1966 and all that

In 1966 England won the World Cup. It was also a pretty significant year for me. It was the year I started at university and was therefore the time when I stopped living at home. Although I visited many times thereafter I never lived there again. It was the year when I worked full time, actually starting in late 1965, and thus became the year in which I could afford to buy my own car. And it was the year when I headed off with three school friends for a camping holiday in the south of France.

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Photo of the Month: November 2022

It’s back to wild life this month! I spent an excellent weekend in mid Wales on a photography course and for the Sunday afternoon we visited the Red Kite Centre at Rhayader.

This photo was taken with my Sony a7 111 DSLR 1/2000th at f5.6 and ISO 2000 with 200mm on the zoom. I reckon it’s rather good! I used continuous autofocus and typically three or four shots in a single burst. Earlier shots were taken at 1/1000th and were a little blurred.

Others on the course were equipped with 600mm lenses and more and my guess is that they would not have been able to take a photograph before the bird had left the frame.

Elan Valley photo weekend

Earlier this month I enjoyed a weekend in mid Wales mainly as a part of a photo weekend with Alan Mershon of Going Digital. It was to start at 1000 on the Friday morning and given that I had a three or four hour drive to get there I set off the night before and enjoyed a night in Llanidloes.

Photo of the Month: October 2022

Continuing my theme of photographs which are out of my comfort zone, this one was taken when I participated in a one hour street photography workshop as a part of the Cambridge Photography Show. Lots of good common sense and rule number 1 seems to be: don’t use a DSLR!

Anyway this was taken with my Sony a7 111 DSLR (!) 1/125th at f9.0 and ISO 3200 with 112mm on the zoom. The ISO’s a bit high but f9.0 gave me enough depth of field to ensure that the subject was completely in focus. To be fair this wasn’t real street photography because the subject here was a friend of the tutor so it was more street portraiture.  In post processing I’ve increased the blacks and white and toned down the highlights. That’s made a world of difference to the subjects skin!

Only a fool Mr Sunak …

There’s an unattributed quote that suggests that insanity is ‘doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results’. Maybe its source is the same as the origin of ‘if you’re in a hole stop digging’.

5 reasons I could never vote for the Tories

I don’t think I’ve ever been tempted but if I have that’s of the past. The ‘good’ Tories I remember like Michael Heseltine, Kenneth Clarke, even John Major seem to have left the scene to be relaced by UKIP clones. The old Macmillan idea of ‘one-nation Tories’ seems to the Tories of today to be an thing of the past. Maybe it’s woke.

My digital journey. 2004 to 2013

I’ve recently ‘published’ a photobook including photographs which I’ve taken between 2004, when I bought my first digital camera, to 2013. There’s one for each year plus a few more besides. Click here to view it.

This photo is from 2004 and one of my very first and it’s a view across Kyev from my hotel room when I visited the city. You’ve just got to hope that the current dreadful situation there ends, in Ukraine’s favour, pretty soon.

Other photos reflect my travels over the decade together with ones closer to home including a few more personal shots..

If you really want growth Ms Truss: 5 really good ideas!

I’ve been thinking about this post for a couple of weeks now (since Liz Truss’ dreadful ‘growth, growth, growth’ speech at the Conservative Party Conference) and only wrote it last night. With the events of today (Kwasi Kauteng being sacked) it may be redundant or may be even more valid. Whatever. If you really want growth, and good quality growth at that, maybe Ms Truss should be considering the following.

Photo of the Month: September 2022

I would never claim to be a wild-life photographer but …

I reckon this one’s pretty good. Admittedly this deer is probably well used to members of the public it’s nonetheless a well crafted shot. It’s a shot of a European fallow deer at Holkham Hall in Norfolk

This photo was taken with my Sony a7 111 DSLR 1/125th at f9 ISO 250 and 200mm on the zoom. Ideal photography conditions.

There’s been minimal post-processing, just a square crop.

I’ve been for a walk

A nine mile walk around Chrishall in Essex to be precise. It’s the third such walk I’ve done with a walking group called the Steamers. Don’t ask me why it’s so called but it seems the group was spawned by Howard Biddle, who encouraged me to join, when he was MD at Cambridge Consultants, and many of its members have a link back to CCL.