Normality? Not yet, but it's getting there

Things are slowly creeping towards some sort of post lockdown normality. It's certainly not the normal we knew before Covid-19 appeared, but but it's most assuredly better than effectively being confined to quarters for the best part of three months.

Here in Wales we've looked in with a mixture of astonishment and jealousy as England has fairly speedily unlocked the various restrictions associated with lockdown. The Welsh Government has taken a much more cautious approach, welcomed by many but ridiculed by some, although I think the over-riding view has been that a steadier line is the right line.

Anyway, we can now travel pretty much anywhere (within reason) although the advice is as always, be sensible. Non essential retail shops have already opened, and this week sees the much anticipated re-opening of two of the most wanted services - pubs and hairdressers (my wife is delighted - about the hairdresser that is, and already has her appointment!).

Also good news for those looking for a break as self contained accommodation gets the green light  this week and campsites with shared facilities can get going from the end of the month. Our break away to Pembrokeshire is therefore a go-er, and I have to say I'm delighted, relieved and very much looking forward to getting away. Who knows, we might even get to a pub for beer and food!

Finally, team sports are also now allowed, and my cricket club sees it's first action next weekend in a season where frankly, we didn't think we'd see any cricket. I spent most of yesterday afternoon with others from our club helping to prepare the ground for next Saturday, and frankly that's the closest I've felt to normal in a long time.

Preparing the cricket pitch - a semblance of normality

               

Post processing fun

I've posted before about tweaking my photos in what's called "post-processing", when you use a software program like Adobe's well known Photoshop (or in my case, cheaper versions of software that does a similar job). I pointed out in that post that I always thought of it as cheating a bit, but the more I've started to play with this, the more fun I've had. Firstly, you can make fairly mediocre "out of the camera" or OOC photos look much better with a bit of contrast or colour tweaking here and there or a subtle (or not so subtle) crop. But there's also the fun element. In the original post I'd superimposed several images of me in my garden into one shot, looking like I had multiple doppelgängers - scary I know.

Today I've been experimenting with some photos I took of Barry Island's arcades a few months ago.. The original shots were taken on a fairly dull day in February, and looked like this:

These are ok-ish in the greater scheme of things, perhaps as a record of building on Barry Island at the time, but they're hardly stand out, and one it clearly out of focus slightly. Given the generally brash nature of arcades with their flashing lights and bright colours, I thought I'd accentuate all that but winding up the saturation in my software to 100%, and then collating the photos into one image. The result is this:

It's certainly not subtle, but I rather like the way it's turned out and would argue that I've managed to turn some frankly pretty ordinary photos into a piece of art. I acknowledge this sort of thing isn't to everyone's taste, but it was fun fiddling about with this. I might try it some more!