Yes, I know - I said I would have them up imminently and they are still not here!
To be honest I just had a few things coming in all at once that needed to be prioritised - some commercial work, some wrapping up of jobs and preparing for an exam to upgrade my PfCO drone “licence” to a GVC - which is very much a “like for like” upgrade but gets me onto the current format. And it needs to be done by the year end… and my Operational Authorisation is up for renewal in 2 or 3 weeks anyway… so it has been all hands on deck to get that sorted out!
We have also been working on the huts, which are a key element of the workshop program, particularly later in 2024 and beyond so to some extent I am holding off until I have a little more idea about when what is happening! So I think I will concentrate on the early season for the moment and work on a programme next week to take us up until the start of Summer.
The other big job on at the moment is a total passion project - I am restoring a photograph that hung in my grandparents house on Hoy which my brother had scanned in Melbourne this week and sent to me. The current version I have is my “light touch” restoration which has just taken a lot of the aging out of the print and I hand removed the blemishes, folds and tears before running it through a de-scratch program and then a bit of a sharpen to bring some of the edges back. Then added a little contrast boost so that it is in an “authentic” state.
My next version will have some enhancement - perhaps a little AI monkey work along with some more old school manual adjustments to see if I can squeeze a little more detail out of it… then I may look at colourising it, although I am not sure it has quite enough detail in it to make it work as yet!
Once complete I will get this one printed large, framed and a new copy of this very old photograph can then live on in my home! It is a really special photo to me for two reasons, firstly it was something I spent a lot of time looking at with my Grandad way back when… and secondly this is why I am so obsessed by panoramic photogrpahy! I am now looking at recreating this very scene next time I am in Stromness to compare 100 years or so of development!
