Snap Happy

It’s been a while since I intentionally took out my camera with me to shoot some pictures. I do take photos now and again, but I’m really starting to gain a greater interest in DSLR photography. I’ve always been impressed with the results of the 50mm f/1.8 lens I have on my Nikon D50, but the D50 itself is starting to show its age. I got it about four years ago now, and soon after I bought it the camera was discontinued, replaced with the D40 (!?). Since then, DSLR’s have come on leaps and bounds. Even Nikon’s D90 is boasting a HD movie function!

In an ideal world, i’d get a Canon 5D Mk2, but it costs a few grand, so I can sit and forlornly hope that I’ll win the lottery or something. And in the meantime I’ll check a certain Mr Gaz Liddon’s photostream, as I know he’s got a 5D and is also quite a bit better at photography than me! I’ll probably settle for something between the Nikon D90 and the Canon 5D – whatever the middle ground between those two are. But of course, that’s in the future. I think I might get a 18-200mm lens for the D50, or even a 35mm. It’s good to know that the lenses I buy now would be usable on any future Nikon purchase.

Animals are always a good subject to shoot, so a nature reserve was a good place to go – geese, swans, ducks… Take a shedload of food and they’ll follow you round forever.

And today I was once again able to indulge my not-so-secret love of food photography, as evidenced by previous pictures here and here!

Three and Out

Mid April means a lot to me.

Three years ago, maybe even to the day, I went onto Blogger and created my very own Weblog. Not the first one, but one which wasn’t gay and forgotten in a week, instead I hoped that this one would stand the test of time. As well as documenting my thoughts on god knows what, it would also provide me a point of reference as to what was going on at certain points in my life.

Initially on Blogger, i moved my blog onto WordPress in the autumn of 2006. A superior free blogging service, and have been excellent for these past three years. They even let me move my old Blogger posts over here! Although looking back through the archives not all of them have migrated successfully. My first post on here is something about a local newspaper reporting on Nottingham Forest, but if i remember correctly the very first post was a picture of the centre of Nottingham in the early hours. Taken when I had a (very) short lived job in an office.

Luckily, that office job didn’t last long. I won’t name any names, of the people or the company, but the manager was a total TWAT. I can’t abuse the guy enough. No sooner had I left there, I began working at Royal Mail, and three long years later I’m still here! Grateful that I’ve been in employment, sad that I’ve still not found anywhere better or done something a bit more worthwhile in these past few years.

Unlike any other feeble blog attempts, i know for a fact that this blog does get read. I have the odd comments, see the daily web traffic for the site and got a great big clue that I’m being read after a certain Red Dwarf comedy legend Mr Robert Llewellyn posted a comment to a blog post I’d written about his Comic Relief problems…! I could stop doing this blog today safe in the knowledge that it’s been read by Kryten!

So, know i have that little bit of self congratulations out of the way, normal service can be resumed. I’m an avid photographer, I love taking pictures. Whether it is of myself (it often is…) or of places I’ve been to, or indeed my mates, I’m always snapping away. My ‘Blog Anniversary’ got me to thinking that with the amount of pictures of myself I’ve taken over the past three years, i could do a month by month portrait of how I’ve changed – physically – over the years. Let’s face it, i have a weight problem, so I’m always looking back to pictures of when I was thinner. I may as well collect those pictures together and see where I stand now. I’ve lost over a stone in one month, and an online ‘gallery’ can be posted somewhere to show how well (or indeed bad) I’m doing.

It’s something I’ve thought of doing, and a week off work might see me bored enough to get it started. Who knows?

Holiday snaps

After battling the unexpected migraine that came on – of all places – at work yesterday, i’ve got better and spent the evening uploading pictures and videos.

I’ve only got a free account on Flickr at the moment, as the paid account requires you to have a credit card and HSBC won’t let me use mine, so until i get that sorted out – or until i get my head around the Paypal way of paying – then i’ll have to stick to the free account. It’s okay though, you have a monthly allocation of 100MB, meaning i had to trim down the pictures i uploaded, but seeing as next week is November i’ll be back on Flickr to upload some more. The pictures are here.

I’ve started uploading videos on Facebook too, so sometime tonight i should be finished!