What a wreck!

Took the dog for a walk today, down to one of my favourite places to photograph. Its in a small village called Purton, on the bank of the River Severn.
The River started to erode the ground and was at risk of joining with the canal that runs along side. So to strengthen the banks, Old boats and barges were run aground and left to fill up with silt to create a wall.

Many of the boats are long gone, but the battered shells of many remain, and it makes for some very interesting photos.




There were at least four other people there, all with big rucksacks and DSLR's. Ive been there and done that, so on this occasion, I had just my Panasonic Lumix GF1 and the rediculously small 14mm f/2.7 lens.








It was so liberating being able to enjoy the walk, without the backbreaking load of DSLR gear and lenses. The only thing I did miss was my Lee Filters, as the afternoon sky was a good few stops brighter than the foreground.
Thankfully, Lightroom managed to provide some rescue.

The best camera is the one you have with you!

A lot of emphisis is put on having the latest a greatest gear.
Today this is especially true as Nikon have just anounced the new D4, and the internet is rife with people already lining up thier exsiting gear to sell.

Its true, I have tried to buy the best I can when it comes to photography gear, however Im in no rush to to go out and but the latest and greatest.
Im still shooting with a now aging D700, and 16-35mm f/4 VR. I sold my 24-70 f/2.8 as it wasnt getting used.
I also just bought a Panasonic GF1. This is now also getting on a bit, but its simply outstanding, and matched with the 20mm f/1.7 and the 14mm f/2.5 prime lenses, its a compact but utterly powerful setup.

However, there are times when even this is too much to carry around, so Im left with the camera on my phone.
I have an iphone 4S, and the camera on this is good as far as phone cameras go, but when you are greated with a scene like this, its simply the best camera in the world.

New Project

I'd like to indroduce my new project. Its called Photoix and its a Photography review and learning recource website.
I'll shall be uplaoding videos with tutorials on Lightroom, Photoshop and other software, plus reviews of photography gear.
It's still very much a work in progress, but Im hoping to have everything irnoed out soon.
I'd very much appreciate it if you could have a quick look!

www.photoix.co.uk

Spent some time at Kemble.

Went to Kemble Airfield today to hopefully catch the Vulcan landing. I was too late for that, but did get a few shots of other stuff. Here is one of my favourites. I'll post a few more later.

Airbus A320 by Tom Radford

MVT 2011

MVT 2011, a set on Flickr.

See the rest of the MVT show photos here.

DSC_6752

DSC_6752, a photo by TCR4x4 on Flickr.

Was at the MVT military show yesterday. Always good for some battle photos!

Dasies and things

Went for another walk last week, this time around Uley in Stroud. Found some nice dasies and a poppy! I also did a couple of panoramas.
Here are a few.

Like a kid at Xmas!!

A new (well new to me) lens arrived today. A Nikon AF 300 f/4..  Yummy!




I was a bit hesitant to buy this, as I wasnt sure about being limited by a prime lens, and I wasnt sure about the autofocus, as I had heard a lot of things about it and not all good!

However after initial testing in the back garden, I am VERY impressed!!  Pin sharp even wide open, and reassuringly weighty, although slimmer than I was expecting. Yes the autofocus is slow and noisy, but it does the job. Would I like the AF-S version.. Sure, but its double the price this was.. so its a no brainer.

I bought it mainly for the upcoming airshow season, but to test I had to make do with some smaller winged objects.







This is a 100% crop straight from the camera, with just some sharpening as it was shot in RAW.





Safe to say this lens is very sharp, and should be even better when the light improves!

More sunny days

Its been a lovely day again, so I took the chance to go back to my new favourite place for some more photos.
It was very windy again though, more so than last time, so I didnt get as many as I wanted, although it did give me the chance to play with my 9 stop ND filter, which I havent been able to do yet. I shall post up a sample below plus some other shots of the day.

The start of the walk.. Just invites you in!

More crawling around on the floor!

And some 9 Stop ND fun!

Rain

Its been pretty much raining non stop since Friday, so no photos.
I was supposed to be going to a spring fair yesterday, but rain called that off. Going to try again today as it the rain has eased off a little.
Yesterday I went to Cribbs Causeway in Bristol, as my wife needed to return something and wanted to go shopping. Perfect iphone shooting ground!  Here are a few shots I got.


All taken and processed on an iPhone 3GS.

New walk

Found a really lovely new spot for a walk today. I must have been out for 3 hours, taking photos and enjoying the lovely sunshine.

It starts off in a quiet village next to an old church and then follows a dead end track past some rather posh looking houses and through a gate into a wonderful bright yellow buttercup meadow.


From then on its a long straight walk into another field under some wierd looking telegraph pylons and eventually through a few more gates and towards the river. There were lots of lambs on the bank of the river









I had to backtrack the way I came as I was heading for the landfill site, which is smelly and my car was miles back in other direction. I took a slightly different route though and ended up right at the bottom of the first field. I decided to have a sit down and experiment with my wide angle lens.

I think it was worth it!







I had a thoroughly nice day, and got some really nice photos.
I'm definitely going to go back and get some more, hopefully it wont be so windy next time!























If you want to see more from the day, visit the Flickr Set.

Yawning or Hyena impression?

Yawning or Hyena impression?, a photo by TCR4x4 on Flickr.

What do you reckon??

Proud

Proud, a photo by TCR4x4 on Flickr.

Sebbe sat in the garden looking like a wise old man

The Garden tools

The Garden tools, a photo by TCR4x4 on Flickr.

Garden

Garden, a photo by TCR4x4 on Flickr.

Sebbe, come!

Sebbe, come!, a photo by TCR4x4 on Flickr.

Sebbe

Sebbe, a photo by TCR4x4 on Flickr.

A Royally good few Days

Now that Wedding Fever has just about died down, time for another update.
Yesterday saw the biggest wedding since, well the last big one and Billions of people around the World watched and partied.

We had our own little party here, just the two of us, with tea, cakes and sandwiches. How very posh!

It was good to watch the whole event, and they do seem to make a lovely couple. Im still sure Harry and her Sister will be getting it on soon. There was certainly chemistry there!













After the wedding, we went to the local DIY store to get a few things we needed, one of which being a new incinerator bin. We have amassed so much junk in the garden its unreal. We also bought a new light fitting for the dining room, which I successfuly manged to wire in myself. Look at me, Electrical wizard!

The Incinerator!







So later on after chopping up some of the wood we had in the garden, we had a nice little fire, well I say little, I think the old Xmas tree might have been a step to far!

So that was yesterday, today hasnt been much yet, just tidied the garden after yesterday and watered all the plants. Its nice and sunny again today. It started to poiur down just as we got the fire going yesterday... Typical!