A Modelling Photographic ‘Night Before Christmas’

Twas the night before Christmas when all through the site

Not a creature was stirring and noone to fight.

The pictures were posted on profiles with care,

In hopes that the bookings soon would be there.

The togs were nestled all snug in their beds

While visions of TF danced in their heads.

And models in their underwear, some even nude,

Were posting new pictures, some rather rude.

When out on the forum there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.

Away to my computer I flew like a flash,

Opened the browser and refreshed the cache.

The posting was new and fresh on the thread,

And what I was reading filled me with dread.

With fear that cut to the depths of my soul,

I saw a new message from the internet troll.

“Now chaperone, now no-show, now GWC!

On part paid, full paid and TFCD!

Canon and Nikon and some other kind

Are you a perv or are you just blind?”

As replies filled the site with meaningless junk,

The mods came online and got in a funk.

The threads were locked, the defences were manned,

And before I could post, the troll he was banned.

He sprang to his keyboard and went to reply,

and they drove him away before he could try.

But I heard him exclaim, as he logged off the site,

“Bah Humbug to all, and to all a bad night”

Thanks to Sean for posting this.

Biker’s Night Before Christmas

The Biker’s Night Before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the pad,

There was nada happenin’, now that’s pretty bad.

The woodstove was hung up in that stocking routine,

In hopes that the Fat Boy would soon make the scene.

With our stomachs packed with tacos and beer,

My girl and I crashed on the couch for some cheer.

When out in the yard there arose such a racket,

I ran for the door and pulled on my jacket.

I saw a large bro’ on a ’56 Pan

Wearin’ black leathers, a cap, and boots (cool biker, man).

He hauled up the bars on that bikeful of sacks,

And that Pan hit the roof like it was running on tracks.

I couldn’t help gawking, the old guy had class.

But I had to go in — I was freezing my ass.

Down through the stovepipe he fell with a crash,

And out of the stove he came dragging his stash.

With a smile and some glee he passed out the loot,

A new jacket for her and some parts for my scoot.

He patted her fanny and shook my right hand,

Spun on his heel and up the stovepipe he ran.

From up on the roof came a great deal of thunder,

As that massive V-twin ripped the silence asunder.

With beard in the wind, he roared off in the night,

Shouting, “Have a cool Yule, and to all a good ride!”

Christmas Party

Well tonight was the works Christmas Party.  An evening of fine food, a couple of comedians, disco and live band.

A chance to let your hair down and relax.

Hope you all have a good Christmas and your Christmas parties go well.

Lunar Eclipse

This morning was a luna eclipse, this one being a little more special then most as it was the first in 400 years to occur on the winter solstice.

Heres the luna eclipse I photographed back in 2007.

This provides a good photographic challenge, all thats needed is a long lens, a typical consumer 70-300mm telephoto zoom will do the job.

Metering for exposure can be difficult, the moon is brighter then you might expect, that together with the black sky will trick you meter into the wrong exposure.  Use manual and your histogram to judge, shoot in RAW if you can not jpeg, and use a good tripod.

You will find you need to adjust the composition regularly as the moon moves quite quickly across the frame.

See bbc.co.uk for more details about the eclipse.

Update:

Chris Bennet managed to get some photos of this mornings elipse, you can see them here.

Hoar Frost

Another bitterly cold day, the ride to work was -8°C, I don’t even want to think what the wind chill factor was.

It was a foggy ride in, but as the fog cleared it revealed a beautiful view of hoar frost encrusted trees illuminated in golden sunlight from the low winter sun.

With days like this I wish I had more time for photography.  I always seem to book indoor studio shoots during great photography weather and if I am on location the weather is awful.  Thats fate I suppose!

Birthday Post

Another Birthday passes by, unfortunately I had to work and it was quite a busy and hellish day all told.

Tonight was a nice meal out, good food, good drink, finished off at home with a rather nice bottle of red wine I had for the occasion.

Thank you everyone for the presents and thanks to my dear wife for the wonderful weekend photography course last week.  It made a lovely birthday present.

The Cold Returns

The weather in Lincolnshire has improved massively in the last couple of days, allowing the normal motorcycle commute to recommence.  Yesterday still had icy roads leading to the village leading to an interesting and challenging start to the commute.  Caroline decide to walk down the first road while I slowly road along the ice covered road with my feet down on the ground sliding along.

Once into the village it was an easy commute into town.

This afternoon the cold snap returned and it started to snow, luckily it was not too bad and we got home safe on the motorcycle.

Its been good to get back on the bike, you really miss it, and this has been one of my longest breaks off the bike.

Final farewell of Harrier Jump Jets

Lincolnshire is very proud of its RAF heritage, its known as bomber county.  Since the end of the second world war bases have gradually closed but we still have many airfields and RAF bases.

Today was the final flight from RAF Cottesmore in Rutland for the Harrier jump jets based there, but to say good bye the squadron took a final flight over Lincoln and the Lincolnshire airbases and towns.

Unfortunately I missed the fly pass but did manage to catch there practice flight yesterday.  It was an impressive flight, and an impressive demonstration of formation flying.  As a part time pilot myself (wish I had more time to fly!), I certainly appreciated the fly past.

The Harrier jump jet was a truly great demonstration of British technical achievement, but was retired early due to the financial crisis and the need for defence cuts to save money.  The Navy is also losing its Harriers and its aircraft carriers.

Lets hope we have no war, or major humanitarian disaster that needs a British aircraft carrier.  I know we need to save money but sometimes the choices made, do seem potentially fraught with danger.

Good bye Harrier, you proved your worth, in the Falklands, Iraq and the Balkans to name just a few.  I salute you, the designers, engineers and aircrew that worked with you.  Its the end of an era.