We recently gained a truck stop along the road, promised many years ago but never arrived, then opened on a different site.
The original site has seen a few giant signs being erected over the years, promising not only the shifted truck stop, but also a number of prestigious retail outlets. The never appeared on that land either, but we did get a Wickes, and another ‘big shed’ that has mutated into The Range. I’m afraid I’ve completely forgotten what it was before that.
The truck stop’s proved interesting, with some sort of “Trucker’s Party” being held there some weeks ago. I’d been out for a late night walk and heard music wafting through the air, but couldn’t place the location. It got louder as I walked along the road, and when I looked in the truck stop, the place was packed, and the trucks were making the place look like a disco, with all their various decorative lights doing their party pieces, looking as if they were being controlled by various sequencers and controllers.
That would have been an interesting video – IF I’d been carrying a camera 🙄
I’ve taken a look during a few walks since, but never caught the same goings-on going on.
Passing the place while I was looking for some late night Christmas stuff, which was a complete failure, I noticed its illuminated signs, and decided to give them a try.
The diner was the obvious one, although the only option was an oblique view.
Bland but bright, I did have to fiddle slightly with the exposure to avoid the lettering being burnt out, or all running together as an illegible blob.
Since the pic was so plain, I decided to try some different filters to process it as the original was ‘soft’. It’s hard to tell if they’re better than my usual toys, but they did make a big difference to the contrast, and one completely removed the burnt out white area where the floodlight was shining straight into the lens.
This could have been brighter, but I prefer to keep the processing down, so the view looks more like that seen by the eye.
This was the view with the floodlight, which would normally result in a burnt out white area surround by glare. In this case, a filter I don’t usually use (and had little documentation or description) completely removed that, and matched the area to the surrounding light.
Pity about the railings in front of this sign. I’m not aware of a quick and easy way to remove it.
There are offers of free online tools for fence removal, but all tried so far demand online registration.
Secret Scotland 