Holiday Pics 2006...

Ali,

If you post your email here, I will reply to it.

Thanks count.d it's arf005@hotmail.com

Cheers,
Ali

Here's another one for you, that's anybody, not just count.d, I might add....

Compare these two shots.....



Which do you prefer/feel is the better one....??

The last one is obviously taken from slightly further away and thus framed differently, also used a bit of flash to fill-in, although I think the centre of the orchids flower's are now over-exposed....
I like the detail on the first closer shot, but I think the second makes a more dramatic picture...

These two shots have only been re-sized and not cropped form the original, please bare in mind I was using a point and shoot Sony (P-10 at 5 megapix) and no tripod.....

You thoughts/analysis/comments would be appreciated with interest....

Cheers,
Ali

quote:

that's anybody, not just count.d

Ok then, I suggest you knock down the shack in the background.

That's my Grandfather's house you're talking about there bazz!!

....although to be fair it doesn't exactly fit in any more...check out the monstrosity next door..



The family house itself has stood for over 60 years, and is in quite a prestigious area - on the road round to the Sultan's Palace, but as the rest of the properties have been modernised and re-built good old 25B has stayed firmly rooted to the past......and I wouldn't change it one bit, well, maybe some air-con would be nice!!

Saying that, it could do with a lick of paint.....

Cheers,
Ali

Just kiddin' Ali Something I've been meaning to ask you though, what's the depth of water where your platform is?

Yeah, no worries bazz

Sea bed is 150m below us out here....

The GTF (Gas Tight Floor) at the bottom of Leg C4, our deepest, is 96m above the sea bed, as we have storage cells below our legs. You pass sea level at level 4, while using the very steep stairs (if you could even call them that) then from level 9 down it's vertical laders!! It's a deep, dark, oily, shitty place....that I've had the pleasure of going down many a time.......

Cheers,
Ali

Thanks Ali, I've always wondered how long the legs are on those things. Must be well anchored for those North Sea gales.

Here's what I've just pulled from WikipediA about this place...slightly out of date and inaccurate....

The Cormorant oilfield is located 161 Km north east of Lerwick, Shetland, Scotland, in block number 211/26a. It is operated by Shell and licensed to Shell/Esso. It was discovered in September 1972 at a depth of 150 metres. Estimated recovery is 90 million barrels of oil.
The oil reservoir is located at a depth of 2,895 metres.
Production started in December 1979 from the Cormorant Alpha platform. This platform is a concrete gravity platform of the Condeep type. It has three legs and storage capacity for 1 million barrels of oil. The total sub-structure weight is 294,655 tonnes and it is designed to carry a topsides weight of 32,350 tonnes.
The topsides facilities included capability to drill, produce, meter and pump oil. It also has capability to re-inject water to maintain reservoir pressure. Peak production was 24,000 barrels per day in 1979. The platform is also the starting point for the Brent System pipeline, a major communications centre and the location of Brent Log - air traffic control for Northern North Sea helicopter traffic.
In addition an Underwater Manifold Centre (controlled from the Cormorant platform also produces oil. This started up in mid 1983. It has a design capacity for 50,000 barrels per day. Also a single satellite well (P1) is linked to the platform with a design capacity of 10,000 barrels per day.

As you may have noticed from the pic, in another thread - we have four legs not three!
We're still a major communications centre, but Brent Log is now located on the beach.
The UMC is now fucked, with an estimated few million barrels stuck down there!
We now have the Pelican sub-sea field which we produce from and inject water down...
With a total structure weight of nearly 300,000 tonnes there's little chance of this place going anywhere!! Why do you think Shell keep a couple of billion, each, in the back for the decommissioning of these concrete giants....

Kind of going off topic though, seeing as I don't see anybody wanting to come out here for their holidays!!
So I'm going to copy this reply into here.....
http://forums.naim-audio.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/58019385/m/4202922307
Where there's a few other questions about work....

Cheers,
Ali

Ps. Any more comments about the orchids.....???

quote:

Ps. Any more comments about the orchids.....???

Don't let this fella near them

...although I can't see many of those fella's handling the heat and humidity....

Ali, seems I've frightened the genuine posters away, sorry mate.

Anyway, back to the platform So, all in all the thing is the equivalent of 70 storeys tall, sitting on the ocean floor, with tremendous and varying shear forces acting on the top third of the structure at least. That is a deeply impressive engineering feat.

Bazz

Here is is what happens when you don't get the ballast right....300,000 tons or not!

They fixed it by the way....

Cheers

Jim

Thunder Horse!!......now there's a name for a rig.....
None of this bird nonsense which Shell had a thing for - Cormorant, Tern, Eider, Kittiwake....

Oh, I'm home by the way!!!
We were delayed in getting off in the end, so I slept most of the day - in case we didn't make it off and I had to do another shift....which means I'm wide awake and it's lunchtime (at midnight).....bugger!!

Bazz - you're all right, I'm sure they'll come back....besides, not really the time of year for holidays yet!
Oh, and I'm just home and the last thing I want to talk about is bloody work!!! Only kidding, but don't ask me again in about 12 days when I'll be due back......

As far as I remember the Helideck is about 200 feet above sea level, how many stories is that....?
And we are well and truly fixed to the sea bed, due to our weight. The steel jacket platform's like the North Cormorant for example, where I used to work (for six years), is pilled into the sea bed before the topside modules are added....see the attached pic....



Saying that, and I was shocked when I first came here (to the Alpha) this place rocks/sways a LOT more than the North!! And it's designed to do so.....if it didn't the concrete legs would break......
A bit disconcerting when you first feel it in heavy seas, but you get used to it....
The Thunder Horse (gotta love that name, typical yanks - no offence guys) was a floating platform so had to have the right ballast or it would become unstable....not helped by the hurricane kicking it's ass!!!

Well, I suppose I should be thinking about getting some sleep...no wonder my gorgeous other half hates me working nights!!

Cheers,
Ali

Night folks.......

Oh well.....so much for that idea!
About an hour if I was lucky then driven demented by some blackbird....

Ok Ali, if you can't sleep........ how does a drilling platform operate in 6,000 feet of water, as per Thunder Horse in the Gulf.

I understand that it's anchored & not on legs of course, but how the hell does it drill in that depth of water?

By a fantastic feat of engineering!!!!!!

ie. With a 6,000 foot long drill string, and then some.....

It's quite incredible what they can do these days, take directional drilling....they can send that bit thousands of feet below the rig, do a loop and tap into a reservoir pocket from whichever angle they choose.....

Me, I'm a knuckle dragging valve wanker (operations tech) but I play about with turbines quite a bit too....

Cheers,
Ali

Here's a couple of pics I pulled of my phone last night....taken from that last trip....




......you can tell I was busy on nights.......

Cheers,
Ali

Hi Ali,

Glad you like the image. I'm surprised your server didn't bounce the 18.5mb file size!

Basically the colour balance adjustments are more yellow, more red in the midtones and highlights. The vignetting is done either by "burn tool" or "lasso tool". On your image, you'll find I reduced the grain in the sky just a little and yet sharpened the overall image detail.

If you want get involved in retouching, I would suggest getting Photoshop and learn how to use the tools. I couldn't write all the individual changes I made, but suffice to say, every time you change an element of colour or "level" you have to make other adjustments to compensate.

I've never used Paint Shop Pro X, so I can't comment on whether you can do the changes.

Thanks count.d.

....what do you make of the orchids on page 6...??
Or do you want me to stop the twenty questions already....

Cheers,
Ali

Ali,

I think your first shot is the best. It looks more natural than your second one. The second looks false with the fill-in flash.

The background in both is very distracting if you wanted to concentrate the attention on the flowers.

Boscastle Cornwall


OOps , image transfer disaster!

No awards for the picture taking, but earlier this year I was in the South of France on business with an afternoon to kill, so I went to see this:







Fantastic, even if the top gear camera crew did a far better job of capturing it on film.

Salut

Rod