Days When I Shouldn't Have Got Out Of Bed #1

So - Today!

I bought a new lens for my camera. It arrived Wednesday. Despite the fact that I work from home I've been really good and resisted the urge to play with it instead of working until today. At around 3pm it got the better of me and the raindrops on the window looked to be the ideal opportunity to try out the macro function. So I stuck the lens on the camera and the camera on the tripod. Then I realised it wasn't quite high enough and picked the tripod up to extend the legs. Holding it high in the air above a concrete driveway I pulled the leg to it's full stretch and at the same time I watched the lens and camera fall from the top of the tripod and hit the ground with a resounding smash!!!

Hopefully our insurance will cover it but I'm still really pi*@$d off that I never even got to test the lens before I broke it. the glass is still intact but the mount is hanging off and as for the camera!! Suffice to say that Canon's (or any other brand for that matter) don't play well with concrete!

Then....

Luckily I have some very nice friends, one of which (Thanks Gillian) was willing to lend me her camera so I could take pics at the 'Balloons over Basingstoke' event tonight. So off I go to pick her camera up en route to Basingstoke and then I reverse out of a parking place into another car!!!!

Luckily it was (really) as much her fault as mine and as no damage was done to either car we just chalked it up to a bad day.

Then...

We got to Basingstoke and the wind got up and they decided not to fly the balloons tonight!

I need a drink.

The List!

I keep talking about 'The List' the hypothetical list of things that I'd like to do. I'm forever mentally adding things to the list then I forget all about them. So I thought I'd actually write it - THE List.

As we're already half way through the year and I can't think too far ahead on a good day I'm counting the start date as 1st June 2008 and the list is going to be made up of things I'd like to achieve/do/experience before 1st June 2009.

(Please note it's now July 2009 and I'm not even half way through so the next deadline in the end of July 2010).

I started off with grand ideas of a list of a 100 things, then when I started to struggle decided maybe 50 was enough but at the end (so far) I can only come up with 36 ideas. However as day to day life and conversations seem to be a wealth of inspiration I reserve the right to add things to the list as I go along, nothing too earth shattering or life changing just some little challenges and a bit of fun. Photographic evidence will be provided wherever possible.

So to start with...

Things To Do In The Next 12 Months.

1. Go up in a hot air balloon.
2. Go to 10 places in the UK that I’ve never been to before

1) Beer in Devon
2) Abbotsbury in Dorset.
3) Bath
4) Belfast
5) Paignton
6) Norfolk
7) Robertsbridge, East Sussex
8) Rye, East Sussex
9) Colchester
10) Northampton

3. leave the country
4. Write a Novel (even if I’m the only one who ever reads it)
5. Send a message in a bottle
6. Make an origami crane
7. learn to play at least one song on the guitar.
8. Bake a Cake
9. Make a t shirt (well a design for one anyway)
10. Make a time capsule and bury it in the garden
11. Give up something for lent
12. Go to the dogs
13. Buy/Blag (and drink of course) A Bottle of Krug champagne.
14. Drink a Vintage Wine
15. Go to the Theatre
16. Go Ice Skating
17. Watch a live Ice Hockey match
18. Ride a motorbike
19. Visit a museum
20. Visit a theme park
21. Do some voluntary work in the community
22. Order something in a restaurant that I’ve never eaten before Guinea Fowl
23. Plant a Tree
24. Make a loaf of bread, from scratch without the aid of a bread making machine
25. Go on a picnic
26. Fly A Kite
27. Visit (and spend the night if possible) a haunted house
28. Visit a zoo
29. Make something crafty, (No CD’s or photographs)
30. Raise money for a charity
31. Watch a movie with subtitles (something I usually avoid, too much concentration needed)
32. Go on a wildlife photography day
33. Celebrate St Davids Day (Including home made Welsh Cakes)
34. Cook a meal from another country
35. Put my name down to rent a beach hut in the UK (On the list for a Beech Hut in Beer in Devon, it's only a 15 year wait!)
36. Get my blog redesigned and make 'Big Fish Little Fish' all grown up.
37. Go to Church
38. Run a race for charity. (Race For Life)

flickr Monthly Scavenger Hunt - May 2008

As I haven't tried one of these for ages, and I've never finished one yet I thought I'd have a go at the flickr scavenger hunt again this month.

Here's the list...

Official May 2008 Scavenger List

1. yellow swing
2. dust
3. garden tools
4. mountain
5. ice cold glass of milk
6. trail mix
7. garden gnome
8. headache
9. heavy fog
10. scared
11. fork
12. bird
13. fruity flavour
14. station
15. an unlikely duo
16. roadside stand
17. traditional
18. farmer
19. flattened
20. now, that was refreshing!!


I'll link them to the pics as I find them, there could be a few in the archives for this month! Although I'm not sure where I'm going to find a yellow swing!

It's Been Fun But...

In February 2008 Polaroid ceased production of it's instant film in favour of digital technology, so when the film that's currently in it runs out our Polaroid will probably be relegated to the realms of decoration. So in tribute to the many Polaroid Instant cameras still out there...

Camera Porn!

UPDATE

Thanks to a really helpful company that I found on the net - Retro Photographic I now have two (out of date) films for my Kodak Duaflex. Even if the films are a little out of date and the photo's don't turn out at least I've got the spools now so I can use 120 film in it in the future. What's more I've just had another look at their website and noticed that they've just started stocking Black and White 127 film so it looks like the Brownies going to get a go after all. I've just finished the first film on the Duaflex so I'm looking forward to seeing what comes back when it's developed.




So, my latest acquisition from freecycle was a load of old. really cool cameras. I was really looking forward to running a film off on each but it would appear that's not as easy as I first thought!

The Agfa Isolette II, which is by far the most complicated of the three is the only one I've managed to get a film for, all I need to do now is work out how to load it, use it and unload it! the Brownie 127 would appear to be a lost cause as no one makes the film anymore and even Tony the nice man at Longworth Photographic in Farnborough (who by the way has THE coolest collection of old cameras in his shop) couldn't suggest a soloution for. But the Kodak Duaflex is usable it might just need a bit of work/expense because even though no one makes 620 film anymore 120 film will work, I just need to spool it in a dark room/bag.

I've had lots of helpful suggestions to alternatives to a dark bag including trousers and a hoodie but I might just blow £20 on a bag and make life easier (although I have advertised wanting one on freecycle - you never know!)

Either way I still love them, there's something really nice about the nostalgia of old camera's. Each one of these is probably over 50 years old and have obviously been lovingly cared for. And no matter how advanced we get with the digital age the smell of bromide still tales me back to school days, and there's still more skill needed to get a good pic out of these. Am I up to it? Who knows? Watch this space :)

Bill's Plannin...

(photo by cloudasmoke)


Wikipedia describes lol Cats as a compound of lol and cat (you think!) and, as photo's of cats with humorous captions.

Even flickr has spawned a group for them now, which I was looking through earlier when I found this, probably one of the funniest I've seen so far.

Of course as I have all the necessary equipment (ie a Cat!) I've had a few goes myself - What do you think?

Take Me To The Kittens!

So there I am, aimlessly trawling through flickr when I came across a group called The Photographer's Club. I decided to have a look at a few of the pics but then after two or three I was greeted by a warning message. Apparently the photo that I was about to look at fell outside my current SafeSearch filter (didn't know I had one!) and I had to press an extra button to view it. The photo itself was nothing distressing or obscene but what made me laugh was the toolbar at the top of the page that says...

If you've changed your mind about viewing this you can escape - take me to the kittens!

... and it really does take you to the kittens, and some very cute one's at that. I can recommend Junkus, kitten pics very funny.

It's nice to know that flickr's looking after me :)

New Toys

I did very well this Christmas, Santa bought me lots of new toys including some extra memory for my poor old Mac which means I can use the full version of photoshop now instead of having to stick to Photoshop Elements. Now all I need to do is work out how it all works and what I want to do with it but I'm looking forward to learning.

We had a few friends round last night for a post Christmas/New Year catch up and a few glasses of wine were consumed so today was a bit of a slow day as far as anything constructive went. I spent most of the day playing with photoshop. It's still a bit of a mystery to me but I did learn one trick, making abstract circles from my pictures which turned some of the ones I'd filed away into something slightly more interesting. It's not difficult (here's how to do it if you want to give it a go). Now all I need to do is work out what all the buttons do on my camera and I might be able to take some decent photographs this year! :)

Robot Santas Spotted In Odiham?

I spotted these in the window of the local Ford Garage and couldn't help but think that they bore a little bit of a resemblance to the Robot Santas that appeared in both this years and last years Doctor Who Christmas specials (with a bit of imagination!)


(Real Robot Santa pics taken from Doctor Who Online)

Beware Of Cheap Imitations.

I can be a bit of a sucker for things that 'appear' to be free but as a friend of mine said recently "If things appear to be too good to be true then they probably are. The worst example of this that I've come across recently was the purchase of a very cheap sandisk memory card from e-bay.

It appeared to be fine at first everything seemed to work and there was no reason to question whether it was genuine or not, that is until we put it into a different camera! the holes at the bottom of the card are slightly larger than the holes in a genuine card, and not as accurately positioned consequently when we swapped it from one Canon to the other it bent the pins in the card slot and broke the camera. It went from bad to worse when, oblivious to the reason the camera had stopped working, we put the memory card back into another Canon and it did the same thing to that as well! Fortunately Matt's 350D appears to be ok for the moment, despite losing a pin that fell out after using the fake card however my 300D didn't come out of it so well and is now in for repair with a bill of £140 to face - Happy Christmas!

There's a great article here all about the fake cards and how to spot them so if you use sandisk CF cards be very very careful where you buy them from, it may cost a little more but it's worth making sure you've got the genuine article.

Extra Information

Although the sandisk sale has now ended the person we bought the card from is a regular seller on ebay so think twice about buying from wand3r3r19

Waiting!

Today has been a bored day! One of those listless, don't know what I want to do, can't be bothered with the things I know I should do, generally fed up sort of days!

In an attempt to snap out of my gloomy mood I decided to go for a wander with my camera. Even that was a little half hearted, I couldn't be bothered to drive anywhere so I ended up roaming the same old places in Odiham, and believe me when I say it's not a big place so there's only so much to see.

I decided to see if I could capture any of the Autumn colours that there are around at the moment, especially as it seemed like we'd almost skipped Autumn this year. The weather seemed to suddenly go from summer to winter, t-shirts and sunshine one moment and then dark evenings and winter coats the next.

As is so often the case, I soon got sidetracked from my original quest and spotted a flock of birds on the church roof. I'm not sure what sort of birds they are but they're always there. They sit there for ages then fly off and circle around landing occasionally in a tree or a field then returning to their perch on the roof.

The falling leaves and Autumn colours that I expected to see seemed very sparse, I was surprised at just how green everything still is but I managed to capture a few of the changing colours none the less and the walk and a dose of fresh air helped clear my head and lift my mood ready for a few hours of late afternoon/early evening work.

Remember Remember...

The fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot. I love fireworks and always make the effort to try to get to a see a display if at all possible. I was even more determined this year as I have a new toy to play with - a Canon 300D, although I've obviously still got a lot to learn about using it, I still didn't get any really good pictures of the fireworks. Despite the fact that I spent nearly all of the half hour display looking through the viewfinder of the camera fireing of a barrage of 369 shots and with my back bent at a very unnatural angle. Did I pay for that over the next few days in back pain or what! Note to self - get a tripod - soon.

Time On My Hands

At the risk of starting to sound like a total flickr bore (note to self – blog about something else soon!) I thought I’d have a go at actually getting everything on the list for the October Flickr Scavenger Hunt.

I like October, not least of all because Halloween falls at the end of it which is always a bit of fun, and in the heady world of retail it’s always been one of my favourite seasonal days.

This years going to be very different though, for reasons that I won’t go into (yet) my little shop on the High Street is currently closed, and unfortunately it looks like it’s going to have to stay that way. All I’m going to say are three words – Inland, Revenue and Accountant! So, over the past week or so I’ve found myself with a little more time on my hands than normal – and I am going out of my mind with boredom! I’ve got a second job, which helps to keep me sane, pay the bills and keep the wine flowing but I’m still going crazy, so time to spend a little time enjoying my hobbies methinks!

So in honour of Halloween the October list has a horror movie style, with the additional challenge of trying to submit all entries in black and white/high contrast as an homage to all the corny horror movies that have been made (manipulation permitted)

So without further ado, the list please…

1. Scream
2. A Murder Of Crows
3. Haunted House
4. Hell Hound
5. Spirits
6. Now, She Should/Could Be The Bride Of Frankenstein
7. Vamp(ire?)
8. Black Cat
9. Cemetery, At Night
10. A Grotesque
11. Scarab
12. Organ
13. Unlucky 13
14. Rosemary's Baby
15. Scarecrow
16. Full Moon
17. Skull
18. Fog Or Mist
19. Bat(s)
20. Evil Eye

My mission is to…

(a) Get a photograph of all 20 things
(b) Not to use too many photo’s that I’ve already posted to flickr (although there’s bound to be at least a couple of oldies in there)
(c) Go for quality not speed and come up with twenty interesting shots (well I can but try)


My weapons of choice for the month will be a slightly dated, but interesting Olympus C-2020Z and if I’m lucky a Canon 300D. I’m off to start hunting.

Wish me luck :)

Fame at Last?

As anyone who reads my blog has probably guessed by now I’m a bit of a flickr addict and I defy anyone who likes to take photographs or get a bit creative with images not to get hooked on it. Apart from being a fun way to show off your skills (?) with a camera it’s a great community and a brilliant way to make some new, like minded, friends and once you start to get feedback and comments from other people about your photographs you can’t help but want to both take and post more and more.

Occasionally, if you’re lucky other people want to use your photographs, an opportunity for your 15 minutes of fame. For instance my housemate Alison has now been approached twice and asked for permission to use her pics, once for a Christian groups e-card and another for a video for a Church Sermon about farming. (Quite ironic really as she's hardly a regular churchgoer!)

I was really chuffed when a flickr user approached me recently from Hawaii who is working on a guide book about the surviving ships-of-the-line and battleships and want to use some pictures that I took of HMS Warrior and HMS Victory in his book. Of course I said yes and hopefully I’ll get a copy of the guide so I can show off (I can feel my head swelling now!)

With the advent of the digital age and Photoshop there’s a chance for people to get even more creative with images. I was really impressed with a couple of manipulations by flickr fans to a photograph that I took one bored afternoon of some Halloween toys we had in our shop. They were plastic eyeballs, suspended in a ball filled with liquid that lit up when you moved them. There are three different coloured LED lights in it so the colours change every time it moves, I took loads of pics and posted the one that I liked most on flickr they were then manipulated by two different flickr users Oyvind Solstad and flickrwegian/Sweet Lisa Jay so one simple photo turned into two more fantastic images.

There’s also the chance to play with some toys designed for flickr by John Watson aka fd. They’re really simple to use and give those of us who aren’t so skilled at Photoshop a chance to try out any artistic flair we may have, or just to have a bit of fun with photos. So what are you waiting for – go get your camera and have some fun.

The Flickr Monthly Scavenger Hunt - July

I've been very lax with my attempts to get all the items in the flickr monthly scavenger hunt lately so I thought I'd better pull my socks up a bit and go for it in July. After all, the sun is shining and summer has arrived with a vengance so there's no excuse not to get out and about and play with a camera. I'm aiming for a full house, for the first time, this month - so watch this space.

Here's this months challenge, if you want to see all the entries just go to the flickr monthly scavenger hunt group.

Here goes...

1. 37
2. Blue Sky Thinking
3. Childrens book from the library
4. Deep
5. Evil
6. Flyer
7. Grave
8. Hot pink
9. Jumping
10. Loud
11. Most exotic animal for your location
12. Oh, what a tangled web we weave...
13. Pest
14. Road sign with wildlife on it
15. Silhouette
16. Stare
17. That should have been thrown out looooong ago
18. Think
19. Walking on air
20. Yawn

Ladybird Ladybird...

Ladybird Ladybird...
Originally uploaded by Cathy G.

In Medieval England farmers would set torches to the old hop (used in flavouring beer) vines after the harvest in order to clear the fields for the next planting.

This poem was sung as a warning to the ladybirds that were still crawling on the vines in search of aphids. The ladybirds' children (larvae) could get away from the flames, but the pupae, referred to as "Nan" in some versions, were fastened to the plants and thus could not escape.

Pupae are the larvae when they have formed a cocoon and are changing into adults. "Nan" was originally an affectionate form of the name "Ann" (but it is now generally used as a short form of "Nancy").

Ladybird, ladybird fly away home,
Your house is on fire and your children are gone,
All except one,
And her name is Ann,
And she hid under the frying pan.

The Return Of The Flickr Monthly Scavenger Hunt.

I bombed on the February hunt, I only managed 1 item, which had a lot to do with a general air of apathy for anything creative in February which was bought on by the combination of dark depressing days and nights, a prolonged and alcohol fuelled celebration of my birthday and a deeply ingrained cynicism towards anything romantic!

However with spring just around the corner, the mornings and the evenings are getting lighter and a little more optimism than of late for life in general I'm back on track again.

Here is the list for this months challenge -

1. A Lion
2. People Dancing
3. Empty
4. Something you made (can't be the same item as #19)
5. An animal doing something funny
6. Someone playing a guitar
7. Pink Flamingos
8. A spelling mistake on a sign
9. "I know, it's bigger than the last one."
10. A mural (like on a wall or the side of a building)
11. Far far away
12. A boat that won't float
13. A public toilet
14. A picture of yourself as a teenager (or younger if you are a child)
15. A delivery person
16. Something with a for sale sign
17. Someone blowing a bubble
18. Multi-colored graffiti
19. A hand-drawn sketch (you draw it! Can't be the same as item #4)
20. A lamb

Good luck to everyone who's playing the game and if you like taking photographs and fancy a bit of fun check out flickr and the monthly scavenger hunts, but I warn you, it's addictive.

A Few Of My Favourite Things.

Voted for by the flickr community

Wanna see the slideshow?

Januarys Flickr Scavenger Hunt

Well it's a new year, and a new month, which means a new challenge with the monthly Flickr Scavenger Hunt. I didn't quite manage to get all the items for December, which was my first attempt so here goes for January - the list is (drum roll please)...

1. A Red Reflection
2. Something Triangular
3. A New Beginning
4. An Outdoor Statue
5. Something Broken
6. A Bus
7. A Picture OF Your Own Camera
8. A Set Of Screwdrivers
9. A Fire Alarm
10. A Movie Poster
11. A Line With At Least Four People Waiting
12. Your Favourite Book
13. Keep Out
14. The Same Object In Three Different Colours (no photoshop)
15. Something Abandoned
16. 3 Generations
17. Something Dangerous
18. The Boy Or Girl Next Door
19. Re-create Your Favourite Movie Scene with people/props
20. A Resolution

And they're off.......

We're All Going On A Llama Hunt.

As a fully paid up flickr addict I was quite excited when one of my contacts – Monster , aka Steve, organised a flickr meet. For the unaffiliated out there flickr is a website that gives anyone, amateur, professional or wannabee a chance to show the world what they can see through the lense of a camera, or at least that’s the simple explanation. I’m not going into my own thoughts on flickr because part of the genius of it is that it is something different to everyone who uses it. You need to discover it for yourself.

Anyway last Sunday I headed down to Portsmouth to meet up with a few cyber friends from flickr. It was a strange meeting. Firstly there were only three of us! I have no doubt whatsoever that Steve did everything possible to badger others into coming, no doubt there was lots of promises made to be there but at the end of the day only three of us turned up. But that was ok, because we had a really nice day.

It was doubly strange (in a nice way) because I had known Steve pretty much all my life but not met the other contact that came, and yet I’d had the chance, via flickr to get to know her and see the world through her eyes, so it felt like I already knew her. The fact that I was meeting up with Steve was weird in itself, we grew up on neighbouring streets, we went to the same schools, we almost got it together as teenagers but then drifted apart and didn’t see each other for over 20 years. Then with the advent of friends reunited we made contact again. We met up for the obligatory school reunion then kept in touch via a few e-mails, but on a chance trip to the little village that is now my home, en route to drop his dogs of to kennels, I showed him flickr and literally created a Monster! He takes great photos, and is hoping to make a career out of it now, and I wish him all the luck in that. (and if you read this Steve – don’t get big headed, I still have that photo!) Anyway I digress. The other flickrite that came to the meet was a lady who goes by the screen name of Joker the Lurcher . Now (and this will only make sense if you take a look at flickr) I’d had a quick nose at her photos whilst looking at Steve’s but I’d never really had much contact with Angharad, but from the moment we all met up it was like meeting up with old friends. We warmed up with a couple of drinks in a pub in Old Portsmouth and talked and talked! There were no awkward silences, no struggles to find a common topic, if all else failed there were two real and one surrogate dog owners round the table, that conversation alone could go on forever! And, may I add, Joker has the most amazing eyes, he’s a cool dog.

Then we wandered over to Portsmouth Cathedral, camera’s at the ready and wandered round snapping away in there for a while, and even though the same things caught our eyes we still managed to come out of there with three different views. A Nice start to the afternoon, then…..

Steve and I went to look for Llamas! My latest obsession is the flickr monthly scavenger hunt. Twenty photos’s to get by the end of the month, and December’s challenge is (drum roll please)…

1. A waitress/waiter dressed all in black.
2. The number 12.
3. A set of twins.
4. Someone with no hair.
5. A bicycle in the snow or rain.
6. Someone on crutches.
7. A dog on a leash.
8. A Hot drink.
9. Green eyes.
10. Red shoes.
11. An airplane, not in the air.
12. A Llama.
13. A U.S. veteran, uniform optional (or a Veteran from your own country)
14. A lighted Menorah.
15. A strange hat.
16. A burning fire.
17. A coin, not from the U.S.
18. A holiday desert.
19. A gift.
20. Brown eggs.


So I checked on their website and there was a park that was near the area that both Steve and I grew up in that allegedly had Llamas! So, eventually getting back to the whole point of this tome! We went on a Llama hunt (photographically speaking of course).

We got there, and worked out that neither of us had visited this area in well over a decade so we weren’t sure exactly where the Llamas might be, it was just an open bit of park when we were kids, a nice lake, an arch thing in the middle, some good trees to climb, but no zoo. But the website said they had one, so in we went. We wandered down to the lake, and round a bit of it but neither of us could be bothered to walk all the way round – it’s big, and besides we were looking for the Llamas. Then we wandered back up to the arch thing, took a few pics then spotted a path that we hadn’t seen before – the zoo maybe? No, it was a Coach House. Interesting, a good place to play with a camera, but no Llamas!

As we walked back to the car I started to doubt my sanity, I knew I had seen a zoo on their list of attractions, I KNEW it had Llamas – how hard can it be to find a Llama in the only bit of green land midst the biggest council estate in the South of England? Then, just as we were about to cross the road back to the car park, we saw a map. And there it was – the ornamental gardens, complete with Llamas, on the other side of the road, in the bit that was never open to the public when we were kids! I have no doubt that, by then, Steve would have told me where to shove paying £4.60 to go into the zoo and take Llama pictures but he needed the little boys room and the only one for 10 miles was the other side of the ticket office!

So I had a great day, met an old friend and made a new one, proved my sanity and got a picture of a Llama. All in all really a good Sunday.