Blog 26 - New Camera - Nikon D500
Well today is the day i pick up new camera a Nikon D500, just ticked every box that i need in camera at the moment, having looked at alternative makes & models I had budget in mind that i wanted to spend a long list of features some of them must haves and some i would need and likes. Seriously looked at so many cameras we are so spoilt for choice had money been no object i would have gone straight to the Nikon D850. I had spreadsheet of features listed and the D500 ticked the majority and has proven track record on performance for a sport camera to anything you through at it. I looked at mirrorless but do want to wait to see what Nikon and Cannon offer but this will keep me going for a while and will review later on in the year. 1st shot was London Canary Wharf
1 Comment
Blog 25 - London The Shard
Saturday and Its January 2018 after the usual lazy Christmas planned a trip to London for a photo challenge with Shard being the subject from multiple locations and of course a trip round borough Market and pint in the pub. Managed to get cheap return tickets from Birmingham into Euston and was in London by 8.30 for a coffee and breakfast and then tube across to the Shard and the pictures tell the rest of the story a great day, here just a selection Blog 24 - Kenilworth Castle
Well another round of rain and then snow and sitting in front of the TV and eating left over Turkey really fancied a walk. so packed up the camera bag and headed out for Kenilworth Castle. The road to Kenilworth was flooded and road closed as normally happens when we have a serious amount of rain, the river looked high. Parked up and got wrapped up the fields seriously flooded in fact the old moat / lake that originally surrounded Kenilworth Castle was back never seen it like this, so perfect opportunity to get the Mavic in the air and from above you can really see the flood and what the original landscape looked like around this fantastic castle. . Something I’ve never done before light painting, so opportunity came along with Instagram Coventry and fellow instagram @uknights in the old Coventry Evening Telegraph building within the disused basements.
Painting with light requires merely a light source, a dark space, a camera with manually adjustable shutter speed, and a tripod – nothing more, its not something new the idea of moving a light source during a long exposure, this gained popularity in the 1930s with the American artist Man Ray produced his Space Writing portraits. The light source you use can be anything from a sparkler to a glow stick, but LEDs are ideal because they are safe and give out a fair amount of light these can be attached to anything from bicycle wheels to poles and rope. As you can see images below really able to create something different Settings ISO 200 F/9 shutter speed between 5sec and 1m 20 seconds Forecast was snow and yes it snowed and snowed! so woke up early camera and coffee flask and out in the car it was bad not very often its this deep so managed to get the car about 5 miles before it wasn’t going to go any further.
This was a sunrise shot at my local wood, I actually just had a walk through the woods and didn’t really get a shot or composition i was very happy with, so up went me drone for a shots and the colour just popped the sun was hitting the trees from the side and on the corner of this ancient woodland this image just had to be taken.
Taken at about 300ft 1/120 sec at f2.2 ISO100 this was just before 8.00am the sun had not got very high in the sky and it just worked looking straight down and at a quick glance it looks like coral happy with that went home for a bacon butty and cup of tea! Stourhead includes a Palladian house and world-famous landscape garden. The garden is perhaps the most beautiful and magical of all the great landscape gardens, Stourhead is an 18th-century view of an Arcadian paradise. On a plateau of high ground Stourhead house was built and became home to generations of the Hoare family now run by National Trust The garden in Autumn is something I've never seen before and was blown away with its beauty, It was another early start and the only people there was a few photographers already setup with Tripods and flask of tea, so i joined them and photographed as i walked around the gardens and lake. Well worth a visit but by the time i finished just before 10.00am coach loads of visitors turned up and I made my exit home. Satnav: BA12 6QD https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/stourhead This was early morning Aerial Shoot, Batsford Arboretum has the largest private tree collection in the country and Autumn colours can be stunning having visiting many times to go round the arboretum i just wanted a sunrise shot from above. As on many ocasions the beautiful autumn sunrise with the great colour just didn’t happen, but managed to get a couple of shots, good thing about this time of the year sunrise is at more readable time 6.30-7.00am Very close is the beautiful Broadway Tower with its great views over the cotswold, you cant come here without a getting a few shots of this famous tower and not so secret nuclear bunker underneath. Batsford Arboretum http://www.batsarb.co.uk Sat Nav: GL56 9AD Broadway Tower https://broadwaytower.co.uk Sat Nav: WR12 7LB Vietnam 15 days - Day 1 Arrive in Hanoi the capital of Vietnam, no words can describe this place and we are stopping in the chaotic old quarter for just two days, visiting Ho Chi Minh complex, Tran Quoc pagoda and more, to say being thrown into the deep end of Vietnam life is understatement, but it’s a positive experience I absolutely fell in love with Hanoi, the people, food and Hanoi chaos is something else and the egg coffee is a must try! Day 3-4 Halong Bay After Hanoi the peace and stunning scenery of an overnight stay on Tonkin Cruise boat was breathtaking this is what drone photography was made for the 1000 island dotted everywhere you look, we hired kayaks and went round island and discovered the local fisher communities, this place was truly experience watching the sun go down while have cocktails on the deck, following morning it was drone up at 5.30 and the ready for Tai chi on the boats sun deck, exploring the Thein Cann Son cave before sailing back to port and return for a night back in Hanoi Day 5 Hanoi - Hoa Lu Ancient Capital - Van Long Reserve After breakfast we took a private car, Nin Bing and visit ancient Hoa Lu temples, lunch in a local restraint and then took a bike ride to Van Long Nature Reserve and onto a bamboo rowing boat to explore towering limestone mountain peeks through rice paddies, just spectacular scenery, then onto our Hotel in Ninh Binh Day 6 Ninh Binh - Temple - Nigh Train Today we hired a moped for the rather extraordinary price £3.50 for the day to explore the great Ninh Bing area, what experience to ride through the city and into the stunning nature reserve we spent the day exploring we managed to find a ginormous temple Bai Dinh Temple in the Gia Ven District nearly killed us just walking round it was that big and the humidity was so draining but what a find! 9.45Pm we caught the nigh train to Hue, the aim was to sleep overnight and arrive in Hue City, well I closed my eyes but sleep wasn’t happening, we had a cabin but to say the train moved in every direction was understatement, we arrived at Hue 8.30 Day 7 Hue Met by our guide of the train and straight to Hue ancient Citadel and Trang Tein Bridge the citadel was again on a large scale and very impressive, but the heat and lack of sleep we were both exhausted, and had afternoon of hotel rest and food and drink. Day 8 Thein Mu Pagoda and Minh Maung Tomb Nice breakfast then our guide picked us and we then took a boat along the Perfume River to visit the Then Mu Pagoda this was really interesting as this was where the famous monk who drove to Saigon in 1963 got out of his car sat crossed legged in the lotus position and set him self on fire, this ritual suicide was in protest against the anti-Buddest regime at the time and captured headlines around the world, and the monks blue car is on display here. I remember seeing this image and always carried the haunting image with me, and didn’t know what it was about until this day here at the temple. Our guide then took us a short drive to where seven tombs were built for seven Nguyen Emperors and visited the tomb Minh Mang, fantastic architecture and beautiful gardens. Day 9 Hue - Danang - Hoi An Our driver picked us up after breakfast and we had scenic drive to Hoi An via Danang through some spectacular scenery stopped for the superb Vietnam coffee, and arrived in Hoi we are now in Hoi An for four days and for the first time we feel like we can relax from the the hectic non stop schedule that I had planned was full on like a whirlwind of places to see and do. We checked into our hotel that had a pool and served Long Island tea that was needed, then out for dinner in The beautiful latern filled streets of Hoi An. Day 10 Hoi An Guide picked us up for a walking tour of this ancient town and world heritage site, visiting Kwan Temple, Phuket Kiev Chinese Assembly Hall Tan ky old House and ended up in cultural show with local music and dance, then onto a boat to small village on the Thu Bon River, ended back at our hotel for a swim cocktail before out for dinner and to get a henna tattoo from a street artist. Day 11 Hoi An - Rural Village Picked up by our guide and a cycle through Hoi An and into the countryside and to a small village Cam Thanh, where we took a traditional bamboo boat and learnt traditional bamboo crafts I made a very useful bamboo ring, we then met local farmers and had a go at sewing and hoeing, then onto traditional cookery lesson where we made crispy Vietnam pancakes before sitting down to a traditional Vietnamese seven course lunch, then a cycle back to Hoi An, Pool Long Island tea and out for dinner. The restaurants in Hoi An are god very good, we didn’t have one bad meal in Vietnam everyday we ate out. Day 12 Hoi An - beach day Today was a relax day and took a free taxi to the the beach Bai Bin Cura and spent the day relaxing, I went paragliding thought i was going to die, and just a beautiful day with a bit Vietnam beach paradise a great lunch a few Long Island teas and sleep. Day 13 Ho An - Danang Our guide picked us up 8.30 off to see Han Market for Vietnam bargain, then a walk up to the impressive marble mountain with great views of the city, and seriously impressive the cave inside the mountain with sunlight streaming through onto a Cham Buddha, we then went to the Cham Museum housing the worlds largest collection of 7th to 15th century sculptures and artefacts. The only somber part of the trip was 5th military museum covering the Vietnam war and finally finishing of the day at Linh Ung Pagoda with a very large towering lady Buddha overlooking the coastal city of Danang. Day 14 Danang Lazy morning and late breakfast and hire a motorbike for explore Denang have to say the past fourteen days it’s hard to think what we did each day, and to be honest Denang wasn’t great having spent four day days in the beautiful Town of Hoi An and now extremely tired very hot and new then end of the trip was here this was an odd day nothing really planned but explored the city on our bike. Day 15 Danang - Saigon - Heathrow - Solihull Breakfast out on the bike which we hired for two days at the cost £6.00 and spent a few hrs at the beach before returning to Denang international airport for an internal flight to Saigon, then transfer at Saigon to Heathrow to fly home pick up the car and drive to Solihull. Think we travelled for 24hrs then a cup of tea at home. Day 16 That was a trip, it was a shock being back to October English weather no humidity and not sweating and completely drenched within 5 minutes of being outside and shall I put the heating on, would I go again yes like a shot! I have only written a fraction of what we did this is the basics, the street food, restaurants, Hotels the coffee, people our guides we met, the places we visited all so very interesting and so very friendly it was such a culture difference but in such a good way. Back at Silverstone for another Sunday of two wheel action, the MCE British Superbike Championship is one of the most competitive domestic race series and attracts riders from all over the world a full day of races from different classes and open stadiums and grid means it a great day for photo opportunities and getting up close.
The British weather did not fail to make the races more difficult, with a rain heavy coming down Dan Linfoot his first MCE British Superbike championship race win, and only seven riders finishing in this race. While grand stands gave shelter to the rain the wind driving through the side it felt like a real winters day. |
AuthorThis blog is intended to shed a little more information on what I'm up to and planning Archives
February 2020
My Latest Flickr
Other Great Sites
|