Category: Pointless Ramblings

I’m not one for charities, however a local one has caught my attention.

Blind Dave is running 7 Marathons in 7 Continents in 7 Days. All for the Guide dogs for the Blind.

So I’ve bunged him a tenner. Not a lot I know, but if another 9,999 do the same then he’ll reach his total of £100,000. Plus if you sign up for Gift Aid, then you’ll get an extra 28.5% (or something like that) from the Government.

http://www.7mm.org.uk/ Dave’s website.

People who know me, know I like aircraft. So much so in fact I’m prepared to just drive to a hill side in Wales and wait for them to fly past.

I’m planning a trip once the days get a bit better (i.e. June/July!), but I thought I’d prepare my hiking/photography bag.

It’s quite a packed bag. But it contains:

• 2x Eos 5D bodies (Only one shown as the other took the picture)
• EF300mm f/4 Lens
• EF70-200mm f/4 Lens
• EF25-105 f/4 Lens (not shown, picture taken with it)
• EF17-40 f/4 Lens (though may substitute this for the EF 50mm f/1.4)
• EF1.4EX convertor
• Spare Batteries
• Lots of Memory cards.
• Cleaning kit

That’s the internal bits sorted.

So the top of the bag contains:

• Clothes
• Maps
• Mobiles
• Monopod
• Stool

Side bags:

• Flask (still need to find a decent one)
• Food

So quite a hefty bag. But quite comfortable. Though the climb is only a few hundred metres I still have to stop every 5 minutes or so. So I’m hoping to lose a bit of weight and get fit before I go. That said I do walk a lot more at the moment. But not enough. I’m considering using the mountain bike to get to work, so that will help with the weight.

Heard the noise, was in the garden shooting tits and bush so had the camera ready.  Shot away.

300mm Prime 4tw! (was cropped as it was in the middle 3rd).

Yep, birthday time.

And I’ve had a bottle……

I would say enjoy, but it appears I already have!

So, whilst bored I decided.  I have played with my flash guns for a while.  I’ve wanted to get some gels for a while now (I should speak to my mate Andy, after all he does make films and has plenty of gels), anyway in the absence of a 24 hour photography supplier I had to compromise.

CD cases to be precise.  In fact the ones I bought for my Alamy submissions (reminds me, still got about £3 in the Post Office easy pay account).  So after Alamy switched to upload I’ve had this pile of CD case waiting to go to the recycle bin.

So how did it go…….

So the flash setup as follows.

Left of the image:  580 MkII with 2x Blue(ish) CD case.

Furthest Right: 580 MkII with 2x Green CD case.

Off centre to the Right: 430 with 2x Red CD case, also with a card attached to the side to act as a flag.

Everything held in place with Blu-Tack! Apart fromone thing that used white-tack (or whatever it’s called).