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Saint Mary's church Saffron Wa…

This is the interior of Saint Mary's church in Saffron Walden, About 400 years ago Saffron Walden was the main area in England for the production of the spice saffron.

Saffron originates from the stamens of the saffron crocus so next time you order saffron rice just remember it has been spiced by part of the reproductive organs of a flower.

dorste cathedral

Saffron at one time was more expensive than gold on a per gram basis

But this article is not about spices it is about recipes, or to be more precise manipulations of photographs with the Gimp plug-in Mathmap.

escher cathedral

When I do manipulations of a photo it is usually a very haphazard business, more often than not I get an idea and try to work it out.

Most of the results I get are completely unsatisfactory and they never see the light of day because I can not achieve the effect I want with the software I have.

More often than not when I get an image that is visually pleasing to me I have no idea how I produced the image, and which parameters I set.

gargoyle cathedral

So I am left with the feeling that even if I wanted to recreate the same effect with a different image I would have no way of retracing my steps .

You see my computer is so slow that when I change parameters by moving the sliding scales within Mathmap, I never see any cnanges in the preview mode.

I get fed up waiting for something to happen so I just hit the OK button and hope for the best. The computer can then grind away for 15 minutes of a Dorste distortion, and sometimes I get lucky and it makes an image I like but there is a 10:1 ratio of failure to success.

It is just a pity that when success comes, I can never repeat it, cos I'll never have that recipe again.