New Toy :)

As I've been getting more in to photography I have started to find limitations with my trusty Canon Powershot S2 IS. It's a great camera as has done me proud but now think it is time to move up to the next level.

I have been putting some money aside for a digital SLR and decided to stick with Canon and go for the Canon EOS 450D as it's a good entry level camera (with some great reviews) for me and I'm sure that I will put it's 12.2 Megapixels to good use.

It came supplied with a Canon EF-S 18-55mm IS lens and funds permitting I may think about purchasing some other lenses for it once I have been using it for a while.

I will still keep hold of the S2 as it's super macro facility is great and the 12x optical zoom will always come in handy until I've got a bigger lens for the 450D.

I'm very pleased with the new camera so far and have taken a few snaps, the best of which I will post here soon so watch this space.

August Bank Holiday

Had a pretty busy August Bank Holiday weekend which saw me amongst other things, meeting up with family and friends, having a few evenings out and getting out and about on the bike.

On the Saturday I had agreed to give my good friend Jon a hand to lay a new solid Oak floor. Neither of us had ever laid one of these before so after a couple of bacon rolls and getting tooled up at the local DIY store we made light work of the instructions, ripped up the carpet and got cracking.

The glue that we were using was very sticky and seemed to get everywhere but once we mastered that we managed to progress well. After a day of on our knees and plenty of measuring, hand sawing and gluing we finally laid the last piece at around 8pm. We were both really pleased with our handy work and after a quick clear up we went off down the local pub for a few well deserved pints which soon turned in to a few more...then a few more!!

Just getting in to it now...It's surprising how much thought goes in to laying these things randomly!


Finished result


Under the stairs

Happy Anniversary

Two of my very good friends Si and Rachel celebrated their first wedding anniversary at the start of the month....many congratulations to them.

As I like to do a little something when friends reach this first milestone I decided to have a think to see if I could come up for an original idea for a gift. On the tables during the meal on the wedding day there were little boxes wrapped up like presents with ribbon decorated with the bride and grooms name and the date of their marriage. In England I think these are for good luck and contain sugared almonds (I think!). Luckily I kept hold of mine from the day so dug out the old light box and went to work.

The final shot that I produced was printed then framed in dark. I was pleased with the result and the happy couple were also very happy with the gift.

Infrared Heat

Taken in my garden the other day during a brief spell when it wasn't raining! Where has the UK summer gone??!

Got the Weight Of The World Upon My Shoulders

Ever feel like you've got the weight of the world resting upon your shoulders?

Olympics 08.08.08 - Good luck Team GB

The time for the Olympics is upon us again and now only 4 years to go till London 2012 :)

Good luck to the Great Britain team and I hope they can bring lots of medals back from the orient.

Thumbs Up To Rising Energy Costs!

There is a lot of talk in the UK at the moment about gas and electricity prices which rise by as much as 40% in the coming year. This goes hand in hand with the ever increasing price of food, petrol and pretty much everything else here at the moment!

If only we could produce energy ourselves without the help of power and gas companies.....

Zooomr

I have now been using Flickr for quite some time and have decided that I would also join up and have a go with Zooomr to see what it has to offer.

To start with I'm going to upload my top 20 or so Flickr photos in small batches then see how I go from there.

In the very short time that I've been using the site (a couple of days) I have found that it's similar to Flickr in some ways but also that it has some useful extra features such as being able to share photos with a touch of a button to sites such as Facebook, My Space and many others.

My Zooomr photo page can be seen here and my Zipline (another useful feature) can be seen here.

Anyone For Cards?

Playing around with a deck of playing cards whilst bored one evening a few weeks back.

Higher than an 8.....A King!


We three kings...

Schmap for the iPhone

Back in January I blogged this about the use of one of my old London photos on www.schmap.com for their Guide.

I recently received notification that Schmap has now been published for the iPhone.

Here is the picture that is used on both the London Guide and the iPhone Guide







Shame that I don't get a free iPhone out of the deal!!