Snaps from Devon

Sue and Paul are in the process of renovating their house and gardens - it'll be some time before they're complete....but well worth it. In the meantime there are lots of lovely old doors, crackling paint, etc. Here are some of the snaps - old garden nursery shed door and lock and old yard door. All of the pictures here were hand-held with my 50mm f/1.8 lens. Next time I'll get the tripod out.

Click on a photo to see a larger version in separate window. As always comments welcome (click on the "comments" link below) - please comment (good or bad) just so I know you're out there looking.

Lower Coombe Royal

Last weekend, Sara and I headed south and west to visit some friends in Devon. Susi and Paul are restoring a small estate on the outskirts of Kingsbridge in the South Hams. Their place is Lower Coombe Royal and is being refurbished as 5 Star luxury self-catering accommodation.

I can't adequately describe the fantastic accommodation and gardens - so check out the link above to see for yourself.

End of an era

All good things must come to an end - this morning I sold my boat.... an emerald green Laser I - and an absolute beaut at that!

Her name was "Tai Mong Tsai" - named after the place where I learnt to sail with Mo and Caroline. Tai Mong Tsai literally means "Big Fish Bay" in Cantonese - but (for whatever reason) the Anglecised version is "Emerald Bay".

I was once a very active sailor in her - Rutland Club Champion one year and 2x particpant in the UK Masters Inland Championships. She was (and is ) a very fast boat. Since moving full time to London, however, she's been fairly idle in a paddock at Bewl Valley Sailing club. She's now gone to a better, more active home where she'll be raced every weekend.

Despite her age - (144402) - she is in excellent condition. I fitted her with the new Laser-approved control lines a couple of years ago and this make tweaking her whilst racing much, much easier.

Park life

Every Friday morning, I'm reminded of Blur's classic song "Park Life" because it has the line "...except for Wednesday when I'm rudely awoken by the dustmen...". Except chez tressillian, when it's Friday.

Our trusty bin men normally have at least 2 and sometimes 3 bites at (rudely) waking us up:

1. 05:30 - single bin man walks up the street and drags each wheelie bin from the front of the house to the pavement.

2. 06:30 - massive rubbish truck with noisy hydraulic lifting gear empties all the bins. For good measure, they normally bash the bin a couple of times to ensure that it's empty.

3. (Optional) 08:00 - the "green" bin men do a simlar but slightly less noisy version for the recyclable stuff - glass, tins and papers.

Thankfully we're normally up-and-out by (3).

Rain at last!

The weather has been notably perverse this year in the UK. Firstly, it seemed like the winter was going to last forever - it was cold well into May. Secondly, we've had another very dry and hot summer. This, following on from two consecutive dry winters means that we've had "drought" conditons in the SE. Anybody that's lived in a tropical climate (like tressillian) will know this all a bit dramatic - but it does mean that we've had to be careful with water.


Anyway, the garden is just about on its last legs - and thankfully it's rained most of this morning. Maybe it'll recover? Here's hoping.

Lens comparisons

This lunchtime I popped down to a local second-hand camera shop - camera in tow. The objective was to do a comparison test between my everyday Sigma lens and a better quality Canon lens. In particular, I wanted to check sharpness and vignetting (dark triangles in the corner of the shot due to lens deficiencies). Unfortunately the tests confirmed my thoughts - the Sigma is pants. Here are the results (Canon on the left, Sigma on the right).

Sharpness - 300mm at f/5.6













Sharpness - 300mm at f/22













Vignetting test - 300mm at f/5.6













Not very promising - the vignetting or the sharpness of the Sigma.....

Graffiti panorama

Managed to get back to the graffiti wall today - to properly re-shoot the photos for a large panorama. A tiny, tiny sample is shown below. Click on the picture to see a larger version in a separate window. What you see is only 4% of the actual size - so the original will print out at 11" by 66" (yes, 5'6")! Whopper.






I have managed to sort out printing of an image this size - so I'll shortly be selling archival-quality limited edition prints (at full size). E-mail me at photoblog@tressillian.com if you'd like prices and/or to view it at full size.

Black and white graffiti

Same shots - but this time converted to black and white. What do you think....more dark and sinister, but less visual impact? Comments welcomed.

Sans tourists....

The final destination of today's photo walk-about was Greenwich (you know, GMT, Cutty Sark, Maritime Museum, etc.). Normally it's innundated with tourists - can't move for tour leaders and cameras. Anyway, by chance I found this bit of path (on the river) that was deserted - partly because it was too early for your average tour group and partly because it was a construction site.


Here's an arty-farty bench shot. Tweaked the white-balance to get the dreamy colours - because it was a bit surreal finding so many benches empty in Greenwich!

Graffiti

Put the camera on a leash this morning and took if for a walk-about. This time from our place down to Greenwich via Deptford Creek. Attached are some photos of an amazing wall of graffiti that I stumbled across - fantastically colourful and artistic.

The wall is near Deptford Bridge DLR - and possibly due for demolition - due to redevelopment of the area.

I also took a series of 5 shots - attempting a panoramic view of the wall (about 50 yards long). It didn't quite work out when stitched together - so another visit is in order. Possiblly more photos on a longer focal length.

The panorama - when printed up - would be 4'6" (1.5m) long. Not sure how to print something that size - but worth investigating.....

If you know of anywhere to print things that size, please let me know. As always, comments welcomed.