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Goats!

Jonathan and I went for another lunchtime photowalk.  We needed to go up to one of the Halls of Residence in the afternoon anyway, so we took the van to lunch and stopped off at Durdham Down on the way.

Up on the downs, there’s a small herd of goats* who are allowed to roam relatively free in a gully down the side of the Avon Gorge to control the scrub.  We only found 4 of the 6 that are supposed to be there, and there was a lot of twiggy vegetation in between us and them.  Still, it was nice to just stop and watch them for a bit.

The afternoon was spent effectively switching bits of the wireless network on and off until they worked again.  Yes, really.  £1400 worth of wireless access points needed to be unplugged, then plugged back in again.  No we can’t power cycle them remotely, because the POE switches we’ve got are rubbish and despite offering you the feature for switching things on and off remotely it never seems to bloody work properly and we have to resort to doing it by hand.

* (of course I’ve heard of goats!)

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Lunchtime underground shoot

Jonathan and I went for an underground photoshoot in a cellar at lunchtime.

The plan was to shoot something for the “running away from the camera” challenge.  Despite a few technical hitches (which I think are mostly down to the batteries in my flash triggers being on their way out) the lighting worked out quite nicely, with few tweaks this could make for some fun portraits.

Unfortunately, of all the shots I took on self timer for the challenge, there were only a couple that were even halfway usable and I don’t like the poses in them.   (See Example 1 and Example 2) That’s why the shot above is of Jonathan and not me.

It was a test shot for the lighting, and isn’t *quite* in focus (although you’d have to look fairly close to tell) but I like the pose.  Deffo a location/idea to revisit.

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Lunch, and a trip to the museum

J really fancied cheese on toast with tinned spaghetti for lunch today, I didn’t so I had couscous and hummus pitas instead.  Very nice they were too.  The photo’s not bad considering it was all handheld (including the plate)

After lunch, we wandered off to M-Shed to see what all the fuss is about.  It’s a lot smaller than I was expecting, it’s certainly smaller than the Industrial Museum which used to occupy that site. The box above is an old pedestrian crossing controller.  For me it was easily the most interesting object, as it’s based around all the same technology that my phone exchanges are made from, and it’s in working condition – clicking away making some traffic lights flash!

We also had a wander around the harbour.  There was a bit of excitement when we thought we saw a man overboard and I shoved my camera up against the window of a steam crane to see what I could capture of its internals.

To finish off with, I shot another “running away” photo, just incase (it’s good to have options!)  I think I prefer this to yesterdays, but it still doesn’t match what’s in my head for tomorrows shoot – I hope that works out!

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Running Away

This is my backup photo for the Running Away photo-challenge.  I’m hoping to shoot my real entry on Monday, but that’s leaving it too late for a reshoot if it doesn’t work out as hoped.  So I shot this at the DFR.

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Modifications

I’ve not been posting much this week as I’ve spent most of my evenings going cross eyed trying to modify a chunk of my phone exchange so that it can talk to other phone exchanges.  The easiest way to make sure I’ve done all the modifications seems to be to highlight the changes required on a copy of the diagram, then cross them out as I add/remove that chunk of wiring.

I’m quite glad that I’ve already got a working modified piece to use as a reference.  You can see the nest of wiring I’m having to work my way through!  The already modified one is at the top of the picture, the one that is a work in progress is at the bottom.  I think I’ve done most of it now, I just need to reroute and reconnect some of the white wires and I’m done.

Hopefully.

Then if it works, I’ve only got to do it twice more on the other selectors!  Fingers crossed…

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Geeky or Cute?

I’d have posted this earlier in the week, but didn’t want J to see it before I’d had a chance to give him half of it.  Is this valentines gift geeky, cute, or both?

Click a poll option to vote!

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Splash! Splash!

Splash! Splash!

I’m not sure which of these I prefer, but they could both easily be entries for this weeks water themes photo-challenge.  Photos of water droplets are probably a little on the obvious side for that though.  I’ll see what else I can come up with before the deadline.

For those who want some tips on taking photos of splashes like this, Strobist has a tutorial which pretty much describes what I did: http://strobist.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-to-photograph-water-drops-with-one.html

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Obey the Squirrel!

Obey…

…the Squirrel!

Jonathan and I went for a brief photowalk at lunchtime, we were in search of water for this weeks photo-challenge theme.  We didn’t find much interesting water, just a murky pond and a series of fountains that weren’t working.  I managed to take this on Brandon Hill:

I’m not overly excited by it, even though the reflection is nice and clean.  I think I might try to rustle up with something else for the challenge this week.  Perhaps a walk along a canal at the weekend will turn something up.

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Bristol Zoo

I went to Bristol Zoo again today.  There were a surprising number of animals outside braving the cold weather.  I spent a good 10 minutes watching an otter dive in and out of an icy pool of water.  Fascinating creatures, but far too quick to take a photo of, which is why that photo up there is of a Collared Lizard and not an otter.

The mongoose lemurs were out playing in the walk through bit, which meant I could get nice and close to them without any pesky glass/netting in the way.  They’re gorgeous animals!  Love ‘em!

The ringtail lemurs had just been fed so were too busy stuffing their faces to some out and play.

The prairie dogs were out and about as well.  This one very much reminded me of This Sketch, but he sat down when I pointed a my camera his way.  I’m still quite pleased with this shot though, the composition works nicely and the focus is pretty much spot on.

Obviously the seal/penguin coast got a visit.  They’re just so photogenic when they’re sulking!

The Inca Terns just beg to be photographed as well.  I’m sure I’ve taken this shot hundreds of times since I started going to the zoo, but I do so love the colour of their beaks/legs – and their moustaches are amazing!

Obligatory penguin photo!  I’m wondering if he’s trying to hatch that rock.

I’m also quite pleased with this shot of the adult lioness.  Considering my lens was pushed up against a mucky bit of glass and she was sat right at the back of the enclosure it’s come out quite nicely.

So, that’s another day at the zoo done with.

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Tannoy

At the railway today, John and I spent the day decommissioning the old Tannoy PA system.  It’s got a few faults on it (mostly in the pre-amp stages) and it’s become too unreliable for regular use.  So it’s been replaced by a more modern system, which has been built in such a way that should any one bit of it go faulty it’s easy to swap out that component for a new one (which was surprisingly difficult with this system)  It’s now surplus to requirements.

The two power amps at the bottom aren’t original to the rack, but I think we might have the originals stored away somewhere (we’ve certainly got some spare *somethings* packed away) the rest of the rack originally came from British Rail when they disposed of it about 20 years ago.  Both power amps are mono, and configured to drive 100V line PA speakers so I’m not tempted to have one at home!

The rack itself is in two halves, we’re thinking of keeping the top half of the chassis for re-use but the rest is going spare.  So if anyone reading this wants a vintage, ex-BR Tannoy PA system, please give us a shout and I’ll forward your info to John.  We are thinking of putting it on ebay, but if you want to snap it up before we do that a donation to the telecoms fund would be appreciated.

Obviously “buyer collects” from the Dean Forrest Railway – you shouldn’t need a van to collect it though.  It’s very heavy, but not something a largeish car couldn’t handle.

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