Craig Gallivan new photo shoot.

I had another shoot with all round nice guy Craig over the weekend, here are a few of my favorite pics.

More UK madness!!!

In the village of Bishopthorpe near York parents are in fury.  Why? because the road by the school is too dangerous for a school crossing man/woman, oh  apparently it's fine for young children to cross they say but health and safety (the excuse not to do anything in the uk) makes it unsafe for a school crossing patrol.
What can you say, well how about if it's too bloody dangerous for a grown adult in hi-vis clothing maybe it's far to dangerous for young children in dark school uniforms to cross.  Answer... close the bloody school and open a new one somewhere safer.  Job done!
So get on with it York council, your putting young childrens lives at risk every day you delay.

Hot dogs

Why are hot dog sausages sold in eights and the rolls sold in sixes?  How stupid is that.

Price of weddings photograph.

Over the last few years the cost of wedding photography has fallen quite a lot, this has been caused mostly by the huge number of people getting into photography and the all singing all dancing cameras that make taking decent pictures easier.
The problem is wedding photography isn't just about taking pictures, oh yes it is a big part but there's far more too it than just snapping away.
Your wedding photographer has to be able to produce the goods come rain or shine, in good light and terrible light (where many beginners fail)  Theres managing the crowd, that can be harder than it sounds with every bugger dashing for the bar.
Thats what your paying for, it's not just a few happy snaps, it's years of experience, the ability to trouble-shoot if something goes wrong, having proper back-up planes and equipment and being able to deal with all the many varied and difficult situations that can and do happen at weddings.

So please when you start looking for a wedding photographer, don't ask uncle Bob, he might have a good camera but my mum has a set of spanners and she's not a mechanic, it's not just having the tool, it's about knowing how to use it properly.  Please book a proper photographer.

Strange firery ball seen in sky?

Yes a strange firery ball has appeared in the sky over parts of Wales today, some say it's the sun, but it's been so long since it's been seen I couldn't find anyone who could remember it to check.  I seem to vaguely remember it from my childhood but was a long time ago.....  

Ok I'm taking the piss, but it is good to see some sunshine again, however briefly it may last

Church lighting

I've mentioned before how badly some churches are lit, it still baffles me just how badly though. 
Last weekend I went to a family christening, the church was in a sleepy little village in the middle on nowhere, inside it was dark... well dark doesn't really tell it, when I say dark it made the black hole of Calcutta look like the lights of Las Vagas.  I kid you not there's more light inside a cows stomach at midnight in a coal mine than in the bloody church at one o clock on a Sunday afternoon. 
It's just silly, I mean with all the health and safety nonsense we have in the UK you can still have a place open to the public that they need night vision goggles to find they way around, how no one fell I'll never know, but God help if they had, the paramedics would never have found them, they gave us hymm bookspity they weren't in braille really, I couldn't read mine, far to dark........  Wheres that petzel head torch I bought......

Some new food photos

Storm chaos.

Yesterday the M4 motorway near Swansea was closed due to the storm, heres a few pics of the deserted motorway and the clogged A48.

Some UK news that makes me wonder if I'm the only sane person left...

It seems the river Thames wasn't dredged because of A the depressed river mussel and B because the EU makes it hard and expensive to dispose of the silt they dredge out.  Madness or what!  The depressed river mussle is a lot less depressed than the poor buggers who live in the flooded areas, but then it seems no one in govenment give a toss about people any more.

A personal trainer is being taken to court for training in a royal park (primrose hill)  he should have bought a licence (£600), anyone using the park for business need a licence it seems, so any nanny, dog walker, or person using his/her laptop for business look out, maybe best to use another park.  The Parks people say that 60% of the £32 million it costs to run has to come from customers, so maybe time to stop calling it royal if the public pay the bulk of the cost, after all the royal family are not exactly hard up.

Flooding help announced

Well what a surprise, call me Dave (David Cameron) has now offered up to £5000 for flood-proofing for at risk houses.  I say surprise because it's been over 5 weeks of flood damage in Somerset but a few days of flooding near London and  hey presto! all of a sudden it's important, one can't help but think 'posh' peoples houses are at risk now so the govenment must do something.  Bloody sad it didn't happen 5 weeks ago!

flooding

The Somerset levels have had terrible flooding for the last few weeks, and sadly it's not getting better, some say it's caused by global warming, the locals mostly say it's lack of dredging the rivers over recent years.  Either way the enviroment agency and the government are playing pass the parcle with the blame.
Now the river thames is starting to overflow, I can't help feeling we'll see a flurry of action now the flooding is closer to home for the government.

Winter olympics opening ceremony

As I write this it's on tv well what can I say, it started like sesame street with a little girl with really bad skin (isn't hdtv a bitch) and next she was 'flying' high over moving rafts showing the different terrain in Russia
Why do all countries feel the need to have ridiculous long drawn out opening ceremonies?  First off it's supposed to be a sporting event not a bloody three ring circus.  Secondly in today's cash starved world why spend millions of pounds/roubles on nonsense shows which have bugger all to do with the event and loads of fireworks (ok they do look pretty but serve no useful function)
 I can never understand why countries compete for the event, frankly if I were prime minister I'd be in hiding when the Olympic committee come calling (behind the sofa but don't tell them) it nearly broke the UK when we held it and they had to bus in troops to sit in the seats to make it look only half empty.  Maybe holding it in one of the rough areas of London wasn't the best plan then.

Lithium batteries

 The news today is full of concern about lithium batteries, airlines are worried passengers items might cause an in-flight fire.  Well yes lithium batteries do burn rather vigorously, but then they are the same batteries that are in the pilots tablets that are now used instead of flight manuals, and indeed the plane has large lithium back up batteries for the flight instruments (and remember there's been quite a few fires caused by the planes batteries) so maybe passengers should be more worried than the airlines?
The fact remains that lithium batteries are highly inflammable, yet curiously ni-cad batteries (nickel/cadmium) battries which worked nearly as well as lithium were banned because they were toxic, but then at least they didn't burst into flame!

Recycling madness

When I go to the supermarket I have to pay 5p (recycling tax) on a carrier bag, the government says it's to help with the cost of disposing the plastic which lasts thousands of years. Two points come to mind, one is biodegradable plastic bags have been around for ages, indeed the supermarket I mostly use uses them (so why the tax on those?) they break down in months meaning I can't reuse them like other plastic bags, and two, if recycling is so important why does the supermarket now give me three receipts with every shop instead of one?  There goes a tropical rainforest with loads of unnecessary bits of paper, one receipt would do.