Auteur/autrice : admin

Very interesting article by Michael Brendan Dougherty in the National Review regarding the Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions ‘situation’. One paragraph, to me at least, is priceless

« Instead, Trump is proving another theory correct: namely, that he is an incompetent and politically unreliable buffoon. He is not loyal to people who risk their reputations for him, and his promises are worthless. The wall isn’t going to be built, and Mexico isn’t going to pay for it. »

While I have to admit I’m not really a fan-boy to the extent of constantly ‘predicting’ what the next offering from Nikon will be…I have to admit the 2014 launch of the D750 has got me thinking…

Up until now, new ‘groups’ of cameras were fairly well spaced, with the number increment climbing at a reasonable rate: D3000, D3100, D3200 etc.

The D3*** group are amateur – first DSLR type cameras

The D5*** group are moderate/advanced amateur

The D7*** group advanced/pro etc.

Then the D750 was launched – this is supposed to fall into the avanced amateur/pro group which started with the excellent D700 in 2008.

The D8** series started ok – D800, D810 and now a huge jump to the D850

For me the writing is on the wall – a new ‘M’ series will be making it’s appearance soon – ‘M’ for Mirrorless – why? Well, as increments go, the D750 can go to the D760, D780 but there’s not much more scope until it hits the D8** group. The D850 (as and when it’s actually launched) has more ‘breathing room’ in that the D9** is open (for the moment) With the number of lenses available, it seems likely that this series (and the Pro D* series) will be maintained as the advanced/pro DSLR options.

All this to say that I get the distinct feeling that the D7** series will be slowly put to bed, the D8** and D* series maintained, and a new ‘M’ series started as an advanced/pro mirror-less body, possibly even with a new lens mount (requiring new lenses, or existing lenses with new ‘M’ series mounting rings)

I am not the Angry Photographer so I don’t have any proof for any of these mumblings – but logic would point us towards a pro series mirror-less development…let’s see what the future will hold…

The pressure is building….Nikon are about to launch a new camera….the fan-boys are eager to get their hands on, well, no-one really knows for sure, but the announcement is imminent…

We do know that whatever it is will be called the D850 – this is pretty much a foregone conclusion as the Angry Photographer stated that it will be called the D820 – what is less sure are the specifications. This is the amusing bit, as the rumour mill has been active for the last few months ‘predicting’ what the new camera body will be capable of.

(This said, the Angry Photographer has also stated that ‘he knows’ that the new body will have « a shutter release and a bit for putting lenses on » so this actually brings into doubt much of what has been predicted…)

Given that the D800 from 2012 initiated, for Nikon at least, the high density camera sensors with the 36Mp Sony sensor, it’s likely that this new model will increase the pixel density – possibly interesting for landscape or sports photographers (albeit for different reasons) but certainly much less interesting for those among us who do a lot of low light photography. It all boils down to simple physics really – the smaller the photo-sites (pixels) the less photons of light  they can capture, thus making high-density sensors much less sensitive. Arguably the increase in performance of the amplifying software can help, but you can’t amplify what just isn’t there – when you try, you create noise – as can be seem by some of the silly maximum ISO values on cameras nowadays.

The announcement is supposed to be today – 25th of July – more as it happens…

It seems plans are afoot to remake the popular 1991 film ‘The Addams Family’ – the parts of Morticia and Wednesday  have already been cast…

In a significant change from the original script, Thing , which used to be a disembodied hand, has evolved into a disembodied bottom…

Which apparently has also already been cast…

« The simple gesture that makes you a complete dickhead… »

I simply couldn’t have put it better

Recent news regarding car parking charges for employees at a large UK hospital made us (ie; expats living in France) sit up and listen.

A large hospital somewhere in the UK has 6000 people working for it – sadly there are only 1300 parking places, for employees and visitors,  so quite a number park illegally – just to go to work. The company employed by the hospital to manage the car parks has finally decided to take to court all the people who have parked illegally over the years, resulting in claims of £128,000 for some of the nurses, who up until now have simply ignored the tickets. This basically means that some people will be obliged to sell their their houses to pay parking fines.

If this situation were ever to occur in France, the hospital would have been closed long ago – we don’t pay for visitors parking here, so there’s no-way the actual employees are ever going to pay to park. In very large hospitals there is generally a shuttle bus, or nearby metro (as the largest hospitals are generally in or near large cities) and park-and-ride schemes. So why does this situation exist in the UK?

Well one reason is that the hospitals are now run by accountants – who see parking as a money-making opportunity – and as soon as they employ a third party management group to organise this, ‘reasonable’ goes straight out of the window.

Another example of ridiculous reasoning is happening at the BBC – it seems that they now have to publish the salaries of their ‘top’ earners, and these people are rightfully feeling that there will be a backlash from the ‘commoners’ who pay the licence fee, and thus, their salaries.

Here is an example:

Credit: Getty Images

It seems that this is a ‘Chris Evans’ – no-one has been able to tell me what it does, or even what it might be good at, but it seems the BBC pay £2,25 million a year for the priviledge of having one. I have heard that it’s a pretty nasty piece of work, and stamps it’s feet when it doesn’t get it’s own way – I can do that too, but I can guarantee I’ll be cheaper – all I’ll need is a reserved parking place at Broadcasting House and I’ll be there. I’ll leave you my number…

 

Anybody who has visited Auch will know that we have a statue of one of Alexandre DUMAS creations d’Artagnan. While the stories of « Les Trois Mousquetaires » are fictional, DUMAS was inspired by the memoires of Charles de Batz de Castelmore (born in Lupiac, Gers around 1611,) on which to base his fictional personage.

Auch has recently spent a large sum (of predominantly American money…) to restore the Monumental Staircase which leads from the lower town (Basse ville) to the upper town (Haut ville) where the statue of d’Artagnan can be found on the first landing (climbing up from the lower town)

On the fourth landing (from the bottom) can be found the memorial for the tragic flooding that occurred in Auch in 1977 where six people died. Designed by Jaume PLENSA « L’Observatoire du temps »  is interestingly one of his earliest commercial works.

Another of his sculptures « l’Abri Impossible » is situated not far from the lower end of the monumental staircase, on the  banks of the Gers.

The 14th of July – Bastille Day – is a very popular day here in France – not only is it ‘férié’ (we don’t work) but there are generally ‘things’ going on like firework displays etc. Generally a good excuse to get out and drink heavily…

Here our day started comparatively early at 11h35 when four Rafale jets returning from the military celebrations over Paris, overflew the centre of Auch on their way home to the airbase at Mont de Marsan. I was perched on a hill overlooking the city, with a long lens on my camera – I knew they would probably fly at an altitude of around 300m, but had no way of accurately measuring this…so I guestimated…

For the past three years the fireworks display has been held right in the centre of the lower part of the city, along the river Gers. This year was no exception, and although I would have like to be up-close, decided to return to ‘my’ hill – with a bit of luck I might be able to get some images with the display and the cathedral in shot.

(Interestingly, if you enlarge the first image you can see people lining the Escalier Monumentale in the centre of Auch to watch the display)

I’ll get closer next year…

This is the title of the current exhibition at the Château d’Eau in Toulouse. I visited, with my two English friends, this weekend and found it annoying.

The sub-title to the exhibition is « Reflet de la collection du Château d’Eau » (Reflection of the Chateau d’Eau collection) and it’s annoying because I would really have liked to have seen more of some of the artists represented!

Arthur Tress had three images in the selection (I know and appreciate his work) but often the artists only had one image and this isn’t enough to be able to form an opinion – it could be an example of their best, or worst work. Anyway, it was worth the effort to go and see- here are a few examples.

It runs until the 3rd September 2017.

This weekend was a complete surprise – well, I’ll amend that slightly – the weekend itself was not really a surprise – it sort of arrived, as usual, just after Thursday and Friday – but what happened this weekend was the surprise.

My daughters and girlfriend, after months of scheming, managed to organise a ‘boys’ weekend here in Toulouse with my two oldest friends from the UK!! After dragging a heavy suitcase halfway around Toulouse, we eventually climbed a huge three-floor spiral staircase – a knock on the door, which was opened not only by my daughters (who we were not supposed to see for a few weeks ), but also G and R whom I haven’t seen for over 12 years – I almost cried!! (Sadly no-one recorded the look on my face when the door opened!!)

The girls had managed to convince these guys to fly over for the weekend! After a very pleasant evening, some delicious food in a really excellent tapas bar (where we were able to take our own wine – nothing like a little M-R to wash down a plate of ‘patatas’ – we staggered back to the flat where we were informed that the girls were leaving for their own weekend in Auch – and we were left with several bottles of wine, a very decent scotch and loads of nibbles! I think we managed to get to bed before 3am…

This is the salon of the huge, three bedroom flat (thanks to Air B’n’B) we were staying in just on the Place Esquirol in Toulouse.

The Saturday dawned with a series of ‘Missions’ before us – we had to visit an Irish pub and bring back some beer mats, take a selfie in front of the Capitole, a group photo in a Photomaton etc.

Wonderful time had by all – despite the ridiculous pictures – I can only thank everyone for their implication – and imagination. Luv ya!