A few springtime snaps around the old homestead
Well, the weather has perked up a bit, But we can’t actually go out and do very much because of coronavirus lockdown. So I thought Id take a few springtime snaps around the old homestead.
General
These are a few general observations that might be of interest to some people.
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Stag Beetle Larvae in my garden
I decided to a bit of work in the garden yesterday afternoon. As I was clearing away some of the dead wood from some old tree stumps round the back of my shed, I came across these wee beasties. They were massive. Unfortunately they were a tad camera-shy, but before they curled up, they were…
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Installing our weather station
Here are a few snaps taken as we installed Weather Station Aercus Weathersleuth WH24 External Sensor Cluster. It really needed to be up as high as possible, yet reasonably easy to maintain. It also needed to be clear of obstructions. Well, as clear as our postage-stamp sized backyard will allow. The only viable place was…
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Why I quite like USB C
A lot of folks complaining that they have to go buy yet another set of USB leads, thanks to this newfangled USB C plug that’s come along. So what’s it all about and why do practically all new smartphones come equipped with it? Main reason is that it allows suitably equipped mobile devices to charge…
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Trump memes collection
Just a wee collection of Donald Trump memes I have collected over the years. I plan to add to the collection from time-to-time, as I stumble across them. Some of them are a bit rude. But then again, so is Trump…
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Merry Christmas 2020
Seems we had to put up with Donald Trump, Brexit and Coronavirus all in one year! Here in Havant on the south coast of England, we are now in what our Government describes as a coronavirus Tier 4 area. Personally I don’t mind staying at home. I have enough food, half a bottle of decent-is…
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A few more favourite things
I needed a few pictures for another article I’m writing. While I had everything set up, I thought I’d take a few additional snaps of various bits-and-bobs I have kicking around the studio.
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Good riddance to Orange Blotus
At approximately 16:25 UTC today, 2020-11-07, the result of the 2020 US presidential election was finally called. Joe Biden is the 46th President elect of the United States. Apparently Orange Blotus is somewhat displeased and is threatening all sorts of court action and other nonsense. Seems Trump thinks he can bully the United States government…
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Why does Google think I’m at Barnard Castle?
In fact, I am 416 kilometres away from Barnard Castle, as the crow flies, or about 500km by road. Granted, I very seldom use Google as a search engine. I use privacy-aware searches instead such as DuckDuckGo. I have also been to great lengths to prise my rooted smartphone from Google’s clutches too. But my…
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Sliderule – the eco-friendly computer from days of old
Some of my favourite computers require no PSU, no batteries, no RAM, no disks, no upgrades and they are 100% resistant to all known malware. No, I’m not talking about some newfangled GNU/Linux. I’m talking about good old fashioned sliderules. 🙂 Sliderules top to bottom… Top: Darmstadt 304. Despite its German-sounding name, this sliderule was…
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I’m the operator with my pocket calculator
Like in that old Kraftwerk song, I have a bit of a penchant for small pocket calculators. These are a few of my oldest examples. In fact the Sharp Elsimate dates back to 1973 and belonged to my late father.
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Easter display
A little thing like Covid was not going to prevent my Zsuzsi creating one of her Easter displays. We photographed the 2020 edition in the garden.
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Working from home during the current crisis
Seems a lot of people are struggling working from home rather than going into the office. Some are suggesting that a daily routine helps them. Personally, I don’t really have a daily routine – providing I can start the day with a strong black coffee and have my daily “number two’s”, then I’m sorted. 🙂…
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Coronavirus misinformation
Evil bastards exploit crisis in order to turn a fast buck Seems Facebook does not have a monopoly on coronavirus misinformation. Just checked a honeypot email account I keep active just to see what spam is currently doing the rounds. In addition to the usual plethora of luscious babes who are dying to have sex…
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Shattaf – a healthy solution to the toilet roll shortage
Left: complete installation including toilet, cistern, isolating valve hose, mounting bracket and the shattaf itself. Right: Close-up of shattaf. It is quite small, measuring approximately 11 cm long and about 6 cm front-to-back. As the coronavirus crisis deepens, seems we also have the deeply undignified spectacle of fully grown adults publicly fighting each other as…
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Covid 19 “Honest Government Ad”
They say “many a true word spoken in jest“. This seems particularly applicable to this short “honest government” video produced by Australia’s JuiceMedia… Background to the video JuiceMedia’s “Honest Government Ad” started life as satire. But its probably the most truthful representation where we are right now with COVID-19. This associated video podcast explains its…
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Merry Christmas 2019
Where’s Boris? By Zsuzsanna Dora Majlati
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Rescuing a starling trapped in our bird feeder
This morning I heard a strange commotion outside the studio window, From the corner of my eye, I could see that the transparent bird feeder appeared to be moving on its own. On close inspection I discovered that the incredibly boisterous and greedy young starlings we have round here had smashed the lid off the…
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Strange cloud
A strange cloud formation in the northern sky round the back of our house.
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Merry Christmas 2018
These splendid-looking geese are residents at the Weald and Down Open Air Museum, West Sussex, England.
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St Huberts Church and Rowlands Castle
Today we took a drive to take some snaps of the tiny St Huberts Church in the Idsworth Valley, Hampshire, We then went on to Rowlands Castle.
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Lymington and Langley
Took a trip to Lymington, Hampshire, then to Langley, near Blackfield and took a few snaps of a large stag beetle.
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Zsuzsi’s Easter display
Zsuzsi’s Easter display through wacky 60’s filters. I just bought a set of these things cheap on eBay and wanted to try them out…
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Cheap and cheerful overhead camera mount for mirrorless camera
Cheap and cheerful overhead camera mount for mirrorless camera. I reckon this is actually pretty safe up to about 2kg. Though I normally use a heavy cable tie as an emergency strap.
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The Big Russian – my MTO 1000 mm catadioptric lens
This is by far my largest and longest focal-length lens. Rumour has it that the MTO 1000 mm catadioptric lens was “standard issue” to KGB surveillance operatives during the Cold War Era. MTO itself also has an interesting history. Seems it started out by making the huge glass reflectors for Russian anti-aircraft arc-lights. It made…
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Experimenting with Fujian 35mm f/1.7 CCTV lens
Experimenting with Fujian 35mm f/1.7 CCTV lens. This is a cheap £10.00 lens off eBay. It is designed for CCTV. However with a simple £1.00 “C” to µ4/3 adaptor it fits nicely and works well with my little Lumix DMC GX7. These are some of the results… Actually, I’m a big fan of the…
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Setting up a home studio
Editors note: this article is a few years old and there are updates and related posts that some readers may find helpful… 2016 – Converting inexpensive LED flood lights for use in the studio 2017 – Cheap but effective continuous studio lighting 2018 – Cheap and cheerful overhead camera mount for mirrorless camera 2019 –…
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Silver mannequins
I was given a pair of broken but usable silver-painted mannequins by a photographer pal. Here are a few snaps of them as they arrived in their new home and saw their first tours of duty in my studio…
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Merry Christmas 2016
Geese lament over Brexit and Trump. Painted by Zusannah Dora Majlati, 2016.
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My cheap new Amazon Basics photographic rucksack
A couple of days ago, I purchased an “amazon basics” camera+laptop rucksack, for the princely sum of £ £35.49. delivered. Well it just arrived. So time to check it out, and move in. I have to say I’m actually quite impressed. This model also has a built-in laptop carrier too that comfortably holds a 40…
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Aliens ate my shed
Slightly off-the-wall experiment with a pair of broken mannequins and some cheap but effective RGB LED lighting.
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Repairing an elderly Tamron 80-210mm lens (103A)
I’ve had this old but very chunky Tamron 80-210mm Adaptall 2 telephoto zoom lens since the mid 1980s. Only I noticed that the overall image quality had become rather poor. I wanted to find out why. When I shone a small torch through it, I noticed what appeared to be a haze. Despite several cleans…
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Macro with a 58mm 44-m4 Helios lens and a 10 mm macro ring
Macro shots using an elderly Soviet era 58mm 44-m4 Helios lens and a 10 mm macro ring. Much to my surprise, it seems to work remarkably well, certainly on my little µ4/3 camera. I particularly like how the shots of my cute little Юпитер (Jupiter) 50mm f/2 came out…
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Merry Christmas 2015
“Oh no it isn’t!” A little goosy Yuletide humour. Mr Goose objects to his fellow geese being eaten for Christmas.
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Checking out my new lens tilt mechanism
I treated myself to a lens tilt mechanism and a vintage Helios 4m-44 58mm f/2 lens. So I figured I needed to go out and test them. These were taken from Portsdown Hill, facing south, over Portchester and Cosham. Being able to tilt the lens means one can shift the focus onto a particular part…
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Merry Christmas 2014
The Goose that Never Voted for Christmas Lovingly drawn by Zsuzsanna Dora Majlati Well, it’s been a funny old year. Lots of hard work going on behind the scenes, but not a great deal to show publicly for all the effort. The new Joomla site is still in progress – struggling to use our existing…
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2013 Retrospective
2013 was quite an interesting year for me, not least because we finally moved way from my tiny terraced cottage overlooking Southampton common, to a much larger place, where there is enough room for a reasonably usable home studio. Only moved 35km, but it felt like moving to another planet. Of course, it takes a…
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Merry Christmas 2013
Christmas card 2013. Ebenezer Goose at St Faith’s, Havant. In 935AD, Havant was known as “Hamafunta” – the spring of Hama – referring to the water spring to the south-west of St Faith’s Churchyard. The settlement was located at the crossing point of the track from the Downs to the coast and another track running…
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Merry Christmas 2012
Mr Goose’s (not so) secret Yuletide hideaway.
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Day trip to Hayling Island
I took a day trip to Hayling Island today, armed with a little Fuju HS20 EXR bridge camera.
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Pictures to sell a house with
Trying to sell our house and move somewhere with a bit more room. However the pictures taken by various estate agents (realtors if you are American) are nothing short of bloody awful. So I thought I’d have a crack at it myself.
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Merry Christmas 2011
Christmas card 2011. “Ebenezer Goose discusses his Christmas dinner.” More goosy nonsense courtesy of Mr.Goose’s infamous Webfooted Weblog:- https://garfnet.org.uk/mrgoose Take a trip down memory lane and browse all our earlier Christmas cards in our special on-line Christmas Card Anthology:- https://garfnet.org.uk/cms/category/christmas-cards/ Image was created/edited using GIMP, a free, open source graphics package bundled with many Linux…
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Steampunk watchstraps
I seem to have accumulated quite a lot of old wrist watches that have no straps (or “bands” if you are American). So I needed to figure out a way of being able to use them. Then I saw these straps on eBay. They are genuine leather and they only cost a few quid a…
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Merry Christmas 2010
Christmas card 2010, “The Old Cemetery in the Snow.” The Old Cemetery runs alongside Southampton Common, about 800 metres from where I live and work. It is a beautiful and peaceful place at any time of year. However, it seems particularly photogenic after a heavy snowfall. Earlier Christmas cards:- https://garfnet.org.uk/cms/category/christmas-cards
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Pécs open air concert and dancers
Spent the day in Pécs, watching the summer concert and dancers.
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Aircraft HA-MDT and HA-MAM spray insecticide over Pécs
Another warm afternoon in Pécs.as a pair of very noisy biplanes buzzed overhead for an hour or two spraying insecticide over the city. Their purpose was to kill mosquitoes. The aircraft were single-engined, twin-winged PZL-Mielec AN-2R, tail numbers HA-MDT and HA-MAM. They looked and sounded like something that belonged pre-World War 2. However, they were…
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The Candovers and Alresford
Today we took a day trip to the Candovers in Hampshire with old friends. While there, I took a few snaps of Church of the Virgin Mary, Preston Candover. We the went on to Alresford.
