Dismal Photo Week

I’ve not taken any images at all for the last week or two, and I’ll make a point of rectifying that. I have a little time off coming up and intend to make the most of it with my camera, life keeps getting in the way. See if I can’t get some cool pics in London in the next few weeks. I’m guessing that all the major photojournalists will be off to the South Pacific again. News reports are just in of an 8.5 scale quake just of the coast of Indonesia. There is further liklehood of more Tsunami.

Front Page News

Words can’t express my contentment right now, the Sports Editor just called me and told me that they couldn’t use any of my sports pictures that I took…. this in itself isn’t good news, the great news is that I took some pictures at a local event of the mayor and the paper decided to use them on the front page of the paper. Definitely a boost to my confidence.

Disorganising Organisation

I’m not an especially big fan of Microsoft, I don’t particularly dislike them either, when it comes to software, I like to think of myself as neutral or maybe a better way to put it would be “Vendor Agnostic“.

So I tend to be very open minded about things, and every now and then I see something which makes me sit up and take notice, in this case it was after installing Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac OS. Nothing remarkable about the suite per se, except that the development team seem to have done a better job on the Mac version than they did on the Windows version of Office 2003. The thing that caught my eye in particular was Entourage, which allowed you to deal with contacts, emails, appointments and various other things all in one place, much like Outlook on Windows. But looking deeper it also allows you manage ideas and categorise the ideas and notes and clippings and 1,000 other things into neat little folders and piles and sections, and….. and…..

Now this seemed a really logical concept to me, and I immediately made use of it, now I could find anything, it was a breeze organising a whole bunch of my mess. I was happy for a while……

Then along comes Microsoft OneNote, a product which promises to do all that Entourage does and much more… Great!!! now I can move my organisation around between my Macs, PCs and Laptop, look out world I’ll really get organised now…..

But wait! the products are incompatible with each other, they don’t sync with my (Microsoft OS) iPaq, there’s no mini Entourage or Mini OneNote for my iPaq, so if nothing is able to communicate data with anything else, am I any better off than I was before. I suspect that if you go to the same office with the same computer day after day. Or you’re on the road and only deal with the same laptop you’re in luck. But what about those of us that don’t.

I feel more in control of my information than ever.. yet at the same time I feel more disconnected from my information than ever…… I’d have thought that if Microsoft were going to release 2 potentially great products like this, they’d have at least done some internal communication!!

To top it off, I updated my HP iPaq 6340 (6315 in the USA) with the latest firmware, promising me better GSM (it really needs it!), better Bluetooth (could be far better) and better Wi-Fi compatability. The update all went smoothly, data restored well, with only one small hitch….. I can no longer connect to any of my wireless networks I used previously, nor can I establish a connection with any of my previous Bluetooth devices!! At least the phone still works (even if there is no noticable improvement!!)

Music, Just What the Doctor Ordered

Sometimes I listen to music, and it somehow it just seems so apropos, not in any literal context, but somehow it just feels right. This happened today when I was listening to Martin Taylor – Solo in the car. It might not be for everyone, but if you like talented acoustic guitar players, this guy is amongst the best. Although he’s known as a jazz guitarist, I wouldn’t classify this as jazz, but more acoustic with a hint of jazz. It’s 100% instrumental and 110% good for the soul.

This inspired me to pick up my guitar this evening, for the first time in absolutely ages, and realise that sometimes we get so wrapped up in the complexities in life that sometimes we need to occasionally get back to the more simple things, and forget about all the crap that dominates our time and saps our mental energies…… life is what passes us by whilst we were busy doing other things!!

Take time out to stop and look around occasionally, this is the real thing, not a dress rehersal, you only get one shot at life, don’t miss it!!

Mr Owl

Sometimes, when I work late I find myself coming along dark country roads in the dead of night. Occasionally, on a particular stretch of road, every now and then I see in my headlights a light brown shape atop a post with big orange eyes blinking at me, then, in a flash I’ve passed them. I bid Mr Owl a fond farewell until next time I see him.

Today, I was driving to work, and it was about 0900 and I’m heading down the familiar stretch of country road when something catches my eye… I immediately put the image together with the very same perch described above; it’s Mr Owl, out in the daylight. So it’s taken about 30 seconds for all these facts to register and be absorbed into my Dinosaur-brain. I think for a few seconds more about whether to return to take a photo, since I always have my Camera and lenses with me. I turn around and head up the road towards Mr Owl.

Fully expecting him to be gone, imagine my surprise when he turns his head to watch me pass him, whilst I look for a place to pull over. I turn around and find a small dirt road about 50 yards from Mr Owl, I hook up my 300mm lens and start looking for the shot. To my disappointment he appears as a spec in my viewfinder even with my long lens. I take a shot and I decide to take a chance, I roll the car forward in the hope that Mr Owl doesn’t get frightened away.

I’m 20 yards from him now and I beleive I can get a respectable shot of him, so I snap a few more….. then I roll the car forward some more, to my surprise Mr Owl looks at me then continues to ignore me happilly going about his business. I get to within 20 feet of him with my window wound down, and he’s looking the wrong way. I try to make owl noises to attract his attention, but he couldn’t give two hoots about me…. so breaking all the rules of wildlife photography I start talking to the bird, and still he ignores me!

Eventually (when he was ready, despite my best efforts) he turned his head and allowed me to get several shots off, before I packed up my kit and went on my way. Mr Owl never ruffled a feather the whole time I was there.

Thanks to Mr Owl for brightening my week!