Something a little different

Having a play about and got this.

A railing and some leaves

Shot on different days on different make cameras.

Fungi

Got these the other day.

Lockdown?

I've tried not to comment here on the lockdown but it's reached a point where I just have to. The original idea sort of made sense. It was to reduce the burden on the already failing NHS, huge numbers were predicted and full panic mode was engaged. The trouble is that simply didn't happen, numbers never got anywhere near the predicted levels, all those costly MASH style portable hospitals only ever had a handfull patients between them. (where did they come from at such short notice, it's almost like they had them and the thusands of extra beds they put up in community centres just waiting). So now to second lockdown. Yes numbers went up, although considering they are including heart attack victims and motorcycle accidents thats hardly a supprise. Officially the two biggest problems were pubs and universaties... yet instead of just shutting these we the "fire break" lockdown. This is where the problems start. First off the only country showing continually falling numbers is the one that didn't have any lockdowns. Seconly I might just wear the second lockdown if the so called leaders made rules that made some remote bit of sense. AS it stande I can go to tesco to buy bread but I can't buy the toaster in the next aisle. Fair enough not have the seperate electrical good shop open but having the shop already open and stopping them selling one is just bonkers. This is the problem. Our leaders are making such bonkers rules you have to wonder if they are really capable of running a bath never mind a country. Clearly this lot are in the fruit loop I'm a squirrel group and not fit to be out without a carer. Roll on next elections a lot of people will be having a serious think about how to vote, and who to vote for. Time we had a common sense party!

Crashing your car into deep water!

Crashing your car into deep water. Now this is a lot more common in some countries than here in the UK although it does happen from time to time. Indeed some years back I fished a chap out of Llanelli docks after his car went in. He got lucky the tide was about half out, the top of his car was above water and he was more or less unhurt. In places like the US with a lot more bodies of water used for recreation and lots of unfenced roads it seems a lot more common. Now for many many years the official advice given was to wait until the car sinks to the bottom. Open a window slightly and let the water in. As the level rises the water pressure will equalise and you'll be able to open the door and swim away.... All well and good EXCEPT you'll almost certainly be dead if you follow that advice. More recent tests and studies have shown the above mentioned official advice to be leathal. You see first off many modern cars have electric windows and locks which probably wont work under water. Secondly and more importantly, test have shown that it can take as long as 5 minutes with the windows open for the presure inside a car to equalise enough for the door to be opened. Now if your name is Houdini or you happen to be the world breath holding champion this is fine... If your not your screwed! Modern advice is you bail out as soon as possible while the car still floats, dont wait, just get out quick. Get your seat belt off and shove the door open and get away.

Evening light

Sunsets again.

Yes I know it's another sunset but I like sunsets.

Do you really need a tripod?

I think we're getting close to the days of not really needing a tripod soon. Modern high iso cameras, image stabilization and fast lens mean it's getting easier to shoot hand held in very poor light. Back in my days as a press photographer I used to be able to hand hold a two second exposure and get a good image, old age means I can't do that any more but tech means it's possible to "get away" with quite slow shutter speeds. So will we be able to "bin" our tripods? I'd say no, not yet anyway. Plus we'll still need them for the REALLY slow exposures like waterfalls and milky ways. Dont fancy my chances of hand holding thirty seconds, hell I'd be lucky to stand up that long these days.... One hand held from last night.

Wayne is not a happy bunny!

Yep I'm having one of those days! First I woke up with a terrible headache, then my parcel of lights arrived and.. oh joy! One is the bloody wrong one (and I needed two) now it's a question of getting another, my suspicion is they haven't got two the same, it's not a common set of lights so finding a match will be well nigh impossible if they havent got another. The final nail in todays coffin is something else has gone missing, bloody poltergeist! It's a test meter for checking current etc. Not something likly to be "borrowed" from it's place, and I use it a lot so it has it's own place. I'd kill the poltergeist if it wasn't already dead..... bastard...

Dark and moody!

No folks, we're not talking about my smouldering good looks, yes I know I look like a young George Clooney, but it's not my looks I'm talking about... (ed. George Clooney after a really really bad accident involving a steam roller and several sledge hammers) These are a few pics given the dark and moody treatment using a Photoshop action I made years back. I actually did three pics but I'm buggered if I can find the third one now.

Flowers 21st Oct

Yes we're back to flowers for the moment... hopefully have something different soon.

More sunsets.... and skys

Yes it's more local sunsets for the time being.

Dueling owls!

No I'm not talking Harry Potter, and I'm not totally barking... yet (ok I'm close). No I'm talking dueling owls. Think of the dueling banjos from the 1972 film Deliverence and your getting close. I have a number of owls living in the trees near my house, a few nights now I've had the owls dueling with owl noises, you know the ‘twit twoo’ sound but at least 3 ‘twit twoo’ having a go. They are also real close, it's quite loud with the windo open. That said I don't mind too much, I like country sounds. Oh incidently the dueling banjos wasn't made for the Deliverence movie, it goes back to 1954 and composed by Arthur "guitar boogie" Smith as a bluegrass tune. It's first big public viewing was the Andy Griffiths show in 1963. The movie version also led to a lawsuit as it was used without permission. The movie version was arrenged and played by Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell. It even reached number one on several song hit lists.

Todays oil painting style pics 18th Oct

Ok it's back to flowers until I get time to go wandering.

Todays pics Oct 15th sunsets and other stuff

Some more recent pics from the beach.

Dont know what these are but they are pretty

Red sky at night...!

As my dear dad used to say red sky at night. barn is alight! Some pics from my local beach. I've not altered colours or exposures in photoshop, these have just been cropped and resized for the blog. The colours are as they came off camera with Canons standard profile. The sky was that red.

Sunsets and night shots

Got these last night night, so keeping the flowers in reserve...

Skys, sea and mostly more sky.. and people on the beach...

Got these last night.