Rural Light

Chester - Xmas 2011

2012-01-05T15:13:00.001Z

Chester - Xmas 2011, a set on Flickr.

A few shots taken around Chester, just before Christmas.

Blogging Glitch

2012-01-04T10:41:00.004Z

I have been looking at using LiveJournal, which I quite like. However yesterday there was a glitch trying to feed pictures through from Flickr, not a good thing for a paid blogging service. So I've opted to stay with Blogger, and its integration with Google+.

The Day Job

2012-01-04T09:10:00.003Z

Never been quite certain if I should let the Day Job intrude into my world of photography. The Day Job is the reason that I value my time with the camera so highly, it is the reason why I need the diversion, it also pays for my hobby, so perhaps it has earned its place here.

This article isn't for the faint hearted, or for anyone who thinks that the world is fluffy and nice. Having spent some time deliberating the pros and cons of this, I decided that it had to be written.

Spare a thought for the Emergency Services, there's no luxury for us of channel-hopping away from something that we would rather not deal with.

Working this time of year brings home the unfortunate reality of the Festive Season for some families. Expectations of seasonal good will and happiness, shattered by a world beyond our control. Speak to any Paramedic or EMT and they will tell you how bad the "bad jobs" are at this time of year, and every "bad job" leaves its mark.

For me Christmas brings the memories of the father of two young boys who was beaten to death. The paralysed lorry driver. The teenager killed in a traffic accident. The one year old victim of Meningitis. The two year old who died two days before Christmas. The wife, mother, and grandma who died on Christmas Eve.

For their family and friends Christmas is no longer a time to celebrate. For Emergency personnel it is a time of apprehension and dread.

My memory of this Christmas will be arriving on scene, to find a young mother standing screaming at the side of the road. It's a memory that will stay with me, but my grief comes nowhere near what that mother and her family will have to go through for the rest of their lives.

New Year's Eve

2011-12-31T11:47:00.000Z

Oakamoor, a photo by chris bolton on Flickr.

Although it was wet and cold, it had to be done, a New Year's Eve walk. Traditionally it tends to be a New Years's Day outing - but this year, alas, working.

Christmas Morning

2011-12-25T08:41:00.000Z

Christmas Morning, a photo by chris bolton on Flickr.

Winter Walk

2011-12-22T11:44:00.000Z

20111222_129, a photo by chris bolton on Flickr.

A nice sunny day, so off along the River Dove with Molly.

First Garden Snow

2011-12-18T12:45:00.000Z

First Garden Snow, a photo by chris bolton on Flickr.

Lowepro - Pro Messenger AW Series

2011-12-14T15:56:00.000Z

What looks like a great new bag from Lowepro, but doesn't look like anyone in the UK is stocking it yet.......

Lowepro | Pro Messenger AW Series:

Contacted Warehouse Express, they have no idea of an import date. E-mailed Lowepro, and am awaiting a reply.

Reply from Daymen.co.uk

Dear Chris,

The Pro Messenger will not be launched in Europe until March 2012, but
is on sale in the USA and other areas outside of Europe.

Regards

Seasonal Colour

2011-12-14T15:44:00.000Z

Not too easy to see from this photo, but this Holly bush was loaded with berries.

Google+ for Photographers

2011-12-13T15:43:00.004Z

Looks like an interesting book, but the speed at which G+ is evolving may make it out-dated before it gets published. Available when published, through Amazon.

Another Book to Add to My List

2011-12-13T15:15:00.000Z

Read the review on dpreview.com, or on David du Chemin's blog.

Unfortunately I've left it too late for Amazon.co.uk to deliver before Christmas.

Rural Light on the Web

2011-12-12T16:22:00.001Z

OK, the blog is back up and running.

There have been some issues with the template design. I use Artisteer to customise the template, which loads its images to Picasa. Google has changed the way Picasa serves images, the default is no longer the actual image size. As a result the images were displaying too small on the blog. The workaround for the moment is to use ImageShack, rather than Picasa. This is working, but very, very slowly.

Sketching Light: An Illustrated Tour of the Possibilities of Flash Voices That Matter: Amazon.co.uk: Joe McNally: Books

2011-12-06T21:08:00.000Z

Sketching Light: An Illustrated Tour of the Possibilities of Flash Voices That Matter: Amazon.co.uk: Joe McNally: Books:

Not released yet, but its on my shopping list.

'via Blog this'

Weir Work

2011-12-06T13:54:00.001Z

20111117_014, a photo by chris bolton on Flickr.

Work being carried out on the weir that now supplies water to the Archimedes Screw at the JCB Academy. Rumour has it that there was insufficient pressure of water along the mill-race to get the screw to turn. So much for progress, Arkwright would not be impressed. History of Rocester

JCB Academy Photo Gallery

Site Work

2011-11-04T18:44:00.002Z

My apologies if you experience a few quirks over the next few days, the site is having some work done.

Google+ - The Future

2011-10-21T10:07:00.000+01:00

OK, perhaps not a complete road map, and I don't claim to be geeky enough to be up on everything that is happening......... however.

Having see this video Web 2.0 Summit there are some exciting things coming the way of Google+.

Having done a bit of web trawling, and dare I say it, Googling, it looks like the rumour mill has Blogger being integrated into Google+ as possibly an additional tab. This being the case it would be remiss of me to rely too heavily on Blogger from this point forward. G+ needs to be at the hub of my wheel.
At the moment Picasa kind of stands to one side, that too may be replaced with the G+ photo management.

Sunrise

2011-10-19T11:28:00.001+01:00

One of the benefits of working night shifts, I get the opportunity to take Molly for a walk at sunrise, with a camera. Google+

Social Media

2011-10-14T11:23:00.000+01:00

Getting really fedup with the rubbish on FB. I guess you could say that it's the product of my circle of friends. I tend to think that it is a result of the medium.
Twitter is a very different beast - only 140 characters, making for short and to the point postings. Gone are the "just had a coffee" Tweetings of old. People soon realised that this would get them dropped faster than their hot cups.

FB on the other hand seems to be a little like 24 hour news channels - it's there, so it has to be filled, filled with anything.

Three kinds of people of FB.

Sit in the corner and watch the world go by.
Posting every minute with anything.
Post occasionally, but longing for something a little more meaningful, rounded, fuller, cerebral.

Google+ would appear to be the answer for the latter group. The power of the circles, and the facility to post deeper, more akin to blogging.

So I'm going to wind-down my FB, and push forward with G+.

The Black and White Tool Tab

2011-10-13T12:27:00.000+01:00

CaptureOne Pro from PhaseOne

The Black and White Tool Tab « The Image Quality Professor's Blog:

'via Blog this'

Personal Show

2011-10-12T20:45:00.001+01:00

Having been pre-occupied with sorting out the online side of my photographs, I hadn’t really decided on the way forward for my personal consumption.
Just like too many people, my personal photos get processed, catalogued and forgotten. I need a means by which I can enjoy them.

Media	Pros	Cons
On-line	Easy to manage. Relatively cheap. Accessible anywhere via the internet.	Need on-line access. View limited to the size of a monitor. Quality limited by the platform.
Photo Books	Portable. Easy to share. Good quality.	Expensive. Difficult to group share. Long-winded production. Need for local software. Quality dependant on printer. Time from production to delivery. Distribution challenges. Back-ups dependant on supplier.
TV	Good quality – HD. Excellent for producing more of an audio-visual experience. Relatively cheap after initial software and hardware outlet. Files can be uploaded to share. Easily backed-up and duplicated.	Initial software costs.

Not a definitive list, but a general starting point.

So TV it is then. After some research I’ve opted for ProShow Gold, after an upgrade from a very old version I had stuck in my archives.

35+ Frightening Dark Gothic Digital Photo Manipulation Artworks | Modny73

2011-10-09T20:30:00.000+01:00

Perhaps not everyone's cup of tea but certainly creative.

35+ Frightening Dark Gothic Digital Photo Manipulation Artworks | Modny73:

'via Blog this'

Site Update - Link Page Added

2011-10-07T22:05:00.001+01:00

I've added a Link page, which carries, surprisingly, links.I can't vouch for the content, the links have been added in good faith. The page will grow over time. Link page

Google+ Update

2011-10-06T20:40:00.003+01:00

Just updated the photos in my scrapbook on G+.

Scrapbook

Netbook

2011-10-05T21:40:00.000+01:00

Finally took the plunge and purchased a Netbook, Birthday treat to myself.
The purchase really came about due to work. I spend a fair amount of time sitting in a stand-by location, and the company's intranet speed is shameful. However the site is within range of a BTOpenzone, much better. The idea is to be able to get some work related work done, shock, horror. However...... it would be a shame not to use the odd spare minute getting creative....

Going Beyond Post Cards – Insights Into Landscape Photography | Inspiration

2011-09-20T18:02:00.001+01:00

Going Beyond Post Cards – Insights Into Landscape Photography | Inspiration:

'via Blog this'

A lesson in cleaning

2011-09-09T19:21:00.002+01:00

Cleaning the camera sensor this morning and broke the golden rule. Got some grease off my fingers on the Arctic Butterfly, cleaned the sensor and failed to check it properly before going out. Smears visible on all the images with apertures less than f18. Not a happy teddy bear.
Just ordered a sensor loupe and cleaning kit..... Must remember to carry them with me on holiday in the future.

Sunflower

2011-08-08T14:17:00.000+01:00

At the risk of producing just another boring Sunflower shot.

Visit Gallery

Lies and Statistics..

2011-07-20T12:05:00.000+01:00

I uploaded one of the Festival of History albums onto my old Flickr account yesterday, just to do a comparison with traffic.

Flickr 416 hits
SmugMug 1558 hits.

The highest traffic date I've recorded on the SmugMug site.

Of interest, to me anyway, I received a request for one of the photos on the Flickr site from a gentleman based in Amsterdam, who I happened to photograph at the event. Makes a nice change for someone to ask for a photo, rather than just go ahead and use one.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/retro_mark/5957609238/in/photostream/

Storage, who needs it….

2011-07-15T18:38:00.000+01:00

I have a few minutes (hours) whilst I transfer some files between hard drives.
After the problems trying to get a USB3 external drive working - Plan B. Though to be fair the problem was the controller card not being recognised, actually several cards, after which I concluded that the PC’s motherboard was perhaps a little too ancient for USB3. The drive works fine, but only at USB2 speeds.
Plan B. Necessitated by the way in which Photo Mechanic reads data from the files. Photo Mechanic isn’t true DAM software, so doesn’t access a database. Instead it reads the embedded, or sidecar, data for each file. Works fine as long as the files are sitting on a drive with high access speeds. Enter the SATAII internal 2Tb drive. Fortunately my motherboard supports it. Fitted this afternoon and now I’m busy transferring files.

Festival of History 2011

2011-07-15T16:02:00.000+01:00

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/events/festival-of-history-2011/

Pity the weather forecast for the weekend is not brilliant.

Distagon T* 2/35

2011-07-07T12:44:00.000+01:00

Taking a serious look at getting some new glass.

Distagon T* 2/35.

New Camera

2011-06-27T21:34:00.000+01:00

This shot perhaps illustrates what I really like about my new camera, the 5D mkii.
I had been awaiting the mkiii, but have given up, as Canon don't appear to be releasing it any time soon. When it is released its going to take between six months and a year for the prices to settle down, so I may as well jump in now and reap the benefits of Full Frame now.

5D mkii. 50mm f1.8.

Software Review: Photo Mechanic | Canon Blogger: Learning Digital Photography

2011-06-27T18:25:00.000+01:00

Worth a look if you are considering Photo Mechanic.

http://www.canonblogger.com/2011/06/27/software-review-photo-mechanic/

So This is Summer?

2011-06-27T12:51:00.000+01:00

Sitting in the garden, typing away on a very hot laptop (so much for the additional cooling fans). It's hot today, probably slightly hotter than yesterday, but at least there is the occasional breeze. Forecast thunder this afternoon and I can believe it. When the rain does come there will be a mad scramble, all the stuff out from yesterday's BBQ.

Twitter

2011-06-25T13:28:00.000+01:00

The automatic posting to Twitter seems to be working now. I made a bit if a hash of things earlier, having changed the blog address for the Wordpress blog. The Twitter links were trying to find the old url. But all seems calm in the garden now.

Links Page

2011-01-01T09:56:00.000Z

Photo Review/Reference/Galleries
500.px
1x.com -True inspiration
AdoramaTV
Canon Blogger
Canon Rumours
Canon UK Ltd
dpreview
DxOMark
Fred Miranda
Joe McNally
Luminous Landscape
Nikon
Open University
Outdoor Photographer
Photozz
Rob Galbraith
Royal Photographic Society
Scott Kelby
Strobist