Waynes World blog!

Gimp 2.

2011-12-16T04:49:00.000-08:00

I decided it was time I tried out Gimp properly. Gimp is a free open source photo editing software. It's pretty close to the older versions of Photoshop, although it being updated on a fairly regular basis, the version shown here is 2.6 (the latest at time of writing)
So how does it work, well it works very well, although I find it very slow compared to photoshop, it's also a lot more basic. Another issue is it's total lack of raw support, so no raw editing then.
That said it is FREE, and it does the job well, although a bit slower that it's £650 rival.

Perfect Resize 7 (Genuine Fractals)

2011-11-11T00:45:00.000-08:00

I decided to do a comparison test between this and photoshops own native resizing, using an eye shot on a nikon d3 for the test I re sized to different sizes.

Conclusions are while PR/GF does give a slightly better rendering, the difference is marginal at best, you really have to pixel peep to see any difference (and that at 800% at normal print sizes I doubt you'd tell the difference, and certainly viewing a print it would be impossible to see any difference.

Perfect Resize 7 (Genuine Fractals) retails at about $99.

In time (film review)

2011-11-10T07:28:00.000-08:00

I saw this last night in the pictures, so here's a review.

In time 2011, staring Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried. The plot revolves around the concept that time is used as currency, after you reach age 25 you have to buy, beg, earn, or steal more time if you want to keep living. The poor struggle to exist day by day while the rich live in luxury.
The film is an interesting and original concept, and I found it well acted and entertaining.
Waynes rating 8/10 well worth a watch.

Recent events

2011-11-07T01:38:00.000-08:00

Well it's that time again when we play silly buggers with the clocks, why we still do this pointless antiquated nonsense is beyond me, my new watch is a nightmare to change, I needed Stephen Hawking's to resets the bloody time.

There's been a big accident on the M5, 7 killed is the latest figure, it's thought smoke or fireworks from a rugby club bonfire may have caused the accident. Whether that's true or not remains to be seen, but the fact is fireworks are not really needed, time to stop this dangerous nonsense.

Another thing that needs to be stopped in "trick or treat" this silly American idea has caught on big time, trouble is it's used by yobs as an excuse to go out and vandalise things, time this was stopped as well.

The Bowmen (play review)

2011-10-18T12:25:00.000-07:00

The Bowmen, a play at the Neath Little Theatre, the play based on a Hancocks half hour (Tony Hancock) was put on by children from the youth group of the theatre and friends.
While the set was basic the young actors (some very young) did a superb job of bringing the play to life, they gave it their all, the show was funny and entertaining. Well done to them all.

Odd weather???

2011-09-30T07:03:00.000-07:00

The last few days have been sweltering hot, next week the forecasters are predicting snow, now this is odd weather for this time of year. Now I don't think it "global warming" but somethings happening.

Model shoot

2011-09-30T06:53:00.000-07:00

Some recent model shots with the lovely Jade.

Broken Glass (play review)

2011-09-16T07:54:00.000-07:00

Broken Glass a play by Arthur Miller, at the Briton ferry little theatre.
Set in Jewish community of New York of 1938, the play revolves around a disabled woman and her fear of the rising Nazis.

While the cast battled manfully on, this depressing play seemed to consist mostly of an screaming inchoerent crying woman and a shouting man. Sadly the male actors new york accent was even more dodgy than Mel Gibsons Scottish in brave heart. While the female lead, while very attractive was supposed to be 40 years old with a 20 year old son, curiously she couldn't have been more than 25 herself, so either bad casting or she reached puberty very early.

But by far the biggest let down was the lighting, the colours varied the light faded during the scenes, and to top it all as the curtains open for the cast to take their curtain call all the lights went out.
And one final observation, PLEASE get some better seats, after the best part of three hours on those I could hardly stand up, and they are too small as well, if you want to fold your arms the people each side of have to get up.

Torchwood miracle day

2011-08-26T07:30:00.000-07:00

Torchwood miracle day, the new series has been running for 7 weeks now and I have to say even as a fan of it I'm finding it hard going. the 10 part series could easily have been made in 6 without all the pointless "padding"
In the last episode we were given a good old naked gay love scene, why for heaven sake? you didn't need to actually show it, we all know Captain Jack is gay, it was really going to far.

I have nothing against gays, indeed I have several good gay friends, but I really don't want to watch them making love (or straight people either come to that) and certainly not on telly at my expence.
Torchwood... more like gaywood now. That coupled with the move of most of the filming to the USA has really spoiled what used to be a damm good series.

Big brother is back.

2011-08-19T00:23:00.000-07:00

Yes bad news I'm afraid, Big Brother is back. A so called celebrity version, I use the word celebrity loosely (big brother has a different definition to everybody else I think)

We have Jedwood (or deadwood) two clowns whose biggest hit was a car insurance advert, and they weren't even the stars of that.
Then theres Kerry Katona, mother of 4 at 31, whose claim to fame is she was lead singer for a band 10 years ago, more recently in the news for drug addiction.
Theres a couple of well known peoples wives (one was actually in a tv series 10 years ago )
Next we have a gypsy site owner, a trained beautician, a small time actress, a photographer, a small time tv actor, and a male model.

Celebrities? Where? No-hopers, loosers, has-beens and I married a celebrity is more like it, these aren't even Z list celebs never mind A list.
I for one won't be watching this drivel.

Bleeping annoyed!

2011-08-03T00:34:00.000-07:00

Yes I'm bleeping annoyed! Why?, because everything these days "bleeps" at me. I use the phone every button bleeps.
I turn on the computer and it plays a bloody tune while it's starting up, why for gods sake I know it's on, I turned it on, same when you turn it off.
My watch bleeps every hour and 7.40 every morning, buggered if I can work out how to stop it, it's insanely complicated.
My camera bleeps to tell me it's in focus, buses and lorries bleep when they reverse..... How did we manage to live for all those thousands of years without the dreaded bleep.

A few from last night

2011-07-24T05:25:00.001-07:00

I went to Rhosilli last night for a walk and to get out of the house, it was so peacefull and relaxing to get out and watch the sunset.
I only took a compact camera but got these images.

Weather

2011-07-22T08:58:00.000-07:00

Well flaming June it wasn't and soggy July it is, the weathers not that great this summer, it must be the wettest July for ages.
Global warming... don't make me laugh, I'm putting the heating on in July, beside the "experts" are now talking about another ice age, this was popular a while back before the same morons got on the global warming kcikback funding for research train.

Torchwood

2011-07-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

A new series of torchwood started last night looks promsing so far, one of the places used as a location was Rhosilli beach in the gower for Gwens house.

Baths

2011-06-23T00:41:00.000-07:00

I was sitting in the bath last night and the thought occurred to me how badly designed baths are.
First of just about everybody had soap or shampoo but most baths don't have any flat areas to stand it on, coupled with the fact that most shampoo bottles are top heavy means they keep falling and spilling, wasting your money.
Then there's the taps, these in most cases haven't changed much since Victorian times, big clunky things hanging over one end of the bath, this means you can only really sit one end, that wastes half the bath, there has to be a better way.

Skomer island

2011-06-13T05:16:00.001-07:00

I visited Skomer island to see the puffins, these courious litle birds are quite odd but highly amusing to watch, I was lucky with the weather as well.

More flowers

2011-06-08T10:16:00.001-07:00

A few more flower, these were taken with a long exposure and the camera lens zoomed during the exposure.

Some new pics.

2011-06-08T10:14:00.001-07:00

Some flower images to liven up the page.

Bad back

2011-05-18T06:12:00.000-07:00

I have mentioned my bad back before here, well the news of it isn't great, I had an MRI scan recently and it seems I'm a few vertebrae out of place, this in turn presses on nerves etc and causes the problems. I have now been referred to a neurosurgeon with a view to seeing if anything can be done.

The Kate and Gerry McCann circus.

2011-05-12T04:06:00.000-07:00

The Kate and Gerry McCann circus is back in town.
Since Madeleine age just 3 vanished in may 2007 the McCann's have all too regular appeals and have done a sort of celebrity status tour including meeting the pope, now the latest money grabber is a book.
Frankly I'm disgusted with them, the last thing I want is an intimate book from the parents who left their 3 young children alone while they buggered off for a meal, these are educated people, anybody else would have faced neglect charges.
Maybe the book we should be reading is Truth Of The Lie by Portuguese former policeman Goncalo Amaral, strangly this book about Madeleine isn't very popular with the McCanns, but an eye opening read!

Osama Bin Laden is dead

2011-05-03T04:45:00.000-07:00

Osama Bin Laden is dead, at least according to our American cousins.

Now personally I think he's been dead for a while, we haven't had a broadcast for some time, and he liked to make his broadcasts, that coupled with his health issues makes me think he died or was killed some time back.
Now the American "special forces" (not very special from my experience) claim to have killed him in a gunfight in Pakistan of all places. Now the soldiers who went into Pakistan without bothering to get either consent or even bothering the courtesy of telling them first, brought the body out but curiously buried it at sea (getting rid of the evidence it's called) so there's no real proof they actually did get him, oh there's a few photos but I have photoshop as well.

More worrying was the US reaction to his death. People partying and dancing in the streets, whooping it up big style. Real forward thinking morons, now how do you suppose that looks to all his followers? How would the average American react to Muslims dancing and cheering if Obama was killed?? There would be bombers and missiles in the air before you could say knife. Personally I don't think they'll be too happy. if I worked in a high rise I'd be really nervous about now wondering what payback we're all going to get.

Finally, and for me the best bit, after nearly ten years of war in two countries, Osama was in Pakistan, we have been at war with the wrong two countries guys!! Maybe you couldn't find Pakistan till now???

Photomatix v4

2011-04-29T12:39:00.001-07:00

Photomatic have a new version of my favorite HDR software out. The latest version has several upgrades including the thumbnail options showing the different conversion (on the right here) there's a selective "ghosting" reducer and a change in the options for making your hdr.
How well does it work, in practice it's slightly quicker, it now does single jpeg which is handy if you don't shoot in raw, but as the main settings have remained the same I can still get the same superb results.
With prices from around £35 depending on version if your into HDR it's money well spent.

Drawbacks.... well the only problem I have found so far is I cant find the folder to put my own presets in, I have to load them one by one, don't know why they changes this.

CSI Miami

2011-04-22T14:29:00.000-07:00

Now regular readers will know I'm not exactly a fan of this program, but this evening I saw enough of one episode to make my eyes bleed.
So what have I learned?
1. It's ok to trample all over the crime scene in your business suit, and put your briefcase down on the exact spot the body was found.

2. Every outdoor shot has to have a strong orange gradient filter on the camera to make Miami look nicer.

3. It's a really bad idea to watch this drivel in the first place.

Some other news.

2011-04-20T02:37:00.000-07:00

It seems that some air traffic controllers are sleeping on the job.... No seriously, they are fast asleep, 6 US ATC were suspended in recent weeks after being found asleep on the job. Note to self, try to fly in the US when the ATC are awake.

The Information Commissioner's Office, the people responsible for protecting our data might as well be asleep too, only 4 out of 2,585 complaints actually received any penalties, worse only 36 cases resulted in any action. Seems like a massive waste of money and space to me.
Sack the bloody lot and get a spaniel instead, ok it wont stop many data protection breaches but then neither does the ICO and you can at least take a spaniel for a walk.

Royal wedding.

2011-04-20T02:13:00.000-07:00

Well the big day is getting closer, yesterday I saw on the news that a Muslim group is planning a protest outside the abbey, and to add to the situation the English defence league is planning a counter demonstartion.
This wedding is going to be one big headach for the police, it seems a huge waste of public resources, maybe the time has come for royal weddings to be carried out in Windsor castle or Buck house, and scaled down a bit. This would make security a lot easier and save the country a fortune.
I for one won't be bothering to watch it

Bad back and bad film

2011-04-13T13:51:00.000-07:00

Since just before Christmas I have suffered a really bad back, the injury actually goes way back to my younger days and flares up from time to time.
Anyway just before Christmas I injured it again, and have suffered very badly since, it eased off a few weeks ago after leaving me more or less disabled, last week it got worse, leaving me so badly laid up I had to have the Doctor out to me (something I haven't had since being a child) Dosed up on 20 tablets a day and more or less unable to sleep I have been watching the dross that passes for TV overnight.
That brings me to the film... Yes... where do I start. Well last night at silly O clock a film called "Return to savage beach" was on, I missed the beginning but the basic plot (for want of a better word) consisted of several HUGE breasted girls in skimpy costumes running around with some muscle bound gym rejects, in a sort of soft porn James Bond style action adventure.
The film raised several questions for me.
1. Why would the girls leave the treasure to swim half naked off the enemy's island.
2. Why did every bullet fired hit a tree (except the one that hit a medallion)
3. Why do muscle bound jerks have to walk around in a shirt 3 sizes too small, I mean if you want to show off your pecks fine, just leave the shirt off.
4. Why do the baddies have to dress like ninjas with different coloured sashes?
5. Even drugged on painkillers why did I watch this appalling excuse for a film? God knows!

TV advertising some tips

2011-04-09T04:14:00.000-07:00

Here's a few tips for any tv advertisers reading this.
First off don't bother advertising, most people don't just buy any old crap they see advertised on telly, especially in a recession when moneys tight. I mean I see an ad for a Dyson cleaner, do I say "oh my god I must run down the shop at 11.30 at night an buy a new hoover" no, I think do I need another overpriced vacuum cleaner.... Errr no I don't, and there's no shops open if I did want to buy one so why waste your money advertising it.
Secondly if your going to advertise something at least have it available, I mean a certain hotel chain advertises rooms for £29 a night, trouble is nobody can ever find one, out of curiosity I tried 3 major cities including London, the cheapest rooms any of this chain had were £65 a night, so why bother advertising something you don't have, just makes me think the hotel are con merchants so I wouldn't stay there anyway now.
Lastly there's something you advertiser need to know, we use the commercial break on telly to make a cuppa, even if we don't want a cuppa we channel hop just to avoid the adverts, and if we have recorded the program on sky we just fast forward over the ad's.
So your wasting your time and money making adverts.

Dragons den (tv series)

2011-04-04T12:11:00.000-07:00

I have been watching a few of these over the last few days and I can't help noticing what a miserable grumpy bunch they all are, they say money doesn't buy you happiness, this lot proves it.

Went for a walk

2011-03-28T12:34:00.000-07:00

I went for a walk today, it was peaceful on the mountain, when coming home I had to wait to cross the road by the roundabout, it never ceases to amaze me just how many people in Baglan seem unable to drive around a roundabout the right way.
We drive on the left here in the UK and we drive around a roundabout clockwise, at least the rest of the country do, here in Baglan (twinned with moronville) people drive around them on both sides because they are too dum or lazy to go around them properly.

Jamies dream school revisited

2011-03-23T15:17:00.000-07:00

Jamie Oliver's dream school was on again this evening, so I watched it for a laugh, what did I learn from it? Well....

A. it's well nigh impossible to teach morons who don't want to learn.

B. a fair proportion of these youngsters probably shouldn't be allowed to breed, the gene pools diluted enough in some of them now, their offspring should two ever get together would be dumber than Homo Habilis, at least he managed to use tools, some of these children are so dumb I'm surprised they can breath.

C. maybe dream school is the wrong name for it, nightmare school would be better.

Stop wasting money Jamie, drown the bloody lot and have done with it, trust me you'll be doing the world a service.

Beardless!!!!!!

2011-03-22T09:45:00.001-07:00

Yes it's true... hold the front page...Wayne has shaved off his beard!
I have been a beard wearer for more years than I care to remember, probably over 20 continuously, today at around 16.30 the momentous occasion occurred, I shaved it off totally, it was easier than I remember in fact.
The thing is I had to shave it off (Shhh don't tell everyone) you see I'm playing General Melchett in Blackadder goes fourth, and the army in ww1 didn't go for beards, just a HUGE moustache, and I mean huge!
So there it is Fungus face is no longer infected with face fungus.... well till it grows back anyway.

Feeling rough and the war

2011-03-21T00:26:00.000-07:00

Well I'm not feeling to good today, I have a cough, runny nose and feel like death warmed up.... Yes I have a cold/flu type thing. Trouble is I don't get many, and I have a hectic week so I could really do without this, and because I don't get many I feel worse.

Now the war, it seems that while the UN doesn't like Libya bombing it's rebels it's ok for the UN to bomb Libya (and civilians) double standard again.
Wonder who is next...Iran or Syria both have oil so it could be either, curious how Israel can shell it's rebels without a word being said.

The parking lot movie (film review)

2011-03-18T02:07:00.000-07:00

This short documentary style movie is quite fascinating to watch, to see the different characters and their interaction with the customers gives an incite into the world of a parking lot attendant.
I expected the movie to be rubbish, but was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed it.
Waynes rating 8 out of 10 well worth a watch.

Battle for LA (film review)

2011-03-18T01:36:00.000-07:00

Battle for LA is a sc-fi film where an alien invasion of earth takes place. The action takes place is LA where a squad of soldiers have to go up against an unknown enemy to rescue some civilians trapped by the aliens.
Some things we learned from watching this.
US marines have to shout at each other all the time.
Most of LA seems to be shrouded in think smoke (actually a possibility).
Aliens never win when they attack the Americans, ( maybe they need to shout at each other?).
A small squad of soldiers carries an unlimited amount of ammo.

Waynes rating, the shouting got on my nerves, as did the "gung-ho" soldiers, to be honest by the end I wanted the aliens to win.
5 out of 10

Jamie's dream school.

2011-03-10T09:18:00.000-08:00

I watched this yesterday, nearly pissed myself laughing, the saddest part is Jamie Oliver takes it seriously.
To be honest I don't know why he doesn't stick to what he does well... cooking!
Ok I know it has to be drowned in olive oil, but a lot of the stuff he cooks actually looks and no doubt tastes good. Trouble is he's trying to get a sainthood or knighthood or whatever, unfortunately all he's really doing is driving children away from cooking.

Schools are now struggling to pay the dinner ladies due to the lack of children eating school dinners after his stupid dinner campaign, in my sons school none of one class now eat dinners in school. Trouble is the children who used to get free school dinners now go hungry rather than eat whats served up, not helped by the fact the school buys the cheapest rubbish they can get.

Now his latest (and daftest) idea is a super school to help troubled pupils, so what have we learned by watching it?? Well we learned that without discipline unruly pupils do as they please, that some of the famous people they have as teachers end up loosing it and shouting at the pupils, we learned that half the pupils they choose don't deserve to be educated and obviously couldn't care less.
But the biggest thing we learned is it's a total waste of time, you see as good as the original idea was (and I'm sure he means well) it's never going to work in the real world, where are all the schools going to get famous people to teach their troubled pupils, there isn't an endless supply, especially after all the others see how much hassle it is. And more importantly where do the schools get the money to pay these super stars with, it's ok for Jamie to call in a few favors but thats not going to work for long, these people will want to get paid in the real world.

Jamie, please, pretty please give up all the school nonsence and get back to cooking, some people are beginning to wonder why you like hanging around schools so much... lets face it it's not for the dinners.. not now anyway.

Libya no fly zone.

2011-03-10T01:33:00.000-08:00

I see on the news today the the USA and UK governments are calling on the UN to impose a no fly zone on Libya.
Col Gaddafi's forces have been bombing rebel held areas and the US/UK want it stopped... Which is a bit odd considering.
A. The UN states that countries shouldn't interfere in the internal workings of another country.
B. How fond the US and UK are of bombing rebels in other peoples countries, like Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Vietnam, Yemen, Somaila, Pakistan, Yugoslavia, Sudan, etc etc.
Talk about double standard.

Whats wrong with people in Port talbot???

2011-03-09T08:14:00.000-08:00

I was in Port Talbot today, whats wrong with some of the people there?, they drive like morons, they walk like I'm invisible and would walk into me if I did avoid them, half the idiots are walking around backwards for heavens sake. The words interbreading come to mind.

Margam and sunsets

2011-03-09T00:26:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of recent pics, all taken in the margam area, the one with 5 of me (yes your worst nightmare I know) was done using 4 seperate images and layer masks, the extra 5 version of me was done with the clone tool.

Police pay

2011-03-09T00:16:00.000-08:00

It seems Mr Plod is going to suffer a pay cut, the BBC were saying that if they work a bank holiday they get double time and a day in lieu, unlike the rest of us who get a day in lieu usually.

The police get pretty good pay and conditions, ok they do have a tough job to do sometimes but a lot of what they do is easy really (hence being able to let PCSO's do it) After all manning a speed camera or nicking motorists isn't particulary difficult or dangerious, certainly not anything like as dodgy as being on foot patrol in Helmand province, yet they get more pay than a normal squaddie whos putting his life on the line every day on active service.

Prince Andrew

2011-03-07T00:15:00.000-08:00

HRH Prince Andrew has made the news today for all the wrong reasons, it seems he managed to pay £3 million over the asking price for a house
Makes you wonder if somebody this bright is a good person to send around the world as a trade envoy, after all trade is all about business, and business need to make money, if the bloke representing them is dull enough to pay £3m too much for his own house God help the firms he's there to help.

Silver efex 2

2011-03-04T01:50:00.000-08:00

Nik software have launched a new version of silver efex, now I have tried it, but so far I'm less than impressed, the differences between the 2 versions seem small (I can't find much new anyway) and the new version takes forever to load, much much slower than the old version.
Waynes rating 3 ot of 10 so far (only a brief trial)

Gower walk

2011-03-04T01:44:00.001-08:00

Well as my back injury is finally improving enough to walk short distances I managed to get out the day before yesterday for a wander with the camera. I went to Pwll Du in the Gower, via Brandy cove, heres a few of the shots I took.
Wayne

Photoshop book

2011-02-26T04:37:00.000-08:00

I got Adobe photoshop CS5 for photographers, the ultimate workshop this week, what a cracking book, one of the best I have seen, not ideal for beginners perhaps but for the more advanced it's well worth the money in my opinion. I have spent 2 evening playing and trying out some of the techniques from the book, learnt a few things as well, one of the best book I have seen in a while.

News railway cleaners on strike.

2011-02-26T04:32:00.000-08:00

On this mornings news it said that the train cleaners had gone on strike. Personally I can't help wondering if anybody will notice, the last time I caught a train it was stinking dirty anyway, in fact pretty much every time I have caught a train they have been grotty, filthy, and so dirty you can hardly see out of the windows.
And on another note have you noticed how much pollution they chuck out, no catalytic converters on them by the look of it!

Matrix signs (yet again)

2011-02-12T07:04:00.000-08:00

Yes I know I have a bee in my bonnet about these useless bits of crap but it really is time somebody somewhere sorted them out.
I was coming home from the supermarket a few days back and the matrix sign on the motorway was all lit up, trouble was it was in Welsh. Now I'm Welsh but the fact remains that the vast majority of us taffs can neither speak or read Welsh.
Only around 25% of Welsh people can actually speak it, and less than 10% can read and write it and are classed a fluent. That then begs the question why are we putting motorway signs to only cater for 10% of the motorists passing it? I didn't know if the sign was telling me to wear my seat belt or that the motorway was closed and to leave it. Bloody pointless waste of money either way.

Four Lions (film review)

2011-02-06T23:26:00.000-08:00

I saw the film the four lions last week.
The film tells the story of a group of British jihadists who decide to make a bomb. The story is a black comedy, with some quite funny moments, it's also got some sad moments (as all the best comedies do) It's interesting to see a film that tells the other side of the war on terror.
I found it moving and quite funny in places. Theres one particular part involving police snipers that had me in tears of laughter.
Waynes rating 6 out of 10 (worth a watch)

Wedding books

2011-02-06T23:18:00.000-08:00

I was shown a "how to photograph weddings" book the other day, not a big deal you'd think... well you'd be wrong.
The book shocked me. First off it's just not as easy as reading a book and going out and "doing" a wedding" there's a lot to learn. Secondly the pictures in the book were dreadful, if your going to try and learn photography at least learn from someone who can actually take a decent picture to start with.
And thats the trouble with books (and the internet) anybody can be an expert and give advise.

London montage.

2011-01-29T06:27:00.000-08:00

Heres another montage, this time it's London, I took the pics last year (a few have already been posted I think) but this collection is new.
Wayne

Wedding myth

2011-01-15T00:40:00.000-08:00

I regularly here people saying you need an XYZ camera to do weddings nothing else will do, it has to be 20mp and full frame... Well not quite.
You see what most of these idiots don't realise is that the majority of wedding albums are not much bigger than A4 (about 12x8 inches) pretty much any half decent digital SLR camera (and many bridge cameras) can produce high quality A4's. Yes it's nice to have the extra quality and the ability to "blow-up" the image but the fact is you don't need to, a normal good quality 8-12pm DSLR can produce a lovely 20x16 inch framed print.

Some pics to start you off with.

2011-01-14T05:36:00.000-08:00

I was digging out some images for a web site and I though I'd but some together in templates for you.

Health issues

2011-01-10T04:16:00.000-08:00

The reason there's been no new pics recently is because I have injured my back and sadly haven't been able to get out with the camera.
I have a long standing back problem which gives me problems fairly often but I managed to aggravate it a few weeks before Christmas, agony doesn't come close, it was all I could do to get as far as the toilet before I had to rest. The good news is I'm on the mend slowly, so hopefully I'll be ably to travel short distances with camera soon.

Food labeling

2011-01-10T04:02:00.000-08:00

Why is it that the most important information on food packaging (the use by date) is the hardest to find, it's usually small poorly stamped and hidden, god help anyone with less that perfect vision.

I bought part baked rolls, the bloody things are 18 inches long (half a metre) but the date is still in tiny crap print hidden on the end of the package, how monumentally stupid is that, why hide the date? The shops have to be able to read it to rotate stock and the customers need to know if it's still safe to eat, so why make it so dammed hard to see???

Bad roads

2011-01-06T09:52:00.000-08:00

The roads in Wales are getting bad, the pot holes are reaching epidemic proportion and getting bigger, before long smart cars will be falling in the holes.

2010 - 2011

2011-01-01T15:38:00.000-08:00

Happy new year everybody !

2010 has been an interesting year for me, I have made new friends and lost some old ones, I have had many happy days and a some sad ones, but the year has left me many memories which will live with me as long as I last.
I have explored many new places and had a lot of fun doing it, some were a bit dangerous others just plain fun.
My health has taken a turn for the worst and at the moment I'm hobbling around on a walking stick semi disabled, hopefully in the future I'll get more mobile and able to get out and about.

I wonder what 2011 will bring? More new friends and happiness I hope, and better health.

In the meantime I would like to wish you all, health wealth and happiness for this year, good luck and God bless.
Wayne Jan 01 2011

Winter weather

2010-12-28T03:44:00.000-08:00

This year here in Wales UK we have had a more severe than normal December, we had a few inches of snow, now that's early for us, we tend to get it in January or February usually.

The weather however did bring some problems, while the main roads and motorways were kept open well, the side roads were left to their fate. Gritting which had been fairly regular before the snow stopped totally after, for well over a week the roads were packed sheet ice in many of the side streets.
The pavements again were left treacherous.
In the good old days the residents would have cleared their bit of pavement, but not now, you see if you just leave it and somebody slips it's not your problem (an act of God) if you clear the pavement and somebody slips your liable in this stupid blame culture we live in. Result? nobody clears the pavment any more.
My question is where have all the council worked been the last few weeks? why haven't they been out clearing the snow and gritting the side roads.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T03:33:00.000-08:00

Just to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Wayne

The police again

2010-12-20T10:41:00.000-08:00

Yep good old South Wales police are at it again, in the appalling weather, loads of accidents what are our brave boys in blue doing?.... stopping motorists for having... shock horror... SNOW on their car roofs.
My god, these dangerous vicious motorists actually driving with snow on their cars? how dare they! I mean what next, the blighters will be driving with wet cars in the rain soon.

Ok I'll stop the sarcasm but come on, this is taking the p**s really, how the hell are we supposed to get it off? I'm going on 6 foot tall but i can't reach the middle of my car roof, how on earth is some aged granny suppoded to stand and clear it.

All I can say is if this is all the work they can find to do at Christmas maybe theres too many of them, time for some cut-backs and money saving I think.

Photoshop CS5 for nature photographers (book review)

2010-12-15T01:52:00.000-08:00

This book by Ellen and Josh Anon is rather curiously one of the better photoshop books I have come across, the book is well laid out and has shed loads of information in it.

The title in some ways is misleading really, while the book is aimed at nature photographers and most of the illustrations are of flower/animals etc, the book is not limited to just that, it covers the whole range of photoshop tools very thoroughly.
It's well laid out has loads of helpful illustrations, and covers pretty well everything I could think of.

Would I buy it. Yes it's gone straight to the top of my list.

The photoshop CS5 pocket guide (book review)

2010-12-13T01:04:00.000-08:00

By Brie Gnycild, this small book is surprisingly full of information, it covers most of the basics as a sort of mini reference book, I did find the lack of colour illustrations odd but that maybe only on the electronic version I saw rather than the full printed version.
The book is a bit on the basic side if your reasonably advanced.
Would I buy it, no for me it was too basic but for a less experienced user it might be handy.

Photoshop CS5 the missing manual (book review)

2010-12-13T00:48:00.000-08:00

By Lisa Snider, one of my less favorite book that I have looked at recently. The book itself is comprehensive enough, and contains a lot of information, I just found it hard work and boring, there's a lot of text if you enjoy a read but not many illustrations compared to some of the other books I have reviewed, it's a good reference book for the shelf.
Would I buy it? No to be honest I didn't like the style.

Adobe stupidity reaches new levels.

2010-12-07T01:46:00.000-08:00

Adobe stupidity reaches new levels.
Yes I'm bloody annoyed with Adobe.
As much as I like Photoshop I can't say the same for Adobe, every 18 months or so we get charged nearly twice what those living in the USA pay for the same product. It costs more to ship I hear you say, no it doesn't if your downloading it from their website, not several hundred quid more anyway.
Then theres the recent trend to take out stuff that used to be in it. Oh yes we can download it free and install it ourselves, but some of it is quite complicated to install, and some of it should damn well be in there to start with.
On Friday I needed to scan in some important documents, now I haven't long formatted my main pc after more virus trouble, so I had to re-install my scanner, no problems I have all the disks... well yes a slight problem... photoshop can't see the scanner to import any images. Oh the scanner works fine it just won't talk to photoshop.
I tried downloading the latest drivers and software versions, no difference, after a lot of hassle and time. I eventually found out (thanks DemiLion) that for reasons unknown adobe took out the twain import plug-in. This is a tiny filter in a folder of other filters, it takes up no space really, but without it photoshop won't see any scanner.
How monumentally stupid is that? didn't it occur to anybody at adobe that some photographers/graphic artists just might use a scanner occasionally.

Photoshop CS5 on demand (book review)

2010-12-07T00:15:00.000-08:00

Written by Steve Johnson this is an excellent well laid out reference type book, while not specifically teaching you photoshop it does explain everything very clearly and covers a lot of detail and pretty much everything in CS5 you'll need to know.
This is the sort of book you'll reach for to find out how so and so works, like how the pen tool works or whatever, very very useful reference book.
Would I buy it?, yes pretty much an essential book for the shelf, you won't use it every day (especially if your experienced) but when you do need it it'll be bloody handy.

Adobe photoshop CS5 for photographers (book review)

2010-12-05T02:11:00.000-08:00

This book by Martin Evening is one of the more comprehensive reference type books, it covers a load of stuff, lots of usefull tips with being complicated, perhaps not quite aimed at the beginner it should still be a good option for your first book.
Would I buy it, yes! without hesitation.

How to cheat in photoshop (book review)

2010-12-03T06:49:00.000-08:00

This book by Steve Caplin is a must read for anybody involved in the business of faking pics or swooping heads around, it teaches the reader a ton of special effects tricks like ageing a person, making them younger, working with selections and the puppet warp tool, loads of other useful stuff too.
Definitely on my Christmas list.

Photoshop CS5 for digital photographers ( book review}

2010-12-02T01:38:00.000-08:00

This is Scott kelbys latest version for CS5, the book itself is explained simply and the chapters are nicely laid out making it fairly easy to find stuff, the book covers certain things but also misses out other stuff possibly leaving you stumped if your looking for a certain tool instructions.
It's written in a jokey style which I personally find very irritating, but thats Scotts style.
Would I buy it? yes I probably would, it's got a lot of good stuff in it, I learnt a few things just skimming through to do this report.

Photoshop CS5 for dummies (book review)

2010-12-01T10:10:00.000-08:00

I thought with Christmas on the way some book reviews might come in handy for stocking fillers for the photographer in your life. I'm using CS5 but most of these book have versions for the different photoshop versions so substitute as needed.
CS5 for dummies, well personally I don't like the horrid yellow colour for a start, and the slightly jokey style started to grate on me after a while.
The book itself is pretty comprehensive, it gives a lot of detail and should make sense to a beginner or more experienced user, it's not difficult to find the various bit's you might need, but I get the feeling it might be better to read it all through from the beginning (I didn't) Would I buy it? well I'd be very tempted to buy it as a reference book in case I needed to look anything up, but I'm fairly advanced in photoshop, if I was a beginner it would be on my Christmas list I think.
Wayne

Some more images

2010-11-27T04:31:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more recent images.
Thanks for viewing.

A few different pics

2010-11-24T08:58:00.001-08:00

Here are some different images, the first self portrait is whats called a Dragan style image, it's done with different blend modes and burning and dodging in photoshop.
The second is a lith style image, done using the threshold and selective colour ajustment layers in photoshop, no special software all done in photoshop.

I'm a celebrity get me the X factor out of here

2010-11-20T12:50:00.000-08:00

I'm a celebrity get me the X factor out of here.
Recently I have been watching these "shows" and several things have become obvious.

One you need to have NO talent to be on a talent show.
Take the X factor (please!) the one thing lacking from many of the contestants is any real ability to sing.... a disadvantage for a singer one would assume?. Some of them couldn't carry a tune if it was in a box, as for actually singing... well they are so "flat" they could stun fish.
Wagner for example is beyond a joke, I'm sure he's a nice enough guy, but lets be honest he really can't sing and is never going to be an international singing star, why they have let the poor chap get this far I can only guess, presumably it's to make the other acts look better, trouble is some half decent acts have gone for him to stay in.

Strictly come dancing is another show I have concerns about. Why is Ann Widdecombe still in it, it's called come dancing for heavens sake, Ann couldn't dance her way out of a paper bag, yet every week we are expected to believe that the viewers have voted her back in. I'm sorry I just don't believe it.

Then we come to I'm a celebrity get me out of here, well half of them are not what I'd call celebrities for a start. Then we have Gillian McKeith a nutritionist for goodness sake, and one who's absolutely terrified of bugs, so what in gods name gave her the idea she could cope in a bug infested jungle.

To me it seems someone somewhere is manipulating things to make good viewing rather than playing it properly, and that wouldn't be a problem.... except the public are encouraged to phone vote, thats money, and that smells fishy to me.

A few beach shots

2010-11-16T00:43:00.001-08:00

A few shots from yesterdays walk on the beach at Port Talbot, the clouds looks a bit like a massive explosion in the distance.
Enjoy. Wayne

Photokit

2010-11-16T00:20:00.000-08:00

The people at Pixel Genius have announced Photokit sharpener 2 (due out later this year)
Now I have to admit to being a fan of the original PK Sharpener, it's designed by people who actually know about sharpening and photography, they wrote the book on sharpening (literally!) It doesn't get much better than this.

It's designed as a 3 stage sharpening work flow.
Capture sharpening, which simply replaces the softness caused by the anti alias filter on the sensor.
Creative sharpening, where you sharpen certain elements of an image, a rock in the foreground or the eyes in a portrait maybe.
Output sharpening, where the sharpening is tailored to the image size and whether it's for printing or web.

Now PG make two other products, Photokit and Photokit colour, which I have to confess I hadn't tried before. Well this week I gave them a try, and to be honest I wasn't blown away with either.
Both have a number of effects and options which will make life easier and a little quicker for the busy photographer, that said some of the effects I found far to light, the diffusion effect even on strongest had hardly any effect on my test image, some of the others like the sepia again just looked horrid. Most of the effects could be easily replicated in photoshop.

Are they worth the money? well at around £65 PK sharpner is IMHO is well worth it, it's something I use daily and it does a smashing job.
The others at £32 for Photokit and £65 for the PK colour? Probably not in my opinion, but by all means try them your self and decide then, after all it's your money your spending not mine (I hope)

One for Sunday

2010-11-14T03:08:00.001-08:00

A pic for Sunday, it's not a recent one, I haven't had much time recently to go shooting, but I have re-done a few oldies with the latest version of photoshop which seems to do a better job of aligning the images in a panorama.
This is the salthouse in Rhossilli, taken when I was camping at the beach in the site right by it a few years back. The site was pretty good and I really enjoyed my time there.

South Wales Police

2010-11-11T03:56:00.000-08:00

I have to say over the past few months my opinion of South Wales Police has dropped considerably. To be honest it wasn't very high to start with, they always seemed far more concerned about motoring offences that "real" crime (yes I know speeding is a crime too, but you know what I mean) Now they have reached an all time low.

A few months back a friend of mine was attacked by her ex-husband, he tried to kill here twice, there was a court injunction taken out to stop him doing anything more to my friend. Trouble is when he broke the injunction the police simply didn't want to know, if they came out it took hours (not much good if someones trying to kill you) and most of the time they didn't even bother to come out.
On one occasion she was told to "pull yourself together" by the Sargent she spoke to, very helpful.

It comes as no surprise to see people murdered by their partners with a police response like that, after all if they call the police they get no help, and by the time the police finally arrive (if they come out at all), sometimes days later it's too late.

Today I had to phone them, I spotted a child's bike abandoned on a large river bridge, now it's an odd place to dump it, most people would have thrown it over into the river, it occurred to me that a child may have fallen or jumped off the bridge.
I rang the police expecting them to take it seriously, not quite the response I got. It took two phone calls and a visit to the police station to get them interested. By then it was far too late for any child who has gone in the river.

What has happened to our police force? By and large the ordinary coppers are decent enough blokes just doing their job, but it seems anything other that shoplifting and motoring is out of bounds, and if it sounds like a domestic they don't want to know.

Bring back dear old PC Dixon of Dock Green, the good old fashioned copper, he had his head screwed on properly, he's have been straight around to check out a child's bike on a bridge, he wouldn't have been out chasing motorists for dodgy wiper blades.

A few pics

2010-11-03T10:21:00.001-07:00

Funny week.

2010-11-03T04:03:00.002-07:00

This weeks been a bit odd if you know what I mean, the weathers been a bit sad so I haven't had much chance to get out shooting.

On Thursday last week I took part in a re-enactment of a Goon show on stage in the little theatre in Neath. The Goon shows were zany radio plays from the 1950's, starring Harry Seacombe, Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers, with Michael Bentine sometimes. The one we did was Robin Hood and his mirry mon (no that's the correct spelling lol)
I must admit I really enjoyed it, I remember listening to the goons on the radio as a child, and being able to take part in a re creation was for me a memorable experience.

Last week I was driving home from a friends house late-ish in the evening, and in the dark and rain passed an idiot walking along the motorway. This moron was actually walking on the carriageway, to be honest he was lucky not to have been killed, what with the dark and poor visibility, what a bloody stupid thing to do.

On the weekend we had the whole stupid daft putting the clocks back again, every year this baffles me, I simply cannot find any advantage to it (and I have looked into it) it doesn't save energy, accidents go up and it's a pain in the arse to alter everything. Why the hell do we do it???

Bridal rant! LOOK IN THE BLOODY MIRROR

2010-10-27T02:39:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry but I'm going to go off on one here.

Yet another stupid fat bride stuffed into a dress 5 sizes too small, for pity sake what is wrong with these women? surely they can look in a mirror and see how ridiculous they look
Add the fact that this one wasn't just fat she was HUGE!!! she arrived in a drop head VW beetle, and she filled the whole car, it just looked ludicrous, how the hell they got her in I don't know, obese doesn't come close, she looked like she caused a famine somewhere.

I really don't understand why they have to buy a low cut dress that doesn't fit. Ok I suppose there is a shortage of fat bastard tent size wedding dresses, but didn't any of her friends tell her how hideous she looked? Her breasts looked like two badly parked blimps, how the dress took the strain I don't know, it must have been lined with Kevlar or something.

Then to add insult to injury she was freaking ORANGE! No not the dress, her body, she had one of the "dodgy" fake tans that look nothing like a suntan, but Tango man comes to mind (or captain beany) Again why? if you want a suntan get a proper one not a stupid coat of orange undercoat. Trouble is in all the photos shes just looks daft, everybody else looks normal and she's the colour of an Oompa-Loompa, bright orange.
I give up with these idiots.

Texture layers

2010-10-26T04:16:00.001-07:00

Adding a texture to an image can give an interesting effect, heres one I took recent'y in Cardiff, I have added a texture overlay to give it a "grunge" feel.
Enjoy.

Spending cuts.

2010-10-19T02:36:00.000-07:00

It seems in an effort to cut spending our government (remember they had to join two parties to get in, so we didn't really vote for them) are going to build two new aircraft carriers, great!... well except for one small snag... we won't have any aircraft to fly off them for 10 years.
It seems that the moron who thought of building 2 aircraft carriers didn't bother to check if we had any aircraft to fit on them first!
So when the next war comes our two big tough aircraft carriers will steam off to war and ... well sit there with bugger all else to do. General Custer award for forward planning then. Oh and a great way to SAVE money guys!!!

Yesterdays wedding.

2010-10-17T10:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had another wedding, really it was a favor (sort of) for another photographer, I wont go into detail but he couldn't do it.
I was lucky really I had a nice day, the couple were nice, and the locations were not bad.
While my day was pretty good, you couldn't say the same for the bride, her limo got lost on the way to ther house, in the end the grooms dad and an usher went out searching for it, they managed to find it eventually and the bride arrived only 45 minutes late, then the limo hit a parked van. he didn't stop there though, he also hit the park gates on the way to the photo location.

Nik HDR Effx Pro.

2010-10-16T04:14:00.000-07:00

Here is my Hmmm " review" of Niks answer to hdr.
Nik HDR EffX Pro, Niks answer to the popularity of HDR, first off I think they missed the boat a little, hdr seems to be on the decrease and there's been a surfeit of hdr programs this year to compete with it.
Secondly it's got "issues" quite big ones it seems, it's got compatibility issues with Itunes, On One software and heavens knows what else (I'm told about some) but as I have neither of those theres other things going on as well.
I did manage eventually to get it to work on another pc (with some difficulty) but I have to say I'm far from impressed. It's painfully slow (on a good spec pc) god help if your on a slow computer. Then while the interface is simple enough getting your pics in the first place isn't, the option in the filters menu (the obvious place) is greyed out untill your image is 32 bit, to load 3 pics you have to use the file/automate/merge to hdr effx pro, then go and make dinner while it does something (crashes photoshop most of the time) if it actually works (and you haven't died of old age) you'll end up with a reasonable hdr.
IMHO Photomatix is quicker, miles and miles better and cheaper (I think) failing that try Dynamic photo hdr, just as simple at Niks offering, vastly quicker (quicker than photomatix) and even cheaper again, and a doddle to get your pics in, just open and drag the images in, how easy is that!
Nik, if you want to capture the HDR market, you really need to sort out the compatability issues, speed the thing up, and make it easier to get pics in. Simple really.

Don't give a child a biscuit!! Warning

2010-10-08T10:25:00.000-07:00

Don't give a child a biscuit!! well not if you happen to be a dinner lady in County Fermanagh anyway, one suffered two years of hassle and was told by the school that "could be seen by her actions as grooming a child." all that for giving a relatives child a biscuit.
It's long overdue for some common sense to make a return to the world!

CSI.

2010-10-07T10:02:00.000-07:00

I have mentioned this stupid excuse for a program before but now it's gone too far.
In the past I have them "blow up" poor quality video and produce stunning clear fine detailed images which is rubbish, it just cant be done sorry!. Then there's the fact all their case would get thrown out of court because the crime scene people have been to the suspects house and the crime scene (cross contamination of evidence it's called) so any evidence they have found wouldn't be admissible in court.
But today! it's gone from stupid to ridiculous, today they had an urn thing (hand thrown pot) and put a laser on and got the sound in the room at the time of the murder, the actual speech from the murderer, I kid you not! They claimed it's just like the wax cylinder gramophone. I'm sorry it just can't be done, and even if it could how would they know which bit of the pot to get the sound of the murder from and not what was on telly last night.
IT'S TOTAL CRAP GUYS!!!!! For pity's sake why not stick to what can really be done instead of making so over the top.

Smoking ban in cars.

2010-10-06T00:35:00.000-07:00

It seems the Welsh "arse-sembly" government is planning to ban smoking in private cars.
While I'm not a smoker I do have issues with this decision. First off is it only in Wales? surly that's discrimination on grounds of race? it should be nation wide on nothing! Secondly how the hell are they going to police it?. The over stretched police are struggling to cope now, the ban on mobile phones while driving hasn't really been a success, every day you'll see hundreds of people ignoring it, the same with smoking, if the people don't agree they will simply ignore it.
Yet again it's our sad pathetic nanny state trying to look like it's doing something useful to justify it's existence.

Norman Wisdom

2010-10-05T05:01:00.000-07:00

Sir Norman Joseph Wisdom OBE. 4 February 1915 – 4 October 2010.

Dear old Norman Wisdom died yesterday at the age of 95. Norman best remembered for his role as Norman Pitkins in films like the Early Bird (1965) in which he stared with the long suffering Mr Gimsdale (Edward Chapman) with numerous films to his credit, he more recently appeared in TV series Last of the summer wine. With many other screen and stage appearences behind him he gained his Knighthood in 2000.
From 2005 onward he suffered declining health, finally he passed away at 6:46 pm on 4 October 2010 at Abbotswood nursing home on the Isle of Man.
God bless Norman, you have given me many a good laugh.

Wedding and Waves.

2010-10-02T00:28:00.000-07:00

I'm off on a wedding soon, so lets hope the weather stays dry, it's something wedding togs have to cope with, unlike the Ryder cup we can't stop idf it rains.

Heres a pic of some waves at Rhoissilli beach, I'd gone chasing sunsets but there was the usual cloud back on the horizon, so I didn't get a decent sunset, liked this shot anyway.

The world is getting sillier by the day.

2010-10-02T00:13:00.000-07:00

Yes I'm afraid the world is getting sillier by the day.
Yesterday the Ryder cup (golf) had to be postponed due to heavy rain, the scary bit is this seemed to come as a surprise to all concerned. What heavy rain in Wales in October?? Wow that must have been so unexpected... well not to anybody who lives in Wales anyway, lets be honest we get a lot of rain in Wales, and October is late-ish in the year. Maybe Autumn in Newport wasn't the best choice of location.
20% of councils haven't got their winter salt stocks in yet. Why? after all winter coming shouldn't catch these people out, everybody knows it coming, even the birds, but our councillors seem oblivious to it. Maybe they are too busy sorting out their expenses claims or something.

Sat Nav.

2010-09-24T13:15:00.000-07:00

Back in March I wrote I hadn't entered the "sat nav" crowd, well the situation has changed somewhat since then.
I now have 2 sat navs, one sort of works the other doesn't. I'll explain, the one that actually does sometimes work was a gift from a mate, he meant well but sadly bought the cheapest sat nav he could find, for £20 more he could have got a decent one. The one that's dead was given to my brother but has a fault, it was hoped I'd be able to fix it, but to no avail.
Do they work? well yes and no, if you get a good one and your lucky then they can be brilliant! on the other hand if you have a crap one (like me) and your unlucky (yes like me again) then your screwed.

Pixel Bender.

2010-09-23T11:17:00.000-07:00

Pixel Bender is a plug-in for Photoshop (free from Adobe) it's a set of filters essentially, the best one is the Oil paint effect, coupled with a graphic tablet and very very basic artistic skills (and I mean basic) you can easily come up with effects like this. These are all based on "normal" images and just "played" with in Photoshop. You don't even really need a graphics tablet, it just makes it slightly easier.
A word of warning though, it's heavy on memory so the more ram and better graphics you have the better it'll run.

Bounce flash, get it right!

2010-09-20T05:01:00.000-07:00

Can people please note bounce flash only really works if there's something for it to bounce off, a black ceiling 80 foot up or the sky on an overcast day simply wont work, they are too dark or too far away. And also note a coloured ceiling will reflect coloured light, so if the ceiling is orange don't be too supprised if the subject comes out orange as well.

Public transport in the news.

2010-09-20T03:41:00.000-07:00

According to the Daily mail it's a third less stressful to travel by public transport than car.

Motorists face hidden long-term mental health problems, the study also found Dr David Lewis of the Sussex university who coined the raise "road rage" study found.
Greener Journeys ( a group of UK bus companies) launched a campaign to get a billion car journeys shifted to bus (surprise surprise ! ) by 2014.
Well good news and bad news boy and girls of Greener Journeys, the good news is it's keeping you busy... the bad news is your wasting your time. You see for people to switch to bus you need several things, regular, reliable, clean, efficient, and most of all cheap buses. Sadly they are none of these things, they are unreliable, irregular, dirty, inefficient cramped and bloody expensive, as anybody who actually uses them will tell you.
Take my local buses for example, they turn up if and when they feel like (time keeping is nonexistent) some are so full they miss out the estate where I live altogether, meaning another hours wait if your lucky, and that wait in a urine smelling leaky open fronted bus shelter.
The journey to Neath (3 miles) takes about 25 minutes (I can walk it in 40) plus whatever waiting time I spend in the rain, and costs around £4.00 return. The car on the other hand takes about 14 minutes and costs about a £1.00 worth of fuel, it's door to door, I haven't got to spend anything up to 2 hours standing in the rain or bus shelters struggling with my shopping and my frozen food thawing out.
So let me think.... the bus and all the hassle or the car with warmth, comfort speed and money saving... Oh that's a tough one, the car any day.
Greener Journeys, if you really want to make the world a better place (as opposed to making money) here's my suggestion for getting motorists out of their cars and onto your buses.
A. Have a LOT more buses, every route have a 5 minute service, so that's the most I'll spend waiting, and have them running on evenings and weekends too, some people work Saturdays and Sundays you know.
B. Make sure the buses are clean and not over full, if they are put on more buses.
C. Reduce the fares to... oh lets say a £1.00 single and £2.00 return anywhere.
Then and only then will you have a chance at getting us out of our comfy cars and on your buses.

Talking Rubbish!!!

2010-09-15T23:57:00.000-07:00

Over the years I have heard some total crap talked about photography, much of it from people who should know better. Now I'm going to try and lay some of the much talked fallacies to rest once and for all.
Jpeg is as good as Raw. Wrong! jpeg has 256 tonal values per channel, Raw has over 4000, raw also has all the colour information, so if you get the settings wrong in raw you have a lot more chance of correcting it in post process.

Never use auto white balance. Why not? most of the time it does a better job the the user anyway and if you use raw (and you should) it doesn't really matter because you'll have ALL the options later when you edit.

Come off P mode (program/auto) if you want good photos. Again horses for courses, the trick with auto/program modes s to know when you NEED to come off them, switching to shutter or aperture priority doesn't make your pictures better is just alters the control you have over them (which is in program shift anyway)
Yesterday I listened to a photographer with 3 years experience tell a new guy that to make his pics lighter or darker he had to use aperture priority... Err it wont you know, the camera simply alters the shutter speed to suit keeping the exposure the same, you actually need to use exposure compensation to make them lighter or darker (or switch to manual).

Throw the kit lens away and get better glass. While there is a grain of truth in this one in as much as alway buy the best lens you can afford, the kit lens are actually a lot better than most people think, and in most cases stopped down a stop or two there's little to choose between the two.

Save all your photos as .DNG for archival use as you wont be able to open your old camera raw pics in the future. Not true, there's as much chance of being to open a DNG file (adobe digital negative) as there is opening your Canon/Nikon raw file, in fact I suspect the opposite is true, if adobe went bust support for DNG (which isn't that good now) would in all probability end, while lots of companies allow you to open your raw files.
It might be worth backing up with both if you have the space (just in case) but personally I don't.

Cody RIP

2010-09-08T15:00:00.000-07:00

Life is fragile and tenuous, for some it's long and fruitful, for others tragically short.
The thing to do is to try and leave some sign of your passing along life's path, either something tangible or by touching someones life in a positive way. All too often we pass along it's course and leave nothing to show for it.
Cody, (a friends) dog has passed away, she was a friendy and loving dog, I didn't get to spend much time with her but she touched me all the same, you won't be forgotten Cody.

Dawn to dusk 2010

2010-09-07T02:26:00.001-07:00

In past years we have covered this event officially, this year however we didn't, but all the same Caroline and myself went along to get some shots for ourselves, the weather wasn't great with showers and we couldn't stay long but we still had fun and got some good pics, here are just a few.

Dog day afternoon

2010-09-06T23:06:00.000-07:00

No not the 1975 film with Al Pacino but a collection of dog pictures for a change.

Wedding woes.

2010-09-06T22:54:00.000-07:00

As some of you know I'm no stranger to wedding photography, but recently I'm noticing changes that affect us photographers.
More and more times I'm finding that when going to photograph the men (groom etc) that theres always several missing right up till practically the start of the service.
If theres 2 togs, one covers the boys and the other the girls, when I'm on my own I nip over the boys first, then over the girls where I'll stay till the bride leaves. The problem now though is theres not really much point in going to the boys any more, because I can't photograph them all because of the missing ones.

Parking spaces and Drivers at fault.always!

2010-08-28T03:53:00.000-07:00

Why is so many people just cannot park inside the lines in a parking space, I mean it's not difficult really, if you can't drive you shouldn't have bought a bloody car should you.

Back when we had the snow a driver in Tredegar struck and killed a guy on a sledge on a steep hill, it turns out the driver had no licence so is at fault. My question is should the sledge been on a public road in the first place? I doubt the absence of a bit of paper in the drivers pocket really made any significant difference, but the presence of a sledge (with no real control) on a road almost certainly did make a difference. It's time people started taking resposibility for their own actions if they take a risk.

Terror alert.

2010-08-27T02:22:00.000-07:00

It seems that here in the UK we are at the second highest level of terror alert, in other words an attack is more or less imminent.
This raises more questions than it answers
One. What makes the powers that be think somethings going to happen? I mean do they actually know something or did somebody have a bad dream last night and thinks it might mean something.

Two. If it's intelligence based (and on past events that means nothing is going to be right, remember they shot a Brazilian electrician after "intelligence" said he was a bomber, and they also told us Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction) then they presumably know who is going to do it, so why not just arrest them now and save all the messing about. After all it's a bit tricky to arrest a suicide bomber after the fact on account of him/her not actually being in one piece.

Personally (and call me suspicious) I think it's more lightly a load of old nonsense. You see you need to keep the public in fear if you want to get them to accept draconian laws that in "peace" time they never would. That means two things, one you have to make them think they are in danger if they don't have the laws, and worse sometimes you may need to make something happen to convince them they are in danger.
This either means letting the baddies do something to reinforce the "we told you so" attitude, or if it doesn't look like they are going to actually doing it themselves. Maybe those conspiracy theories are closer to the mark than we thought.

Flying dog!

2010-08-23T02:39:00.001-07:00

I just had to share this picture with you. Holly the flying dog (hums superman theme) While she looks like she's flying she actually running and jumping (like you never guessed that) what you cant see is the ball she's chasing.
The pic is taken by a friend and fellow photographer Caroline.

Reflections.

2010-08-23T02:31:00.000-07:00

Heres a recent shot taken on my rather old and battered Nikon compact. The cameras seriously in need of a replacement now, while the picture quality isn't bad (for 4 mp) it just isn't up to todays standard, plus it's got battery "issues" it just eats them, a full set of duracell only lasts a few shots, which just isn't right.
This pic was taken of my local-ish take-a-way.

Birthday

2010-08-16T02:25:00.000-07:00

Today I'm 57, and couriously I don't feel any older than I did yesterday when I was 56....odd isn't it.