Author: Richard

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Family Christmas

Finally we got to the end of the year! A very busy year for us both, also our first year of marriage.

Christmas day was spent at Caroline’s father’s house, together with Declan, Alison and Ethan. Ethan had lots of fun opening all his toys.

For Boxing day we all had a trip to Angela’s and Martin’s. All the Turner/Marrows clan descended, filling the house with noise.

Tom and Alex spent there time programming their new mobile phones. Richard was most jealous of Alex’s as he has the new Symbian 9.1 OS on his phone. Ethan told everyone about his Dinosaures, and everyone else spent there time trying to avoid Richard’s camera and get hold of Hannah’s Nintendo Dogz!

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An old hobby – A new Joy

This year has been a transition year for me. My real joy in photography is black and white, Studio Glamour Photography and Architecture. As with most people I do not have room for a full time darkroom. In the last few years I have done very little photography except for a little landscape and a few friends weddings, but this year I really got back into my main three photographic loves. What spurred me on was my introduction to digital.

Over the last few years I have occasionally tried digital cameras and been generally less then impressed. Slow, poor battery life and hard to use. Then last year I had the opportunity to use a Cannon EOS 1D (the latest model). I finally thought that digital had arrived, it was fast responsive and produced fine quality images. Of course going digital is a big step and you need to make a number of adjustments. Are you going to shoot RAW, JPeg (JPG), how are you going to handle your storage requirements, backup, Image processing and work flow.

I decided on two approaches, first read all I could and talk to photographers who had made the jump. Second buy a small digital compact and try different things. So for the past year I have been shooting film on my SLR’s and digital on my small Nikon S3 compact. Its been a lot of fun and really inspired me to take more pictures this year then I have for the last three. A few months ago, I made the jump and bought myself my first digital SLR. I look forward to the next year and many more photographs.

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A lunchtime Photo Walk

Many times people have said they don’t have time for their photography.
Or they are unable to get to that exotic location. Today was the last
day at work and as every other day this week it was thick freezing fog.
But today I took my camera bag and in the half an hour walk round the
Brayford Pool in my lunch break I took 43 photographs. Most of them are
not very good, but sometimes you just have to go out and shoot!

A winter lunchtime walk, Brayford Pool, Hedgerow next to carpark

Nikon D200 SLR
Nikor 17-70mm F3.5 ISO 100
40mm, 1/90 Sec at f5.6
Nikor 17-70mm F3.5
70mm, 1/60 Sec at f5.6 ISO 100
Processed in Adobe Lighroom Beta 4.1
On a Mac Powerbook, OS-X 10.4.8

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Sharon’s Birthday

Not sure how to describe this month, frantic, chaotic, every time we booked a Yoga session at the gym we had to cancel due to some emergency at work, which meant we had to both work late.

Thats not to say we did not fit in some visits. First was my sister in laws birthday party.

Happy Birthday Sharron

Mum Brown hosted the party and we all had a good time.

We also managed got over to see Robert and Anita’s new house (only been trying for a year)! As we were in the area we also popped in and visited aunty Iris.

Hopefully things will calm down for Christmas.

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Lunchtime Photo Walk

Very little has happened this month compared to the excitement of the last few months. We have been getting back into the swing of work, Caroline has been horse riding but due to the weather Richard has not managed to go flying this month.

Photo Walk

We did manage a quick day trip to Whitby and a couple of days at Southwold at the very end of last month but nothing this month except a few photo opportunities around town in our lunch hour and enjoying the last of the good weather.

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A New SLR – Nikon D200

The Nikon D200.

Well today I made my first digital SLR purchase.  A Nikon D200.

After many months of research and with the price of the D200 dropping, it was the logical choice.

I moved from Canon to the Nikon system back in the 1990’s and a Nikon was my first choice.  The feel of a camera is very important and I find that Nikon bodies always feel better in my hand then other makes.  As an existing Nikon film user with an extensive investment in Nikor glass, it made sense to choose a Nikon that would work with my old lens and the D200 would do that.

For a good review of the camera see DPReview site for more information.

It feels good in the hand, very well built and has the combination of features that I need in an SLR.  I intend putting it through its paces over the next few months with a studio shoot also planned.

Isle of Syle
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Slovenia Holiday

Caroline’s horse riding is progressing well, as is Richard’s flying but the main event for this month was a holiday to Slovenia.

Alan’s dropped us off at the airport and we caught the little Embraer ERJ-145 a small regional jet. We took off from East Midlands and landed a little later at Llubjana the capital of Slovenia. From here we took the coach which went via lake Bled to our hotel on the shore of lake Bohinj in the middle of the national park.

We were booked into the lovely hotel Zkatorog. One week of rest and relaxation, nothing to do but enjoy the scenery, go for walks round the lake and enjoy the local food and wine. We arrived just in time for the evening meal, and after that it was time for an early night in preparation for our first full day.

Breakfast was great, I skipped the fresh pancakes but did have the cooked meats and fresh breads and fruit. We certainly would not be needing lunch anytime soon! After breakfast we had a meeting with the local holiday rep and they showed us what was in the area and the trips that were available. We decided to book there and then on the wine trip and also the cave and boat trip.


After booking our trips we decided we would take a trip to the source of the lake, the waterfall Slap Sabica. We started with a gentle walk round the east of the lake until we came to the small wooden bridge, which took us over the small river which was fed from the waterfall, then we followed the river up to the base of the mountain. After a short while we came to another bridge and to a road and small car park. The road ended here. One road into the area, where it finished here at the foot of the mountain. What followed was a steep climb, until we came to a small observation hut. From here we could view the waterfall, tumbling down the mountain to fill a small pool which then became the river we had followed up from the lake.

We had been continually surprised at the river and the lake. The water was so clear and you could see very large fish, wherever we went in the week, we found clear rivers and no litter. A gentle walk back and we retired back to the hotel to rest and laze around for the rest of the day.

The next day we decided we would walk the north shore of the lake to the village. Breakfast was the same varied selection and this time I did indulge and had the chef make me some fresh crepes. Fully fueled up we started our walk.

The views round the lake were spectacular, but one view we had not expected as we rounded the first corner of lake was a couple of large naked german men, swimming in the lake! They and there party on the shore looked like they were having fun. For us it looked far to cold in the water to swim, though we did indulge later in the heated pool of the hotel.

Along this part of the lake they were the only people we met. At least we had not met the bears, snakes or wolfs that still live in Slovenia! Once we had reached the 3/4 mark we joined a proper footpath and started to meet more people on the route, but no litter which was pleasing.

As we reached the far end of the lake we spotted some brave souls jumping off the top of the ridge above us, luckly they had parachutes. As we approached the village we spotted the landing area. We stopped for a while and watched brave or foolish men jump from the top of the ridge and parachute down to the spot before us. We then wondered into the village and had a bite to eat and drink.

After a fine lunch and cold beer we decided to catch the boat back to the other side of the lake. We were surprised to discover that the boat was electric. Only electric or hand rowed boats are allowed on the lake.

On the remaining days were walked the south lake route, visited the top of mount Vogel, visited the wine region and went into some caves. All in all a wonderful holiday.

For more pictures check out our Slovenia Gallery