Nikon S1 – fraggle ~ rocking a camera across the Universe

The Sunday Fraggle report~SeaLife edition

December 6, 2015December 6, 2015Posted in Adventures, Fuji, fujiXT1, hipstamatic, Iphoneography, Nikon, photographyTagged adventure, Cal, fraggle, Fuji XT1, Nikon S1, Scotland, Sealife, Storm Desmond32 Comments

The horrible weather has been very horrible this week, culminating in Storm Desmond on Friday and Saturday. 70mph gusts of wind and rain, not too good for photography. On Wednesday I had to travel to Scotland, but didn’t get inspired to take many photos.

It’s grim oop north

Came across a telephone box though, always like to collect shots of these,

This weekend we have had our grandson Cal to stay over while his Mum & Dad had a trip away for Dad’s birthday. We like to take Cal out, so in spite of Storm Desmond, off we went to Sea Life in Tynemouth. It was so windy it was hard to walk, but once inside it was OK. First thing we did was to feed Cal ..

and then went in to see the fish. I gave Cal my Nikon S1 and he and Grandad also took some shots.

The lighting inside is not great, and you can’t use flash, so lots of rubbish shots, but did get a few nice ones,

There is a glass tunnel to walk under where the fish swim all around and above..

they also have an ‘amazon’ section with marmosets and a cotton top tamarind

We caught feeding time with the otters, it was really dark in the otter house, and neither my fuji or the nikon could cope with the combination of low light and rapidly moving otters, so I used the Nikon with flash and got told off by one of the animal keepers. Bad Fraggle. Don’t think I did any damage to the otters and they didn’t give a poo.

We went to see the sealions which have a huge play park and they shoot around it so fast it was really hard to get a shot.

And you can see them outside too.

but it was too cold and windy for Cal so we went and had another cuppa, and got him some toys for his bath time

and then we took a selfie as we left 🙂

and went back home to get warm!

and thats the end of this week.

Laters gaters

😉 ❤

The Sunday Fraggle report

August 16, 2015August 16, 2015Posted in cat, family, Fuji, hipstamatic, Iphoneography, Nikon, photography, uncategorisedTagged cats, faffing about, fraggle, Fuji XT1, hipstamatic, iphone6, Nikon S117 Comments

I haven’t been on any day trips, but have always got cameras of some kind at the ready, so this is just a bits and bobs post. I have been travelling for work though and made use of the iphone. The first is of Skiddaw mountain and Lake Bassenthwaite in Cumbria, if you’ve followed my little blog for a while you’ve seen photo’s of it before, but it looks different every time I stop to see it, one day I’ll collect them all together and post them all in one go.

Lake BAssenthwaite & Skiddaw — Lake Bassenthwaite & Skiddaw (*hipstamatic*)

I love the little church in the clearing by the lake, one day I’ll get to visit it.

That was my Westward journey and then the next day I was Northward bound to Eyemouth in the Scottish Borders, somewhere new for me.

Eyemouth (hipstamatic) — Eyemouth (*hipstamatic*)

Last weekend we had a visit from Phil’s son Carl and the grandkids, Livvy had decided to wear her brother’s Batman swimming shorts over her jeans, I thought that was cute 🙂

Livvy~ fashion Icon. (fuji XT1) — Livvy~ fashion Icon. (*fuji XT1*)

The cats are still driving us mad, Skye is mad for chasing a lazer pen light around the house, and Storm is still over eating and then chucking up. Last night Phil forgot to put the lid on the cat biscuit box, eventually this morning…well… it wasn’t pretty!

Cooked a sunday lunch last week which was lush, I love using the herbs I grown in pots in the garden,

We’ve had a couple of sunny days lately, and had a couple of Bar B Q’s

We’ve also had some rainy days..

I’ve also been doing some faffography with potato shop, for the Sunday challenge group over at Ipernity (which is like old flickr)

The challenge was to take a shot with in camera processing (I shot the shells with a Tungsten WB setting) then do some post processing. So I made an underwater scene.

Last Sunday we had to do man made bokeh, which involves cutting a shape out of cardboard, then putting it on the front of a lens so any lights in the distance become the same shape as the cutout, whilst you focus on an object nearer (thus making the background lights blurry).

This week the theme was chairs, and I’ve got a rotten cold so didn’t feel like going out, I used my garden chairs and made them fly 🙂

my super hubby helped out for that!

and a bit of faffography for no reason except I wanted to fractal one of the owl pics from last weeks outing to Segedunum

Glowy Owl (*fuji XT1 – processed on iPhone 6*)

Hope this cold goes away soon. 😦 Phil is cooking Lamb in red wine sauce for our dinner this evening really looking forward to that. And as always on a Sunday, I’m back to work tomorrow. Am having a trip out with Sophie on Thursday to a new Cat Cafe (as if I needed more cats in my life!) in Newcastle, where you can have lunch with cats! Photo’s of that for sure and then some of Newcastle.

Laters Gaters

😉

The Fraggle report, ~end of July

July 31, 2015July 31, 2015Posted in family, flower, Fuji, hipstamatic, Iphoneography, landscape, nature, Nikon, people, photographyTagged Cat, fraggle, Fuji XT1, hipstamatic, iphone6, Nikon S116 Comments

Apart from all my trips out to the Farne Islands etc, I have still been taking pictures of ordinary life. Not many but here they are.

Cool sky on the way to Asda 🙂

and over our house

There's a storm coming — There’s a storm coming (iPhone 6)

and by the coast

and I’ve been working over in Cumbria, but the weather was dramatic

Clouds on Skiddaw — Clouds over Skiddaw (nikon S1)

We went into South Shields and saw a busker with a puppet tin man, he somehow managed to play, sing and make the puppet dance.

Singing and dancing (Iphone6 Hipstamatic)

I had to illustrate an Elvis song, and chose ‘A little less Conversation’, my hubby was a good sport 😀

We had the carpet cleaner in so moved all the furniture into the conservatory, and I caught Skye climbing and leaping.

I did some faffography on my daisy patch

and we had a visit from our granddaughter Livvy

and our new kid on the block arrived a week ago..

proud Mum Shelley & Big Brother Cal

and the neighbours teenagers are having a loud party in the garden, so hubby and I are going to sit in our conservatory and drown them out with our superior stereo equipment and some good ole Rock n Roll, 😀

laters gaters

😉

Farne Islands ~ part 2

July 10, 2015July 11, 2015Posted in birds, Fuji, nature, Nikon, photography, UncategorizedTagged Arctic Terns, cormorants, Farne Islands, fraggle, Fuji XT1, guillemots, Inner Farne, Nikon S1, puffins, razorbills13 Comments

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Landing on Inner Farne is not fun, lots of vicious arctic terns think you’re here to steal their babies and dive bomb everyone as they get off the boat and peck their heads- advice was to wear a hat, which I did ( and walked fast!) Sophie kindly stood still so I could get a shot of one pecking her head, but boy they are so FAST!

There were lots of twitchers on the island with very long camera lenses, they do make me laugh.

They were also some Italian people and they were very happy.

This chap reminded me of Timothy Spall OBE the actor 🙂

When we got back to the harbour, which only took 15 mins on the way back, we had a wander around as blue skies had arrived. Also I’d mostly used the Nikon for the bird shots and wanted the fuji to have some fun too.

As you might have noticed, I strung all the birds shots into a slide show, the little Nikon did a good job, though it made me laugh standing next to a Big Lens person, but will be going back with my new zoom lens at some point. Sophie forgot her zoom lens on the day too so we both struggled, but it was a fab day out and we had a good time 🙂

laters gaters

😉

Farne Islands ~part 1

July 9, 2015July 10, 2015Posted in birds, Fuji, nature, Nikon, photography, uncategorisedTagged birds, boats, Farne Islands, fraggle, Fuji XT1, Grace Darling, Inner Farne, Nikon S1, Northumberland, photography15 Comments

The Farne Islands are a group of Islands off the Northumberland coast, scattered about 1 & 1/2 – 4 1/2 miles from the mainland, and Sophie and I went on a day trip with Billy Shiels boats, to Inner Farne. The earliest inhabitants were celtic monks, first recorded in 651, when they became home to St.AIden followed by St.Cuthbert. Cuthbert isolated himself on the islands until he was called to the bishopric of Lindisfarne, but after two years he returned to the solitude of the Inner Farne and died there in 687, when St.Aethelflod took up residence instead. Among other acts, Saint Cuthbert introduced special laws in 676 protecting the eider ducks, and other seabirds nesting on the islands; these are thought to be the earliest bird protection laws anywhere in the world. Today the islands have no permanent population, the only residents being National Trust bird wardens during part of the year: they live in the old pele tower on the Inner Farne, (the largest and closest inshore of the islands), and the lighthouse cottage on the Brownsman in the outer group. The pele tower was built c.1500, by or for Thomas Castell, Prior of Durham.

I love going on boats, so exciting 🙂 I took the Fuji XT1 with me, but also the Nikon S1 as I hadn’t yet got the new zoom lens for the XT, and the one I have for the Nikon is 110mm whereas the XT kit zoom is only 55mm.

This chap was sitting on the harbour wall before we set off.

Just chillin' — Just chilling’ (*Fuji XT1*)

In the harbour at Seahouses — a boat in the harbour at Seahouses (*Fuji XT1*)

all the white stuff down the cliffs is bird poo, and boy as you got nearer to it it really stank!

You must remember this A kiss is just a kiss... :) — You must remember this
A kiss is just a kiss… 🙂 (*Nikon S1*)

The islands also hold a notable colony of about 6,000 grey seals, with several hundred pups born every year in September–November.

FI-41 — Site of the former lighthouse on Brownsman Island (*Nikon S1*)

The Farne Islands are associated with the story ofGrace Darling and the wreck of the Forfarshire. Grace Darling was the daughter of Longstone Lighthouse Keeper,(one of the islands’ lighthouses), William Darling, and on 7 September 1838, at the age of 22 years, she and her father rescued nine people in a strong gale and thick fog from the wreck of the Forfarshire, which had run aground on Harcar Rock. The story of the rescue attracted extraordinary attention throughout Britain and made Grace Darling a heroine who has gone down in British folklore

Longstone lighthouse in the Farnes from where Grace Darling and her father launched their rescue. (*nikon S1*)

We had a good journey out, variable weather, and took about an hour to get to the Island as the Cap’n took us on a tour around the Islands to start with before landing us on Inner Farne, the pictures from there will be on the next post.

laters gaters

😉

The Fraggle holiday report~part 2

May 23, 2015May 23, 2015Posted in cat, Fuji, hipstamatic, Iphoneography, uncategorisedTagged Fuji XT1, hipstamatic, iphone6, Leighton Buzzard, Nikon S19 Comments

Onwards ever onwards!

Firstly I forgot to take a shot of the hedge in it’s nearly finished stage yesterday so here is that one.

I think it was at this stage that Phil decided that next year we’ll ‘get a man in‘.

Anyway, yesterday we got up early and headed off to Leighton Buzzard to spend the afternoon with Ben. Not too bad a journey down the M1 inspite of several miles (and miles) of road works with the maximum speed allowed 50mph. No jams or hold ups so we made it in 4 1/2hrs.

We took Ben and Charlotte out to lunch,

at the Swan Hotel, part of the Weatherspoons franchise.

as you can see, quite a nice day, no rain 🙂 Leighton Buzzard is a very old Market town, the Market Cross was built probably in the 15th century and there’s a brief and interesting history of it HERE.

it really is an amazing structure when you find out all about it, there are 3 other statues, not in the greatest of conditions, but still holding up.

I did a vertorama using 5 horizontal shots with my Nikon S1 and merging in Lightroom, am really impressed with this feature, works really smoothly.

seen on the way back to the car park…

when the afternoon grew late, we got back in the car and went home up the A1, a few traffic jams as a lot of it is dual carriageway, but no roadworks and as the M1 was jammed right up being a Bank Holiday weekend, we did the right thing and made it home in 5hrs, not bad for a Friday! When it was Phil’s turn to drive I took a few iPhone shots out of the car window, none of which came out really well, so I applied a bit of Faffography with some apps and quite liked the result.

It was quite late when we got home, so didn’t wake up til late this morning, and Phil decided to finish the hedge.

So that is a huge job done. My hubby is awesome!

Today has been a big day for the cats as they have now had their anti-everydiseasepossible jabs they are allowed outside. AT 5 nearly 6 years old, going outside for the 1st time ever has been a big thing for them. We waited til 1/2hr before feeding time (so they wouldn’t go too far!) and left the conservatory door open while we sat outside having a cuppa. Storm was the bravest and came out to have a good explore.

Skye was not quite so brave…

shall I shan't I??? — shall I shan’t I???

that'll be a 'nope' — that’ll be a ‘nope’

but eventually, a few hours later when it was all quiet, she made her way out and had a little sniff about.

not the best shots as I used Phils iphone quickly before she got spooked, but they’ll do.

We were going to have a Bar B Q as I spent a long time cleaning it up today, but the clouds came over at dinner time, I made a fab sauce which I’m calling Fraggles Black Magic sauce, the ingredients of which are..

and I marinated some chicken pieces in the sauce, then roasted them for 1/2 hour, was totally lush.

Tomorrow I’m off out with Sophie, going to find the Hermits cave up in Walkworth, exciting day to come!

laters gaters

😉

The Sunday Fraggle Report

May 17, 2015Posted in cameras, cat, Fuji, landscape, macro, Nikon, photography, polaroidTagged cats, fraggle, Fuji XT1, Nikon S1, plant11 Comments

No days out or gigs or parties to attend this week, so back to flowers and landscapes and cats!

I have been practicing with my Fuji macro lens on a houseplant one of my lovely clients gave me in the week. I have no idea what it is but noticed it has little stalks which produce drops of water, which I tried to get a shot of, but they are really tiny.

The flowers and buds have curly bits at one end, and pointy bits at the other.

The leaves are quite special too.

So if anyone recognises the plant, let me know!

I also emptied out the Nikon S1 SD card, I still take it with me when I’m out and about for work, and a couple of weeks ago I stopped down in Teeside to get a shot of the yellow rape seed fields. This first shot was taken with the 11mm lens

after I took this I thought it might be worth doing a panorama of the same scene, so turned the S1 sideways and took 5 portrait shots. Merged in the new panorama feature in the latest edition of Lightroom.

It doesn’t look as good at this size, perhaps too much foreground, and the yellow fields don’t stand out so much, so I prefer the 11mm shot.

I’ve also been playing with these..

and am still loving the new B&W film which develops instantly. Some new shots in the film, and SX70 tabs on the menu, but thought I’d share this one on the main page today.

And finally, the cats, they drive us mad already, but they are lovely to photograph 🙂 you can just see Storm’s paw is resting on Skye, they do like to cuddle.

It’s amazing that they have so much fur but love being in sunny positions. Storm is quite difficult to photograph, I think because she is totally dark, I really want to get a good shot of her eyes in that black face, it doesn’t help that she won’t keep still when I’m trying, and always looks away just as I press the shutter! This one isn’t too bad, but I’ll keep trying!

and Skye, much easier to see 😀 😀

So that’s it for this week. Tomorrow and Tuesday I’m working, and then…(drum roll)… 11 days off for holiday! Looking forward to it a lot!

laters gaters

😉

The Sunday Fraggle report

February 8, 2015February 28, 2015Posted in birds, cameras, Guitars, landscape, nature, Nikon, photography, robins, Uncategorized, winterTagged apple, bass guitar, compact Nikon S1, Cumbria, fender jazz, Lake Bassenthwaite, Mountains, Nikon D700, Nikon S1, North Yorkshire, Ravensworth Castle, rickenbacker6 Comments

Well I missed last Sunday as I only had 4 pictures, and as a result have now got too many, so lots to look at this week 🙂

The weather has not been kind, but I have had some long journeys to see clients, so have come across some quite lovely views, and my little Nikon S1 has been doing a cracking job. Last week I went to North Yorkshire again, and the sun was arguing with the clouds to see who would win out.

On my way back I went through a village called Ravensworth and came across this ruined castle.The remains here date from the 14th Century, although it’s thought there has been a castle there since Norman times. The chap who built this one was Henry Baron FitzHugh. n 1391 he enclosed 200 acres (81 ha) around the castle, creating a park.The castle started to be pulled down in the 16th century, and the stone was used for other buildings in the area.

hmm blew the sky out a bit in t hat 2nd shot but I like the composition so all is not lost.

Last weekend Phil worked on Sunday and I spent a little while trying to get some decent shots of the birds in my garden, through the front window as it was too cold out.

I tried to get a decent shot of the Lady Robin too, but she’s a bit more bashful and quicker to jump back into the bushes out of sight as soon as she’s got something from the feeder.

This week I had a 3 hour drive over to the west go the country, visiting clients in Whitehaven on the West coast, Penrith,Dalston,and Kewick. Lots of long driving times, I set off at 7.15am and eventually got home at 6.30pm, but was hugely compensated by seeing the mountains and Lake Bassenthwaite on my travels. It’s been quite a while since I had to go there, and it was lovely to visit old photo haunts and take new ones with snow in place.

View from my clients front driveway~Skiddaw~Nikkon S1

That was the photo highlight of the week really. I am very impressed with what the tiny Nikkon S1 can do, especially with the 11-27mm lens that it comes with which I used for the landscape shots, and I also used the little 300mm zoom I got for it, for taking the bird shots, to the point where I no longer take the big D700 out for work journeys and everyday use. It captures a fair amount of detail, granted that that has to be brought out in Lightroom, but at least it’s in there to begin with.

There are some jobs though that only the D700 can do, and one of those jobs was for me to take some decent photo’s of Phil’s bass guitars. (A commission no less!!) I decided I would shoot each one separately and use a light painting technique. This was a bit of a faff as of course the room has to be completely dark and the room I use is quite small so lots of bumping elbows and knees. I had a black backdrop specially bought on Amazon, it came all the way from china,worked really well and a was a bargain. The photo’s have come out really well, and I am going to do some close ups and arty farty shots to go with, here are a couple of the ones I took.

Fender Jazz ( mexican special edition)~Nikon D700

and finally my shot for The Sunday challenge~ theme Gadgets….

I can’t claim originality, I saw a similar picture way back when, and always fancied doing my own version.

And now it’s Sunday night, I’ve burned my fingers cooking Sunday dinner, spilled boiling milk on myself, sigh, but had a lush roast ham dinner. Shelley and Cal came for a visit and Cal fell over and bumped his head in 2 places at once for heaven’s sakes. I don’t think he will be someone who does things by halves, or even singles! Now Phil’s practicing bass lines over a C maj 7th chord 🙂 and I am saying goodnight WordPressiverse,

laters gaters 😉

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