 Switches and Network Servers

HAMMER Grid Cluster

Cluster room and old networking

Cluster room and old networking

Core HEP servers and HAMMER


Friday 12 October 2012

Holme Fell

A little one to end the week with Holme Fell, but still plenty of walking there and back.

Elevation profile

Holme Fell route

Photos to follow...







Path towards Slater's Bridge



Pile of slate near Slater's Bridge

Cathedral

Cathedral

Two isotonic, hydrating sports drinks at the Three Shires


Tuesday 9 October 2012

Skiddaw

Now that our legs had recovered, the second big climb, this time taking in Carl Side, then the steep climb up to Skiddaw and Skiddaw Little Man.

Elevation profile

Skiddaw route

Photos to follow...

Long, long shadows on the way up










Walkers on the summit of Skiddaw

Looking back at Skiddaw from Little Man

Warning: Gills ahead


Monday 8 October 2012

Leighton Moss

This time armed with wellies we sloshed round Leighton Moss in search of Bearded Tits. We weren't disappointed (although we never really got the shot we wanted).

Bearded Tit

Bearded Tits

Robin

Female Gadwall

Female Gadwall

Male Gadwall

Grey Heron


Spotted Redshank

Spotted Redshank

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Cormorant

Cormorant

Cormorant

Cormorant


Water Rail




Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Grey Heron

Grey Heron

Little Egret

Little Egret

Little Egret

Spotted Redshank

Greenshank

Grey Heron

Grey Heron

Little Egret

Little Egret

Little Egret

Grey Heron

Grey Heron

Cormorant


Robin

Robin eating from birder's hand