§ September 9th, 2008
Well are we sick of the rain yet, I certainly know I am and because of this when sitting on the bus this morning no major thought provoking questions came to mind, so I asked the simple one,
“Why is it you love Twitter. I have my reasons which are obvious, and you?”
I think the rain really annoyed people this morning so the responses were very slow and few, but fortunately Elfinamsterdam and Icedcoffee were on hand to answer this simple question, and Twitter Question Time can continue.
ElfinAmsterdam was first to answer with “Sad I know, buts its a form of community for me being away from home (Ireland now living in Amsterdam). Also its a nice ‘office atmosphere’ during the week the odd smart comment and joke and bit of chat between tasks. At home its kind of like a nice friend … quiet when you are doing stuff and chatty when you want to chat, and it inspires me to blog better.”
Icedcoffee came on soon after with “the interaction, the quick response to questions, finding new people, getting news and links, spread the word about my blog etc”
As I said in my question my answer is so obvious, I find it a great place to chat to people I have never met, but hope too, and people I have known for years. To exchange jokes, take the piss out of each other, pat ourselves on the back when something goes right for someone, commiserate when iPhones break down etc
Yes I am a noisy tweeter, but thats what I love about it, getting reactions like last week when I attempted to take over Rick O’Sheas twitterfeed with the help of Peterd. We got a reaction and how it made us laugh, even Rick found it kinda amusing. So thats really why for me.
I promise to come back to better questioning on Thursday, see ya then!
Technorati Tags: question time, tuesday Twitter question time, twitter
§ September 9th, 2008
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View of the ceiling inside the yet to be completed Sagrada Familia, Barcelona.
§ September 9th, 2008
Howdy folks,
I shall be out taking photo’s of the Liffey Descent this year. I’ll more than likely be taking shots at Sluice or Lucan weir. If you are a paddler and/or paddling the descent I’d love to hear where you think the best shots would be from. Taking into account I shall be in the water most of the the day. I covered the junior liffey descent 2008 at Lucan weir earlier this year, where it’s nice and shallow. If I was at sluice I’d probably hop into the second eddy (river right) as I’ve had a good walk around sluice while doing a REC3 and know the dept fairly well.
Let me know what you think and if your racing, don’t forget to give me a smile. I’ll be the paddler/photography in the water :).
Good luck Saturday!!!!
§ September 9th, 2008
I had seen Cyril around the city plenty of times before over the years, though never had an opportunity to chat to him. The most surprising thing I found was how nice, approachable and intelligent he was.
(Read blog entry for the full story)
§ September 9th, 2008
Sometimes you spot something by accident.
A smile from someone cute in the shop.
The fingers of sunlight toughing the ground through the clouds.
A poem scrawled…
I can’t remember why I wanted to take this shot of the postbox, but by walking off the main street to take it, I noticed the poem on the wall.
“Shandon faces the four winds
and never tells the time;
For now is the forever moment
When St. Anne chimes in rhyme…”
I like the use of the semicolon!
Will Knott
§ September 9th, 2008
I love my 50mm 1.4. Or ‘Fiddy’ as I call it.
It’s a brilliant lens. It’s a prime (meaning it has a fixed focal lenght) and its big 1.4 aperture means it can shoot even in really low light; seriously, practically in the dark. However, being a 1.4 means focusing is very important - I could take a picture of your face and while your eye would be in focus, your ear or you hairline may not, that’s how soft it is (if this is all gibberish, but if you would like to learn more about aperture, check out Natalie Norton’s great piece on the topic).
So yes - focusing is REALLY important. Canon’s auto focus feature is great - you can either let it decide on where to focus, or select a focus point. Most photographers stick to autofocus, unless the shot you’re after is a bit fiddly (for instance, on the below Ha’Penny Bridge shot, manual focus was needed to prevent the camera from focusing on the closer objects - the twinkly lights - and blurring out the bridge).
So this all leads me to the very sad news that Fiddy’s focus is broken. I press the shutter half way, and it makes this sad little sound, like it’s really TRYING to focus, but can’t. I have to stick it on manual focus, which means I have to constantly check the monitor to make sure the right bits are sharp and often end up with sharp noses and blurry eyes 
It’s incredibly frustrating as none of my other lenses come close - I had to bring my kit lens (18-55mm, aperture of 3.5-5.6, boo!) to Castle Palooza, making taking night time gig shots a good bit tougher than usual. While I learned a lot and realised by kit lens wasn’t really as bad as I had thought, it also made me realise how much I appreciate Fiddy, and how much I want another prime - maybe an 85mm?!
Anyway, Fiddy has been brought to the hospital for sick lenses (i.e. the Canon offices in Sandyford) to get fixed. But, in honour of its awesomeness, here are a few shots that show the versatility of this great little lens - you really can take it anywhere and shoot anything:
Any body else got a favourite lens?
§ September 9th, 2008
It was almost two weeks ago that I decided to take a walk around town with my camera, snapping things of interest - which usually isn’t very much - but a new attempt to find something different and take a new route must be done every so often.
As I left the city centre and took a walk through Botanic Gardens with camera around my neck, something I don’t normally do, I noticed a man on a bicycle with 2-3 orange Sainsbury’s bags on each handlebar coming my way.
“What part of the world are you from?” he said.
“Right here in Belfast as a matter of fact”, I replied.
“Agh right, I just assumed that with the big expensive camera you were a tourist.”
I had seen Cyril around the city plenty of times before over the years, though never had an opportunity to chat to him. The most surprising thing I found was how nice, approachable and incredibly intelligent he was. The topics in our conversation ranged from the Euro Millions Lottery, with a jackpot at the time of £72,000,000 - his plan was to buy a ticket at a different shop and a different time each day a few days a week giving him greater odds, apparently. Beating space and time came into play in this theory.
Other topics that came up in the 20-30mins we chatted included his failing attempts to be accepted for Disability Living Allowance, his knowledge of areas of science, math and language; psychology, physics, sociology, physiology, quantum mechanics, dermatology, biology, ethnology, anthropology, genealogy, neurology, meteorology, pathology, pharmacology, English, French, German, Spanish, Latin, Italian, Irish, Japanese, Chinese - and more, all in one breath.
There was also talk of pornography, I did have to explain that as much as I enjoy pretty naked girls, my lens won’t be going down that route. He likes to visit the local adult shops every so often to keep up with that culture too, just like I’m sure he will read a cross section of newspapers, just to get all points of view.
Cyril spends most of his days reading on a very very wide range of topics, a particular one being physics. He has an incredible memory for facts and a desire to talk to people he meets in the streets, particularly tourists, to share some of his knowledge with them. Five minutes was spent explaining Lord Kelvin, who’s statue sits at the entrance to Botanic Gardens, how he is one of the most important scientists to have lived; his work in thermodynamics bringing significant understanding to modern physics.
He advised me that I should get some premium bonds and pulled out a leaflet on just that from one of his bags. During our conversation he had mentioned many books, including the exact page and line of notable bits of information, I was never to remember all of this. I wanted to leave within five minutes of talking to him so that he wouldn’t tell me anything else and make me forget what I was yet to hear. Thankfully he had the bright idea of writing down many of the book titles that I should read:
Each of these he had remembered. Authors included. I could see him thinking hard while writing. There are another 3 or 4 I can’t make out due to his handwriting. Some even have page and line references, such as p.43 line 8 in The Holographic Universe. It must be good!
He reminded me of Will Hunting in (my favourite film) Good Will Hunting, or Raymond Babbit in Rain Man.
One thing that I noticed about him was that when he was thinking hard about something, or rhyming off all the subjects he is familiar, with his eyes close and seem to rapidly blink involuntarily.
There is a thin line between genius and insanity, I get the impression Cyril treads carefully along this line, occasionally jumping all over it.
I think he is a lonely person, taken in these years to wandering the streets and conversing with new people about what just about any topic. “Having spent many years reading on many books, learning about many subjects of the world, particularly sciences,” he says, “makes it easier to talk to start and keep conversation going.”
As we talk a French couple pass us and he says something to them in French, they laugh with him as they walk on. I walk away feeling more satisfied than I have in a long time.
§ September 9th, 2008
Sean Murphy’s image ” Uncle Tim ” is progressing well in the Digital Photo Magazine competition.The competition which is open to both Armature & Professional.The closing date for entries is September 13th.Members are welcome to vote for there favorite image.Sean’s image can be seen at the following link.Copy the link if necessary and insert it into your browser.
http://poty2008.dcmag.co.uk/3913562628418574888/uncle-tim.html
§ September 9th, 2008
Just back from a wedding inSligo in the lovely Mullaghmore region; I took some nice shots of
Ben Bulben ;
Glencar Lake & Waterfall; and
Mullaghmore itself. The scenery is beautiful but Mullaghmore has a little bit to learn about servicing the tourist/visitor industry. A great weekend on the whole though, especially as it was a truly happy wedding party. So a whole new range of photos to put up during the week - til then, celebrate the absolute miserable end to a miserable summer :)
