Monday, May 20, 2013

Scanning Malt And Bluebells

As many of you already know, I am addicted to scanning. I find it difficult to contemplate life without a scanner and my first thought on encountering any new experience or emotion is to scan it. I once got addicted to scanning my breakfast, but it took me ages to clear the crumbs of toast from my scanner afterwards and I have therefore stopped this eccentric practice.

I have often toyed with the idea of scanning my friends, but I fear that it might prove difficult and I suppose there is the danger of that bright, piercing light doing some kind of irreversible damage. The idea of scanning emotions is a challenge, but one that is worth some effort. Take Saturday night, for example : and if truth be told, well into Sunday morning. We had a house full of friends and we were celebrating either Isobel's birthday or World Whisky Day ... or perhaps we were just celebrating friendship. A good many bottles were opened, and sampled, and discussed, and enjoyed. The scanned bottle of Ladaig was one of my particular favourites. From the scan it looks full, but I can assure you it is not - it is just its horizontal position on the scanning bed. Along with its fellow offerings, it resulted in me having to adopt a similar horizontal position on my own bed for much of Sunday, but the last thing you need on a Monday morning is to see a scan of that.

Let me provide a little balance by sharing a scan of my morning walk with Amy. The bluebells are out at the moment. They only last for a couple of weeks at the most, but whilst they are in bloom they carpet the woods and the hedgerows better than any Axminster or Wilton could do. I know I could show you photographs of them, but scanning helps me to recognise the beauty of the individual : that essential element that can summon up familiarity without any trace of contempt.

The bluebells always come out for Isobel's birthday. Perhaps I really should try and scan the Good Lady Wife.

8 comments:

  1. That would be quite something! I am so disappointed Alan; I bought a brand new camera in UK and one of its first outings was to The Wee Dram in Bakewell. I had great fun snapping the many whiskeys, and my friends sampling them. We viewed them afterwards and laughed at each others' expressions.Back home I downloaded from the camera to my computer and those images are unreadable. I need some advice. I've used software to retrieve lost inages but to no avail. I fear the memory card is corrupted; do you have any experience of this?

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  2. I afraid your imagination is working overtime with all the possibilities of scanning. Now let's turn it around and think of scanning Allan ?

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  3. How do you keep the 3-D quality of the flowers? They have depth in the scan; one would assume them to be smashed flat.

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  4. I confess Alan that I have not been able to find out why scanning is better than taking a close up photograph. Perhaps I should try scanning a few things and finding out :)

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  5. Just don't try scanning the horizon, Alan. After a few drams, you might be tempted!

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  6. Anonymous8:29 PM

    Sometimes you can take a photo with a digital camera or with an iPhone or an iPad and get good results. My old scanner had the lid that came off or moved up so you could put something like a book or a bottle in the scanner and scan it but the surrounding area would always be either black or out of focus.

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  7. I never realised scanning was such fun. That's nice about the bluebells and Isobel's birthday. You are quite wrong by the way, we would all enjoy seeing the scan of you on Sundy morning!

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  8. Lovely Blue Bells..a belated Happy Birthday to your Isobel...she must be a wonderful lady:)

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