Old and New Technoliges CLASH !!! Part One

Hi folks

Well it's Saturday again and we that is Trevor, Charles, (one of the new lads) and myself arranged to take a trip to Riverside Gillingham to have some fun taking pictures of the local wildlife and views.

Well when I woke up it was raining but undeterred I set off to pick up Trev and go down to the river. Good job they have a cafe to retire to as it was a bit bleak to say the least

Here we are , Trev on the left who is a Cannon freak and Charles on the right for Nikon, as you can see from the start, Charles is now in control, the only trouble is that Trev has a bigger lens, and it's white.
Well the weather was pretty bad as you can see by the next shot.

Trevor seems to think that I have a better shot the him, I'm not so sure. This is one of our favourite PS, that's Power stations for the uninitiated coming out of the mist.

Right that's enough of modern kit Charles after a bit of lunch thought he would ditch his Nikon and get out his favourite toy, the PIN HOLE CAMERA. This unit was made from scratch by Charles out of and old Coke can and some bits of wood. But what a good job he made of it.

Well here it is and I kid you not, IT WORKS. On the tripod it goes, now every one stand by whilst I align  the kit, left a bit, no right that's it..

Now this is the technical bit, loading the photo sensitive paper, notice the concentration on the face.

Now his is the only bit of modern kit to be used, a light meter, boy dont you just love the hat.

Now this is the boring bit, waiting for the image to expose. No not a 30th of a second but about one and a half minutes. I dont think it would be any good in next years Olympics, still he seems happy enough.

Right that's it five pictures later and time to go back to the dark room and develop the images. You will have to wait for the outcome as this takes a while but I promise an image or two later.
Here we are, a picture of the motley crew, as you can see the mist is still there.

This is Trevor Cannon, as you can see he cant remember his name so he has it around his neck.

Last but by no means least my favourite shot of the day.....

 Good young Trev with his favourite lens the 400mm F4 lens he uses to take birds with.

Well that's it for tonight, tune in for part 2 later.


nite nite, luv Mike.XX

Lest we forget

Hi folks,


I thought it fitting to show again the trip to Clewiston in Florida, April this year. We were, that is Tony, Gloria, Sue the wife and I going to New Orleans and Menphis as part of our trip in America but due to bad weather we had to cancel this and stay locally in Florida. After a trip to a local airfield on the Keys we learned about the British Airmen that were trained up by the Americans in the Second world War.

We then went to a small town called Clewiston in the centre of Florida that had an Airfield dedicated to Training our Airmen.

We were warmly welcomed by the curator and allowed to look at the artefacts in the Museum.

In the front was a poster of British Airmen Trained there.

Front of the Museum.

Plaque opposite Museum.

Graves in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Arcadia

John Riddle, part owner of Riddle airfield

Well I hope this has given a little food for thought on this Remembrance Day.

If you want to delve deeper follow this link....  http://5bfts.tweedies.biz/home.htm

and select "History"

Nite nite, luv Mike XX

Holiday time again.

Hi folks,
With all this dull and deary weather about I hark back to America.

Didn't get out today as little legs decided to fake being ill, not wanting to eat, headaches sleepy etc. When I phoned her Dad it was decided to keep her away from Nursery she all of a sudden pepped up. Wanting to eat and dashing around like a scalded cat. That put pay to me going out after I would have delivered her to Ashford. To top it all the sun came out and I was stuck indoors till Ian picked her up as it started to get dark. I was NOT a happy bunny. so that put pay to my afternoon out.

So no pictures....well yes just a couple taken on the Keys at the Dolphin Research Centre back in May this year.

All 3 of us getting a shower before our swim with Talon, photo taken by Sue as she dont like water.

One of their display stunts, taken by me before the swim.

We had a wonderful and exciting day there and all the money went back  into the Dolphin Research Centre.

Right, that's it Daisy sure wore be out today.

nite nite, luv Mike XX

Tuesday again.

Hi folk's, where does the time go?

As Trev would say not much happening here, decorating the down stairs loo and doing a little bit of work.

As I mislaid Sues camera I treated her to a new point and shoot a little Samsung MV 800, well I posted it back today for a refund as the image quality was dreadful. You must have seen the advert on the telly, the one with the flip go anywhere screen, what a load of junk.

Anyway I took loads of dreadful pictures but reading Daisy's Diary about the plastic bag masquerading as a Small Eagle or Buzzard I thought I would post this taken in the Peak District. A fellow Guest in the B&B said there was an Owl in a recess in the Barn down the road. So after breakfast we went to have a look, this is what we saw.................

Sure enough it looks like an Owl at first sight but YES it's..................

A brown paper bag with a birds nest behind, see Kendo you are not the only one to be fooled

Right off to bed.
nite nite luv MikeXX.

Mote Park

Hi folks,

Following on from Wednesday's blog, sorry for not being around as been busy clearing up the house after the plumbing alterations, believe it of not we are still not straight.

We dropped Daisy off at Ashford and had our usual blow out at the B&Q chuck wagon and then back up the A20 to Leeds castle. Trev not being a member we only got as far as the car park and were greeted by this lovely tree.

Well that was the last we saw of the sunshine and off we trundled to Mote park.

As you can see the sun was no more and the trees were looking a bit bare as well.

 Quite a lot of wild life adorning the lake though.

Some late leaves turning.

Back up the hill towards the car.

I like taking shots close up from above showing the fallen leaves.

Last but by no means least, Misty 's sister (on the left) who was a bit of a bad tempered miss and we were warned not to touch her.

Sorry for the delay will try to do better next time.

To top it all my mouse broke, still ordered a new one for my Birthday next year.

nite nite, luv Mike XX

Max's girlfriend

Hi folks,

Short post tonight as I am entertaining Trev, well he's here anyway. We are having some fun editing photos.

We all went to Mote park to photo autumn colours and on our travels we met Misty and had to take a shot of her to show Max a girl to think about. Now dont get to excited Max................

Wow I'm Misty

There you go Max I tried to get her address but no go.

Right, back to sorting out pics for tomorrow nights blog.

nite nite, luv Mike XX

Nights drawing in...

Hi folks,

Went for a walk yesterday with my new lens to catch the end on summer and some colours. Spent a couple of hours walking about in my local area , this is what I captured.

One for Kendo as he likes Fungi

Is this last one a Primrose, surely not!

Enjoy as the nights are drawing in and the sun is short during the day.

Nite nite, luv Mike XX