Gimp 2.

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)

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)

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

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)

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???

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

Some recent model shots with the lovely Jade.

Broken Glass (play review)

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

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.

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some new pics.

Some flower images to liven up the page.

Bad back

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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)

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

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

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!!!!!!

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

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)

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)

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.

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.

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???

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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)

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)

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

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.

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

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.

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

Health issues

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

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

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

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