Happy New Year!

January 15, 2010 in life | Comments closed

Well it’s been a couple of weeks into 2010 and lots of snow has fallen and almost melted again. Christmas and New Year were great and lots of great food and superb company! I’ve not been running because of the snow on the ground and because of different illnesses. But soon all the snow will be gone and I will be better!

On Wednesday I took my CIW Foundations exam and passed with 91%! So that means that I am a “CIW Associate” and can move onto the 4th exam: CIW Site Designer. Now I have a bit of spare time before the books for this course arrive I will have time to sleep and then some time to work on my website so that I can say yes that’s me!

Tonight it snew

December 22, 2009 in Running, cycling | Comments closed

2 o’clock sharp: snow started falling from the dark grey clouds. 3-45 gets heavier and heavier. By the time its time to leave (1630) there’s a carpet of cars along the road and ten cm snow on the pavements. Times like this I feel lucky to have a bike. Not that cycling home was easy. Weaving in and out of stationary cars my eyes crammed shut to keep the snow from hitting my eyeballs and keeping the bike vertical to avoid sliding on the hidden black ice it was a beautiful and fantastic experience.We were going to do some christmas shopping but the shops closed early so their staff could get home safely. Still there are 2 more shopping days before Christmas. I cannot wait!

Not been running for a week because of illness and the snow-ice-rain. I did buy a new pair of Nike Air Pegassus on Saturday and I am thinking of going soon. When the snow has melted or departed. We’ll see!

Running – Prospect Park with Cesar

December 12, 2009 in life | Comments closed

The head was hungover but the feet needed to move, plus I’d made a promise to Cesar that we’d be going running in the morning. Seemed like a good idea last night. Yes, and it was. The sun was shining and the air was cool and for the first time I could wear my shades. I ran to Cesar’s place and then we jogged to and around Prospect Park. Windy in parts but fantastic way to blast away the hangover! 4.69miles in 37m06s.

Prospect Park with Cesar [4.69miles]

Wiggo into the Sky

December 10, 2009 in Running, cycling | Comments closed

Brad Wiggins, British cycling god, has today signed to join the British pro-team “Team Sky”. This is awesome news for British cycling and I hope that this can bring more cyclists onto the roads and into jerseys to battle it out for medals and glory for Britain.

Today sucked. Really tired from the running and studying that I’ve been doing and a crappy day at work. It’s the Christmas party tomorrow so there’s that to look forward to! Hopefully I can go running before work tomorrow, either then or on Saturday.

Running – Short River

December 9, 2009 in Running | Comments closed

Second run of the week and it was damp foggy and dark. I’ve run this route in the daytime but in the dark it was much better. Sections of unlit running along and before the river. Legs hurt but this is expected after 2 runs in week after not running for so long. 19′13″ for 2.68 miles. short river.

Let the Training Begin! [Running!]

December 7, 2009 in Running | Comments closed

My first run of the season (not including running in NYC) was tonight and it was good to be outside and running! Only 2.17 miles in 15′28″ (7.07min/mile pace) I was a small step on the long journey that is ahead of me until next March when I will be doing my third Reading Half-Marathon on the 21th March 2010. It’ll be my fifth half-marathon.

Here’s the Gmaps-pedometer Route

juxtaposition of time

November 16, 2009 in life | Comments closed

listening to Gilles Peterson using the cans that Marion bought me for my birthday is one of life’s greatest pleasures. That and sorting things out.

I took Marion to New York City at the end of Oct for her birthday and it’s been a harsh week recovering from the tiredness and jetlag that hit us as we came back to this side of the Ocean.

I took hundreds of photos on my newly bought super-wide angle zoom lens (Nikon AF-S Nikkor 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED DX to give it its fullest of full titles!) and now am in the process of sifting through them.

Sunday #1

sky_1

you can see the weather was superb. this was taken while we were watching my cousin Ethan’s soccer game.

ethan_soccer_1

my cousin ethan (yellow, number 14) on his 9th birthday tearing it up.

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and there were still some leaves on the trees. We went walking with Sean to cure our jetlag.

sean_marion_2

break at the top to catch our breaths.

up-tree_1

with the trees around us it was difficult to see the sky.

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big breath for birthday boy! 9 big ones.

Photography at TVU

October 11, 2009 in ABC Course, flashgun, life | Comments closed

I have started a photography evening course – specifically titled “ABC Level 3 Award in Digital Photo-Imaging” – at the Thames Valley University every week starting last week. After the first week introductions to the course, the facilities and our opportunity to ask questions and answer the teacher’s (Mike’s) questions we didn’t take any photos.

After ordering my DSLR (I eventually decided to get a Nikon d80 after countless times failing to “win” my eBay bids for the Nikon d40) and some faffing around with the seller (and paypal) it eventually arrived on Monday. Not just a camera but also a camera rucsac, filters, 50mm Nikkor f1.8 lens, a huge reflector, and spare battery, and battery grip. The weather this week since the camera arrived has been dodgy. Raining 60% of the time and dark the other 40%. I took the camera out on Tue night to try it outside, as well as testing out on Marion at every opportunity too!

Last night (Thu) was the second lesson. We learnt about ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed. And this time we were put into pairs and told to go into the canteen and take photos of each other. My partner Gareth had an enormously heavy D300 and 18-200mm combination. It was difficult for me with my 50mm lens not being able to zoom in/out, it’s going to take a long time to get used to that! But but but I do have the lens of my film camera (Nikon f80) which is a sigma 28-80mm f3.5 zoom. The quality of lenses are not the same (the Nikkor lens being better) but until I get more lens(es) this is all I have to shoot with.

My homework:

  • 3 shots of the same scene using different white balance (WB) settings (including which one is using the “correct” WB);
  • 3 shots under Aperture Priority (f11)
    1. 1 shot @ 1/30;
    2. 1  shot @ 1/125;
    3. 1 shot @ 1/500.
  • 3 shots under Shutter Priority (1/60):
    1. 1 shot @ Large D.o.F (depth of Field);
    2. 1 shot @ Medium DoF;
    3. 1 shot @ Small DoF

I must include how I made these shots. As well as writing up the notes from the lesson last night. Sounds intreaguing.

roll of film and the white cup of tea

September 29, 2009 in flashgun | Comments closed

Good evening everyone. Back online blogging again after what seems like forever. Today I had my eyes tested and I didn’t recieve my digital SLR (Nikon d80) in the post (hopefully it will arrive in time for my first photography lesson – which happens to be tomorrow night). Not wanting to splash out and pay big money on my first ever DSLR I had a good look around the internet and in photography magazines and decided that I wanted to get the Nikon d40, but after countless failed bids on eBay and not being able to find a decently priced model elsewhere I decided to go for the more expensive and higher-spec d80.

Last week was really hectic. I finally decided that I needed less distraction and had to tell my brother that I couldn’t work on his project which was tough for both of us: I wanted to do it and learn on the job, and he wanted to help me and get on of his projects moving faster. Anyway. More study time for me!

Since deciding to take a photography evening course at the local university I have discovered many many excellent websites, photographers and ideas. Two of my favorite websites are Chase Jarvis and Strobist. The course starts tomorrow evening and if my camera arrives I will start putting photos on this blog. Watch out!

champions league draw

August 27, 2009 in life | Comments closed

Champions League group stage draw (thanks bbc sport):

Group A

Bayern Munich
Juventus
Bordeaux
Maccabi Haifa

Group B

MANCHESTER UNITED
CSKA Moscow
Besiktas
Wolfsburg

Group C

AC Milan
Real Madrid
Marseille
FC Zurich

Group D

CHELSEA
Porto
Atletico Madrid
APOEL Nicosia

Group E

LIVERPOOL
Lyon
Fiorentina
Debrecen

Group F

Barcelona
Inter Milan
Dinamo Kiev
Rubin Kazan

Group G

Sevilla
RANGERS
Stuttgart
Unirea Urziceni

Group H

ARSENAL
AZ Alkmaar
Olympiakos
Standard Liege

Fixture dates:

15/16 September

29/30 September

20/21 October

3/4 November

24/25 November

8/9 December