Family, Photography and other misc news
I know Leica equipment is very expensive but they really understand customer service. Issues are dealt with well.
With the Nikon D750 and its recent flare issues we have now had the last four full frame cameras released with issues. Now problems do happen but Nikons response to its customers has not been good.
Come on Nikon, up your game.
This 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.
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.
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!
So 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.
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.
Apple 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.
Back 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.
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.
I love listening to music, I also loving playing music (badly, but I enjoy it), I have a very nice separates Hifi system but with having to de-clutter to help sell the old house, it was in storage for over a year, and since we moved house, its been sat in boxes while we finish (well start) decorating the end room that will be the library and where the Hifi will be set up.
So for several years now the nearest I have come to listening to good music is whats on my iPhone or listening to music coming out of my basic computer speakers. In other words, hardly Hifi.
So for a joint birthday and Christmas present I asked for and got a Sonos speaker. Now there are lots of wireless speaker systems now on the market, but after reading up on the different systems and more importantly listening to some, (Sonos, Bose and B&W being the top three), I decided on the Sonos.
Their basic Sonos Play1 has excellent sound quality for the price and while others sounded better you had to pay a lot more. There is also the fact that this will be for convenience listening, most of the time this will be sat in the kitchen while we listen to the radio streamed to it.
So far I am really happy with it and can see why people like their Sonos. For easy listening it gives a good performance and only if fed a more complex base line, does the base start to become muddy and indistinct.
Its made me think now about music for my office, do I add another Sono speaker or maybe something like a pair of powered speakers such as a pair of Audioengine A5+, at a later date you could upgrade them with a nice separate DAC such as the ARCAM irDAC and bring my office up to a decent budget Hifi level a lot cheaper then another Sonos.
Something to think about, but until then we have the Sonos and a room that now is stripped to bare walls and a concrete floor. All doors and windows have been replaced and we have french doors leading out onto the rear patio so its going to a lovely room when finished and our next major project on the house now we have the vegetable garden in place and our hens.
Merry Christmas everyone.
Enjoy the festive season, and our thoughts go to all those who have to work over this period.