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Dave's Photo Blog

Dave's Photo Blog
My favourite photos from my world travels and life in general covering everything from landscapes to creatures to macro to arty, plus various musings.

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Articles

State of the nation (2)
2008-05-09 23:58:00
It's not often I read a newspaper. This week though I've had a couple of free copies of The Times and a particular story in Thursday's edition, about proposed changes to the driving test, caught my eye.The on-line version of the story has been re-worded for some reason - maybe to give a work experience kid something to do - but the gist is the same. The sentence that caught my eye in the print version says 'The DfT consultation paper, entitled Learning to Drive, also proposes to stop publishing the questions for the theory test, meaning that candidates would no longer be able to memorise the answers without understanding the principles.'For anyone who is unaware, the driving theory test for cars and bikes consists of a set of multiple choice questions, of which 43 from a selection of 50 must be answered correctly, followed by a hazard perception test in which only about 60% of potential hazards need to be spotted. The multiple choice questions can be downloaded, bought or pract...
More About: Nation , State , The Nation

Burning Trains
2008-05-03 16:31:00
My train journey home last night took two and a half hours for what is normally a forty minute high-speed dash up the country. It all started well, but the train came to a halt at Wembley Central and some of the lights went out. About ten minutes later the Train Manager announced that there was a burning freight train just ahead of us and, as the fire brigade were busy spraying water around, the power to overhead lines in the immediate area on both sets of north/south lines had been cut. A while later and the train's backup power supply depleted and the remaining lights went out. All passengers were forced to vacate and wait on the platform for a while, before squeezing into an already overcrowded London Overground train to Watford where another fast train was waiting.Stopping the trains sounds very sensible - everyone knows that water and electricity don't mix very well (or do, that being the problem). But ... hang on ... what happens when it rains?
More About: Trains , Burning

Tropical Flora
2008-04-27 21:27:00
Here's another couple of shots taken in Raratonga on the Cook Islands. This time we have two lilies - both were in a small pond near the villa we were staying in at the resort. We would walk past them every time we went to a meal or to the pool and I couldn't resist not photographing them - especially, in the second case, after a short spot of rain. Nikon D70, 18-70mm lens
More About: Tropical , Flora

Holiday Inspiration
2008-04-17 22:06:00
Gah! I've been suffering a terrible lack of inspiration lately - I even sat down to write something last night, chose a nice photo that should have been easy, and spent a few minutes just staring at the empty Title field.Hopefully normal service will be resumed shortly. However I can't leave my Photo Blog again without posting something relevant, so here is a photo from one of my favourite holiday locations of recent years - Raratonga in the Cook Islands. More to come soon.Nikon D70, 18-70mm kit lens
More About: Holiday , Inspiration

Where's Dave?
2008-03-11 21:49:00
Here I am! It's been over two months since my last post, and over three since my last photo. I could blame it all on my home PC having blown a gasket (or whetever it is inside these things) or on being too busy achieving my New Year's resolutions, but one of those is a cop-out and the other is a lie. I'll leave it to you to decide which is which (although I had the boiler fixed so I haven't been completely idle).My PC has really broken though. I think it was partially my fault. Before it went I started building a new one, and got far enough along to not want to go out and buy a completely pre-built new one that will work straight away, but not far enough to have finished it yet. This leaves me with no PC on which I can download and edit photos.The new PC won't be done until at least the start of April, so my current plan is to go back over some of my favourite old snaps and start posting those - the blog heading does state 'past and present' after all.While my thoughts meande...
More About: Dave

Resolutions
2008-01-01 22:00:00
I've been tagged by Neil after he created his own little meme. Neil wants to know what my New Year's Resolutions are. Normally I don't make resolutions, but this year I have.I must first apologise to others that have tagged me where I haven't (yet) responded, but this one needs doing now if it's to be done at all. So, without further ado, here are my five:Fix the lights - we have two sets of lights in our living room at home and one of them has been broken for, literally, years. It's time to get them sorted out.Fix the boiler - our boiler currently has a problem and stops working when it gets hot. Not a good thing for a boiler. 'Rebooting' it seems to fix it for a time, but I resolve not to let this turn into another broken lights situation.Get a bit fitter - ah look ... my third resolution is almost a direct copy of Neil's third.Drink less - I don't tend to binge drink (except maybe when on a night out, but that doesn't happen often), but I do tend to have a drink almost...

How to ... Chuckles
2007-12-22 19:03:00
This second in the How To ... series is on a less serious topic than the first. Unlike the previous instalment it can be easily practiced on one's own, although for the sake of all-round amusement I would suggest attempting simultaneous rehearsal among a group of like minded individuals. Lastly, while the previous lesson was demonstrated through the use of an instructive image, this one requires a video to convey full tutelage.Dave's Photo Blog is proud to present How To Make Full Use of Your Laugh.

BBC iPlayer Without the Dowloads
2007-12-13 19:03:00
Time for a tangent ...Back in July the BBC launched the iPlayer, a piece of software that would allow you to download and view programmes from the last seven days. There were two problems: the player was only available for Windows, shutting out anyone with a Mac or Linux and a lot of people (myself included) are put off these days by having to install yet another client to watch/listen to locked content - most of the major channels seem to have their own versions of these things (e.g. Sky, Channel4), yet we're supposed to moving into a Video on Demand world in which we can watch anything at any time through our set top boxes.Today, the BBC has launched a new version of the iPlayer. This time it's online. No dowloads (apart from upgrading Flash if you still have an old version) - the videos just play in your web browser, like YouTube. This is great for me as I often find myself forgetting about things I meant to watch until shortly after they have ended.OK, so it's nowhere near HD...

The Great Fire of (East) London
2007-12-09 23:53:00
I've been really bad lately - only one post in November, and now here we are almost a third of the way through December! I have some catching up to do. Well actually that's not really true - for some reason I haven't been taking many photos recently so there's not much to catch up on. Various things have been getting in the way - busy at work, busy at home, it's dark now when I leave the house in the morning and when I get back at night, I've been doing some extra curricular work designing a website and when I have had some free time I've been playing Crysis.Even the photos I did take last month went untouched until today when I finally got around to downloading them onto my PC and playing around with them ... Back in the middle of November there was a large fire in the East of London on the site of a future Olympics venue. From our office we had an amazing view of the huge plume of smoke and could see the flames when they were at their highest.So, even though they are four w...
More About: Great , Fire

Autumn Morning
2007-11-05 22:23:00
We went for a walk in our local park on Saturday morning and saw some of the colours that will be around for the next few weeks. Last year the trees all seemed to change overnight - almost like they had all been waiting for each other and then started a great race. This year they are taking their time, changing one at a time, which means the colours last for much longer. The photo below is my favourite from the morning (yeah OK, I mucked around with the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop a bit, but it looks good). This is from the same stand of trees that I shot last November. Last year all the trees were at the same stage, whereas this year you can still see green in the background.Nikon D200, AF-S 18-200mm VR1/320sec, f/7.1
More About: Morning , Autumn

How To ...
2007-10-25 00:21:00
In what may or may not become a series - depending on future inspiration and opportunity - I would like to unveil the first, and possibly last, post under Dave's new How To ... brand. These nuggets of momentary wisdom may (or may not, the author accepts no responsibility for what you do with the information) provide valid and useful life-lessons for the otherwise uninitiated.*The photo below demonstrates, quite nicely I think, How To Look Intellectual While Sleeping.Now go and practice. If you cannot find someone to help mark your efforts and offer advice and tips for improvement you could either set up a time-lapse camera so that you may rate yourself 'offline' or train in front of a mirror, one eye at a time.* I've recently been writing lots of technical and sales-y documentation at work and am full of caveats and verbosity. Does it show?**** That's a rhetorical question.

Autumnal Eye
2007-10-18 20:51:00
It's good to see that Autumn is back where it's meant to be - last year the season started very late, but this year the leaves had started falling and mornings had become cold and misty by the start of this month. I do like a good Autumn.Last week on one of the aforementioned misty morns London remained shrouded even after I arrived at the office. Working on the 25th floor of one of the highest buildings in the area makes for some fantastic views. I took this photo of the London Eye and it came out a bit noisy and blurry - so I converted it to black and white and added a bit more noise for effect.Sony DSC-T200

Raspberries
2007-10-15 22:47:00
Looks like we have taught Matthew his first lesson - how to blow raspberries at people. It's all very funny ... for now. He currently thinks that sticking his tongue out at people is one of the greatest japes in the world. Are we naughty parents? Maybe, but its still fantastic to see him smile and laugh. It might just be a little embarrassing if he decides to parp at a passing pedestrian.Sony DSC-T200

At The Drive In
2007-10-07 00:00:00
I don't like to watch much crap TV (my wife might disagree here), but weekend mornings are great for channel surfing. This morning, after catching the end of Robot Wars, and discussing the feasibility of the plot of Xena Warrior Princess I noticed a film with the title Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women. Who could resist?OK, I'll admit it, the film was laughable - but a chuckle is never a bad thing is it? Here is a brief synopsis:In 1998 a manned-mission is sent to Venus. A meteor hits the spaceship and everyone dies. Oh well. A second mission is sent. This one crash lands on Venus, stranding two astronauts and 'Robot John' (a robot called John who everyone calls Robot John so we don't get too attached to his strangely-dexterous, but sadly hydrophobic ways). A third mission is sent to rescue the men from certain space-suit rash. This one lands without problem, but where are the rescue-ees? In a journey across the planet to find the stranded crew members, the rescuers (in...
More About: Drive

First Smiles
2007-10-03 21:14:00
Matthew has now been with us for seven weeks, and while that time has flown past so quickly we almost don't realise how long its been, its also difficult to remember or imagine life before having him with us.He is certainly growing fast. He might be just above average weight for his age, but last week he hit the 98th percentile for height. He's currently as tall as an an 'average' baby twice his age!Apart from being lanky like his dad he also started smiling a couple of weeks ago and is now more interested in things going on around him. Taking photos of a baby that has just started smiling with a massive SLR is tricky as they mostly react only to another smiling face, and the camera tends to cover that up (a small P&S that is also able to shoot video has been ordered from eBay and is in the post). However, here are a couple I managed to capture last weekend. Nikon D200, Sigma 30mm f/1.41/30sec, f/2.8 &nb.. .
More About: Smiles

Licence Licensed
2007-10-01 00:35:00
A recent comment-conversation with Rebecca and post from Ming reminded me that I needed to do something about clarifying the status of the images I post to the internet. I do not sell my images (I had a few on iStockphoto, a stock photography site, but the returns are too low to bother) so wouldn't be losing any money if someone decided to 'appropriate' an image from this site for their own use, but at the same time I would hope that no-one did that without asking.To make things clearer I have created a license for my images using Creative Commons.The license means that anyone is free to share and use any of the images I post on this blog in a non-commercial manner, as long as they do not alter the images in any way and I am given credit, either via name or a link back to this site.The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that the images you see here are usually around 800 by 600 pixels in size, while the majority of my work is shot with a ten mega pixel camera. That means if yo...
More About: Licence

No Parking
2007-09-30 00:14:00
This appeared sometime in the last week and I spotted it the following day on my walk to the train station on the way to work. It is perhaps most pointless set of double yellow lines I have ever seen. OK, so it is next to a driveway and it is opposite the (footpath) entrance to a church, but this is a tiny road and here is the only stretch with any form of road markings. Either a resident has taken it on themselves to police highway code item 243 or our local council doesn't have enough to worry about. Made me chuckle anyway.Nokia N73
More About: Parking

A Milestone and a Conspiracy
2007-09-25 00:12:00
Dave's Photo Blog is (or very soon will be, depending on when you are reading this) 5000 visitors old! Blimey.Like many bloggers I pimp my site a little: pro-actively trying to reach a larger audience. Sites like Blog Explosion get me quite a few hits, as does commenting on other sites that I find interesting. However, the majority of visits to the blog come from Google, and its been quite interesting monitoring the statistics to see how people find my posts.Unfortunately, I'm not able to see the search-term used when a hit comes through Google Images, but here are some examples of web searches that often find me:Dave Licence - before I started blogging, a search on my name would only have returned you with instructions on how to install a piece of software onto your Macintosh. The same search today will return my sites first, although this blog has actually dropped to third for some reason (see my conspiracy theory below). Unfortunately, a search for David Licence only returns my...
More About: Conspiracy , Milestone , Tone

Creepy
2007-09-21 23:31:00
I was out doing a bit of tidying in the garden the other weekend - just cutting back all this year's growth rather than doing anything amazing with an herbaceous border or installing a shrubbery (OK so that's two links for shrubberies. Sorry. I did look for something amusing on herbaceous borders but am easily distracted). There is a bramble on the lane behind my garden, which keeps trying to loop its way over the fence and find an extra foothold. As I was battling with it I noticed another plant that seemed to be thriving by winding and tangling itself around the bramble and pretty much everything nearby. The shapes and patterns made by this plant are quite interesting to look at as it really does wriggle around to cling on to whatever its near. This observation resulted in some more macro shots (I'll try to photograph something full-scale soon, promise). The plant could be some kind of creeper, hence the title of this post, but I really have no idea. Nikon D200, AF-S 105mm...
More About: Creepy , Cree

Rope Light
2007-09-10 22:43:00
I have a rope light strung up along the handrail of the stairs in my house. It looks pretty cool when it is switched on, but that tends to be only for parties - most of the time it just sits there not doing much but collecting dust.The other night I had the lights on while taking photos of moths - seen in the background of the first picture in last week's Creatures Of The Night post - and wondered what the rope might look like on its own. Here are a couple of shots from my experiment. Nikon D200, AF-S 105mm Micro VR1/200sec, f/7.1 ; &nbs p; &nb sp; 1/80 sec, f/8
More About: Light , Rope

Oak Bush-Cricket
2007-09-06 22:34:00
Here is another night-time interloper into my household. An oak bush-cricket - a male (noted due to the lack of a pointed ovipositor).This guy is less common and certainly more unexpected than the moths of my previous post, given that I don't live too close to woodland. I did spot a speckled bush-cricket in my back garden last year though while pruning the greenery so maybe the speckled bunch invited some of the oak gang over for an intra-species parley and this one got lost - photographed here hanging upside-down off my ceiling a few nights ago.Nikon D200, AF-S 105mm Micro VR, SB-6001/80sec, f/20, ISO-200
More About: Cricket , Bush

Creatures Of The Night
2007-09-04 18:55:00
Having a new baby in the house has meant that I have recently become familiar with some hours of the night that I haven't been acquainted with for a while. This also means that I have seen many of the creatures that roam the halls when the lights are normally dimmed - the most common of which are moths. They seem to find a way in no matter how tightly you draw the curtains or shutter the blinds, just to be near an energised light bulb.Here are some photos of a couple of recent visitors. Unfortunately, there are nearly two and a half thousand species of moth in the UK alone, so I haven't been able to identify them. Any lepidopterists in the audience?Nikon D200, AF-S 105mm Micro VR1/100sec, f/5.6, ISO-220 Nikon D200, AF-S 105mm Micro VR, SB-6001/250sec, f/22, ISO-200 &nbs p; &nb sp; &n bsp; 1/200sec, f/25, ISO-200
More About: Night , Creatures , Creature

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