Author: Richard

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First Releases of 2015

Lowepro Lens TrekkerThis week we have CES2015, a show that now seems to contain everything from Cars, TV’s to Computers and Drones.

If you get the chance check out the self parking Audi/VW video showing a dog parking a car, very funny.

It’s been the camera and lens announcements I have been listening out for. Particularly Nikon news.

While the camera announcement of the D5500 with its improved fully articulating screen, did not interest me the announcement of a new 300mm f/4 lens did. While I am not in the market for this lens, a good quality f/4 lens is something that Nikon needs more of. Not everyone can afford the fast f/2.8 lens and the slow consumer lens just do not cut it. What we want is a full range of quality zooms and this is something that Nikon have been slow to do unlike Canon.

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A New Year and back on the Bike

BWM GS at Castle Howard
BWM GS at Castle Howard

Today was our first day back at work for 2015, as is usual we commuted on the motorcycle and as is traditional I made a note of the milage, as I like to keep a track of my yearly motorcycle milage.

This year saw the GS hit 36946 miles so that was 4894 for 2014.  It seems every year we do less.  We have not done a big bike holiday for a couple of years now and its likely to be at least another year before we do another one as we have too much to do at home, still I am sure we will find time for the odd day trip to Whitby.

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So what did you get for Christmas

towel_hub

Terry White apart from being a Photoshop God and a good photographer is always posting about interesting gadgets he has found but this year he really topped himself.  How cool is this.  How often like me do you want to charge the iPhone or iPad in the kitchen, and now you have this a kitchen roll stand with built in charging!

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Happy New Year

Water NymphSo 2014 is over and we are now in 2015.  Last year had a small number of shoots, several experimental shoots testing ideas for some future shoots, and a few very complex shoots came together to produce photographs like the one above.

Over the next month i’ll be doing a lot thinking of new ideas and things I want to try, so once again, while i’ll not be producing a lot of work I hope to produce two or three stunning photographs like these.

Opera Recital Practice, Leica M8, Summilux 50mm
Opera Recital Practice, Leica M8, Summilux 50mm

Last year also saw me continuing a long term project documenting the Lincoln Bailgate area for a book I am planning.  I’ll be continuing this as well as completing a few other long term projects.

Always have a project you can turn to, to keep your mind focused.

Last year I shot very little wildlife so i’ll be wanting to correct this and also shoot more more large format landscape.

Its looking to be fun and busy year ahead.

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Photo of the Month – December

IMG_0170.JPGApple iPhone 6
Apple 4.15mm f/2.2 
4.15mm, 1/500 Sec at f/2.2, ISO32
Post Processed in Adobe Lightroom V5.7
On a MacBook Pro, OS-X 10.10.1

My photographs of the months have been from a variety of equipment over the last year, from Hasselblad, Nikon, Leica, but over Christmas we went for a winters walk round some of the local villages, like many people whilst I had no camera with me I did have a modern smart phone.  At several points during the walk I just grabbed my phone and held it above the hedges and took quick snaps.  I would not call any of these high art but its surprising what you can to do today with phone, so for my last picture of the month of 2014 here is a quick snap from my phone.

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Building PC’s

Macbook Air in profile -closedBack in the good old days of 386 and 486 processors, I got into building my own PC’s.  This continued up to the point where I got my first Mac and since then I have always had Mac’s.

I keep thinking about a home media server and also a friend recently has been asking me about building a server to run some virtual machines on for training.  So with this in mind I spend a few hours recently looking a component prices, also to compare I looked at the PC World prices.

Unless your after something specific, looking at prices today its very difficult to justify building your own machines, and also the more I looked the more tempted I was with the thought of buying an old refurbished MacMini.

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A quiet Christmas

IMG_0170.JPG
Christmas is now over and it’s been a pleasant and quiet time.

Christmas Eve we had the day to ourselves while for Christmas Day we invited our parents over.

Boxing Day was a trip over to Chesterfield where we had a big family get together. That evening the snow started to come down and it was a cautious drive home.

Saturday morning we awoke early to a snow covered village. Even though it was our Christmas holiday we still had to get up early to let the chickens out and give them fresh water and food. While I was doing that Caroline made a pot of Oolong in her new cast iron Chinese tea pot.

We then jumped back into our warm bed to get warm and enjoy our tea.

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The Night Before Christmas

On the Biking Blog “Ride it like you stole it!” which is sadly no more by Dave Dragon, there was a poem “The Biker’s Night Before Christmas”.

I have posted this before but as it is Christmas Eve I thought I was worth posting again.

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!”

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Its Christmas

Leica Summicron 35mm
Leica Summicron 35mm

Its approaching the end of another year, and I am likely to do a recap closer to new year then today but I thought I would have a dig through my photographic archive looking for a Christmas themed photograph, and what better then a picture of the lovely Amy.