Happy new year

 I'll take this oppotunity to wish you all a very Happy New Year!
 I hope next year brings you health, wealth and happiness, or at least  a better year than 2019.

 I'll be posting some more pics in the new year... and no doubt a few rants...  (insert smiley face here)  The last few weeks have been a bit lacking photo wise, with Christmas shopping and all the nonsence that goes with it I just haven't had much time to get out shooting with the camera.
 Well roll on new year, OK my bloody bag is heavier (and it was silly before) but I'm planning a few shoots once the weather improves a bit, it's just so dark and gloomy theres bugger all light.


                                              HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Vienna Blood (review)

Vienna Blood.  "Max Liebermann, a student of Sigmund Freud, helps Detective Rheinhardt in the investigation of a series of disturbing murders around the grand cafes and opera houses of 1900s Vienna." IMDb

 I have to be honest when I first saw the title I thought oh no! another vampire series, however it's nothing to do with vampires. My bad.
 The series stars Mathew Beard as young doctor Max Liebermann and Jurgen Maurer as tough grizzled Detective Oskar Reinhardt.
 Set in 1900's Vienna, it follows a doctor attached to the police to study criminals, however the doctor is a student of  psychology and ends up becoming a sort of early criminal profiler.
 The series is well shot with costumes and scenery looking about right (helped by being filmed in Vienna) Its good to see the detective looking scruffy as would have been the case in those days.
 The series has a real Sherlock Holmes film feel to it, with the doctor observing all sorts of details the detective misses, helped by similar music and some tongue in cheek humour in places, and it's longer 90 mins running time.
I found the first episode (the only one I've seen yet) very good and leaving me wanting to see more.
 Waynes rating 8/10  well worth a watch

Celebs we lost in 2019

 Another year goes by and we lost more well known people.  Here is just a few of those who dies in the last year.
 Thanks for the enjoyment you provided for so many people. God bless..

 Terrence Dicks (dr who writer).  Valery Harper (mary tyler moore show).  Peter Fonda.  Joe Longthorne.  Robert Mugabe.  Peter Lindbergh (fashion photographer).  Peter Sissons.  Ginger Baker (cream).  Terry O'Neil (photographer). Gary Rhodes.  Jonathan Miller.  Clive James.  Bob Willis.  Kenny Lynch.  Tony Briton.  David Bellamy.   Rene Auberjonois (mash).  Jimmy Patton (chuckle brothers).  Paul Darrow (blakes 7).  Andrew Hall (butterflies).  John Quarmby (fawlty towers health inspector). Gordon Banks.
 James Ingram (RB singer). Michel Legrand (composer). Windsor Davis.  Carol Channing.   Andre Previn.   Peter Tork (the monkees).  Vinnye Vella (sopranos).  Jan-Michael Vincent.  Albert Finney.  Clive Swift (keeping up appearences).   Scott Walker (walker bros).  Luke Perry.   Keith Flint (the prodgy).  Peter Mayhew (chewbacca).  Rowland Gould (level 42).  Tommy Smith (liverppol FC).  Judith Kerr (author).  Niki Lauda.  Doris Day.  Peggy Lipton (twin peaks).  Freddie Starr.  Willian Simons (heartbeat).  Gloria Vandebilt.  Rutger Hauer.  Brendan Grace (father ted). Freddie Jones (emmerdale).  Rip Torn.   John McCririck.  

Christmas is over thank f**k!

 Yes Christmas is over.  A time for relaxing in front of the telly with a LARGE drink and a face full of turkey... Sadly my Christmas isn't like that. I'm out every bloody day and night. Looks like I won't be sitting down over the new year either.

Merry Christmas

 Well the turkey is shitting itself, I'm sharpening my meat cleaver.  The presents are packed... well most are.  The street cards are done, I've still got the family to do. I've still got some drink to get, but most is bought (not that I buy that much).
 The tree is up, and looking like it was decorated by a blind, half drunk giraffe,  well I did it, so it's up but it ain't neat! And I put the wrong bloody lights on it, but no way am I changing the bastards now.
 So it's nearly Christmas... so heres my Christmas card to you all. Many thanks for viewing my ravings and pictures.
 May you all have a lovely Christmas and a very happy new year.

What have I learned from going Christmas shopping yesterday?

 Well I learned a bloody cotton tee shirt costs a £110 ($145) if you put a fancy name on the label. And it felt like cheap crap ones you get for £5 ($6.50) in the market. Mind you my brother knocked it down to £99 ($130) So a bargin then....   Yeah right!
 I learned hammering a bit of chicken thin, battering it and bunging a bit of chip shop curry over it makes it an expensive masterpiece in some restaurants.
 I learned it's easy to get mistaken for a police officer in a jewelers shop (my own fault for black trousers and jacket etc).
 I learned little old ladies get lost easily, and that nobody but me seems to care or help them.
 I learned that shopping malls all look the bloody same and are a confusing mess.
 I learned that the latest look in mens fashion is jumpers with fucking teddybears, or horses all over them, and I'm not talking Christmas jumpers, just normal day to day wear.  No bloody chance, I'd rather wear a real bear and fight the bastard for the skin!

 Oh joy I still have some shopping left to do...... That means going again.

Christmas shopping week... oh dear...

 Yes it's the dreaded Christmas shopping week for me. It's order turkey time and buy the presents, now I have started, I've got I think five presents already and my boys want money so thats easy, my brother is the tricky one, what do you buy a bloke who has everything (and expensive tastes) I really cant buy another bottle of expensive vodka, it's taking the mickey as thats what he's had the last few years with other presents.
 One problem I might hit is a present not turning up in time for Christmas, I had to order one online and theres a delay, so I'm hoping it turns up for Christmas, not much I can do if it doesn't.
 To be honest it would be much easier if I could just give everybody money, thats what my nephews will be getting as well as my boys, bung it in the card and job done.

Expedition bigfoot tv series

 Well after the terrible not finding bigfoot I didn't have high hopes for this... I wasn't disappointed.
 Expedition bigfoot, it's tagline is four elite specialists hunt for bigfoot.
 Well elite in what way exactly? We have one ex soldier who I'm guessing isn't special forces or we'd have been told he was, we have two bigfoot enthusiasts, and a primatologist/anthropologist who had to ask another member of the team "how likely are we to see cougars" so not much of an expert on animals.
 This is the "specialist" "elite" team, one of whom drops out in the first episode.
 I think it's safe to say we'll have the same load of crap we had with finding bigfoot, vague shapes on thermal imaging, odd nosies in the night and finding fuck all.
 Bigfoot is safe again untill someone does it properly.
Has she got scary eyes or what?

Looked great through the lens... why doesn't it work??

 I took this the other day, now it looked great through the lens, I resized it and tweaked it a tad and now it just doesn't work for me.
 How annoying is that, and why did it look so great through the camera, I guess I'll never know.

the poltergeist has a sense of humour.

 Came down this morning, had my cuppa and bath, go to get shopping and WTF!  One of my boots has buggered off.  It's done a smegging runner...
 Ok I always put my shoes/boots together in the same place, indeed there about three pairs there, well two and a bloody half today. It seems the other one boot has decided to sit in front of the living room fire (not thats it's ever on) Now it's not moved that far distance wise and I know they are technically walking boots but they are supposed to only walk with me in them, not saunter off around the house by themselves when they get bored.
 Next my bloody ice axe will be popping up Everest without me.

Dark and moody...

 The dark and gloomy woods... well it is now...

My poltergeist is at it again!

 I've mentioned the odd things that happen in my house before, I'm fairly sure theres a poltergeist sharing the property rent free. Now I'm not having stuff thrown around or chairs stacked on the table like the movie. Mine is more subtle.
 Basically stuff goes missing, then turns up in a place you already looked days or weeks later
 The Y bracket was a classic case. I'd tipped out the bag it was found in at least three times looking for it, keep in mind I'm looking for about an eight inch black metal Y bracket. Not something small you could overlook, and I'm actually emptying the bag on my bed and replacing the items one by one. Bloody hard to miss a black metal bracket like that.
 Anyway the latest thing to go missing was my light meter, this does ambient light or flash, I was going to test the new ringflash gadget with it to see how much difference the different diffusers made. Was it in it's usual place NO!  Bugger, I knew it was in the house, and I knew where it should be, I litterally took all the bits out of the corner it lived (boxes of go-pro brackets, my box of chargers ect ect). No meter.  Last night I went to get a charger out of the box and ... the bloody meter was on top of the box.
 Now I know what your thinking, you think I'd moved the box and not noticed the meter on the top. WRONG!, I'd opened the box and taken out all the chargers to check it wasn't inside, it's a hinged lid, anything on top would have fallen off when I opened it. Theres no way it was there when I searched that area a few days before.
 Why it happening I have no idea, and I'm not too bothered by sharing the house with  ghost, it's not really that much of pain, it's not doing stuff every day to be fair. I just wish it would do usefull stuff like sorting my recycling, or washing dishes.

Thinking of registering the dog as a designer/ architect

 I'm seriously thinking of registering the dog as a designer/ architect.
 After all he shouldn't have trouble passing the exams from what I've seen of designers and architects.
 I've get a washing machine designed at huge expense thats afraid of water, I've got energy saving light bulbs that use more energy than a normal bulb and last less time than a mayflies lunch-break.
 I've got shampoo bottles that wont stand up and deodorant spray cans you need a degree in engineering to use due to them needing a safety catch (how bloody dangerous is the stuff?)
 I've lived in a house with a very small kitchen with three bloody doors in it, so no room for a fridge or washing machine, and the only place for the cooker was right in front of the only window, so fuck all light in that room.
 My brothers new house is so small he cant get the sofa and armchair in the living room without blocking the stairs totally, talk about cant swing a cat, you'd have trouble passing a mouse hand to hand.
 I see toilets in railway and bus stations with cubicles so small travelers with a bag can't actually get in them and close the door.  Supermarkets that have car parks designed to make ALL the traffic go past the front door which holds up people trying to get in and out of the shop, and then theres the chicane inside the front door, dont you want people to get in and more importantly how the fuck do they get out if theres a fire and the lights go out?
 My car needs to be dismantled to change a bloody bulb, I've got house doors that either wont stay open or stay closed (how fucking hard is that to build?)  The list is endless.
 Thats why my dog wont have trouble passing the exam, after all he cant do worse than the twats who designed all the above and he just might do better... I know I could do a LOT better.

Conker spider....

 Here's a photo of the deadly conker spider, these creatures are responsible for over a billion deaths a year in Britain alone....   Or I could have just bunged a pair of eyes on a conker case I found in the woods.... 
 Yeah you got me...

Neewer RF550 ringflash/light review

 Today I'm reviewing the Neewer RF550 ringflash.
 The device is an LED light/flash and uses 48 LED's.  It's simple and easy to attach to your camera (getting it off is a bit harder) It comes with adapter rings for all the common filter sizes between 49mm and 72mm.  And also three other diffusers, white, orange and blue. It's got a very high CRI index and is very good for daylight balance colour wise.
 To use you simple screw on the suitable adapter ring for the lens your using, slip the power pack part of the device on the camera hot shoe, then with a press of a button you clip the ringlight part onto the front of the lens via the adapter ring.
 It has essentially four modes.  Flash/flash left side only/flash right side only/continuous light  The right or left sides give some modeling to the subject, by simply revolving the ringlight part you can obviously light top or bottom as well.
 In use it uses four double A batteries and should give a good run time, it's fairly bright, keeping in mind it's designed for macro/close up. I got pretty reasonable exposures and it made a big difference to items in shadow.
 Is it worth the money??  Well I got mine free, but at £25 they are good value if you do a lot of close up or macro work.

Couple of marco ring light/flash test shots

Took these to test the freebee ring-light thingie out. Got a half decent esposure, but it's a bit bulky, I'm going to have find a space to fit it in the bag.... God knows where though. 
The pics are shot on my 50mm with one extension tube and the ring light. The flower is about one inch long so I'm fairly close up and thats the full frame.

Camera bags... reaching the limit

 Well I've mentioned my camera bag before in the blog (think I have) my problem now is I'm running out of space.  Well to be honest I ran out of space a while back.
 A couple of years back I got my "new" bag a Lowepro flipside 500 ( going up from the 400)
 That helped for a while, then as I bought more gear the spare space got filled up.  Now I'm struggling to squeeze in a polo mint. Ok it's getting silly.
 The thing is I've got a ringlight for macro in the post (a freebee I'll review when it arrives) thats not a small item, then theres another new lens for Christmas (and lens hood), plus some more  filters (if my brother buys them) I've got my eye on a flash lead thats 10 foot long, ok thats not massive put it still needs a corner to go in.  But where the hell to I puts them... No I'm not shoving them there it'll hurt...
 But being serious, I'm out of space, my off camera flash triggers are in the front pocket as theres no room in the main part of the bag. Theres just isn't space for a ringflash and another lens. Then theres the weight factor, my bloody bag now weighs more than a collapsed dwarf star, and thats without the new kit, my normall ND filters and half a dozen packs of batteries and yet another lens I have my eye on (sigma 105mm macro).
 I did try adding two 10 liter side pockets off my old army bergan, yeah that worked, I could get a load of extra kit in, trouble was I couldn't pick the bastard thing up. Sadly my days of carrying a 100+ pound over the mountains are gone.  I'm an old fart now and carrying a 60+ pound camera bag is just getting silly.
 I'm out of ideas, really I need a trusty assistant to do the heavy lifting.  That or I'm going to have to take a serious look at what kit I NEED. But bugger... I need it all.....

Running wild with Bear Gryllis?

 Running wild with Bear Gryllis?  The programs tag line is "The famed survivalist takes A-list celebrities on journeys into the wildest locations around the world, forcing the stars to push their bodies and minds to the limit"  This week it's Rob Riggle...  
 A list?  I had to look him up on IMDb, I'd never heard of him. He has made a few films but I hadn't heard of those either, in fact the only things he's done I had heard of were the simpsons and family guy and he's done bit part voices for one off characters.
 Come on Bear, thats not bloody A list, thats Z list at best.

BBC war of the worlds vs the book

 I've been watching the BBC's version of the HG Wells classic war of the worlds. So far I'm not exactly blown away with it. More curiously theres a number of changes in the series from the book. Some seem odd.
 In the series the lead male is named George. In the book he's never named. This isn't a big issue as it's changed from a first person narrative for the production.
 The lead couple are adulterers in the series, yet in the book they are a married couple. This seems an odd change as it makes no difference to the story and complicates it with "georges" real wife. It seems more a dig at the old family values to me.
 The martians. In the book the martians are seen in the beginning of the story when they emerge from their craft but cant cope with our gravity and retreat to their machines. In the series we dont see them untill the last part. Now I can see the idea of keeping the suspense, but your making a series based on a book. At what point does it stop being war of the worlds by HG Wells?
 The brother. In the series "georges" brother is the sectary for war (or something similar) in the book he's a doctor and it's the leads younger brother, in the series he looks older. Again theres no need to have changed this other than to have a dig at the establishment.
 Frankly with the series jumping back and fro in time I found it confusing, and again not really part of Wells story. I also found it odd that the male lead seems so weak.

Fungi... flowers, birds and other stuff (part five)

 Yes you guessed it part five....  This one has some skeleton leaves which is a new one to me.

Fungi... flowers, birds and other stuff (part four)

The fourth selection.