RBOSS: IOM and Sheffield

RBOSS continues apace. It was never going to be something that was ever going to stop, but there were (apparently forlorn) hopes that we could at least slow it down.

It seems not. Here’s that statue of the Bee Gees on the Prom in Douglas, now famous for the white line that surrounds the figures of Barry, Robin and Keith:

The statue itself is bad enough. It didn’t need treating to a DEHAZE wash drowning.
And beagle-eyed readers will notice that this one has been used on a calendar. That means that there are at least 28 days (and probably more) when this image is going to be staring at you from your kitchen (or whichever) wall.

Absolute masochism.

And then we head to Sandygate: the oldest football ground in the world, and home to the second oldest football team in the world. But not for much longer, looking at the frankly apocalyptic clouds overhead here:

To be fair, this is less RBOSS and more r/shittyHDR. But the same rules apply.

And there’s absolutely no need for fawning comments like “an amazing capture” or “beautiful [heart emoji]”. Although they are all over this post on Facebook. This image is a record of a visit to a historical, non-league stadium in suburban Sheffield, not some Hurricane Milton lookalike contest.

Remove the ridiculously over-dramatic sky and it’s just perfect at what it’s supposed to be. But now everyone’s looking at the scary clouds and wondering of any of the (somewhat meagre) fanbase survived.

They’ve forgotten that you went to watch the footy.

Completely unjustified.

I know that there are a few people out there who think that these sort of blog posts are wrong, and that art is art. And they’re definitely right on the second bit. But art (is this really “art”?) should also be open to criticism, and when it’s blown out by too many lightroom or snapseed filters or sliders, I will call it out.

Things are often actually quite nice just as they are, and they don’t need stupid amounts of editing just to try and get you a few extra likes or karma points.

Guess who’s back?

Ah Jesus. The #RBOSS King returns.

So crispy!

Someone’s been toying with (and by “toying with”, I mean “ramming up to 100”) the dehaze slider to make this image look brighter and more dramatic than it actually was. Look at the telltale white halo around the dark parts of the image when you zoom in:

That’s not straight out of the camera, now is it?

It could be a lovely image. It probably even was. But why even bother taking a photo of something so beautiful if you then immediately choose to digitally annihilate it just for clicks and likes?

Day 568 – Long lighthouse

568mls in a pint… (just saying, Cape Talk).

What a morning.

I went across to Robben Island earlier today. Just a recce. I’m both inspired and knackered. And now rather concerned about the actual visit in (less than) a couple of weeks. Could be exhausting.

This was a whistle-stop tour to discuss wants and needs and plans, so there literally wasn’t any time to stop and take the place in. However, it could also be a whistle-stop tour to look at what I might get some photos of when we actually go. I was using my old kit lens to play with and we were rushing, so I had to do a bit of messing around with some of the photos when I got back, so I went full messing around. These pictures never looked tremendous, so why not have some fun?

They did not come straight out of the camera like this, ok Ian?

The lighthouse needs a coat of paint. And this photo needs less HDR, but we all have our issues. This is deliberate, honest RBOSS. And I’m actually ok with that.

Then there was this smart guy by the sea:

This was taken through the window of a moving minibus. Yes, I know it shows a bit. But not too much, right?
I was also impressed.

With the right lenses, (ok, and possibly a lot less messing around in post) these would be much better images. And so that’s what I’ll try and do next time around.

Here’s one that I’ve left just about “as is”:

And it might look bright and colourful, but it was actually a very bright and colourful scene.

You can’t blame me for that. (Artificial) saturation = 0.

The real visit is going to be very hard work, but it’s also going to be very rewarding in a lot of different ways. Hopefully one of them will be some amazing photographs.