Family, Photography and other misc news
Its always a great day when you can spend it in the saddle. Of course my wife would agree but she would mean on the back of a horse, while I mean on the back of a motorcycle.
We packed the panniers on Sunday night and headed out first thing Monday morning. Once past Chesterfield we hit the Derbyshire Peaks.
The rain when it came was generally light, so did not prevent our enjoyment.
Altogether a great ride out.
Nikon 1 V1
Nikkor 30-110mm f/3.8-5.6
110mm, 1/250 Sec at f/5.6, ISO200
Processed in Adobe Lightroom V4.1
On a Mac MacBook Pro, OS-X 10.7.4
Well I finally managed to get my hands on one of the new 15″ MacBook Pro Retina Laptops.
While the screen is an improvement, the thing that made the biggest impression on me was:
It really is a speed machine, the RAM and of course the SSD instead of a conventional Hard Disk removes all the usual bottlenecks.
Not sure yet if I am going to get one, I would like to find out more about the screen and it’s colour gamut before committing.
The commute to work this morning was a little more challenging due to more closed roads as the Olympic Torch headed out of Lincoln.
As the main road I needed to use was to be closed it made sense to park up by the next village the Torch was due to visit, join in the crowd and experience the event until the road was open, then head into the office.
Once again I took a few shots with my Nikon V1.
I have to admit its not as good or as easy to get a good shot with fast moving subjects, even a runner with an Olympic Torch as an SLR, but for its size it beats just about every other small compact camera.
Its lovely to see the community spirit that has been around over the last few weeks, starting with the Queen’s Jubilee and now with the crowds supporting the Olympic Torch as it travels through our communities, its been great to see the British Spirit pulling together.
Just a few Snaps taken with my Nikon V1 as the Torch came past my office.
A lot of amateurs only have one camera, often believing its ‘The Best’.
For those of us luckily enough to have more then one body, we get to choose the best camera for the job at hand.
Tomorrow the Olympic Torch arrives in Lincoln, I have other work to do but I hope to be able to get a shot of the Olympic Torch coming past.
With commuting by Bike, my camera choice is somewhat limited, but also the choice of camera should be driven by the subject and what suits it best.
This week the Olympic Torch reaches Lincoln.
While a great event it will cause some major issues for commuters. The Police have recommended that people who do not want to attend leave the city by 16:00.
Well that might be fine for some, but what about the workers, are car park is going to be blocked off, giving car drivers some major issues.
Luckily I’ll be leaving by the car park via the pedestrian entrance, luckily the bike will just fit.
The Fuji X-Pro1 certainly made an impact when it was announced, but many of the reviews have been less then stellar. Two major concerns; processing the RAW files has proved difficult, lets hope Fuji engages with companies like Adobe and other software companies that produce RAW developers. The second concern has been the autofocus speed.
I am more hopeful for the latter, the Fuji X100 was also very poor at focusing, but regular firmware updates has since improved this and many other areas where the camera initially fell short.
One thing that many people wanted with the Fuji was for it to act as a cheap Leica M body. Well unfortunately focusing manual lens is difficult, if your after a cheaper body for your Leica M class then for now look at other cameras.
For two different views of the Fuji, check out:
If your after a body for your Leica Glass and cannot afford an M9, then the current top contenders are the Ricoh GXR, the Sony NEX-7 and do not discount the Leica M8 or the even better M8.2. While there are issues with the colour; Auto white balance is poor, and the over sensitivity to infrared can be a problem for colour shooters, unless you use filters, but this can be an advantage for Black & White fans.
This week has been the annual Lincolnshire Show.
The county show lasts two days. Yesterday we had fantastic weather and the show events in the main and secondary arenas could be enjoyed to the full.
We had show jumping, heavy horses, Knights in Armour, jousting; as well as many other things to see.
Today the weather was not so good. In fact we had heavy rain showers through the day, but it was still very enjoyable. We’re British! Stout boots, heavy rain jackets, and a good hat was the order of the day.
It did mean I did not manage a lot of photography, but we did have fun going round many of the indoor stands. Many things to see as well as the usual farm animals, we visited the local Bee Association tent, and met many familiar faces. The honey and lemonade was quite a food highlight.
As well as Bees we are also interested in keeping Chickens, so a visit to the Chicken tent was a must. A spectacular mix of breeds, who knew you could get so many different breeds of chickens!
Of course with it being the County Show we also visited the tent of the WI (Women’s Institute), I am not sure I got all the competitions but the floral displays were very impressive.
We finished the day on a high, with the falconry display, the highlight being the Peregrine Falcon.
Some of my most precious memories have been of summer evenings, either enjoying the stars come out in the sky or a memorable sunset.
Tonight as we rode home across the flat land of Northern Lincolnshire we had low dark clouds filling the sky, but in the distance we had a band of bright red as the sun sank below the clouds illuminating them from below.
As the sun set the industrial water cooling towers along the banks of the river Trent were shown in bright contrast against the brilliant red and orange of the sky, it was quite a sight and one with lots of potential for a stunning sunset.
As we continued to ride home a flash of white to the side of us revealed itself to be a Barn Owl, and as we continued our twisting ride down the country lanes, sudden busts of bright orange light would break across the clocks on the motorcycle we were riding into the growing gloom.
A memorable ride.