Moble phones, Mothers and HDR

I mentioned a while ago I'm doomed with Mobile phones, they just won't work for me, it doesn't matter what phone or what network I have, I still get missed calls or can't get a signal out.It's getting such a pain that somebody who has got fed up of trying to get hold of me actually gave me his old Mobile when he upgraded, even that didn't go well. You see first off he's on a different network so my sim card won't work in it without an adaptor, then the very next day after he gave me the phone he rang and asked for it back! the reason was his new phone didn't have all his numbers copied over.... I have bad news for him, their not on his old phone either.

It was my dear Mums birthday the other week, I bought her a hat, not a "proper" hat you understand a "silly" hat, much more fun, she wore it for the whole party as well.

The pics, ones my Mum in her birthday hat, the others another HDR image, this time it's part of the old wartime chain home radar system, another urban explore. Enjoy

Mumbles panorama

Heres another shot from the other day of Mumbles, this time it's a panorama shot looking back towards Mumbles pier and town from the lighthouse island, if you do decide to visit the island it's worth noting that the tide comes in fairly quickly and people have been cut off before now. Do not try to swim back if this happens to you, you won't make it, theres a heck of a current between the islands, I have seen motorboats going backwards with the engines going full blast many times. Processing the pics was a pain, it's over 450mb full size, this ones reduced for the web. Wayne

Mumbles HDR

Todays photos are HDR shots of Mumbles (nr Swansea UK) the HDR combines 3 photos at different exposures to get a higher dynamic range, or in this case produce a visually interesting image.

Shrove Tuesday

Today's Shrove Tuesday here in the UK, the term is used for the day preceding Lent, The word shrove is the past tense of the English verb shrive, which means to obtain absolution for one's sins by way of Confession and doing penance. Here it's traditionally Pancake day, so onto my pancake recipe.
4 oz plain flour
pinch salt
2 eggs
200ml milk
75ml water
butter to grease pan. (lemon and sugar to serve)
Method, beat the eggs into the sifted flour and salt, add in the milk/water until a thin cream texture thickness is achieved by whisking.
Get a frying pan hot-ish add a little butter and pour in just enough mixture to cover the pan when swilled around slightly (careful here) you don't want it too thick or too thin, cook until it's browns slightly on both sides.
Serve with lemon and sugar.
Now at this point there should be a photo of pancakes sitting on a plate.... sadly the batch I made last night for photographic purposes got eaten by us (and nice they were too!) so you'll just have to make some yourself if you want to see the results. Wayne

Standards of motoring

It was reported recently that Barbra Wilding chief constable of South Wales police intends to withdraw policing from major events in Cardiff and Swansea, and also to withdraw cover for the M4 motorway in effort to cut costs.
I have news for her, cover for Baglan (nr Port Talbot) was withdrawn ages ago, at least it certainly seems that way. You see I have only ever seen police actually patrolling the estate three times in about 17 years, yes we have seen the occasional visit from the community support officers (wannabee cops) but they are about as much a deterrent for criminals as a bag of flour so of little use really.
The reason I bring this up is because I have noticed the standard of motoring/driving is getting worse around here (and it was never good to start with) Parking on pavements is common, seat belts and indicators are optional, and roundabouts.... well do they know what they are for? doesn't seem like it, around here it's fair game to drive around them the wrong way, same as the one way streets! Twice now I have met the same moron driving the wrong way down my street, next times I think I'll just hit him..... after all no danger of plod turning up is there!
Wayne

Thursday

The engineers came yesterday to service my central heating. The bad news was the burners on the way out and needs to be replaced, the worse news is they haven't got one, and don't know when they can get one! The good news is I still have heating (for a while anyway) so thats something.

Todays image is a recent shot taken near Mumbles (Wales UK) it's been tone mapped to give a HDR effect using dynamic photo HDR software. Wayne

Burnt house and image size

Here's a little tip for those budding wedding photographers out there, before doing a wedding check your camera settings, white balance, image size, colour space etc etc etc.. The reason I say this is because this week I heard a well known wedding tog (no names no pack drill!.. and no it's not me either) managed to shoot most of a wedding on small jpeg before he noticed, not the end of the world but if the lucky couple want a LARGE print it could be a bit of a problem.

The photos, this was another "urban explore" or Ubex as we like to say, by pure luck I spotted a fire damaged house with access (no breaking in allowed) here are the photos.

Enjoy. Wayne

Valentines "Hot Tube"

Spotted this today, couldn't resist it, who fancies a private "hot tube" for valentines day then??? don't all shout at once!! LOL Wayne

Lookout point

While down in Coney beach yesterday I took a wander over to the lookout point, I think it's manned by the coastguard in summer. heres a couple of shots of it. Wayne

Fun-fair

I went walk-about today with my camera, ending up in Porthcawl, the funfair was shut but I managed to get in for some photos. Boy, is an empty funfair creepy!

All in all a nice day. Wayne

Weather rant!

I have a little exploring planned for tomorrow, so I decided to check the weather forecast, what a joke that turned out to be!
It seems nobody actually knows what the weather in Swansea is going to be tomorrow, BBC's weather says fine and sunny start, while their announcer is saying heavy snow, ITV's saying heavy rain/snow later, the met office forecast for Briton Ferry says cloudy, while their local mountain forecast says sunny start followed by rain!
Churchill managed to get an accurate forecast for D Day, 6 June 1944, yet 68 years later with satellite's, worldwide monitoring stations and computer technology, I'd still be better off hanging up a pine cone or licking an otter than relying on the met office for an accurate forecast.
(no otters were injured in the making of this blog) Wayne

Welsh cakes!

Something a little different today, my Welsh cake recipe © 2009.

You will need.

8oz self raising flour

2oz margarine

2oz lard

3oz caster sugar

2oz currants/sultanas

1/2 teaspoon mixed spices

1 egg

pinch of salt

a little milk.

You will also need a bake stone or really heavy bottomed frying pan/skillet.

Method

rub the margarine and lard well into the flour, add all the other dry ingredients and mix lightly. then add the egg and a little milk and mix well untill you get a dryish dough, not too wet but enough to roll out ok. Roll out about 1/2 inch thick, it will rise slightly so not too thick, cut out into circles/squares whatever.

get the bake stone or pan hot (don't go mad here) lightly grease with a little lard place on your Welshcakes, cook untill medium brown both sides, turning a few times, this doesn't take long so you can't really leave these cook on their own.

Sprinkle with a little caster sugar and eat warm (with butter! Yummy)

This will make about 15-20-ish medium size ones

Note I use a half teaspoon of mixed spice, this gives a good spicy taste, if your not keen on spices cut this to a quarter of a teaspoon. Enjoy Wayne

One of those days.

Today's been one of those days. You know the ones where you spend all day running around fixing things and catching up.

I had to buy a headlight bulb (again!) what happened to these things, the old ones lasted years, the new ones last 5 minutes! Seriously, I have changed 3 bulbs in about 7 months, and I'm not using them that much, I'm not out in the evenings a lot, Volvos have the lights on all the time, if their bulbs last as long as mine the boot must be full of spares!

I had to go to Swansea for a headset thingy for the Xbox, Port Talbot for a game, Swansea market for an adaptor plug for an American battery charger (long story) Why does a country that made the first atom bomb, and put man on the moon, still use two pin plugs?

On to the photos. heres a few shots of the new photographic studio in Ystradgynlais near Swansea, I took these a few weeks ago on a phone camera. Wayne

More snow images

Heres some more snow photos from yesterday

Enjoy. Wayne

Snow snow thick thick snow!

I don't know about strictly come dancing, but I was skating on ice this morning! the roads were lethal around here. Note to gritting lorries: gritting the main road at 9.15, after rush hour is a little late lads!, what happened your alarm not go off???

Well onto the pics, and no surprises there's SNOW in them (well what did you expect) The B+W was taken really early this morning, and amazingly in the time it took me to stand up my tripod, I heard a door open behind me, my neighbour was looking out to see what I was doing. I was 30 seconds at most and she'd made it to the front door as well in that time.

Alley cat!

I have heard of an alley cat but this is ridiculous!

Enjoy Wayne

Snow

When I woke up this morning there wasn't any snow, by 7.30 there was a noticeable covering of the white stuff. My two children were confident the school would be shut (it wasn't) But it did make me think, why do they shut all the schools every time a snow flake falls in Glasgow?
Why is it other countries like Norway manage to keep everything running with several feet of snow falling a week, but here two inches brings the whole country to a standstill?
Why do people panic buy here? There's people buying 48 loaves of bread and 26 pints of milk in Tesco, the bloody snow only ever last a few days at best, what do they do with all the bread and milk? There must be hedgehogs the size of brontosaurus after eating all that!
Well I'd better go now, I have just seen a hedgehog footprint the size of a pizza box in the snow outside, and I'm afraid the git may be after my 57 loaves of bread! Wayne