rARsh!

As promised (or threatened)

Back in Norfolk I have access to the CF card reader I forgot to take to Torchwood Town, so I can now share some of my photos from St Fagans. Only some, mind.

Interesting, isn’t it, that given that Geren and I have recently (or relatively recently) acquired the same model of camera, we each chose an historic museum on which to test its capabilities. At least I didn’t have to contend with snow, though. He messed about with settings more than I did, though - I made my adjustments in Picasa, as per usual. I should learn when to change the camera settings, shouldn’t I?

You see my dilemma, I hope

Picture the scene (you don’t need imagination - just look at the photo).

Argh!

The notice is inside the building, and I’m fairly sure they’d consider taking down the sign, correcting the spelling and replacing it as vandelisum (sic). Argh! I actually avoid the shortcut where this sign appears just so it doesn’t irritate me as much.

After work, though, I dropped Tall Andy off at Har-di-har-har Road and found a young Jack with his eyes more open than I’ve ever seen before. It must be said that the boys are both hardly camera shy (unlike their mother).

Sweet, isn’t he?

My favourites so far

I’ve selected a dozen of my favourite snaps so far from the 3,000 or so that Wuglums and I are working through. I think you can see that I’ve inherited a similar “eye” from someone as I mentioned earlier and it’s Wuglums theory (which I’m coming around to) is that my mystery benefactor is our mother.

Anyway, on with the show.

The state of my back led to only a very brief visit to Dad today - he toppled twice yesterday and I was in no condition to be able to help him up let alone stop him so, having discussed this with the nursing staff, it was agreed that it was not in Dad’s interest to leave the ward with me.

It was a good journey back, though - helped by my unwillingness to stop and have to get out of my seat, I suspect. Still didn’t break the mythical 4 hour barrier, though. Although it really isn’t needed I asked TomTom to give me the fastest route back (it offered the M4/M25/M11 route and suggested 4 hours and 10 minutes) and then asked for a recalculation, avoiding the M25. It seems there’s only a two minute difference between the fastest route and the M50/M5/M42/M6/A14 route which skirts Birmingham which, given the hassle the comes with the M25 heading clockwise, makes the northerly route a no-brainer.

I know it would add to the complexity of the program, but I think the software really should offer both alternatives in circumstances like this. Mind you, I also think you should also be able to permanently block junctions from routes (e.g. leaving Aaalburgh via West Carr Road and turning right onto the A11 hasn’t been possible for a while and was suicidal beforehand).

Still, it did a good job on Friday night in getting me to Wuglums Manor in only three and a bit hours after I’d come up to stationary traffic on the A14 so I can’t really complain. Much.

Why you can’t trust technology

Darn

So, can you see the joins in Kodak’s in-camera landscape stitching mode?

Thought so.

In search of Murph

Remember the good old days when you used to visit to see my latest photographs rather than to follow my oh-so-boring Quest For Lurve? Well, those days have returned!

After this morning’s excitement, I picked up my camera and headed off in search of Norfolk’s premier canine blogger in the nearby village of Wibbly.

Well, not really. I was really returning to Wibbly church where I’d found last year’s snowdrops. They’re out again this year although it’ll be a few more days before they’re at their best, I suspect.

I was partly surprised to see conkers (horse chestnuts to non-Brits) lying in amongst them, though - proof (if it were needed) that the world’s gone mad.

I did keep an eye out for hounds and did see one which resembled Oz, albeit driving past in a car. A Wibblyite also gave me a long stare as I was leaving. Was this the infamous Mr P? Maybe Murph will confirm this one way or the other.

If, on the other hand you visit to follow my exciting Quest For Lurve then I hope you’ll forgive this interruption.

On track but let down

Both to Lyle’s surprise (and to mine too, if I’m honest) I kept to plan this morning. I was at Snettisham Beach before 9am and ventured out into the howling wind. There’s not exactly any cover at Snettisham. It was cold, even with a fleece and padded jacket on, and as you can see from the first photo, it was severely hampering attempts at photography. I decided to head to Titchwell Marsh instead where the facilities for birdwatching are rather more comfortable and, being slightly inland, is a lot more sheltered from the wind.

The weather never delivered the clear, sunny sky that had been forecast for this morning so although these photos are an improvement over my last lot, the wind and poor light left them below an acceptable standard (except for the shoveller duck photos, I’m quite pleased with them. A little more light would have allowed more depth of field but I’m sure that on a fine day results will be more than acceptable.

Well, very hopeful, at least.

Right. Just over four hours until the next “checkpoint” …

Testing the new lens

As seen from a ‘normal’ camera

The shot above was taken at the basic 38mm setting on my Kodak V610 just so you can see the sort of zoom the new lens is going to give me (in better lighting conditions - even at f8 the fastest shutter speed I could get in today’s conditions was 1/10s. You don’t want to know what the shutter speed was at f29. Oh, ok then. 1 3/10s.

The first shot (left) was at the base 200mm while the other two are at the other end of the scale, 500mm. I should get decent wildlife shots at that level of magnification (as long as the light’s reasonably good, that is). Using a faster “film” speed would help too, of course - these shots were all at ASA100 which was always going to be over-optimistic.

It’s a big bugger, isn’t it?

This is the lens fully extended. It’s actually a bit too heavy for my lightweight tripod. Oh dear. More expense. Still, at least I know I’ve got until the better weather arrives to sort that out. I think the lens and I are going to be very happy together

Orton images

Geren’s been playing with “Orton imaging” so I thought I’d see if I can replicate the effect.

Original images are on the left with the “ortonified” versions to the right.

I’m not convinced I’ve got it. It’s an interesting effect, but I’m not sure how often I’d use it.