Photography, random posts and very little about kebabs.
….now the blog is back and working I’ve noticed a pattern of things. Illness and Fitness seem to feature a lot. And guess what, well last week I joined the Aston Uni Gym – it’s over the road from where I work so convenient.
Last week I also couldn’t shake off the cold/sore throat and headache I had so I got ill.
Nice to see things as much are back to normal.
I know I’ve been fairly quiet, but it’s probably a good idea if you’ve not got a lot to say then say nothing – so that’s what I’ve done.
Still just to contradict myself I’m really updating this out of habit. I know I’ve not updated for over a month now so you might be wondering how my positivity quest is going.
So positive updates it is:
Weight – now down to 13st 13lb, so getting close to my initial target of 13.5. Once there I’ll review and it’s more than likely I’ll try for 12.5.
Positivity – a few of my goals towards positivity have been achieved, though they might appear to be odd but you need to be in my head to understand them.
So there you go, a positivity statement for April.
Still working towards my personal freedom, small steps to build momentum.
So the annual trip to a photography show is now complete (this year it changed from Focus to ‘The Photography Show’) – actually surprised how busy it was for a weekday. For a change I wasn’t overly bothered about kit, nor did I have any intention of spending large amounts of cash.
The show itself was much the same as Focus on Imaging – which isn’t a bad thing to be honest, though the main difference was a couple of stages where every hour or so Pro togs would talk about their specific genre of photography. I did sit through a wedding show which mainly comprised of the professionalism of the photographer – which was a better talk than it initially sounded.
First up for me, was the Canon stand – like a moth to a flame, or me to an Apple Store I’m drawn towards the Canon Stand – probably some blinded fanboy loyalty, or most likely cos I own a chunk of the Canon Eos system. My only temptation camera wise at present is the EF135mm f/2 L – so I’d thought i’d have a look. The results aren’t anything spectacular (it’s indoors at the NEC!) but I had a brief play…..
So there you go, Canon sorted. The one stand I wanted to check out was the Bessel Lighting stand – mainly as I wanted to speak to Tony Rabin who was demonstrating their kit. I’ve met Tony before at YPS and I do plan to visit his studio for Lighting and Model shoots. After a brief chat I finally got round to purchasing a remote trigger. I do own the Canon ST-E2 remote trigger, which is fine – but limited (distance) so I bought a £19.99 remote and £9.99 tripod/hotshot adapter. One trick with this is set the connected flash up as a master and reset as slaves and they all work fine. With this adapter you loose the E-TTL capability and have to use manual, but for studio settings that’s normal anyway. I’m tempted to eBay the ST-E2 and spend the cash on some soft box stuff from Bessel.
The picture above is just a test of the setup. The first EX580 MkII is connected to the hotshot adapter and the remote receiver is connected. This flash is setup as a master (and for space reasons I’ve stuck the front in a roll of packing tape). The other EX580 MkII and EX430 Mk1 are setup as slaves. The primary flash triggers the other two automatically. The 580 MkII’s were set with a flash rating of 1/128th and 430 was set to 1/64th (both at their respective lowest flash setting).
It seems to do the job well enough 🙂
Dear All,
As part of my transformation into ‘new’ me I’m trying my best to leave the past in the past – for too long I’ve let the past cloud my present and future. So in essence if I talk about the past, please hit me (though not too hard).
So what goes? Surely if the past is behind me then everything should go? Well there is an argument that the past shaped me, so all the life experiences shouldn’t be forgotten. That’s true, but I certainly can’t change that now, and character traits I have are from the past so the past will always be with me. Now I’ve confused myself, considering the past that’s not really a surprise (joke).
Reprogramming:
Unlearning bad habits, or just changing habits is a start. Giving up was something I excelled at – so will I master it all? I need to learn what ‘all’ is. That’s part of the reprogramming. It’ll take time, small steps will lead to more momentum – once i’m up to speed then I’ll know.
Regards,
Steve
Visitors to the blog might not realise, but change has been busy working away in my life. I’ve hinted at fitness and weight loss and this is continuing to be great – currently down from 15st 13lb to 14st 5lb so things are looking up, or in the case of weight down.
So this improvement has led me to look at other things in my life, the main one being positivity – or the previous lack of it. So the next change is a state of mind. Rather than look back at life and wonder why me, I’ve decided to move on and be more positive in my out look. One thing to change is the look and feel of the blog – the theme has changed (it might change again) and pretty soon the dark look will go (once I dig round the CSS files).
The blog as with many things in my life will be more reflective of colour and positivity.
The previous blog posts will still remain, but I’m not going to actively maintain any links/images if they become broken. They are consigned to history.
Thank you.
Steve
(oh, as for the new tag – it’s what i’m working towards)