More beach walk.

 The rest of the pictures from yesterdays beach walk.

 All shot on a Canon 6d2 and 24-85mm lens.

Beach walk.

 Had a walk on the beach today, got these pictures.  Canon 6d2 and 24-85mm lens.

Logs

 

 The trees are still being made safe after the last big gales here.  Todays log pile.  Shot on my phone.

 

 

Booking online?

 

 Yesterday I needed to book a hospital appointment, was it easy?  No!  It's bloody wasnt!

 Now I know why places want you to book online, it means you do the work and they avoid paying someone.  Problem is a lot of the time, the systems are so crap they just dont work.

 As I say I needed a hospital appointment.  I go onto the booking page and choose a time, this would be easier if they knew the difference between AM and PM, and if they knew the bloody place doesnt do appointments at five past midnight.

 Still I go through the process and click confirm to finsih the booking, great... except, it freezes up and I get a spinning wheel for 10 minutest and nothing.  Try again on my phone this time in case it's a computer issue, and ... exactly the same thing.

 So now I spend 10 minutes looking for the phone number, oh they didnt actually put it on the booking page to make it easy, they hid it on a different page and well hidden it was.  So then I ring, and I'm number ten in the queue.

 To be fair it only took about fifteen minutes to speak to someone who sorted me an appointment, but just  having the phone number would have been quicker and easier, and probably far more efficent all around.

 Finally if your going to have online booking, make sure it bloody works.

Watch

 

 I really should have cleaned this watch before taking the picture.

 

 

Booking a wedding photographer?

 

 At this time of year some people are thinking about booking a wedding photographer.  So what should you look for?

 First off get a proper wedding photographer, dont ask a mate because he has a good camera.  I've got a cracking set of screwdrivers, but trust me, you dont want me putting your shelves together.  But seriously get a pro.

 A proper wedding photographer will have back-up gear, they'll know what they are doing, and they'll know all the dodges of what and how to get the best pictures, even if it's raining.

 Dont book on price alone, theres good cheap wedding photographers and terrible expensive ones.  I saw one recently, who is seriously expensive and the team were scary bad photographers, my god I have friends who hardly use their cameras who could do better in their sleep.

 When you see your photographer look at their images, see a whole wedding ideally, it's easy to get a few good shots from each wedding, it's much harder to keep up the standard for a whole wedding, check out a previous bride if possible.

 See if you get on with the photographer, you'll be spending a lot of time with him/her, if your akward or uncomfortable, maybe look elsewhere.

 Look at the photographers style (theres lots of different ones) see if thats the style you like.  Remember dont ask them to copy photos from Hello magazine wedding, those pictures were taken by a team and set up in a posh place.  Dont expert the same results if your getting married in a shed.

 Be realsitic about time.  Photos take a little while to do properly.  Make sure you alow for this with your wedding timeings.  Having 5 minutes to do the wedding photos isn't going to work.

Tea or coffee?

 

 The question is are you a tea or coffee drinker?   Personally I'm more of a tea man..

 That said I do occasionally like a proper coffee (well Douwe Egberts) but I prefere a filter coffee.  Although as I mostly drink coffee to keep me awake, it's only now and again I'll fancy a cup.

 That brings me to the shambles in my house at the moment.  You see a friend gave me a lot of filter coffee, co I dug out my old cafetiere and made a cup, and following the instructions I was given of one tablespoon for half a pot I got a cup of the weakest coffee I've ever had.

 Ok that said I had too much water and the cafetiere might be bigger than the one my friend uses. So try again today.  This time I measure the water my cup hold and just use that amount, and one slightly heaped tablespoon full.

 Well it's better, but only slightly, this isnt going to fire up a sleepy Wayne!  So what am I doing wrong?  Well at this point I check the instruction on the packet.  Ahhhh!

 Well it turns out my mug is about twice the size of a normal cup.  I need two tablespoons to get a normal strength cup of coffee.  Well at least I've figured it out eventually.  The problem is as I only drink coffee every now and again, I'll probably forget by the next time.

 Plus it's a royal PITA.  I have to put in the coffee, add the right amount of water, wait for a few minutes, then press it and pour it.  It's half bloody cold by then.  On the other hand my instant coffee is... well bloody nearly instant.

 Oh sod it I'll have a warp strength cup of tea instead!