Well, a year has passed and another batch have arrived. With the help of the macro light I was able to get these shots.
A view of the gate to give some perspective on how small the spiders were
Closer
Closer still
Friday, 29 May 2009
Baby Spiders Again
I posted last year here about baby spiders in my garden.
Well, a year has passed and another batch have arrived. With the help of the macro light I was able to get these shots.
A view of the gate to give some perspective on how small the spiders were
Closer
Closer still
Well, a year has passed and another batch have arrived. With the help of the macro light I was able to get these shots.
A view of the gate to give some perspective on how small the spiders were
Closer
Closer still
Thursday, 21 May 2009
Oh Deer
Returning home last night after an evening out I was in the kitchen making a drink when I heard a lot of noise coming from my next door neighbours garden.
At first I thought that it was just a hedgehog trying to get in the rubbish but when I popped my head over the fence a startled deer was looking back at me before it bolted and tried to jump a 12' wall (which it failed). The garden next door is completely enclosed and surrounded by high walls and fences so I've no idea how the young stag got in to the garden.
I decided to go inside so I didn't scare it more than I had already but did manage to take a quick shot from a bedroom window.
By this point it was about 1.30am and I didn't really want to knock and wake up the neighbours so decided to leave it till morning as it couldn't come to any harm in the garden.
When I got up this morning and looked out the window there was a broken plant pot next door, a knocked over pot my side and my back gate was open. There were also droppings on my decking which weren't there last night. I can only imagine that it vaulted the fence over in to my garden (which is a good 6' high from their side) and then somehow opened the gate which was latched!!! What a clever creature!
I spoke to next door this morning and they had noticed the broken pot but hadn't heard a thing the night before and were amazed at what I saw as we are not really in too much of a rural location here. I'll print them a copy of the photo to keep.
At first I thought that it was just a hedgehog trying to get in the rubbish but when I popped my head over the fence a startled deer was looking back at me before it bolted and tried to jump a 12' wall (which it failed). The garden next door is completely enclosed and surrounded by high walls and fences so I've no idea how the young stag got in to the garden.
I decided to go inside so I didn't scare it more than I had already but did manage to take a quick shot from a bedroom window.
By this point it was about 1.30am and I didn't really want to knock and wake up the neighbours so decided to leave it till morning as it couldn't come to any harm in the garden.
When I got up this morning and looked out the window there was a broken plant pot next door, a knocked over pot my side and my back gate was open. There were also droppings on my decking which weren't there last night. I can only imagine that it vaulted the fence over in to my garden (which is a good 6' high from their side) and then somehow opened the gate which was latched!!! What a clever creature!
I spoke to next door this morning and they had noticed the broken pot but hadn't heard a thing the night before and were amazed at what I saw as we are not really in too much of a rural location here. I'll print them a copy of the photo to keep.
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
Horror Trees
Spotted these 2 gnarled and misshapen trees whilst out and about. Would imagine they would look good in a scene for a horror movie.
Sunday, 10 May 2009
New Flashgun
I have been wanting to get hold of a flashgun for some time now as I'm an avid reader of Strobist.com and also fans of various flickrites that use off camera flashguns to create some excellent and artistic effects.
I really wanted a Canon flashgun but both the Canon Speedlite 580EX and the 430EX are currently out of my price range so I thought I'd get a 3rd party one which I can always use as a slave in the future when I can afford more than one!
So, on a bit of an impulse purchase I bought a Nissin Di622 Canon compatible flashgun. I'm fairly pleased with it so far although haven't played with it too much yet. The only disappointment is that it is not compatible with cheap ebay wireless flash controllers. So, for off camera flash I need to trigger it with the cameras built in flash or manually press a button on the gun! This is mainly a problem as you may not always want light on the subject from the front. Still, I'm working on a cheap solution which may avoid this but long term my plan is to get at least one more flashgun then that can be used to trigger the Nissin.
I really wanted a Canon flashgun but both the Canon Speedlite 580EX and the 430EX are currently out of my price range so I thought I'd get a 3rd party one which I can always use as a slave in the future when I can afford more than one!
So, on a bit of an impulse purchase I bought a Nissin Di622 Canon compatible flashgun. I'm fairly pleased with it so far although haven't played with it too much yet. The only disappointment is that it is not compatible with cheap ebay wireless flash controllers. So, for off camera flash I need to trigger it with the cameras built in flash or manually press a button on the gun! This is mainly a problem as you may not always want light on the subject from the front. Still, I'm working on a cheap solution which may avoid this but long term my plan is to get at least one more flashgun then that can be used to trigger the Nissin.
Thursday, 7 May 2009
Samsung NC10 Review
When I finished my last job I handed back the company laptop which I used at home and within a day I was missing it as I had to keep going upstairs every time I wanted to check my email so decided to put my collection money and some of the redundancy cash to good use and I purchased a Samsung NC10 Netbook.
I have been using it for a month or so now and thought I'd write a quick review and post some photos.
It's an excellent little netbook and the battery life is fantastic. On a full charge I've been able to get well over 5 hours of usage. I thought that with only a 10.2" 1024x600 resolution screen it would be a little too small but it's actually fine for most tasks and is very portable at only 1.33kg.
The keyboard is a good size and great to type on and the mouse track pad is small but perfectly formed - scrolling functions work well as do the gestures for zooming etc. The only things I can say against the keyboard is that you have to press the Fn key to access the Home and End commands which can be a little annoying and the right shift key is pretty small but you soon get used to it.
Other features include a 1.3MP integrated webcam which seems to perform well even in poor light conditions and a SD memory card slot which is useful to have for instant reviewing or backing up of photos whilst on the move.
I upgraded the shipped 1GB of RAM up to 2GB which helps it along and the netbook is quick to start up and get online. Processor hungry operations such as editing hi resolution photos can be a little slow but for most day to day operations and surfing the web it performs well.
Pros
Very light and extremely mobile
Excellent battery life
Screen is bright and very clear
Speakers which are very good considering their size
Very quiet
Good build quality
Easy to setup with clear instructions
Cons
Screen can be a little small depending what you are doing you sometimes have to scroll quite a bit
No integrated SIM slot for mobile broadband
No optical drive
All in all I think this is a good little netbook and well worth the price of just over £300 which I paid on www.ebuyer.com
I have been using it for a month or so now and thought I'd write a quick review and post some photos.
It's an excellent little netbook and the battery life is fantastic. On a full charge I've been able to get well over 5 hours of usage. I thought that with only a 10.2" 1024x600 resolution screen it would be a little too small but it's actually fine for most tasks and is very portable at only 1.33kg.
The keyboard is a good size and great to type on and the mouse track pad is small but perfectly formed - scrolling functions work well as do the gestures for zooming etc. The only things I can say against the keyboard is that you have to press the Fn key to access the Home and End commands which can be a little annoying and the right shift key is pretty small but you soon get used to it.
Other features include a 1.3MP integrated webcam which seems to perform well even in poor light conditions and a SD memory card slot which is useful to have for instant reviewing or backing up of photos whilst on the move.
I upgraded the shipped 1GB of RAM up to 2GB which helps it along and the netbook is quick to start up and get online. Processor hungry operations such as editing hi resolution photos can be a little slow but for most day to day operations and surfing the web it performs well.
Pros
Cons
All in all I think this is a good little netbook and well worth the price of just over £300 which I paid on www.ebuyer.com
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