I hadn't thought about this until today.....

.... who owns today? Leap year day, added to the working week without any mention by employers.

Except for the National Trust who have granted its whole full-time workforce the day off. Calling it the Great Green Leap Day, they are asking staff to use it for the environment. "We're giving them this opportunity to look at steps to green their own lives at home," explains Mike Holland of the Trust. "Anything from converting to greener energy to starting a compost heap."

Think I'll just be a bit greener, by turning off a computer or two....

A mine of useless information......

......I have been called many times.... about many things.

But I have been amazed at how little I really know about subjects that interest me, like photography. It was only when Carl Tyler made a comment about taking a photograph of the lunar eclipse & that he didn't have a fancy camera like his brother.. how he didn't understand f stop values etc that I realised I don't know them 100% either, I know how to use the equipment & what the values translate into when using the kit, but where they come from or how they are derived - no idea. Until now.....

Excellent easy to understand articles on lens apertures, focal length, lens speed and a whole host of other photography subjects can be found using these links from the Canon Professional Network Infobank website.

It's broken, one of two things should be in mind.....

..... either I should jump for joy at the thought of being freed from my continual reliance on email & Sametime (not self imposed!), or I should feel lost without it?

I think I feel more of the former.

Screen went blank today, sadly the IBM fix it squad can repair it in about a week & have kindly supplied a replacement.

I did go out for lunch in London today feeling a great release at being PC free for a couple of hours though.

Waddesdon, wine & poor weather....

Another Sunday spent visiting a National Trust property, this time Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire.

Very grey day weather wise, interesting place, will visit later in year when all the statues, gardens & grounds are looking a bit better.

Nice lunch in the main house, and yet again free entry included in National Trust membership. Interesting shop with a range of Rothschild wines.

Couldn't find corkscrew big enought for this bottle though!

I think Lacock Abbey could be next on the list of NT places to visit, it has photographic museum & the cloisters were used in the Harry Potter films, see if I can find myself a Dobby!

A brief history from Olympus to Canon.....

I've been taking photographs for 20+ years, I'm not particularly good at it, given the chance I put a camera into full auto mode & snap away. But given my interests in aviation, fully automatic\sports mode\landscape mode have suited my requirements.

I started out using some money left to me by my Grandfather to buy an Olympus OM30 kit from Dixons, it was over priced & totally shite, but I was hooked. I soon progressed into getting some after market lenses for it & then trading up to an OM2SP and I lusted after the OM4Ti, god knows why, not because the camera isn't great, it's just I would never have got any benefit from it's capabilities, they even made a gold plated OM2N! I had accessories like the Winder 2 which enabled me to waste film at a much faster rate of 2.5 frames per second and flash guns that would blind someone at 50 paces.

I then discovered that Olympus Zuiko lenses were clearly streets ahead of after market ones & set out to obtain one of these..... the Zuiko 85-250mm f5 [see above photo right]. What a revelation, the ability to zoom across such a wide range. Perfect for the work I was doing at airfields and events like the Epsom Derby.

Nowadays I use Canon kit, I think that the DSLR's they do are the best on the market. So an EOS 5D is now my main camera which gets attached to a wide variety of Canon lenses, the next of which will probably be one of these.... Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS USM, everyone I have spoken to who has seen & used one say it's the best Canon lens in the entire range.

At last a seat worthy of my patronage....

...... I am the King of the castle!

Went to Stowe today in the lovely sunshine & took a load of photo's which I will post on my pBase gallery later.

National Trust membership may be perceived as an old fart pastime, but I have discovered that it's a wonderful gateway to lot's of nice places to visit.

Stowe Landscape Gardens in the winter sunshine being one of them, fantastic day, not a cloud in the sky, just a load of plebs with kids screaming & shouting, even they couldn't spoil my day.

I hadn't quite realised the size of the problem......

..... yes, squirrels. I hate them! They are tree rats to me (as pidgeons are flying rats to me as well!).

I had over the winter thought that the numbers were high in my garden & surrounding area, but only when I saw 5 in the same space did I decide to take drastic action by culling them.

So I started to shoot the little furry sweet looking things [not my terminology, but my neighbour thinks that way - my view is a little different - disease ridden, bird nest raping, tree bark stripping little bastards!].

So I quickly and quietly got to 5 clean kills with my Theoben .20 Rapid air rifle, but there were clearly more to be had - 12 so far! More to follow, I'll give them a couple of days to feel more comfortable moving around & see how many there are to be had before they start breeding!

THE lens......

...... I want one, but the £17,000 (yes, seventeen thousand pounds!) price tag might put me off somewhat.

Sounds impressive specification though... f2.8 throughout the full 200-500mm zoom range, comes with a dedicated 2x converter that makes it a 400-1000mm f5.6 with autofocus working all the way. Sadly it has no Image Stabilizer and it weighs a hefty 15.7Kg. I also think the way it looks is more likely to get you arrested as a terrorist than a pap or bird watcher.

Take a look at this link to get the true scale of the lens.

It happens every year....

... at the first sign of good weather, I dust off the camera & go on a wander.

Lucky enough to catch this Heron stalking something in a meadow just off the River Test in Longparish today. Also saw a Kestrel & Buzzard circling about overhead.

1/500 f11 ISO 400 with an EOS 5 and Canon 100-400mm with 1.4x extender attached.

I've seen a new lens from Sigma I quite like the idea of, but not the costs involved.... more later.

Can you guess what it is yet?

Do you think (like me) that it looks like feathers?

Spotted this morning on a cold & frosty start to the day in the rising sun...... ice on top of my car roof.

[Click on the picture for full size]

Value for money from South West Trains.....

Everyone moans about how expensive train travel is nowadays, and most of the time with very good reason. I had a different experience that has been added to this week.

I buy a weekly season ticket for my journeys to & from London, it costs a good deal of money, currently £87.50 for 7 days. I don't use it every day, but if I travel into London twice in a 7 day period (which I invariably do) it saves my employer money - yes, I am lucky enough to be able to expense my travel costs, but I still watch what I am spending. If I were to buy a ticket on a daily basis, a standard day return would cost £44.50

Add to this a journey on Friday which I undertook from Andover to Reading (via Basingstoke) for a meeting with customer in the morning, then travel into London for meeting in afternoon, then travel home with the herds at 5.50pm Friday evening - all still covered by my weekly season ticket at no extra cost - bargain!