digitalCG

Ticking clocks

Well, the clocks went back at weekend signalling the end of British Summer Time and the start of 5pm darkness, seasonal affected disorder and increased energy bills.  It also means my trusty old K10 comes out to play, being as it is a much better long exposure performer than its younger siblings.  I'm sure there are many technical reasons for this but it does mean I can't bear to part with my K10 until Pentax resolves the issue in newer models.

So what better way to dust off the old bruiser than a quick overnight visit to Whitby?  The camera did great though I performed less well and need some more practice to fine tune my judgement again... for example I gave up on this startrail shot after around 14 mins thinking it was too cloudy for the exposure to work.  Ooops!
 
 

Whst_900

 

V3.0 is the magic number

I built it lovingly from scratch, creating a new look with new media, new code and new ideas.  I even got to grips with Pixelpost to create a whole new blogging and gallery system.  I was really proud of it but it failed the acid test... nobody I demonstrated the site to particularly liked it.  Nothing wrong with the feel, operation or speed of things, just the deviation from black and orange to polar opposite white and blue was too much of a leap.  Thus the original digitalCG V3.0 concept site was pretty much stillborn and I had to bin a very decent chunk of work to go back to the drawing board.

 

DigitalCG_V3_concept

 
By now, work on cannbalising the existing digitalCG site code to become VictoriaSportscars was well underway and the resemblance was obvious... I needed a new plan and fast, as VSC is due online by the end of the month.

 

VSC_Concept

 

 
In the end I decided that discretion was the better part of valour, that I was fast running out of time and talent, that coding a new site from scratch just wasn't an option - after all, I'm no web designer and much of my coding is time intensive trial and error.  I found a template I liked, made some modifications to suit my purpose and pressed ahead.  The result has been live all week and has proven quite robust despite some serious testing by my friends.  The galleries are still in beta but everything else is there, so feel free to go and browse through V3.0 of my site, digitalCG.co.uk
 

DigitalCG_V3_final

Last Gas

That bug of mine gets quite an easy life, all told.  I don't use it on a daily basis, I try to avoid using it in inclement conditions and I absolutely refuse to subject it to our terribly salty winter roads.  This is primarily because I once spent every penny I had (and beyond) to get it into shape and am in no hurry to hasten the inevitable second restoration, knowing the various sacrifices that entails.  However, I feel I already make a few sacrifices to run a second car and do like to get some use out of it from time to time, so once again I took advantage of the unusually mild and dry October we're having thus far to go for a ride at weekend.  After all it won't be too long until the colder, darker nights bring frost and ice, which brings the deadly road salt out to play - each and every opportunity must therefore be enjoyed before the onset of wintry weather confines the old veedub to a period of hibernation.

The light up in the hills was particularly spectacular, bright yet overcast with rays periodically beaming through breaks in the cloud cover.  It was pretty cold and windy but that didn't stop me grabbing a few more shots for the archive.  This has had a little enhancement during processing (sorry Spike!) but in my reckoning/memory is pretty close to what the naked eye, being far more sophisticated than any digital camera, could see....

 

Moh2

My other hobby...

...is photography, so it's perhaps a surprise that I haven't ever really combined the two with any dedication or purpose.  Bearing in mind my desire to revamp the old web galleries it was something I intended to address at weekend, so the bug found itself dusted off and propelled into the West Yorkshire hills for the Marsden Jazz Festival, with the intention of doing a 'proper' shoot as the day relinquished the last of its light.

Sadly, despite the lovely Autumn sunshine, relaxing entertainment, home made cakes in the church hall and fine ale from Marsden's own Riverhead Tap Brewery, an unknown lurgy was creeping into my companion's bones.  A quick stop at the chemist to dose up didn't do much to help, so the decision was made to curtail activities and head back home.  On the climb out of Marsden, after setting off a car alarm with the slightly loud exhaust, I did stop to grab half a dozen quick snaps.

 

Moh_1200

 

 'I feel like your other woman' she'd stated earlier, glibly.  In fairness my attentions had been divided throughout the day, but if she was just 'my other woman' I'd surely have gone ahead and done the full complement of photos anyway?

Flip!

I'm trawling through the perilously unordered archives at present looking for some shots I may have missed the first time round and it's all because a friend of mine lost his job recently.  To cut a long story short he's sick of working for the man and is setting up his own business.  For this business he needs a website and has always been a fan of how my own site looks and feels.  Consequently a deal has been done with me providing logo design, web services and lead photgraphy.

My lovingly crafted and thoroughly tested site code has been appropriated and adapted for his use, giving me a very short timeframe until his goes live to do something completely different with mine - after all, every page on that site links to mine and I wouldn't want people to click through and think I'm a one trick pony, would I?  A few false starts later and the new look digitalCG.co.uk is ready, all bar the galleries that is.

Which brings me back to trawling through the archives, looking for updates to my woefully neglected old galleries.  I'm drowning in images and am my own biggest critic anyway, so if you've any recent faves that you think deserve inclusion, do let me know!
 

 

Flip_900

Jump!

 
As the sun shone at weekend, it seemed appropriate to go and take some photos.  I ran a roll of b+w film through the new ME Super before switching to the modern camera, where it suddenly felt a bit too clinical and automated.  Time to introduce some fun back into digital, switch to manual and experiment, where the chance to review the shot, make changes and 'try again for free' is a modern bonus that photographers of old could only dream of...
 
 

Ju1_900

Quiet Temptation

I will protest my innocence to the death on this one, despite her allegations and the apparent convenience of it all.  The 'nice little camera shop' I'd managed to segue into a quick visit over the Yorkshire border this weekend just so happened to be having a Pentax Demo Day.  I remain somewhat cynical about their concerted efforts to push a discounted K-m package out of the door given that it is being replaced by the K-x in the next month or so, but in fairness it was a decent starter deal.  The nice company rep let me spend some time with the flagship K-7 model and stunning 50-135 DA* lens,  With the silent in-lens SDM motor and the K-7's new whisper-quiet shutter mechanism I was left feeling that my current setup was somewhat unrefined in comparison.

The temptations were there, sure, but my resolve stood firm.  Nice as the top line equipment is, if I wanted to sink over two grand on camera gear in one hit it'd likely be on a complete change of system.  One Pentax item in the window did catch my eye though, enough for me to part with cold hard cash...
 

Pe_900

 
 
The Pentax ME Super was the first SLR I ever used, though as a ten year old I didn't use it often or with any proficiency so my father sold it on.  I'd been keeping my eye out for a decent one for some time but have been put off by Ebay horror stories and some optimistic pricing at specialist stores.
 

This one was absolutely box fresh with matching immaculate 50/2 lens and still has the original factory QC label and protective baseplate sticker intact and undamaged.  The price was similar to recent Ebay sales but this obviously had the benefit of being fully cleaned, checked and fitted with new meter batteries, along with all the consumer protection that comes with a shop bought item rather than an auction website.  They wouldn't barter over any details of the deal but I just had to make it mine.  With a roll of Ilford XP2 400 b+w film thrown in, a shutter quieter than my K20 and silent (manual) focus aided by a beautiful bright viewfinder, the K-7 'want face' was soon forgotten!

Zen Photography

I think I've mellowed somewhat as I've aged, though perhaps nobody would yet dare actually describe me as 'mellow'.  I'm still cantankerous and quite highly strung at times, just not as often nor as severely as my earlier years.  Take this kid for example.  We were sitting minding our own business, watching the moodiest of skies roll in from the Irish Sea, when this boy started repeatedly launching his toy plane right towards us using a stout elastic band.  There's an entire stretch of near-deserted beach to play on, but for some unknown reason he finds the prospect of our proximity too enticing to resist.

This in itself was quite annoying, the fact our peace was shattered by this whooping and squealing energy ball, but that's just a kid being a kid.  The deeply annoying part was how his parents just stood by on the beach and watched as he terrorised us with his brightly painted, sharp edged plastic projectile and his terrible aim.  I'm pretty sure if I were that kid that my parents would have shouted me over, pointed out how close I was to those nice people who were minding their own business, clipped me round the ear, told me to think more carefully and be safer in future.  Once the tears from the stinging slap had subsided I'd more than likely have learned a little lesson in tempering my exhuberance and being more aware of others.

Not too many years ago there's no doubt I'd have loudly told the kid what to do in my best booming teacher voice, then told his parents exactly where to go if they tried to defend his slightly stupid actions.  This time though I just put on the superwide and ND grad, framed up and used him as foreground interest.  Of course had his parents attempted to object to my photography, the fun would really have started....
 
 

Grn_900

 

Four tons of texture

 
 

4tt_900

 

Keep it simple

This oil feed uses gravity and centrifugal effect to keep the bearing of a 100 year old, 600hp steam engine lubricated.  It's very straightforward and very clever, using no power and working like a charm with very low maintenance requirements regardless of environmental conditions. 

These days the same task would be given to a ridiculously complex array of wiring, sensors, microprocessors, circuit boards, software algorithms and actuators that would require a constant power source, have limited operability outside standard temperatures and humidity and also have a very finite service life designed to ensure a clear upgrade path in future years... not exactly progress in my book.

 

Tst2_900