Author: Richard

Posted on

More scouting for Photo Locations

We were not the only ones enjoying breakfast this morning, so were the birds on the bird feeders, that was until a squirrel arrived to try his luck.

After breakfast we travelled up to Sheriff Hutton. There are what look like some castle ruins there. We explored the area trying to find a good location to shoot from. The best view was near Lodge Farm.

In the afternoon we explored some woods. Equipped with a long and fast telephoto lens we tried to get close to a herd of deer but to no avail. We did manage to get a few bad macro shots of some mushrooms.  Easier then moving wildlife but still difficult in the low light of the wood!

Tomorrow more location scouting! And just maybe I’ll get a good photo while in the area.

Posted on

Scouting for Photo Locations

A busy week ahead of us.  We are spending the week travelling around North Yorkshire, trying to find photo opportunities and locations for the future.  Today was both exciting and slightly disappointing.

The excitement, well its always fun spending time in North Yorkshire.

The disappointing part was poor light.  I never expected to get any great shots, just find a few possibilities for later in the year, but it is always a shame to be at a great scenic view you have managed to find, but to have no good light in which to capture it.

I took a few reference shots anyway and fully intend coming back.

We finished up at Castle Howard where we enjoyed one of their great soups for an early tea before heading to our holiday lodge where we were stopping for the week.  The day ended with a relaxing dip in the hot tub.

Posted on

Camera Batteries

Batteries die or stop holding as much charge, its a fact of life.

While checking my batteries the other week to get ready for a shoot, I noticed that one of my batteries is no longer charging fully, so it was time to buy a new one.

In my lunch break I popped into the local camera shop, London Camera Exchange.  I got an excellent deal from London Camera Exchange, sometimes it pays to have a good relationship with your local camera shop.

Its always a good idea to check your batteries regularly, for example one of my batteries for my Nikon D200 developed a weird fault last year.

The symptoms were odd.  The battery showed full charge but when you used it, it would work fine for two to five frames and then the camera would hang.

On removing the batteries and then putting them back, the camera would again work for a few frames before again hanging.

A similarly odd battery problem occurred to a friend of mine.

He recently purchased a new battery for his Sony NX5, but it would not work, but when the battery was tested in thecamera shop it worked fine in there Sony NX5.  It turned out that he had to update his camera firmware to use the latest batteries.  On updating his firmware the battery worked fine.

Odd things batteries.  So, if you are having strange problems, try a different battery and if your a Sony NX5 user, check your firmware!

Sony NX-5
©Andrew Jordan
Posted on

Harry Potter

More snow and a forecast of more to come.   This made us decide to commute to work in the car again.  Not our favourite form of transport for the trip to work.  The journey was accompanied by heavy snowfall so the right decision was definitely made.

After work, we went to a local restaurant for a meal, followed by a short walk in the snow to a good coffee shop.  Cinnamon Latté of course!

Then off to the cinema.  We had been promising ourselves a visit to see the new Harry Potter film since it was released in November, but it was not till tonight we managed to find the time.

Overall a fun film and a nice night out.  As always the film had its good parts and as always for us book lovers, it missed out parts we wanted to see.  A film is always a compromise, certainly I would hate to be a screen writer, but overall it was well worth seeing, and has whet the appetite for the final part of the series.

Posted on

How to Test a WordPress Theme

If you new to WordPress and blogging then your possibly having fun playing with different themes, customising you blog to get the look and feel you want.

Playing with your live site and affecting your visitors is probably not the best idea.  You need to be able test without impacting on your visitors.

A quick google round the internet soon found the answer, a plug-in that enables the admin user to test a different theme, then what the other users are seeing.

http://www.dnxpert.com/2010/05/26/how-to-test-a-new-wordpress-theme-without-affecting-live-site

Check it out you might find it useful.

Posted on

a Trip to North Yorkshire

Friday found us instead of commuting to work, heading to North Yorkshire, one of our favourite holiday destinations, to have the weekend enjoying some landscape photography.

Lunch time was spent in a lovely pub called ‘The Hare & Hounds’ at Staxton.

Caroline had her customary steak and ale pie while I had the Whitby Scampi.

We arrived late afternoon, in Robin Hoods Bay a rather delightful old seaside fishing village.

We were pleased to note that the snowploughs had been before us. Only a few days earlier the village had been completely cut off for a week.

After a few beers and a meal in the hotel, we retired for the night as I had my large format photography course starting next morning.

Posted on

A Lazy Sunday Morning

A very lazy Sunday morning was in store for us today.  We had no intention of going out, so first job was to ground some fresh Italian style roasted coffee beans.  I always keep a few whole beans in the freezer, in a plastic airtight container.

We are very lucky here, as Lincoln is blessed, not only with the usual array of Starbucks and Costa Coffee houses, but some very good top rated independent coffee shops, and two top coffee bean retailers, one of which roasts the beans themselves twice a week.

With the beans ground and the expresso on its way, I turned my attention to a very indulgent porridge.  Organic  rolled oats from Lincoln market and milk; with fresh cream and unrefined brown sugar to top it all off.  Yum Yum.

So the morning had us settling down in front of the TV to enjoy Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, one of Caroline’s favourite musicals.

And if you have some beans left you can even practice your photography on them or if your feeling daring, go out into the garden and make Snow Angels.

Posted on

Snowy Bike Commute

With winter well and truly arrived, this morning saw us pulling on our winter thermals & fleeces to go under our biking outfits.

I took pity on Caroline, and allowed her to wear my BMW heated waistcoat. The full winter gloves and boots also came out for today.

One we had negotiated the first half mile of ice and snow covered back roads to the village centre, it was an easy ride in on clear roads.

That first stretch was the hard part. Not the weather but other road users. One car driver pulled out on us in a situation they could clearly see was not conductive to using the brakes. I was not travelling very fast, less then 10 mph so was able to roll to a halt without risking the brakes on the ice. Less then a minute later they decided to just stop in the middle of the road with no warning, I gently overtook them. The worse the weather the worse some people drive!

Unlike yesterday today was relatively warm, the temperature reached -0.5C. We felt warm and it was an enjoyable commute into work.

Photo taken and blog posted from my iPhone.

Posted on

Pilates or Yoga

Thursday night is Pilates night for us.

I have to admit, I do prefer Yoga but unfortunately our gym did not offer that any more.

With running I find that even stretching well after each run, the legs do get very stiff. Doing Pilates or Yoga for an hour a week really helps you to keep supple.

But the gym telephoned us and cancelled, saying that Pilates would no longer be offered, after asking what it would be replaced with they said nothing, but they would be offering Yoga on Wednesday night.  Yes!  Result!

So tonight a quick tea and off to the gym for our first Yoga session in about three years.

Oh boy, do I ache now.  Never let anyone tell you Yoga is the easy option.  Three years of occasional Pilates has not really kept us as supple as I would have liked.  While the odd course taken with our old Yoga teacher has been fun its not been enough.  Looks like its going to be fun but hard work for the next few Wednesdays until we get back into it.

Posted on

Winter Commute and Photo Inspiration

Yesterday morning was the first cold commute of the year. A steady 0°C (32°F) occasionally hitting -0.5° C.  With the wind chill factured in thats about -11°C (12°F), I will definitely be getting out the thermals soon, but until then a pair of silk under-gloves and the heated grips were enough to keep me warm, together with my BMW Rallye 2 Suite.  This will be my second winter in this suite and while expensive I feel its been well worthwhile

While cold it was a beatiful morning, a clear blue sky, golden sunlight and the farmers fields covered in a white frost.  All very beautiful.

This gave me a few ideas for some photo’s.  Mornings like these are always good for inspiration, even a trip to the local park or just go into your garden, can have images worth capturing, a dew and frost encrusted spidersweb, those bright red berries on a bush.  You don’t need an expensive macro lens for this stuff.  Just dig out that old 50mm prime you never use and give it go.