Bletherings

Zooming through the muck cart

That’s me today! Doing my best to get my head around using Zoom in the little corner of my study that is my desk. Now, the problem with Zoom is that it shows the reality of life. The mess, the piles of books, the whiteboard with todo items from 2019 still not ticked. Never mind my Lockdown Locks (yes, still!)

Tantalisingly I had read about something called a green screen, or more precisely a chromakey screen and I remember acquiring a cloth of the appropriate colour somewhere back in the day. What could be simpler than throwing up a green cloth and setting to I thought. The whole affair reminds me of a saying my mum quotes, more often than in comfortable.

She’ll say, at every available opportunity: ‘But you know what thought did Jason - it followed a muck cart and thought it was a wedding.’ She then nods sagely reminding me ‘yes it did’.

Sooo, the promised wedded bliss of me and my green screen slowly descended into the mire that is the bottom of a muck cart. We almost divorced let me tell you. It took twenty five videoing attempts to get some semblance of success, where I show clearly and the background is my chosen image ready for tonights inaugural Zoom call with the Creativity Beyond the Camera Club. I might still disappear into the pixelly realms of the photo of our living room, but hopefully no one will mind.

Even though I’ve zoomed hundreds of times the simple addition of a green screen needs lighting, and it really could have done with throwing an iron over it but there are limits to my abilities. I stuck my bottom lip out when Nicola suggested a quick steam iron.

Three hours it took me! But at least it’s raining out there, sleeting and blowing, and freezing. So perhaps following the muck cart was the right thing to do, I’m sure the couples counselling helped me reconcile relations with green screen.

Today I give you mists down the bottom of the valley. I shot this last year before everything got sticky and shot into the light to catch the atmosphere. I could have positioned myself to remove the angle of old fence on the left but I quite like it there. Can’t say why though. The pinkish light of dusk illuminates the stream nicely and picks up the haze that’s flowing down the meadow.

That’s all for today folk, I’ve got a day to catch up on. Wish me zooming luck for tonight!