Technical things - so way beyond me...

Well setting up the wifi on my BlackBerry is - however the new hard drive is very simple to use - why can't all things be that easy. Anyway before I ponder the wifi problem any more I'm off for some dinner however here a a few images from day 2 of my holiday. These were taken in the countryside surrounding the Gite I stayed in

Leaving Portsmouth

Well here are a few photos from the holiday I will post them in order of days 1 day 1 post unless thee are too many photos or more than one location, obviously the first day was spent travelling, we had lovely weather as you can see from the photos, and the weather was like this pretty much the entire time.

Fun in the Sun

Have spent a great hour or so tonight looking at the photos my brother took while on holiday in New Zealand (he now has moved there to work but that's another story) and was surprised at how many photos of him there were. He is notorious for avoiding having his picture taken. So before I upload the photos I took of the various places we visited here are a few of me having some fun in the water.

The lake at Apremont was very inviting

"Hi there!"

Exercise? Moi?

Good job I was wearing shorts and a vest top

Aah the Atlantic Ocean at Bretignolles-Sur-Mer

I was more prepared this time - had my swim suit on!

Wonderful holiday - thinking about where to go next year now

I'm Back....

And if you do check this blog every few days you have probably wondered where I've been , well the last 2 weeks I have been on holiday in France, in the Vendee region to be precise and I got plenty of great photos while I was there. Only problem is I took so many I have filled up the hard drive on my laptop - so tomorrow I'm off to buy an external drive to hold my photo collection - once that has been sorted I will work on some of the photos I took in Nantes, La Rochelle, Bretignolles-Sur-Mer and other places. Was a great holiday - the only question no is - where shall I go next after all I don't want to give the camera too much of a rest now dow I?

More Christening Photos

Have been playing around in DPP so here are some more

Proud Grandad

Cousins

Happy Family

Sleeping Beauty in Sepia

A blessing or a Curse

A strange title I admit but there is a point to it.

A few years ago a friend I worked with really got into digital photography. He had the camera, the PC, Photoshop the works. He would come to work describing all the photos he had taken on holiday and on the wekkend and how he couldn't wait to get home and work on the images he had taken. I saw some once and I have to say they were very good. He kept telling me how wonderful digital was, how convenient it was. At the time the only thing I knew how to do with a pc was turn it on and connect to the internet and I always maintained that I did not want to spend my evenings sitting in front of a computer editing my photos, yet I didn't think anything of spending three or four hours (or more) in my darkroom doing exactly the same thing.
But my how times have changed. I was sitting at home still tweaking images from Penalta and Crumlin when I remembered that guy and his words and realised that now I do exactly that - sit in front of a pc for hours editing my images and I have to say I do enjoy it.

I still use my film cameras but now as more of a back up in case I rung out of space on my memory cards or the battery dies, they will never be completely abandoned but have to say my digital camera has given my photography a new lease of life. I can't wait to get out and about taking photos and when I get back from my holidays I plan to join Cadw which is the welsh equivalent of English Heritage and try and get some photos of all the wonderful monuments here.

So it's a blessing because I'm taking my photography a lot more seriously these days

and a curse because of the sitting at the pc, the I need to buy a new hard drive/memory card/ photoshop/lens/flash/tripdod/remote release.

But it's certainly worth the effort I have never loved taking photos as much as I do now and I have always loved them.
Anyway I'm off for the day got to work to buy all that new equipment so I can take more photos

in the famous words of Arnie

'I'll be back'

Holy Trinity Church Kingswood Bristol

On Sunday May 9, I attended the Christening of my great neice Eleanor Hannah Rolfe at the Holy Trinity Church in Kingswood Bristol, the church had a lovely stained glass window and I thought I would take a few pictures of it
For the first time I didn't rely on auto I set the camera to ISO 800, selected apeture priority mode and these are the results.

The family with Eleanor

What a busy day for such a little girl, she truly is a Babe in Arms

I am very pleased with the way the photos came out and proud that I am learning to use the camera and not just point and shooting any more

Crumlin.... At Last

Well at last here are a few of the photos from Crumlin - only one black & white because I love the red colours of the bricks - I think it's a shame to transform too many into B&W and make them look too industrial although that's what they are. We don't build places like this any more

First order from Photobox has arrived...

No images again - maybe later - however I received my first order from Photobox.com and I was really delighted with the results I ordered 50 prints to see how good the quality was and I must say fantastic very quick service and the prints are great - the only unusual thing is the size - being in the UK I am used to 6x4 enprints the ones from Photobox are 6x4.5 so slightly bigger - however although I'm not used to them yet I'm sure when I've received several hundred prints in that size I will never want a standard 6x4 again - they should fit nicely in my albums unlike 7x5 which have to overlap slightly and then you can only get two portrait or landscapes per page.
The 2nd item was a mousemat with a picture of Tootsie and Buster on for rthe dogs owner Tasha I was very impressed with the way it turned out - good quality and a fast turn around.

I will be using them from now on as they have a great selection of gifts and print sizes at reasonable cost

Try them you won't be disappointed

Bank Holiday Weather...

Is as usual horrible - yes it's dull and raining over here in Wales - nothing new for a bank holiday and to be honest I don't really care as I am working all day today and bank holiday Monday as well - but I will be out down the local tonight having a few with my friends and my small digi-snapper will be present to record the event - so nothing fancy appearing on here tomorrow night or Tuesday just a few random drunk people I expect