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.
General
These are a few general observations that might be of interest to some people.
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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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FAQ | General | Journal | Nature | Technology
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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Digital pictures | General | Journal | Nature | Photography
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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Digital pictures | General | Journal | Nature | Photography
Strange cloud
A strange cloud formation in the northern sky round the back of our house.
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Digital pictures | General | Journal | Photography | Studio
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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Digital pictures | General | Journal | Photography | Studio
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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Digital pictures | General | Journal | Photography | Studio
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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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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Digital pictures | Electronics | General | Journal | LED | Lighting | Photography | Spoof
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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Digital pictures | General | Journal | Photography | Retrospective | Studio | Travelogue
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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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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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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Digital pictures | General | Hong Kong | Journal | Photography | Technology | Travelogue
Hong Kong Museum
Back in Hong Kong for a few days. Today we’re in Kowloon visiting the Hong Kong Museum. I must be getting old because I remember seeing a lot of this stuff for sale in Woolworth’s when I was kid
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FAQ | General | Journal | Photography | Technology
Cleaning a camera CCD with a vacuum cleaner and a Lens Pen
I had Fuji S1, S2 & S3, all of which had dust magnets for sensors! They would get dirty even if I did not remove the lenses, simply from the air that got sucked in by varying the focal length of the lens. However, I cleaned them quite successfully with a vacuum cleaner. However there…
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Southampton Common in the Snow
There was an unusually heavy fall of snow overnight. So I thought I would wander across to the Common and grab a few snaps.
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Digital pictures | General | Journal | LED | Lighting | Photography | Studio
Christmas tree lit by LED
Our little Christmas tree looks quite pretty this year. And we decorated it with a very long string of LED lights.
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Digital pictures | General | Journal | Photography | Road Trip | Travelogue
Langley Tavern and Lepe Beach
Went out to the New Forest to visit my mother, in the little red MX5. While we were there, I took the opportunity top gather some images of Lepe Beach and the now dilapidated Langley Tavern. I also took a few snaps of my shiny new Eton S350DL multiband radio.
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Digital pictures | General | Journal | Nature | Photography | Travelogue
Southampton Common
Another walk across Southampton Common, camera in hand
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Digital pictures | General | Journal | Nature | Photography
A few snaps in the garden
Garden looks unusually pretty this year. Especially considering I have no gardening skills or inclination whatsoever. But I do quite enjoy taking photos.
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General | Journal | Politics | Technology
Britain’s metrication fiasco
Britain has made a complete hash of metrication whilst failing to teach its young the basic numeracy skills to deal with the ridiculous anomalies that have arisen as a result. E.g… People who think 7.5 lbs is the same as 7 lb 5 oz. People who think of 0 as freezing 0 as boiling and…
