Latest Blogs

North Devon Marathon
Surfboard Repair 2
Surfboard Repair 1

Simple Photoshop techniques

30th March 2010

Here are a few simple techniques that you may find useful for image editing in Photoshop:

Lightening dark images

  1. Open Adobe Photoshop, the dark image which you require to lighten.
  2. Make a copy of it on your layers palette (Remember F7 to open the Layers palette) by clicking and dragging your layer onto the new Layer icon
  3. Ensure that the background copy Layer within the Layers palette is selected.
  4. Change the blending mode for that Layer from ‘Normal’ to ‘Screen’. Your image should now look a lot lighter

Letterpress effect

  1. Inner shadow —Black colour, 120°, 95% opacity, blending mode: multiply, 5–0–3
  2. Drop shadow —White colour, 120°, 35% opacity, blending mode: normal, 3–0–2
  3. Gradient overlay —15% opacity, blending mode: overlay

Lomography effect

  1. Lassoo, feather 90px. Draw round image to create vignette.
  2. Select > inverse.
  3. Add new levels layer. Move centre arrow to right, from 1 to 0.5
  4. Flatten
  5. Add new curves layer. Create slated s curve
  6. Add new fill layer, black. Blending mode: hue, 40% opacity
  7. Flatten
  8. Image > Mode > Lab colour. Select lightness channel
  9. Filter > Sharpen > Unsharpmask. Amount: 50%, radius: 50px, threshold: 0.
  10. Image > Mode > RGB colour.

17th January 2010

Properly looked after, classic cars are generally as reliable as their modern equivalents.

Now this begs the question, why would anybody not look after their car? It is after all, in essence, a bullet in your hands. It has the ability to cause great danger and pain with a momentary lapse, so anybody driving one is put in a position of great responsibility.

Yet the modern motorist (even the term 'motorist' is now defunct, a massive proportion of the developed world owns or has access to a car) gives no time to their vehicle . Blind 'servicing' is left to the manufacturers' recommended intervals, with very little attention paid to what is actually being done.

Take a flick through any sixties motoring manual, and you will find a Routine Maintenance section. This is broken down into daily, weekly, monthly checks and so on, advising the driver how to properly care for his or her vehicle. These are very simple, basic checks that any motorist should know how to carry out, or at the very least understand, so they have some idea of what is going on in the engine bay.

By spending just an hour a week doing this, for example first thing Sunday morning, you can confidently venture out on long journeys knowing the condition of your vehicle, and what, if anything, is likely to go wrong. You will also know that you have done all you can to ensure the safety of yourself and your passengers.

Unfortunately, today's generation does not do this, the classic car is left to take care of itself, which in my view shows a great lack of responsibility. We are privileged to have the freedom of use of motor vehicles, so at the very least we should respect this and maintain our cars for the sake of both safety and reliability.

16th November 2009

New entry into the top 10 worst jobs to do on a mini! Straight in at #7: Changing the speedo cable. For a £4 product, the hassle of reaching down to fit a new one is unbelieveable! Still, you live & learn.

13th November 2009

Meet Malc, of TTP Performance in Bromsgrove. He worked tirelessly like a man machine on my suspension for 4 hours to get the caster, camber and tracking all set up perfectly. With an impressive race pedigree to his name, he didn't disappoint and my car now is truly ready for the 1380 powerhouse to be installed. The steering is lighter, positive, the tyres will wear correctly and handling in the wet months is now far safer.
I will be taking the car back to TTP once I have the completed engine, to have it properly run in and set up on their rolling road.

29th October 2009

Just returned from an excellent couple of days surfing, it must be the only thing I enjoy more and more as I get worse and worse at it! Am definitely looking to get my own surfboard now and a van for the journey, this will become a much more regular occurence there's no doubt about it. Stayed in a lovely little B&B right in the centre of Bude that I can highly recommend.

10th October 2009

Stress! Today I was chosen to be the best man for my very good friend Matthew Hartles, as he weds Ashlee Farrugia in early April 2011. Together, they are MASH! Cue 500 sleepness nights and reams of paper for the speech, and, more importantly, stag do! Might even have 2. I'm the Best Man, I'll do what I like!

08th July 2009

Today I bought a nice little tool for the ball-joints on my mini. £7 for a tailor made socket will save me about an hour each time I do it. So for the past 10 YEARS I have been struggling with spanners that don't fit, making notches with chisels and all along there was this little jem! Sounds silly, but considering my old man has been struggling for 40 years without one, I look pretty efficient!

07th July 2009

The new n a t u r a l mohican website is now online! Kind of. Well the layout is up, I just need to import the content from the old site. Anyway, please browse through the site using the simple navigation bamboo above, and feel free to let me know your thoughts.

29th April 2009

Happy 25th Birthday to me!