Friday 31 May 2013

Adding Punch to Pictures using Photoshop

A great tip on how to use Photoshop to improve the colour of photographs which are a bit lacking in oomph.



 1. Open an appropriate flat (colour wise) photograph in Photoshop

2. On the menu bar, Select: Image; Mode; Lab Color.

3. On the menu bar, Select: Image; Apply Image, when the dialog box opens, change the Blend mode, from the default Multiply, to Overlay,  leave the Channel as 'Lab'

4. In the same dialog box, change the Opacity to 80% and Save.

There you have it, a punchier photo, in four easy steps.




To make this even easier/quicker you can create a new Action


Friday 24 May 2013

Dunlop Fun Run 5k Results

Results of the 2013 5k


POSITION TIME NUMBER NAME
1 19.44 185 Peter Laing
2 20.59 377 Gordon Gallacher
3 21.15 176 Phil Nowotny
4 21.49 197 Jamie Mack
5 22.31 198 Calum McGarvie
6 22.31 175 Daniel Hughs
7 24.58 382 Andy Taylor
8 25.04 181 Susan Ballantyne
9 25.1 188 Shona McBean
10 25.1 187 Claire Orr
11 25.18 177 Kelly Cobey
12 26.05 173 David Lock
13 26.34 378 Graham Kilgour
14 27.03 371 Euan Gallacher
15 27.07 196 David Wiseman
16 28.06 375 Brian McGaw
17 28.53 374 Andy Currans
18 29.38 184 Allyson McCall
19 29.44 372 Robin Brown
20 31.37 186 Audrey Burton
21 31.41 386 A. Brown
22 33.38 389 Emma Blyth
23 34.02 199 Paul Gallacher
24 34.02 200 Lesley Gallacher
25 35.25 179 Kaitlyn Elliot
26 36.17 379 Alastair Kerr
27 36.51 190 Ruaridh Kerr
28 37.36 384 Calum Macdonald
29 37.36 383 Elise Macdonald
30 37.42 183 Lesley Clarkson
31 38.23 373 Peter Inglis
32 39.51 195 Adam Lyon
33 39.58 182 Bruce Clarkson
34 43.09 391 Anne Sinclair
35 47.18 180 Amy McAughtrie
36 47.18 178 Erin Baillie
37 58.17 387 Sheila Mitchell
38 58.18 392 Jane Wilson
39 58.3 394 Lorraine McLeod
40 58.3 393 Jane Whiteford
41 1.01.06 385 Shona McBride
42 1.01.06 381 Marie Dunlop
43 1.01.06 380 Barbara Dunlop
44 1.013 171 Aileen Picken
45 1.01.30 172 Marlene Milligan
46 1.09.09 191 Shirley Ferguson
47 1.09.09 192 Hayley McKee
48 1.09.09 193 Will McKee
49 1.09.09 194 Sam Haddow
50 1.09.09 174 Mike Blyth
51 1.09.09 376 Kim Main
52 1.09.12 390 Mark Blyth
53 1.09.12 388 Leo Blyth

Dunlop Fun Run 10k Results

Here's the results from the 2013 race


POSITION TIME NUMBER NAME
1 35.50 23 Cameron Wilson
2 36.48 32 Stuart Murdoch
3 38.01 38 S.Ferguson
4 40.42 30 Michael Corson
5 41.13 18 A. Mc Taggart
6 41.14 41 Andy Bryce
7 41.42 8 Jim Phillips
8 41.51 6 Jim Sneddon
9 41.56 26 Graeme Haddow
10 42.48 54 Pete Buckner
11 43.07 5 Jim White
12 43.37 33 Nicola Crowe
13 43.49 35 Michael Martin
14 45.35 25 Lorna Martin
15 46.12 31 Michael Waddington
16 46.29 21 Graham Humes
17 46.30 56 Robert Harkness
18 46.40 22 Barry Wilson
19 46.45 37 Jennifer McGregor
20 46.59 51 Fraser Peat
21 47.52 42 Sam Peek
22 48.26 11 James Swan
23 49.02 34 Eric Harold
24 49.45 36 John Speirs
25 50.00 16 Frank Clarkson
26 50.31 39 Graham Crombie
27 50.50 29 Brian McLellan
28 51.03 53 John Murray
29 51.11 40 John Crombie
30 51.15 14 Ian Henderson
31 51.31 52 Crawford Cumming
32 51.36 50 Greg McNeish
33 51.49 20 John Goodenough
34 52.04 28 Hugh Carty
35 52.05 10 Debbie Jackson
36 52.22 12 Pete Taylor
37 53.00 15 Fiona Walker
38 54.04 46 Allan Graham
39 54.41 43 Denis McBride
40 54.50 49 Ross Kitson
41 54.54 9 Gillian Stephen
42 54.59 59 Jennifer McCutcheon
43 55.14 17 Deborah Keed
44 56.17 13 Scott Brown
45 57.09 24 Alan Anderson
46 57.16 58 David Sinclair
47 58.11 19 Andrew Pinkerton
48 58.28 48 Viv Franklin
49 1.00.27 4 Max McFarlane
50 1.03.34 55 Gillian Cumming
51 1.03.42 2 Elaine Venman
52 1.03.43 3 Bob Urquhart
53 1.03.44 1 Joyce Robertson
54 1.08.36 27 Gerry Brannigan
55 1.09.00 47 Kirstyn Brogan
56 1.21.12 7 Morgan Hodgart
57 1.41? 57 Keith Mackie    

Sunday 19 May 2013

MND Six Mile Run for Christine – 19 May 2013

Start of Race, pic by MND Scotland

This was only my second outing since New Year's Day, having completed the inaugural Tollcross parkrun on the 4th of May. I've been plodding away on my own, building up my stamina and strengthening my leg muscles and hope to get back to club training sessions soon. However I appreciate that I'm still far from race fit but this 'fun run' provided me with a real test.


I've run the Four Mile version a couple of times and participated in many races in Strathclyde Park over the years, so I know most of the route well. My target was to complete the 6miles in under 55mins. There's a mixture of fun runners and walkers and some who have more racing experience. Many of us were participating in memory of friends or family who had died as a result of Motor Neurone Disease, as you may know, my sister, Christine, died of MND at the age of 30, some 20 years ago.

Christine Goudie


This year, the 4milers and the 6milers lined up together and we were set off at 11am in almost perfect running conditions. I set off quite strongly, clockwise around the south of the Loch, I noticed that I was dropping off the pack at around 2k and decided to catch up with them and, hopefully, they would help me around the six mile route. I latched on to a couple of chatty woman marathon runners and stuck behind them for a while. 

Shattered at the Finish
At the 4k mark, we were directed up Bothwellhaugh Road, I hadn't run this part of the course before and was surprised at how steep and long the hill was. I struggled up to the top, round a wee loop at Community Road, Bellshill and rewarded myself with a drink of water, before pouring the rest over my head. Refreshed and now running downhill, I felt a lot better and overtook the two women and others as I stretched my legs on the way down back towards Strathclyde Loch. The friendly marshals directed us up some steps and a short off road part of the route, before we met up with the slower 4mile runners, making their way around the north of the loch. The narrow path was quite congested with other walkers and runners as well as other park users. The lack of exercise over my 3months plus of illness was showing and there was no great surprise, when the women overtook me. Again I used them to pull me around the course. I dug deep in the last kilometre and managed to catch both of them in the final strait to cross the line in a time of 47:10. Much faster than I had predicted, although the course may have been a little short. I was delighted and shattered too but it was for a good cause. 


I congratulated and thanked the women runners for helping me around before doing my warm down and lending some support to those in the final stage of their runs.


I've got a long way to go but at least I'm on the road back.

MND Scotland

Tollcross parkrun photographs.

Tollcross parkrun were short of a race photographer this week, so I decided to help them out and get the opportunity to experiment a bit with my camera, adjusting the aperture and shutting speed to see which settings were best for photographing people running. I know that some photographers like to shoot with a very fast shutter speed but this tends to freeze the runner, whilst I prefer to use a slower shutter speed and therefore catch some movement in my photos. My Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 lens allows me to shoot with a short depth of field so that I can focus on the main characters in the frame and show their facial expressions: the passion, pain, fun and other emotions. However I also wanted to take some photos which would paint a picture of what the course is like, in particular the hills. Although to be kind to the runners, I positioned myself at the bottom of the hills, rather than the top of them. I also took some photos of the Tollcross park itself, including the Winter Gardens and Children's Farm. I hope that you like them.



 Photos here: www.iangoudie.com



Friday 17 May 2013

Sophia Jex-Blake - Scotland's First Woman Doctor

I spotted this plaque in the west end of Edinburgh and was disappointed that I had never heard of such an important woman. As you can see, from the plaque, Sophia Jex-Blake was Scotland's first woman Doctor. She was born to a wealthy family in Hastings, Sussex, England in 1840. She originally wanted to be a teacher but her, deeply religious,  father refused to allow her to study. He later relented and in 1858 let her attend classes at Queen's College. She became a maths tutor but, as her parents thought it was wrong for women of their social class to work, she was not allowed to accept a salary.


Sophia taught in Germany, and in the United States of America, where she met two leading American female doctors, Lucy Sewell and Elizabeth Blackwell. Sophia decided that she too wanted to be a doctor. Although it would have been possible for Sophia to become a doctor in the USA, her father died and she returned to England in 1868 to look after her mother.


No medical school would accept women students in Britain and she embarked on a battle with the authorities of the University of Edinburgh for the right of women to take examinations for medical degrees.


It took Sophia eight years of struggle to qualify as a doctor, because of opposition, not just from the universities but also from male students and the British Medical Association. She had to fight her cause through the law courts and in parliament. She won increasing public support and legislation allowing women access to medical training was passed. She and five other female students were allowed to study medicine but they had to fund their own segregated lectures and were not allowed to take a degree.
Sophia Jex-Blake

In 1877, aged 37, Sophia obtained the M.D. of the University of Bern and, later, through the King’s and Queen’s College of Physicians in Dublin, a license to practice in Britain.
She became Scotland's first woman doctor, establishing her own successful medical practice in 1878, she also opened a cottage hospital, the Edinburgh Hospital and Dispensary for Women and Children and in 1886, she helped found the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women and negotiated with a hospital to provide clinical training, making it possible for Scottish women to obtain a complete medical education for the first time.


Jex-Blake continued her private practice until 1899 when she retired to live with her female partner in Sussex. Sophia played an active role in the Women's Suffrage movement until her death at Windydene on 7th January 1912.


More than a century later, Scotland is a much better place because Sophia Jex-Blake was determined to be a Physician.

Wednesday 15 May 2013

By My Side

Having previously read Alice Peterson's Another Alice, in which she covers her own life experience of living with Rheumatoid Arthritis, I wasn't sure what to expect when I purchased By My Side but I was not too be disappointed.  This time Alice's main character, Cass, has a spinal cord injury and uses a wheelchair.  As previous, Alice covers the subject with sensitivity and humour.  There's the usual 'good v bad' and 'boy meets girl' in the story but what makes Alice different is her ability to address difficult issues but still leave the reader feeling uplifted. 

Alice Peterson
By My Side is an extremely well researched and written book and a thoroughly enjoyable read too. I would strongly recommend it.

Saturday 4 May 2013

I'm Back Running in Glasgow's East End - Tollcross parkrun #001 report

Following my illness, I've been quietly and slowly working away to increase my fitness and strength. Starting with walking and then progressing to jogging I've been increasing the my distance by around 10% every week. I'm now running more than 5k but less than 10k, although I'm far from race fit and was working towards doing the Eglinton parkrun in a few weeks time, having previously worked at Eglinton farm. However I couldn't pass the opportunity to participate in the inaugural Tollcross parkrun on Saturday May 4th.

Nice to see you're back.....
Whilst this was Tollcross's first parkrun, it was my 118th and there were a few friends and running buddies wishing me well as I took part in my first race since New Year's Day. I lined up with some 92 other runners in the east end of Glasgow morning sunshine and, at 9:30am, we were set off on our way around the undulating course. Although I've been working on my distance, it will take some time to build up my muscles, strength and stamina. I haven't done any hill work and I knew that the two and a half lap course would be challenging.

We're off!
We ran, slightly uphill, towards Shettleston Road and then veered left and the gradient increased, 200 metres parallel with Shettleston Road and a left turn took us over a brae and down, back towards the middle of the park. With Garmin informing me that I had ran my first kilometre and Chris McKiddie shouting support from his marshal position, We turned right and ran towards Muiryfauld Drive. A left hand turn, took us southwards, another left and we were running with Tollcross Road on our right hand side, over a steep hill and then back to the beginning. Any thoughts of dropping out, were banished by the sound of the Johnston Brass Band blasting out The Olympic Fanfare. Ally Robb provided additional support as I reached the 2k point, as did Chris at 3k. Another lap would take me to the cut off lane and the final 100m over grass before reaching the Finish in a time of 25:18. Whilst hardly record breaking, I was happy enough with my performance, as I had set myself a target of 26mins. I placed 35th out of 93 finishers. 
Focussed

Up front, Ronhill Cambuslang had stamped their mark on the event, winning the men's and women's races and claiming 5 of the first 9 places. The Lanarkshire club's David Thom, who completed Strathclyde last week in a time of 17:22, won the first Tollcross parkrun in a time of 18:00. Central AC's father and son team of Alex and Ross Milne, earned second and third consecutively. Dad finishing in 18:07, twenty seconds in front of Ross. In the Women's event Ayrshire lass, Kirsty Grant, won Gold for Cambuslang with a time of 24:30, placing 30th overall. Sixty-six year old Liz Corbett earned runner-up spot with a time of 25:32, 36th overall, with Airdrie's Emma Mann placing third, 39th overall, with a time of 25:48.

Providing favourable weather, live music and home made cake, the organisers can take a well earned bow for staging such a successful race. I'm sure it will go from strength to strength, I know that I'll be back.