Leaves still hanging on

I walked Xena earlier than usual today, and it was so grey and dull in the woods, it was difficult to get excited about anything to photograph. The reason why I walked her earlier was because I had some things to do before I needed to be at my computer at noon ready for a RPS workshop with Celia on Photoshop filters. This is part of the byte sized series the RPS are running and they are only 90 minutes long which suits me perfectly. Today's workshop was very interesting and while I have used some filters before, today I learnt about the use of many others and how effective they can be. This image was taken in the woods today when it was dull with poor light, but by applying a technique called the Orton Effect using a blur filter and changing the blend mode you can give a landscape a soft glow which I think works rather well.

Tonight is our camera club Christmas dinner, which is at an Italian restaurant. I was not sure if it would still go ahead but everyone is taking lateral flow tests before going and there is a very good uptake of members attending. I did my test this morning and I think testing is very necessary now. The staff at Gavin's work have to test regularly, and while all of them tested negative on Friday, on Monday there were five that tested positive (no symptoms) and more positive results today. Unfortunately despite the government encouraging us to test regularly there are suddenly no tests available from the NHS (we are allowed to order LFTs free from the NHS) which is not good. I managed to find some at a nearby pharmacy (also free), although many have no stock either. With the long queues for the booster vaccinations (and therefore people not bothering to go) and no LFTs things will only start to go pear shaped again so I hope both are sorted quickly.

A university friend of Tommy and Inca's has arrived for the evening, they will cook supper for him and he will stay overnight - they plan to watch some movies. 

I see the West End has been hit by Covid cases too, many shows have had to cancel due to crew and cast having Covid. One of them is the new play of Life of Pi - I have booked tickets to that but thankfully only for February.