Taste the Difference

Very dull and grey today, so not much incentive to get out and about with my new toy.  Since I had some shopping to do at lunchtime, I took it with me to Sainsbury's.  I'm not sure what their attitude would have been if they discovered I was photographing Coke bottles, Easter eggs and asparagus...

I took a few outside as well, as I'm still very much learning what works (and what doesn't) with this new lens.

Interestingly, exactly the same combination as Ann's (5DmkII and 15mm fisheye) shows an indentical fault: namely the dreaded "Err01", which is a communication failure between the lens and the camera body.  I'm beginning to wonder whether there's a software problem.  This kind of thing would never have happened in FD days...

New Toy

Ok, so I lied about the "saving up" bit.  I went to Focus on Imaging yesterday and bought myself a B-grade 15mm fisheye lens with about a 25% saving.  More than that, I still have all my appendages after taking it home and owning up!  There hasn't been much chance to try it yet, but I went out into the car park at work for about 20 minutes at lunchtime - this is the result.

It's certainly a strange place to work...

Patterns

It's been quite frosty the last few mornings while walking the dog, resulting in some attractive ice patterns.

In addition, the tree surgeons have been active, clearing out the dead wood after the Winter.  One of the tree stumps has developed a beautiful black tracery, although I've no idea what causes it.  Some kind of fungus, perhaps?  The final shot shows the whole stump for reference.

Having fun at Kew

A small bunch of intrepid photographers braved the weather on Sunday to visit Kew Gardens.  It was grey and wet, but this didn't really matter as the prime reason for the trip was to see the orchids in the Princess of Wales conservatory.  Being inspired by Paula's lupins, rather than take some "straight" shots of the flowers, I thought I'd have a go at something a bit more creative.  The plan was to take foregrounds and backgrounds separately, but I rather like some of the backgrounds as abstracts in their own right.

Similarly, I preferred the dreamy close-ups of the white orchids compared to a more factual record.

Suitably fortified by tea and cake, I wandered around outside the glass houses as it had just about stopped raining.  By now I was having fun with this panning and zooming malarkey, so decided to continue in the same vein.  First target was a bed of crocuses under a tree...

...and then a couple of the glass houses themselves.

By this point I was enjoying myself far too much to do any "real" photography, so Ann very kindly lent me her 15mm fisheye lens.  As with many of the items I've borrowed from her, it was ever so difficult to give it back.  Huge fun, and I can see myself saving up for one at some point.

More from Bristol

When in Bristol it's imperative to pay homage to Isambard Kingdom Brunel's amazing construction, the Clifton Suspension Bridge.  It was a gloriously sunny Saturday afternoon, and strolling across the brdge seemed to be a popular local pastime.

The second shot is taken from the western end of the bridge, looking back at a rather beautiful row of houses on Sion Hill.  They struck me as an ideal candidate for a bit of digital jiggery-pokery.  One of these days (when I have a working printer again) I'll try a large print of this image!

Visit to Bristol

September 2009

I visited Bristol in order to collect my daughter, who had been working there for Rolls Royce during her summer vacation.  This was the time of the Banksy exhibition, and there were plenty of people prepared to queue all day for the privilege of seeing it (I wasn't one of them).

Not being one for crowds I soon gravitated to the quiet area by the docks, close to the "At Bristol" science museum.  There are lots of good things to keep a photographer amused outside the museum, in addition to the excellent (but rather expensive) lunch I bought from its cafe.  One is a huge sphere, covered in mirrors, which reflects the goings-on in the square below.

The best features are a set of fountains, made from various reflective materials such as stainless steel and granite.  I spent well over an hour taking assorted pictures of these fountains, including a less-than-recognisable self portrait...

At this point a hazy sun started to emerge from the clouds, which added another dimension to the fountains.

Day 13: Nelspruit and Home

Saturday 8th August 2009

In the time-honoured tradition of those returning home, the hearty travellers ate a condemned breakfast.  Our last "full monty" of the trip was provided by the owner of the Hawkshead Holiday Camp, who happened to be English.  Breakfast was eaten surrounded by her menagerie of dogs who looked longingly at our bacon and toast.  We had plenty of time to kill, so I wandered around the gardens in warm winter sunshine taking pictures.  Nespruit is in the Low Veld, so the vegetation was rather different to that around Sabie.  There were bananas growing in the garden, and vast amounts of mother-in-law's tongue.

Having observed the finer points of Nelspruit the previous evening (it didn't take long) we looked for somewhere quiet to go while waiting for our flight.  The Botanic Gardens had just been revamped, so we decided to visit them to kill a couple of hours.

The waterfall was an impressive feature, and the photographs were taken from a bridge which went over it.  According to a notice, the bridge was placed there - and at a specific height - so as to avoid blocking the route of hippos which frequent the river.

Being the middle of winter there weren't many flowers in bloom.  Some were, though, and being too hot, I sat on a bench in the shade for half an hour looking at them.  I really must be getting old if I can sit somewhere and enjoy looking at flowers...

As always when killing time, it has a habit of appearing to stand still.  Around mid-day we decided to leave the Botanic Gardens and head towards Kruger Mpumalanga airport.  Before we left the gardens, though, I couldn't resist photographing a couple of the signs there.  I particularly liked the idea of visitors going into a "steep decline", and feel a great deal of sympathy for those who can only last for 230 metres before needing to relieve themselves!

We arrived at the airport in plenty of time, returned the hire car and then went to have our luggage shrink-wrapped.  The latter is essential when travelling through Johannesburg as it's the pilfering capital of the known universe.  Important items (camera, laptop etc.) were carried as hand-luggage, although with only a 6kg per person allowance this can prove reasonably challenging.  It was a short flight to Jo'burg, which thankfully was on time for this leg of the journey.  Our final hours in South Africa were spent having something to eat and spending any spare Rands we could find in our pockets.

Postscript
The journey home was pretty uneventful, and we duly met up at Heathrow with my sister-in-law and neice who had also been travelling from Jo'burg on a parallel flight.  There was a final sting in the tail, however: when we got back to the car it's battery was flat.  So, after a journey of almost 24 hours we had to sit in the car park waiting for the AA man to turn up!