Sand Sculptures

Each year in Weston-super-Mare a group of (mostly?) Scandinavian artists sculpt the sand around a particular theme. This year was Hollywood.

I admire the skill of the artists. The following a sample of their work:

Up

The Man with no name

Jaws

The sculptures are well worth a visit if going to Weston

Sulgrave Manor

Having a long weekend last weekend, we took the opportunity to meet up with my brother who lives the other side of the country from us. His choice was to meet at roughly a half-way point being Sulgrave Manor in Northamptonshire.

Sulgrave Manor

George Washington 

This manor was once owned by the Washington family who originated in the North East of England. It is a privately owned house jointly paid for by Britain and the USA due to its connections with the famous family though George Washington was never at the house. It was owned by his great grandfather & had in fact been sold on to another family when George Washington came to prominence in the Virginia Militia and later the War of Independence.

Having been to many historic monuments in Britain, this property was relatively small, but we had a very entertaining tour of the few rooms in the house by an enthusiastic tour guide, and we wandered the gardens in the afternoon. 

The main purpose of the trip however was the family meeting as living so far apart most of our contact is over the phone. Getting together reminds me very much of the passing years & how much we should make the most of the time available before we are no longer here or no longer capable of making full use of the time.

Olympus 12-50mm zoom

The weather on the day of our trip was very much overcast. I had been using mostly the 17mm (f1.8) lense on the E-M5, which I have grown to love. Until buying the OM-D I was very much used to using zoom lenses with the various four-thirds bodies I had. I didn't know if I would get on with fixed primes, but their size, image quality and wide aperture have won my admiration such that I find the 12-50mm a bit long for the body.

I expected rain so I thought the weather-sealed zoom would be the best compromise for the day. It didn't actually rain, so I probably could have swapped back to the 17mm, but I left the 12-50mm on the camera. It was a little restrictive on the indoor shots, but I was still pleased with the results

Sulgrave Manor Kitchen

Change is inevitable

My first camera was a Kodak Instamatic, a little black and grey affair that took cartridge film that reminds me of those disposable film cameras you can buy with Fujifilm. I don't remember much of the pictures I took but I have one or two left that I was given by my brother on the death of my Mother.

I must have been interested in photography as I also used to use my Dad's SLR cameras - an old Pentax and the Minolta SRT101, which I now have as part of my inheritance, but no longer feel compelled to shoot. 

Some people to have a very good memory of their past and childhood. There have been enough books published by celebrities of their memoires to prove the point, but I have very sporadic ones of very few events. It is not that I had an unhappy childhood or early adulthood, far from it, its just that it doesn't seem that important to remember to me. I suppose I tend to live more in the moment, not being nostalgic for things past.


Sometime after coming to Bristol (UK) I began again my interest in cameras and bought from "Jessops of Leicester" as it was then known my own first SLR, the Olympus OM-1N. The only reason I went for this at the time was my then brother-in-law who had not long bought the OM1-N and OM-2N for himself and was beginning a new business in Commercial photography. I really liked the camera. It was quite a bit smaller than my Dad's old Minolta and it had a built in light-meter - state of the art at the time. I don't even recall looking at any other camera.

This served me well for a time but the cost of prints always seemed high and with only 24 or 36 exposures, you didn't want to snap away at everything. I ended up trading this in for a Nikon Coolpix 5Mp camera for my wife's birthday, but we both ended up "sharing" the camera. 

In 2008, I returned to (D)SLR with the Olympus E-520. Things had moved on & although on paper the Canon and Nikon alternatives seemed a better bet, the Olympus had a nice feel about it. It wasn't too big or heavy - important as I have small hands and a light frame. At the time I didn't keep up with the camera news, so it came as a surprise that Olympus had pulled out over the beginner and enthuisiast level DSLR market with only the E-5 as an alternative - a rather heavy and bulky camera for me. 

I started on a spurt of 2nd hand purchases to build up a collection of E Series bodies and lenses

Unfortunately, I was suffering from GAS - Gear Aquisition Syndrome - and the collection of items seemed to be more important than the photography. The other factor was the weight. Those high grade lenses with the bodies (especially the E-30) were causing me serious neck-ache.

After buying 2 E-PL2s in 2012, I was impressed with the size and weight of the new micro four-thirds, far more than I would ever have thought & the lack of a viewfinder did not bother me as much as I thought. At Easter this year, I finally let go and traded most of my older four-thirds for the OMD E-M5 and a serious collection of small lenses.

I don't think I have been more pleased. The image quality is superb and boy does my neck feel a lot better. I have now invested in a "security" belt that I attach my camera bag to around my waist & the neck straps of the cameras replaced with wrist straps. I no longer feel compelled to buy gear, but I do need to spend more time taking photos

Summer 2013

Wow! Has it really been over a year since I last wrote. It seems a blink since writing last. 

I was full of good intentions in starting a blog, but I don't seem to have kept up, so here I am trying again.

This was our 25th wedding anniversary year and we wanted to make the most of it particularly as last year was one of the wettest for some time in Britain. Last year's holiday was in the Lake District was a bit of a washout. 

Windermere with clouds

We began with a London show - The Lion King - in February in freezing temperatures. This was still a time with snow on the ground, but we braved the elements and did a couple of side trips to the British and Science Museums.

Plans were put in place to go to Florida again, specifically Disney World, Seaworld and Busch Gardens. Time to renew the passports and pay for a new ESTA (visa). I definitely wanted to spend some time in t-shirt and shorts this year and not a coat, jumper and long trousers at the height of the summer last year.

Last week in May & first in June off we flew Virgin Atlantic Gatwick to Orlando and on went the t-shirt and shorts. It didn't all go well as we had a bit of rain through the 2 weeks and we picked up a stomach bug the first week. We certainly didn't stop this from enjoying ourselves & we had a great time.

Visiting Epcot

What we didn't know was that the weather here in Britain was going to be fantastic. Since getting back we've had a lot of great days out and I have been wearing t-shirts and shorts at home :-)

Olympus E-PL2

This year's break I took the E-PL2 and shot using RAW for a change. This has made the post processing possible and provided much more versatility than the Fuji FX72's jpeg files.