Early Sunrise University Pictures

One of the few nice things about getting up in the dark is that if all is well you get to see the sunrise when you get to work. Today it was quite a nice one, and so I nipped into the library and took some pictures.

I was up at the top floor which was refurbished last year and turned into an open workspace called "The Observatory". It looks awesome, so I took some pictures of the furniture as well.

This looks to me as rooms from the future are supposed to look....

Get to work early for the best photographs

Perhaps there aren't that many good reasons for arriving at work early. But I suppose that one of them could be to get nice pictures of the campus during the sunrise. 

In Praise of Older Lenses

I've got myself another camera. Surprise. And I'm definitely going to sell all my old ones to pay for it (now that would be surprise). The bad news is that the lenses for my latest acquisition look to be rather expensive. The good news is that very old lenses for it are a lot cheaper. 

For around ten quid you can get an adapter that lets you fit lenses from yesteryear.  And it turns out that way back in the past they weren't just better at making music. They could make some amazing optics too. I picked up 55 mm Canon prime lens from Ebay that is a fraction of the cost of a modern lens, with image quality which is top notch. The picture above has been heavily tweaked in a way that tends to hide the sharpness of the lens, but take it from me this thing is pin sharp. 

My new/old lens doesn't have any of the new fangled features such as auto-focus or automatic aperture adjustment. But it turns out that I really like that. The camera viewfinder does a thing called "focus peaking" where it outlines the sharp parts of the picture in yellow. And adjusting the aperture manually means that I get to preview the depth of field in the picture and see how well the subject has been isolated from the background. 

It seems that you can get lots of adapters for lenses from way, way, back - even for old Leica lenses from the thirties. If you fancy testing your understanding of photography a bit and you have a camera that supports interchangeable lenses I'd say it was worth having a go with some old glass. 

Nice Flowers

I'm not sure if it is strange to have flowers still blooming this late in the year. But they photograph quite well.

Nice Light

We lose an hour of daylight tonight when the clocks go forward. But you do get some nice daylight at this time of year.

San Francisco Picture

I may never get around to writing up our holidays. But I don't see why this should stop me showing you some pictures. I'm quite pleased with this one.

Irrelevant Picture

We've been away for a couple of days and today we drove back. The picture above has nothing to do with any of this. But I do rather like it.

I took the shot last week in London. When she gave me the key the girl at the check-in said "I've given you one of our nice rooms, with a great view". At the time I wondered if this was the best possible pitch she could have used as it might call into question other rooms in the place, but she wasn't wrong about the view. It will be even more interesting when they finish building whatever it is they're building.

Bendy Hull Pictures

I think my favourite lens of the moment is my 8.0 mm fish eye, which gives the most amazing effects. especially if you point it up or down. Before I did my paper reviews yesterday I had a walk round Hull. The light at around 7:00 am was really nice, and I got some interesting pictures.

Mystery Picture

I like taking abstract pictures. I took this on the way to work. Can anyone tell me what it is?

Go to East Park

Hull East Park is wonderful. They have water features, a café and a tiny zoo. And today they had an event with a fairground, steam engines and classic cars. We went along for the morning and of course I took a camera. And a few lenses. 

If you're at a loose end at a weekend and the weather is nice you really ought to go and take a look. 

Funfair or not.

Shiny Chairs

When we get good weather we can have a stab at café culture. Even in Hull. And we do have some very shiny chairs to sit on.

Bristol Pic

In Bristol for a few days. Of course I've taken the camera.

Bristol Smoking Bridge

Some time back they must have had a meeting in Bristol where someone said "Why don't we make one of our bridges emit smoke?". Or something. Anyhoo, the idea was approved, and today we trudged through the rain to see the results.

The picture is in Black and White because today the weather has been in black and white too.

Capturing the Students Union

We've had a few lovely mornings on campus over the last week or so, and I've become kind of obsessed with getting a decent picture of the Student Union building in the sun first thing. After a few sweep panoramas that didn't turn out very well I've managed to stitch the above together out of six different photographs. It's not quite perfect, there is a bit of weirdness right at the very top of the roof, but will do for now. 

Konstructor Camera Shots

Portrait of the artist...

Some time back I made myself a camera. I've just got some of the pictures back and it's worked. Yay!

When I dropped the film off to be processed I said to the girl in Jessops that it was quite possible that the pictures may all be black, or white, or on the same frame. But I took 25 or so pictures and got 22 back, which is great.

We don't have a word that describes that feeling you get when you go to get something from the place where it is usually stored and it isn't there.  If we did have I'd be able to use it now. I thought I'd been clever by having all my photographs transferred onto a CD when I had them processed. But of course when I got home I couldn't find my CD drive. Fortunately I'm an inventive soul and managed to use the PS3 to move the files somewhere I could read them.

Turns out that they have not been scanned to very high resolution and there are some nasty scratchy artefacts, but I'm very pleased with the results. They have a nice "other worldly" feel. I'm definitely going to put a few more rolls of film through the device. 

Is this the way to Amaryllis?

Number one wife got an amaryllis bulb for Christmas. It has just produced these lovely flowers. 

Pictures from Rob

Someone was kind enough to complement me on the desktop background that I used for the Linx tiny (and very good value) tablet. I took the picture a while back in Melbourne. After about 50 years of taking photographs I've got a bunch of pictures that I consider quite reasonable. I've made a album of them on Flickr, which you can find here.  Enjoy.

Seattle Tourism

I thought I'd spend some time today as a tourist. So I took the 550 bus from Bellevue to downtown Seattle. This is one of the best ways to spend $2.50 around here. You get a lovely drive over the floating bridge, a spectacular view of the skyline and then a ride in the tunnels underneath the city. 

I got out at the Westlake Centre and slipped down to Pike Place Market for a look around. Took in the Comic Book store in the marketplace, along with the craft stalls down there and then headed back up to Westlake and the monorail terminal

There I bought a return ticket to the Space Needle and then I just waked straight into the lift (no queues) and rode up to the top where I enjoyed a coffee and took some snaps of the view.

Then back to Westlake and Barnes and Noble for a look at some books. Finally I got the bus back to the hotel and spent a happy hour or two playing with the pictures I'd taken.

Wonderful.

Lunch at Thieving Harrys

While I was up town yesterday I wandered past Theiving Harry's, a place I've always fancied visiting. Today, with some unseasonably nice weather we headed up town again and had lunch there. And it was great. We were sitting upstairs, with a view across the waterfront. The food was splendid and the ambiance was lovely. There is a great feel to the place, the formica tables and hard working decor remind me strongly of Lowells in Pike Place, Seattle. 

Another go to place if you are a Hull student looking to impress visitors with your local knowledge. And you can wander over to the Oresome Gallery just across the way and buy some earrings after you have eaten. And if you are me, you can take some more pictures.

I took a picture of this yesterday. What a difference a day makes...

I never get tired of taking pictures of The Deep. 

Hull Pics

Please note that this picture was not taken while driving. As if.

This is my first Saturday off for a few weeks, so we drove up town and had lunch at McCoys. New students, if you are looking for somewhere nice in the city centre to take mum and dad when they come and see you, well worth a visit. Great coffee and much more Hull authentic than Starbucks or Costa (although we've got those too).

My advice, try the Beef and Stilton sandwich. Number one wife likes the Tuna on noodles. And number one son pronounces the coffee as good, which means it must be great.

And I had time to take the camera, plus fat lens, around the waterfront.

I don't think they ever fire this...

You do get the most amazing skies this time of year.