How it all Started many years ago!
Date written: January 08

First, important site feedback:- A big thank you Vic for your kind feedback and your valued article - Siegfried

The outcome of your new site, together with the wonderful support and contribution is truly inspirational - so much so, that when I was looking at some old images taken about 4 years ago with my trusty old Canon G3 I thought I would show you my earliest efforts in picture improvement with Photoshop - self taught.

 By:  Vic Warwick - Canon G3 & Photoshop (lots and lots of clone tool)

When I captured the following pictures with a Canon G3 my eye had not registered the unsightly lamp standard to the front of The Foundry, nor the traffic sign at the extreme right edge.  The attraction was for the colourful flower baskets and tubs, as well as the generally smart, clean and decorative appearance of the building.  It was later, when viewed on my computer screen that the ugly street furniture was fully noticed and it set me to wondering why I hadn't noticed it at the scene, whereas, it now struck me as heavy and overbearing.  On reflection I have come to two conclusions for my oversight: -

First conclusion:

That my eye was drawn to beauty, and with vision limited at an LCD screen (of the G3) probably washed out a little by the bright sunny conditions, and an O.V.F. of no use in this instance for edge to edge composition I just plainly missed the lamp standard (yes! I know it is a big one and it couldn't be avoided).

At that time I had owned the Canon G3, my first digital camera, for only a couple of weeks; I was just starting upon a very steep learning curve which bore little resemblance to my years of photography with cameras alike the 'Rollie TLR' and the 'Canon 35mm A1', where anything in the viewing screen was plainly there to be seen and W.Y.S.I.W.Y.G. The LCD screen of the G3 is somewhat smaller than my current G7,  less detailed and therefore, less easier to see and compose upon.  Also, very importantly, we did not have springboards such as "MyCanonG7Photography" to improve our technique and understanding.

Second conclusion:

That I was showing early symptoms of street furniture blindness, which I understand is a condition becoming more prevalent since the noticeable increase, over the years, of road traffic signs along with the general clutter of signboards giving directions to anything you care to mention e.g.. Hospital - Police Station - Monument - Airport - Local Canon/Olympus Dealer :-))  etc etc.

On balance, I have decided that my oversight was due to the first conclusion - that I just plainly missed it, don't want the Driver Licensing Authority to disqualify me from driving as being unfit do I?

Well now! I had taken a couple of pictures of a pretty pub' somewhat marred by an ugly lamp standard.  Having got nearly everything right, apart from the washed out sky, I set about eliminating the lamp standard, and the traffic sign by using the clone tool in Photoshop and laboriously supplanting pixels from either side of the standard and overlaying the standard - going up the wall, across the roof slates upwards and onwards.  It was a pesky business getting the roof slate joints in a straight line.  A long, long time later, I looked at the finished article and said "Ahh! that's better, couldn't have done that with my Canon A1, think I shall like digital photography".

Finished article? not quite, it was several days later that I noticed something had
been missed (not cloned out), suggesting that a .................................................. to be there.

Can you spot the mistake? Vic is waiting for the first guy to report the mistake in the Forum....

From Monday I understand that you are back to business, there will be many people, internationally, grateful for your time and energy during the holiday.  The rapidly rising site 'hit counter' certifies that.

So - Farewell for now Siegfried,

Vic Warwick