Weird dreams

 

 I get some really weird dreams, now I know it's a side effect of my medication, but they can be really strange.  

 To be fair it's not nightmares, just odd dreams, one strange effect is I can have what sxeems like a LONG   dream , then wake up to find I've only been asleep a short while.

 Sometimes I can remember the dreams in the morning, mostly I can only remember having them, but not the content.

 Still on the plus side it could be worse, one of my meds is famous for causing "night terrors"  Something I only get whan I look in a mirror....

Aviation accidents yesterday

 

 Yesterday was a bad day aviation wise.  A passenger plane had a mid air with a helicopter over Washington.  64 people on the plane and 3 in the helicopter are dead.

 In the Sudan another aircraft carrying oil workers crashed on take off, 20 are claimed dead, with 1 survivor.

Wheels black and white.

 

 Got a few funny looks taking this shot.  Canon 6d2 and Yongnuo 50mm

 

 

Black and white beach.

 

 A reworking of a picture I took a little while ago. Canon 7d

 

 

Nothing is forever.

 

 While walking the other night I got to thinking about life, the universe, and everything (and no it's not 42) Douglas Adams fans will understand that bit.

 But being serious life is fairly fleeting, oh we think living toll 80 or 90 is a good age, and it is.  Indeed in the early 1800's the average life expectany was around 40, and in the middle ages it was closer to 30.  So yes, 80 or 90 is a good innings.

 Yet when you look at it more long term, it's a bit crap. Man as we know him/her Homo Sapiens have only been around for about a 190.000 years.  Even the oldest spieces of human has been around for 7 million years, yet earth have been here about 4.5 billion years.  Our puny 190.000 looks small by comparrison.

 The earth as we know it was very different just a 180 millon years ago, the continents were mostly all joined up.  This makes you think.  In another 180 million years what will it look like?  Remember the continets are still moving, ok it's jolly slow, but move they do.

 So the things we take as fixed points, America, Everest, the North pole, whatever, wont always be there.  In about 400 million years there will be no trace of mankind if we died out now.   (the earth crust recycles itself over time) Thats a sobering thought.  With wars, pandemics and climate changes (the last ice age was only about 100.000 years ago) who know how long we might last.

 Then the  REALLY long term.  Earth will cease to exist in around 4.3 billion years, experts expect our sun to expand as it dies and become a red giant, swallowing earth. 

 Ok, thats a bloody long time away, so no need to rehome the cat and cancel the milk and window cleaner.  But maybe investing in some factor 40 million sun cream?  Maybe not.

  But on a closer to home note, think of your friends, family and neighbours.  They wont always be around.  Yes they may seem solid and permenent, but sadly one day they will be gone.  Often without warning.  So make sure the people you care about know, that you care about them.

 Give them a hug, ring them and say I was mising you, whatever.  Maybe when they do go you will feel that bit better for knowing they had nice thoughts of you.  And whan your time comes, you'll know people cared about you too.  As the old saying goes never part on an argument.

 Who knows, maybe it'll make the world a better place now.

Health update

 

 Those who follow this blog know I have had some health issues, some for years.  Last year was a bad one for me health wise.  I had a few nasty infections/viruses.  Well some good news and some maybe not.

 The good news is one of my problems has inproved a lot.  The bad news is some of the tests I had done have shown up other problems, I have a doctors appointment on monday when I'll know more.

 That said I'm still here and taking pictures, when I can get out.

Will killer robots take over the world?

 

 Will killer robots take over the world?  I have my doubts!

 From what I've seen of computers, as clever as they are, they are buggered without us puny humans to work them.

 For example, today I asked my computer to copy over 850mb of images to a zip drive.  No problems you say, well, not quite.  You see it worked fine while I sat there watching it, the second I went to make a cuppa it had a hissy fit and stopped.

 Oh, it worked fine when I came back and sat by the bastard, but do a simple job on it's own, no hope.

 Thats why I'm not worried by killer robots.  You see as soon as the bloke on the computer desk gets up to make a cup of tea, the bloody robots will all stop work and go on strike.  Will they kill anybody, like fuck they will if theres no bugger sitting at the keyboard.  It's down tool and have a meeting.

Bolts again.

 

 A different version of the bolts image.

 

 

Tree

 

 Tree from today.

 

The glove and bolts

 

 Not a trendy pub name but a rough title of these two images.  Shot on the TZ80 compact.

 

 

Wood texture and a flower.

 

 Few texture shots and an oil painting style flower.

 

 

Logs black and white.

 

 I posted the colour version a few days ago, heres the BW version.  Shot on my phone.

 

 

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!

Lia the dog.

 

 Just a quick picture of Lia the dog, shot on my phone.

 

Aviation news

 Interesting accident in Kenya, a Cessna 172n crashed in Malindi, the three people on board survived, but sadly three people on the ground died.

 There seems to be a lot of incidents involving aircraft tyres and wheels recently. Don't see any obvious connection between them though.

A Caridair CL 415 carrying out firefighting near Santa Monica hit a small drone, the aircraft sustained some minor damage but made a safe landing.

Wood mostly black and white pics.

 

 Yes I know, more bloody cut trees.  But time and the weather are against me for getting out properly.  All taken today on a Sony ZV1 camera.

 

 

Missing stuff turned up.

 

 On the 24th Dec I mentioned two microphones and a viewfunder going missing.  Well the items have turned up.

 The viewfunder is in it's own pouch and was tucked away and found fairly easily, it was with a few tripods and other stuff.

 The microphones on the other are a different issue.  They turned up in their box marked microphones in a box of other camera bits and pieces (filters, brackets, some flash leads etc)  The proble is I searched this box at least twice.

 I'm fairly good at searching, I dont just look in something, I empty it out and replace the contents one by one.  It's hard to miss a 6 inch box that your looking for that way.  Especially one with microphone written on it, and it's the only box like that in the bigger box of stuff.

 I really dont know what to make ot it.  It's nobody playing silly buggers.  It was just a random thing that I missed them in the first place, nobody else knew I was going to use them even.  

Can I be loosing my mind and not seeing the bleeding obvious?  Well at my age it's possible, but my memory isnt bad for my age (I can even remember my own name!) and I manage to use lots of complicated gear ok.

 Fair enough I forget the odd actors name, but thats just old age and not really caring about his or her name (Walton Goggins is the actor by the way) and to be fair he's a damm good actor, but I digress.

 So whats going to happen next?  What bit of kit will go AWOL?  Buggered if I know!

Black and white wood.

 

 One from a few days ago.

 

 

Old aircraft.

 

 During high winds and onler aircraft was damaged in Germany..... 82 year old in fact.  It seems this and another old aircraft are used for sightseeing flights (as far as my German goes)   I do however wonder how old is too old?

 The DC3 built in 1943 is one of around a 150 still in flying condition.  Personally while I'd happily watch it fly, I dont fancy it myself. 

  How many 1943 cars are still running the public about, not many I'll wager, and if they go wrong you phone the AA.  If your plane goes wrong it's a tad more tricky!

More ex trees

 

 Some more shots of the trees damaged by the last big storm, they've just about finished making the place safe.

 

  TZ 80 compact.

 

 

Feeling miserable today!

 

 I'm having a bit of a bad day today.  While my health issues are improving, I'm feeling really fed up and a bit depressed.  The grim weather isnt helping, it's dark, wet, and gloomy a lot.  That coupled with the Christmas is affecting me.

 Truth be told I could do with a proper holiday, but thats not going to happen for a number of reasons I wont bore you with.  I need to get out more though, and I need time to relax and chill out.  I'm on the go most of the time, and I'm no youngster.  I'm an old fart if I'm honest!

 Anyway, tomorrow a busy day (as usual) I have a  list of things I have to do, and with that and the stuff I have to do in the house, I cant say I'm looking forward to the day.

 

More light lines...

 

 I was hoping to get out and get some fresh pictures, but sadly it's poured down all day, I got soaked just putting food out for the birds.

 Anyway heres a few more of the light pictures played with.

 

 

Whisky and a few "light trails" pictures

 

 While waiting earlier on I took these pics, they are my Christmas tree lights, with a pic of zoom and panning and playing about with.

 I'm sitting here listening to the pouring rain sipping a 12 year old Macallans whisky (sherry oak cask) and very nice it is too !

 These pics shot on a Canon 7d with 18-135mm kit lens.

Camera bag sort out.

 

 Now I use a number of different cameras for different things, most of the pics posted here are either the Lumix TZ80 compact, or a Canon 6d2 with various lens.  

 Now how it works is I have several different kits for different things.  My 6d2 for example lives in it's own bag with 4 lens that I just use with that camera.

 The bigger problem is my main bag, thats just got stupid heavy.  Ok It's my own fault, I'd rather have and not need, than need and not have something on a serious shoot.

 The bag has two full frame bodies with grips, six lens, three flashguns, a video light, a set of off camera flash triggers for two of the flashes, the third has it's own off camera trigger.  Plus the load of other bits and pieces.

 Spare batteries are heavy, I usually have four spare camera battries, and six or seven sets of flash batteries.  Thats a fair bit of weight just on it's own.

 I also have flash diffusers for on and off camera flash, flash colour filters (not used them in anger) a first aid kit, even a towel, really handy.

 The real issue is weight, it's honestly silly now.  The trouble is you dont always know what you'll need on a shoot.  This way I can comer pretty much anything.  That said I am going to have to go lighter, my knackered old body isn't up to it these days.

 

Frosty morning walk (part two)

 

 Ok, to be fair more of the frosty shots went in part one, but these were taken the same time.  Canon 6d2 and Canon 24-85mm lens.

 

 

Frosty morning walk.Part one)

 Managed to get a walk in today.  Took the Canon 6d2 and 24-85mm lens, all the pics are shot on that, I did take other lens but didn't need them.