The light was gorgeous this morning, as was the frost.  I thought I’d have a bit of a jaunt round Royal Fort Gardens before going into the office to warm up.  Unfortunately, most of RFG had defrosted by the time I got there, but the light was still lovely.  I’m quite pleased with this photo (I like the composition with the out of focus crocus(!) top left balancing the ones which are in sharp focus) but also, all I’ve done to it is resize it then resharpen it a little.  No cropping, no curves, this is how it came out of the camera.

Lovely.

Jonathan and I went for a photowalk at lunchtime.  I shot loads (mostly abstract detail shots of odd things), he shot a single frame.  Using this:

That there is one hell of a camera.

So, day one of “I’m not doing photo-a-day-just-shooting-more” seems to be going ok ;-)

I’ve spent all evening absorbed in a book, and this part of this page jumped out at me just as I realised what the time was.

Truth be told, I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be keeping photo-a-day up for.  I took it up this year because three people said to me “I’ll do it if you do it” – and of the four of us, I’m the only one who took more than 3 pictures in total during January.

My mate Colin wasn’t one of the four, but he has taken up photo-a-day this year and I’ll be making encouraging noises in his direction (and you should too!) but without that local support to make me go on photowalks etc – I’m just not sure I can be bothered to stick it out for the whole year. Again.

Instead, from here on in I’m going to aim to “take more photos than usual this year” – but if I get to the end of the day and haven’t shot anything (like today) I’m not going to bother setting up a lazy macro shot (like today) – I’ve got a few photography projects I want to complete, including photographing all the exhibits in our “computer museum” at work, shooting more portraiture etc.

So this blog isn’t going to lapse back into “OMG!!!PHONES!!!1eleventy!”

Re: The “Vegetarian January” project, it was a roaring success.  I’ve got new recipes to munch on, and an enthusiasm for trying more new meals.  I think at home I’m still going to be largely cooking veggie, but will cook the occasional meaty dish for guests and will probably eat a bit of meat when I’m out and about.

Not an exciting photo this evening, but it does represent a good chunk of what I’ve been up to tonight.  I’m trying to get my head around how to modify the selectors on my PAX to provide tie line working.  It seems I need to track down some rather specific spring sets, I’ve got the appropriate relay coils, bases and armatures but I don’t have the right spring sets (or even anything close!)

So if you’ve got a stock of spare GPO 3000 type relays knocking around, I’d be grateful if you could have a look and see if you’ve got anything with the following contacts:

So in total, I need 4*changeover, 1*make and 2*break contacts. The order of the contacts on the springset probably isn’t critical as I can re-map contacts as needed. In an ideal world, I’d be looking for enough contacts to make up 3 relays like this – but I’d settle for anything I can get!

Update: John Bathgate at the Dean Forrest Railway has found me the appropriate spring sets and buffer blocks.  Thanks John!

Through The Viewfinder, Off a Mirror, Then Back Through The Viewfinder Again.

I need a photo of myself for an ongoing project that I can’t really talk about just yet.  I didn’t have anything suitable on file, so I’ve opted for a self portrait.  Self portraits are a bit tricky with a self timer and no live-view on my camera, so I ended up with about 150 photos to trawl through.  I think this one has a suitable pose and I’m not gurning *too* badly.

It’s had a bit of work done on it in post to tone down the texture on my wallpaper, so I’ll need to come back to it in a couple of days to fine tune some of the masking – but it’ll do for now.

In other photography news, I went to the Zoo again today.  I’ve finally gotten around to renewing my membership, but their printer was broken so I didn’t get my membership pack.  They said they’d send it out in the post, but until they do I don’t have any half price vouchers to spread around.

This is the smaller of the two outflow drains from the mines underneath the Dean Forrest Railway.  Some day I’m going to remember to turn up at the railway with a tripod and a great big ND filter and do this properly.

Also, I think this was a buzzard, but I’m really not sure.  It was perched in a tree right up until the moment when I pointed my lens at it.  The sun must have glinted off the lens or something because he flew off pretty sharpish.

I just had to get this out of my head.  That’s all.

No religious photo from me today, despite me taking a load of photos in a graveyard at lunchtime.  I like the above photo taken in an old strongroom we found when visiting a wiring cabinet.  I also quite liked this photo of some fungus, but that’s not religion related either.

Ian and I went for a wander around Bristol Cathedral today, a really lovely building.  Unfortunately it was overcast and I didn’t have a tripod with me or anything so the interior shots I got weren’t great, and I’m not really happy with this exterior shot either.  I don’t have anything else up my sleeve tonight for “religion” week though.

Not until I can work out how to take a photo of “vi vs emacs” anyway