I'm glad to have been able to mark Lucy's birthday with a lovely evening with her parents and my brother-in-law.
I think she'd have approved of a family meal in her honour, and she certainly would have been chuffed to find gluten free calamari on the menu.
(The pint is Side Pocket For A Toad, in case you were wondering, and yes, it comes highly recommended)
My attention was drawn to this old fire bucket resplendent in the evening sun.
I smell of spray paint. My house smells of spray paint. My entire neighbourhood probably smells of spray paint.
But progress has been made, and I took a photo.
What an unusually productive evening.
This one's a focus stack at 4.5x magnification
Today has been a day of fixing things - I started out repairing my washing machine, where years of vibration had worn through the paint, and it was starting to go a bit rusty in a couple of spots.
Later on, I picked up a lamp from my parents' that needs a bit of first aid. I shall rewire it and put in new LED lamps to replace the old halogens that have cooked part of the wiring and the lampholders.
Here's one of the bulbs that's given up the ghost - not a particularly amazing shot, but I suppose it tells a story. EOS R5, EF100mm f/2.8 L IS Macro, LED cube lights
I took a walk down the river to see Nottingham's latest river crossing.
A road bridge would have been rather more useful, but it's quite a nice thing all the same.
I'm going to have to get the drone up here at some point soon.
Click image to view a bigger version
More WiFi fixing this evening, momentarily paused by the appearance of a cracking rainbow.
I didn't have a real camera on me, but the phone actually managed this fairly well.
Revisiting "my" tree, a now very-occasional theme I used quite regularly a while ago.
I'd never noticed that the latch on this gate made for a convenient frame before - maybe it's previously been flipped over the other way, or maybe I'm less observant than I thought.
A backup photo today, a busy one at work followed by WiFi trouble shooting for family members meant I didn't shoot anything.
I found myself really missing Lucy this evening. Why today more than any other day, I have no idea. Just the way it goes, I suppose.
I went out for a drive and ended up by the river, where we often used to go after work to have a change of scene.
After I sat there for a few minutes, I remembered that we often used to go and get a cortado from the Starbucks drive through. Back in the days of COVID shielding, it felt like a relatively safe treat.
Anyway, I went and got our old order and sat in the car drinking cortado, watching the rain, and replying to a slightly curious work email until it got dark.
Yes, I know Starbucks are money-grabbing, tax-evading scumbags (and probably more besides), but I'm putting nostalgia over corporate boycotts tonight.
[This is the sort of post that will probably make certain people worry about me. If you're one of those people - don't worry, I'm OK]
I think this is the first half-decent poppy shot I've taken this year.
I rather like them, little explosions of red against the green background of grass or crops.
I do enjoy an evening walk by the river.
A backup photo, my sound man hat was firmly affixed to my head today.
Such a pleasant evening that I went for two consecutive walks!
I was supposed to be going shopping, but that got pushed back so far that my usual places had shut for the night, so I ended up in Asda at midnight.
C'est la vie.
A few more after the jump.
I've had this cedar rose floating about the house for a while, and landed on it as a last-minute subject today, after spending a large chunk of the evening updating and preparing my live streaming system for a job at work next week.
I've been intending to deal with it in working hours for about 3 weeks now, the box has been in and out of the back of the car at least twice, and it even made it all the way into the office on one occasion, but as ever, there were larger fires that needed for be dealt with, and it got pushed back again and again.
Still, it's done now, just need to connect and test it with the real camera setup at work, then I'll be all set to play vision mixer (and several other simultaneous roles) for the week.
And a bridge.
A backup photo today, it has been far too hot, and I crashed out badly after dinner.
I'm quite pleased with the teleconversion lens I picked up (used) for the X100V.
It gives a roughly 50mm equivalent field of view, up from the standard 35mm equivalent, but it maintains the f/2 aperture of the native lens by attaching to the front and having a larger front element. Rather clever - I'm used to teleconverters eating at least a stop of light.
It's quite a lump, but the camera still feels pretty good with it attached.
It turns out that it's easy to install a magnet into the Mk1 converter that I have in order to convert it functionally to a Mk2 - the optics apparently didn't change, but they added a magnet for auto-detection of the converters with the more recent X100 series cameras.
We seem to be having rather nice weather for the bank holiday weekend.
Another backup today, shot yesterday, and another shot with the good old S95.
These colourful bushes caught my eye as I came round a corner here, on an evening walk.
I met up with my parents and a family friend for lunch at Attenborough Nature Reserve today.
I took my old S95 out for a spin again. I still enjoy using this little camera, Canon really did a good job of getting decent manual usability in a tiny body.
Yes, I did just construct a very silly portmanteau concerning cows and padlocks.
You should know by now that I am a very silly human, and such deranged behaviour is to be expected.
This one's a backup, because as much as I might like to show you the photo I took at work today of a fibreglass insulator glowing from within like an electrocuted pickle, I'm not sure that my boss would be particularly amused.
Went out for a short walk this evening as the light was going.
It seemed a bit unusual to see daisies open this late in the evening, but maybe my timing's a bit out of whack.
Or I am. I simply can't be sure on the matter.
A backup photo today, shot last night.
I can't take all of the credit for this shot, my friend spotted this scene through a gap in the trees while I was shooting in another direction, and pointed it out to me.
I enjoy finding random little oddities like this.
I went to see Postmodern Jukebox with my in-laws tonight. Great show, I'd definitely go again.
First two pics: Amelie, the support act. (I enjoyed her, worth looking out for her upcoming work, I think).
Last two pics: Various bit of PMJ doing their thing.
Only phone photos today unfortunately, I wasn't sure how strict the camera policies would be, so I left the real cameras at home.
Slightly regretting that decision, but security was fairly tight, so far better to enjoy the show and take away good memories than to get kicked out with nothing.
I think I need to try and get into a gig as an accredited photographer at some point, I'd like to get some decent music shots.
I love seeing musicians get completely absorbed and transported by performing their music. I wish I had the skills to bring an instrument to life, but as it is, I'm destined to settle for twiddling knobs and pushing buttons on the tech end of things.
The rest are after the jump.
Another backup photo, taken a couple of days ago.
I have been doing some training on our new 3D scanner today, and ended up knackered again.
Or Flamenco Con Gas, if you prefer your silly titles in Spanish.
A backup photo today, taken in Max Garden, a place in Mallorca that Lucy and I had enjoyed brunch in back in 2018. I was pleased to discover it was still in business, so I went back with her folks for old times' sake.
It was nice to revisit, and the food was still good.
I saw this field full of bright yellow dandelion flowers a few weeks ago, and when I walked past today, they have all gone to seed and were catching the light rather nicely.
This is the first time I've really taken a close look at an individual dandelion seed - I was struck by the almost fractal nature of the seed with respect to the whole dandelion head.
The individual fibres are also surprisingly rough and spiky.
I will have to revisit this one I think, perhaps I should drag the microscope out and get properly close in on the fibre structure.
This one is at 5x magnification.
A backup photo from last week, as I'm very sure that you don't want to see the boring, functional photos of disconnector contacts and ammeters that I took at work today.
Finally back up to date on posting (statement currently valid for about 36 minutes...)
A backup photo again today, shot a few days ago.
This was my second go at this shot, I'd spotted and shot it a couple of days before, but the camera had focussed on some embossing on the back ring rather than on the painted text on the front ring.
Really odd, because I'd carefully moved my focus point to exactly where I wanted it, on the text, and then taken several shots, refocussing at least a couple of times.
If I'd been using a DSLR, I'd have started suspecting AF calibration or microadjustment errors, but that shouldn't be a thing with mirrorless, so perhaps it's just a simple lack of talent!
Who knows? Anyway, I got a chance to have a do-over, and it came out better, so it's all come out in the wash.
With occasional punctuation.
Back in Blighty again - I went for a walk as the light was fading this evening. This pink flowery article punctuated the greenish gloom quite nicely.
I went on a little trip to Palma Nova today, where I stayed with Lucy back in 2018.
It brought back some good memories, we really enjoyed ourselves on that trip.
I'm glad I had the opportunity to pop back here while I was in Mallorca. Sentimental old oaf I may be, but so be it.
One more from our 2018 trip after the jump.
No Tapas either.
And that is the end of the matter, at least until tomorrow.
My brother-in-law and his mum on their way up the side of Cap de Formentor on the way back to Pollença (they're the pair going round the left-hander in the middle of this shot).
I'm sure they'd be frightfully modest about it, but colour me impressed regardless.
I was quite glad I'd opted out of driving on this day, let alone cycling it!
We went on a trip from Palma to Sóller and Port de Sóller today.
A bit of a tourist shot I suppose, but hopefully I got a slightly nicer frame than the average holiday snap.
Up? Down? Sideways? I quite like the unclear nature of what this is exactly, and what the proper orientation is.
[Catching up on posting after a work trip and holiday]
We went round a market near where we are staying today.
This dog sheltering under the stall caught my eye.
I find its expression rather amusing, so you get a bonus close-up crop too (after the jump).
[Catching up on posting after a work trip and holiday]
Only a phone pic today, it was a bit of a weird day waiting for the rest of the party.
After a fairly leisurely start to the morning, I spent a rather surreal couple of hours sat on a bench on the sea front, next to my slightly ridiculous suitcase, being entertained by energetic German music before getting a taxi up to the airport to meet them.
[Catching up on posting after a work trip and holiday]
So, the potential last-minute test slot did in fact materialise, and we were able to squash the last remaining test item this morning.
An excellent note upon which to head off on holiday, I feel.
This is the first time I've been on a commercial flight since 2019.
Weird.
I like flying, but I'm not overly keen on the whole security theatre performance, the arbitrary rules, and the other passengers!
I did get away without being frisked this time, although my 50mm lens got thoroughly swabbed for illicit substances!
You've seen this one before, but I'm posting it again to keep the chronology straight.
I felt like I needed to post something as a bit of a placeholder, because I'd decided to take a break from posting while I was away.
This one's from Arnhem, on the way back to my hotel after dinner.
It was a tolerably successful day today, we had a great test engineer and lab team, and we managed to rattle through all of the test duties we had officially planned, plus a couple more that we thought we might have to come back for.
It's now looking possible that we might be able to do the final power test in our current test programme tomorrow morning, because the lab team are expecting either an early finish or a cancellation in the morning.
Here's hoping!
