Lee Orchard Photography

When getting ready for work this morning, I realised it was probably going to be nice weather. So I grabbed the camera and headed to work.

Now, photography is a compromise. Firstly, do you take the big camera with both lenses (long & standard, or in my case, a wildlife or landscape lens), or the pocket compact camera for ease of use. Normally my SLR has the wildlife lens “glued” to the camera and it never comes off. However that makes it a big bit of kit to carry around when your walking, and you have to take the other lens incase you see a landscape shot. Atleast landscapes don’t run away when you need to change lenses, but the lighting does!

So, this morning I went for ease. This mean’t it would be tough luck if I saw any interesting wildlife, and yes I did! Not only did I have a Robin search for food right in front of me while I stood and watch, I had a squirrel stay low in a tree and search for food. This mean’t this was the best I could get.

   However, it did mean I got these nice landscape shots, which I was really pleased with.

    

All of the new websites I was working on the other week are now live.  The final one that I hadn’t posted was BirdsofPreyPhotos.co.uk.

This is promoting my Bird of Prey images and gifts.

After all the issues of last week, things are calming down again. 

I had problem with shop ordering items for me, then cancelling the order without telling me, so when I went to pick up the item (a birthday present) 2 weeks later, they said, “oh, it was cancelled, did you cancel it?”  Er.. No! “Why didn’t you inform me?  Oh, we don’t do that, even though we take your contact details”.

What is it with customer service?

I had a parcel due to be delivered on Saturday, and ok, I went out for 2 hours, but left a note to leave it, or with next door etc…  On arriving home, there was a note through the door, “we tried to deliver but you were out etc….  please allow 5 hrs until trying to collect” Well this is a Saturday, and they closed an hour after the note went through the door!  Just to make things worse, I had paid extra for the quick delivery, and also had forgotten I’d ordered the same item the day before so had 2 on their way!!

I was going to write another view, but I don’t really have it planned and they take a long time to write and think about, so this is just off the top of my head.

I thought I’d review my new laptop, the HP Pavillion DV 6152 that I bought just after christmas.

The laptop itself is really good, it looks nice, and has a nice finish, although I keep cleaning the casing to keep the finger prints off it.  I’m also worried about scratching the sliver finish with my watch when typing, as it get very close to the hand rest area.

The screen is large & clear. It has Window Media centre built in which is a real bonus and I like the Quick Play features that it comes with. This also quick access to My Pictures & My Music folders aswell as DVD’s without running a full windows boot!  Its about time!!  It also seems that in this version of XP, the slideshow screen saver recognises the exif rotated data of images (ie, landscape or portrait), which means you don’t have to turn your head to look at portrait images on the screensaver.

Some things I have noticed though, is that it takes I while to start and shut down. I’m not sure if this is software thing or hardware. I can’t remember if it did it when I first bought it or not.

It gets quite warm, due to the dual processors I think. You can feel the warm air coming through the keyboard and feel it on the hand rest.

I think the webcam angle is slightly wrong, as you need to duck a little or angle the screen to get you head angle right, this makes the viewing angle wrong. I guess this is a problem with most webcams, and maybe they had to allow for shorter people, it just seems a shame.

I would have prefered the pageup & down, home & end keys to be top left of the keyboard instead of down the right.  These can be pressed by a mistake when going for the return or backspace.  It may only be a problem with touch typist who are used to a wider keyboard.

It can seem a bit top heavy, if you push the screen, it actually lifts the base up, so opening and adjusting the screen is a 2 handed process.

Finger prints, especially along the edge of the screen through opening it, it requires constant wiping. (if you are fussy like me!)

Other good features are:

5in1 card reader, great! but not compact flash.

3 USB ports, great again, and one on the other side of the laptop as well. None on back which is good.

No DVI out, which is a pitty, at least this model doesnt seem to have one. And again, this model didn’t have a lightscribe DVD burner, although it did have the software.

Not much paper documentation or manuals, so you have to try and find the on pc / online stuff, but that documentation is quite good when found.

It came with a TV tuner, but I haven’t tried that.

Bluetooth and wireless, is good, but coupled with the dual processor, it does suffer in the battery life. I must upgrade the battery. Max battery life is 2 hours.

100gb HDD, good, but I store all my images on external disks, so that didn’t matter so much.

So what ratings would I give this.

Build: 5/5

Functionality 5/5

Portable: 3.5/5

Overall: Well for what I wanted and need for photos, processing, and displaying, I’ll give it 4.5/5 (battery life lets it down)

Ok, a plug now, if you are reading this having just bought one or thinking about one, maybe a mousemat to compliment your nice new laptop! Click here to view my range of mousemats

Is was so cold last night it just had to snow, so when I woke up this morning and heard on the radio it had snow, I had to investigate.

We don’t tend to get much snow where I live. I know some parts of the UK are really covered, but normally it seems to last for a few days at most. Saying that, didn’t it hand around of a week last year? I can’t remember.

Anyway I digress. Being a very keen photographer, and always on the lookout for photo opportunities, I whizzed down the park to get some shots.

The weather was very overcast, no nice blue skys, and the images were looking a little dull, so I started to look for wildlife.

One photo I have been trying to get for years, is a photo of a Robin in the snow. Again, this seems to have eluded me, with this being my best attempt.

Photography in the snow creates a few challenges.

Cold equipment and cold fingers is one thing. Keeping your equipment inside your coat can help but this can also cause problems if you want to change lens, like condensation on mirror and sensor. I tend to keep the camera outside, although most people recommend that you do keep it in your coat. Keep your batteries warm. If you are out for a long time, take spares and keep them in your coat.

Photos tend to come out too dark in the snow, so overexpose to compensate. I didn’t overexpose enough on these and they were too dark.

Also, don’t breathe onto the viewfinder, as it will steam up, and if the weather is really cold it might freeze

The last issue is when you bring your camera back indoors from being in the cold. The sudden exposure to heat can cause condensation again. People recommend you put the camera in a plastic bag and allow the condensation to build up on that. I tend to put the camera back in it camera bag (if you took that with you) and let it slowly warm up that way, then only open the bag once it has all warmed up again.