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

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

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 4^th 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

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.

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.

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 4^th.

Nice to see you're back.....

Whilst this was Tollcross's first parkrun, it was my 118^th 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 35^th 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 30^th overall. Sixty-six year old Liz Corbett earned runner-up spot with a time of 25:32, 36^th overall, with Airdrie's Emma Mann placing third, 39^th 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.

Full results

Photos on Flickr

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