Hornsea Morning

This morning the weather looked promising, so it was off to Hornsea for a coffee and a cake. As you do.

This picture came out quite well, although I wish I'd seen that traffic cone before I took the shot....

Misty Morning at c4di

Got up bright and early to go and work down at c4di today. I've got all my robots set up there now (they've got plenty of space, which is nice) and I wanted to work on remote configuration of robot settings.

I was up so bright and early that the car was actually frozen solid. And as I drove into town a clear bright morning turned into something a bit foggy. But this did make for some nice photographs when the mist cleared a bit. 

Some seagulls 

c4di looking shiny

Proper Blade Pictures

We went up town today and I thought I'd get some pictures of the "blade" once it had been installed. And here it is. To me it looks like it has been Photoshopped into the image. It's such an unlikely thing to find in the middle of a city square that it's rather hard to take in the fact that it is actually real.

I'm quite pleased with this shot from right underneath the blade. Next time I'll have the nerve to lie down on the floor to get an even better viewpoint.

Moving Blades

Big Wheels

While I was down in Hull yesterday I also took a look at the amazing machine that they used to actually deliver the blade. It had some lovely features. So I took some pictures...

Great gauges - liquid filled to dampen the needle movement

I'm not sure what you're not supposed to do. But you're really not supposed to do it.

Hull Pictures

Went up town today. The weather and the lighting wasn't bad. I love the way that the c4di and Deep buildings complement each other.

High Fashion and Bainbridge Island

As part compensation for a day spent looking at cars, today number one wife and I went to look at the Yves Saint Laurent exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum. 

There is true genius in the way that a few pencil lines can evoke a figure and a style. 

The finished product.

After as much haut couture as we (or at least I) could handle, we headed off to take a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island. We had no particular need to go there, but the weather was being very kind to us and, hey, life's in the journey....

Seattle waterfront from the ferry

View of Seattle going out...

View of Seattle coming back....

Seattle Street Furniture

I've been taking pictures of the pavement. As you do.

Hull with a Fisheye

I took the stupidly wide angle lens up town today. The light was wonderful and so I nipped into Hull Holy Trinity Church in the middle of town and discovered yet again why it is one of the best places in the universe and space. 

Fun with Fisheyes

I took this picture in Chicago and I've only just got around to fiddling with it. I think it would make a good album sleeve picture (if we still had albums and sleeves). 

Art in Dalby Forest

Went to Dalby Forest today. Wonderful place. I came over all artistic and took the above picture of the trees reflected in the lake.

York Minster

I do like York Minster. 

Fish Eye Sky

Went out to take a picture of the sky tonight but I missed the actual sunset bit, and I'd forgotten I still had the fish-eye lens on the camera. 

Oh well. 

Spot the shoes

This picture of the stairwell would be perfect if I'd managed to avoid including my feet....

University Sunshine

The university was looking especially splendid this morning. 

Owls at Castle Howard

We went to Castle Howard today. Lovely place. They had some owls there. 

Bendy Lenses at Folly Lake

More programming today. But we took a break by heading to the Folly Lake Cafe for lunch. I think they do the best chips in Hull. But I'm biased. They taste like the ones my mum used to make.

Anyhoo, the food was lovely and the day was very pleasant. And I'd taken  my Lensbaby, a simple lens which you can tilt to play with depth of field and whatnot. To adjust the lens aperture (the size of the hole that lets the light in) you drop in metal discs with different sized holes. And it has the ability to make very interesting images with selectively blurred bits. Great fun to play with. 

Hull Looks Great

Every now and then I take a picture that I'm really, really, pleased with. This is one of them. I took it today wandering round the waterfront in Hull. This is fast becoming one of my favourite places. The Fruit Market is coming along a treat and interesting cafes and shops are springing up. It's a pity you have to cross the A63 to get to this part of town, but it's well worth a few seconds waiting at a pedestrian crossing. 

I took a few more pictures that I'm happy with. You can find them here. 

I took a very wide angle lens to Bristol last Saturday. I got some quite interesting photos. 

Bristol Tower

Took the big camera with the fish-eye lens for a walk around Bristol today. We climbed to this tower. Next time I hope we have time to go to the top and take some more pictures. 

Out damned spot..

So we're staying in this awesome flat in Bridgeport Chicago and I notice that the ceiling light is rather neat. So I tip my camera onto its back and take the above picture. 

And a huge lump of dust drops off the back of the lens onto the camera sensor.

So now every photograph has a grey dot on it (you can see it on the shot above to the right of the centre). 

Now, the rational part of me knows that this doesn't matter at all in the great scheme of things. Really. But the other, stupid, part of me will focus and obsess on this little grey mark, panic that the camera is now broken and it will never be right again. 

Eventually I did the right thing. We wandered down to Central Cameras in Chicago (an amazing camera shop) and I bought a rocket. 

I don't know who's idea it was to shape this dust blower like a rocket, but it works for me. The good news is that a couple of puffs at the sensor from this wonder machine and the dust has gone completely.  I held the camera upside down while I did this, so hopefully the dust has dropped off completely. At least I've managed to convince myself that this has happened.

I've now formed the habit of dusting the base of a lens before I attach it to the camera. And the word on the street is that the sensor in a digital camera is actually quite well protected, certainly not just a naked piece of silicon, and cleaning it is reasonable (and not particularly dangerous)  thing to do.