Fast moving

It’s a nice time of the year at the moment, apart from the big storms. Do you realise we’re only six days away from the winter solstice? Yes, after next Thursday, the days start lengthening again. Amazing. I seem to be feeling the cold more than previous years (says he, while sitting with the back door open and no heating in use!)
 The light changes quickly at this time and here are three shots taken only minutes apart — the time it took me to grab the camera, change lenses and decide where to shoot. I had to move quickly because the light faded in a few minutes.
As I said yesterday, that shot of the shed was taken in near darkness. I had to bump the camera up to ISO800 to be able to hand hold. The fantastic thing is, I could! And I could post these photos within 10 mins of taking them.
Photography has changed beyond recognition. In the 80s and 90s, shooting film involved big expense (each shot of slide film cost about $2 with processing taken into account) and took at least 24hrs, or a week for Kodachrome, to be able to see what you’d shot, even if you finished the roll and got it processed immediately. Then I had to scan the slides or negs, which took hours and the use of a $2,400 scanner. It’s a new world now. People who didn’t do photography back then won’t understand what I mean.
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I mentioned yesterday or the day before that I’d weakened and ordered a 120-400mm zoom lens for my Pentax. I was a bit nervous about it. I’ve been holding off for nearly two years but saw a bargain price (about $560) and decided to leap.
Gloom – fate stepped in and slapped my hand. They emailed me back and said, “Sorry, can’t supply, no stock after all, we’ve refunded your money”.
Well, maybe I wasn’t supposed to have it. At least it gives me a chance to reconsider my priorities. I went to Centrelink yesterday to check on the effect of reverse mortgage on my pension, and Bingo. No problem.
They recognise the need of us pensioners and as long as I take a certain maximum amount and spend it on fixing my house within 90 days, it isn’t counted as an asset. That’s exactly what I wanted.
I can also take the remainder as a fortnightly pension supplement with a minimal effect ($3 per fortnight reduction), and that’s also exactly my plan. So at last, after a year of scrimping and watching every dollar, I can ease up and relax a bit. Buy some new sheets, towels, get the floor strippers in and get new tiles and carpets laid, etc etc.
I do need some lounge furniture but I’m not going to buy new. Crazy expensive prices! Second hand shops, here I come.
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Minnie insists on being outside in the cold all the time. She just won’t sleep inside. Yet she still comes to the door at 5pm for her big meaty bone and does her little head shake and dance of pleasure when I deliver it. I just don’t know – I don’t see distress. Not yet.

ABC, stop it, for Dog’s Sake

I’ve always been an ABC person, but I am so fed up with the amateur idiots running it at the moment that I will have to make yet another complaint.

If I’m watching ABC News24 I must know what I’m watching and why. You don’t watch a channel like this just for fun. I wouldn’t be just casually channel flicking. So why do I have to be endlessly, constantly told what I’m watching and who it is speaking?
It appears we are never to be allowed to see the lower 20% of the screen and must constantly be told what we’re watching. Plus suffer the endlessly flickering state temperatures, and endless repeats of headlines, and endless summaries of what was said 10 minutes ago.
I am sick of it. ABC complaint number 437 coming up.

PS

Crumbs, there’s also blogging addiction. I’d no sooner posted that last one than I realised there were some extra points.
1. One lesson I’ve learnt over more than 40 years of photography is that the more gear you have, the heavier the camera bag gets and the less likely you are to carry it. It’s no use having long, heavy telephoto lenses if you’re not going to carry them around. That’s a problem and one reason zooms have become so useful – lots of focal lengths in one package. The lens I’m buying still weighs 1.75Kg, though, so it’ll go to Bali with me but I’ll need to plan when to use it – a trolley bag or something.
2. Still cameras also shoot hi-definition video these days and mine certainly does. That 120-400mm zoom will be excellent for video, provided I use it on a tripod. So there’s another heavy item to carry. You have to plan and be dedicated.
3. Why do I need such extreme focal lengths? To get shots like this:
Americas Cup racing, 1986 with Rottnest Island in the distance  © PJ Croft 2012
USS Missouri off Fremantle 1987  © PJ Croft 2012
First Fleet replica ship, Fremantle 1988  © PJ Croft 2012
and for the extreme wide angle:
Musee D’Orsay, Paris  © PJ Croft 2008
To me, the cost and effort are worth it.

Phew, escaped

During the storm  5:40pm
Well, it huffed and it puffed last night, but it didn’t blow my house down. It was windy and wet, but the power stayed on and I had no trouble, thank goodness. The forecast is for winds easing.
That opening shot above was taken in near darkness last night. It looks like daylight, but I assure you I could hardly see the viewfinder. I shot at ISO3200 hand held. In film days, that was simply not possible and there would have been no shot to show.
 
Ever heard of GAS and LBA?
They apply to photography, the hobby/recreation/vocation, that is. GAS stands for Gear Acquisition Syndrome and LBA stands for Lens Buying Addiction 🙂   I think I’ve definitely got both.
Gear Acquisition Syndrome is the constant need to buy new cameras and gadgets. You think, gee, if I had that, I could do so much more, and so-on. Pretty soon you’ve convinced yourself that you need it and the danger point is reached of actually getting prices and finding “the bargain”.
Luckily I’ve been through that stage many times and can fairly easily stop myself before too much damage is done. I haven’t bought a camera for nearly two years now.
LBA is Lens Buying Addiction (no, not Leg Before Arse for all you cricketers). All photographers go through the stage of needing to build a collection of lenses. In the olden days of fixed focal lengths, this got pretty expensive because besides the 50mm that came standard with the camera, we needed a 28mm, a 35mm, a 135mm, a 200mm, a 400mm, a 100mm macro, a 21mm, and so-on and on.
Then zooms came and we only needed a 70-210mm, a 28-80mm and maybe one or two fixed lenses.
I’m still in the grip of that one and my present kit is a 24-70mm and an 80-200mm for the Pentax K-5, plus an old 1980s vintage 50mm f1.7 manual focus.
For some reason, lens bargains are popping up at the moment and so I’ve given in to temptation. I’ve ordered a Sigma 120-400mm APO zoom (180-600mm equivalent) which costs only about half what they wanted two years ago.
Then yesterday I ordered a Sigma 10-20mm (15-30mm equivalent). I used to own this lens for my Canon, but I sold it along with all my Canon gear last year. Now it’s being offered again in Pentax mount for only 58% of the price I paid four years ago.
So LBA! That gives me a focal length range (in full frame terms) of 15-30mm, 24-70mm, 80-200mm and 180-600mm. That should cover it!  With the Pentax’s in-body image stabilisation, they are ALL image stabilised, too.
I’m not quite complete. I want a Pentax made 21mm f2.4 which becomes a 31.5mm lens equivalent. It’s a very small, light lens, all metal construction, which is a “walk around” lens when you want quality but don’t want weight and bulk. Unfortunately it costs nearly $800 so I can’t justify it. 
Or maybe, maybe, a Carl Zeiss 21mm f1.8 Distagon, a jewel-like lens of the utmost quality which would match the quality of the Pentax K-5 sensor, one of the top three on the market. But it costs $1,400. Not likely unless I win Lotto.

Photography is GREAT these days.

Batten down!

The parking dude, Surakarta.  © PJ Croft 2012
The forecast for this evening (it’s just gone 4pm at the moment) is for gale force winds, heavy rain, dangerous wind gusts and I’ve even heard “category 2 cyclone” warning. It’s been fine most of the day but the sky is darkening to the west and the wind is picking up. Airlines are delaying flights and cancelling some because the head and side winds are gunna be fierce!
That means we’ll almost certainly lose power tonight so I’ve been working out what preps I can make.
One problem for me is that I need my CPAP machine to sleep, so no power = no sleep. May as well not even try. However, I’ve got a small UPS so I’m charging it up at this moment and it’ll power my machine for at least a couple of hours, I think. All my lights are low power CF lamps too, about 8W instead of the old 75Watters.
Otherwise, my laptop is fully charged and will be good for about 6hrs at low power use. If I lose mains, I can watch DVDs and even BluRays on the laptop. That’s not low power use, though, so it’ll run down faster.
I’ve also got three torches and spare batteries, plus more C batteries are charging up now. The fridge will stay cold for many hours even if the power goes off so food won’t spoil. In any case, I’ve got tinned soup and stews in the cupboard, so I won’t be hungry, and a block of the darkest chocolate I could find to provide the endorphins if I need ’em.
I’ve also bought a six-pack of Caffrey’s Irish Ale cans which don’t need to be real cold, and a 3L cask of red wine, so I won’t even run out of grog!
So send ‘er down, Huey. I’m ready. The only hard part will be getting Minnie to come inside.
Of course, I’m sitting here in my T-shirt and shorts with the door to the outside open and enjoying the smell of rain. Just imagine if this was a snowy country where you could literally freeze to death! No danger of that here.

Cravings

© PJ Croft 2011  Aaaaah, Sanur
As I said, last night I had to do without solid food for dinner, and it’s worth noting what I felt. I was hungry as hell, and only had a Laksa packet soup containing soft, flat rice noodles which slide down with no effort.
But the cravings! I seem to crave carbohydrates or salty, crispy things like pretzels or nuts, which I couldn’t have. My upper body and shoulders were crawling with tension, craving this hit of carbs or fat or whatever it is.
I never eat sweets or chocolate but I had a chocolate slice in the cupboard that I’d bought for a guest and I’m afraid a big bit of it got consumed last night (not all of it – there’s some left over!) As I ate it, I could feel the warmth coming over my shoulders and scalp as the tension eased away.
So I dunno. Musn’t eat fatty, satisfying foods. Musn’t drink alcohol, or sweet things, or cheese … It is so hard.
My weight increased by 0,3Kg overnight, but I got almost no exercise either yesterday, due to the weather. I’ve lost 1Kg since last Tuesday, though.

On the squeeze

This shot is of a painting I saw in Bali. I’m posting it because it reminds me strongly of an oesophagus, maybe mine? Heh heh. (Btw the name of the surgeon who put my band in was Watson. Alimentary, Dr Watson?)
I’ve been to the doctor today and restarted the gastric band process. I had 3ml put in and I can’t feel anything different at this moment, but I don’t expect to yet. I’ll give this a few weeks, then sneak some more in and gradually get used to the constriction. I feel better able to observe and monitor this time, having had some experience and a long break away from it.  Right at this moment though, I’m hungry as hell but no solid food allowed, liquids only. Beer is liquid …

I also had my annual flu vaccination. This year’s vax includes protection against swine flu. Yesterday a friend, someone I thought had a few brain cells, tried insistently to persuade me it’s all a doctors’ con to fund their new Merc or Audi. If you believe that mate, you deserve to catch it. I nearly hung up on you. I will do next time. I could not believe the aggro you were projecting. I make the decisions about my health, thank you.

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Minnie continues the same as ever. She’s got a big bulge in her side near her right hip, but it’s soft and she makes no reaction at all when I press it or if it scrapes on the door frame. She even sleeps on that side. My conclusion is that it doesn’t hurt. She still smiles, still jigs at food time, still eats and excretes normally. She just wants to be outside in the cold and wet all the time. I think she’s OK.
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Interesting to hear the news item today that the Big Two supermarket chains appear to be setting up new shops, BIG supermarkets, in towns and areas which don’t seem able to support s/ms of that size. The suggestion is that the big guys are prepared to subsidise losses for a year or two in order to drive out the small store competition and establish their place in the town or suburb. Their losses are made up by the profits from the big population centres.
What this means is that by chasing a few cents cheaper all the time, customers, shoppers, are helping them drive out the small shops, the IGAs. Remember when we used to have more than three choices?  Yes, we had Coles and Woolworths, but we also had Macs, Freecorns, Tom the Cheap, Dewsons, Safeway, Action, Four Square, Newmart, Supa Valu, Stammers, Payless … all gone except IGA. They’re nearly all gone!
Stay away from the BIG GUYS! They are robbing us, cheating us, crippling their small competitors and reducing your choice all the time.
By trying to save a few cents by using the big guys, you’re spending those cents just driving there anyway and losing your choices.

Brrrr, winter

From this a few days ago:
Lookin’ over my fence – my neighbour’s trees.
To grey, stormy, windy, tree-bending winter weather today:
Perth gets weather! The same trees.
It is blowing a full gale at this moment.
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I was at the big shopping centre yesterday and took the lift. I thought, “Why are there UP and DOWN buttons in this lift when there are only two levels? If you get in on the ground floor, of course you want to go up. You can’t go down. If you get in on the upper floor, of course you want to go down. You can’t go up.“

Then I thought, why not have just one button: GO. Then I thought, why have a button at all? If you get in on the ground floor and the doors close, it goes up. And vice versa. Why do we have to press a button at all?

Why am I even asking the question? I know why.
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This shopping centre was also doing its trick of using the escalators to force people into traffic zones.
There’s a big central atrium which has three escalators, two on one side and one on the other. But the two on one side are either both going up, or one of the pair is shut off. To go down, you have to walk around the atrium to the other side past all the shops. Clever.
This has been going on for years and I’ve made two written complaints over the years. The first time, they told me that the parallel escalators can’t be run up and down at the same time for Health and Safety reasons – they have to be more than a meter apart (they are!) and it’s too dangerous to run them in opposition (up/down).
What a load of cobblers.
A couple of years ago I again complained that the down escalator of the pair was always shut off and this time they told me they were doing their bit for energy saving by minimising their power use.
Another load of utter crap. I’ve been to a lot of shopping centres all over Australia and all over the world and this is the only one that does this. Once again, Australia treats its customers with contempt.
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More importantly, I did my grocery shopping at Woolies and was floored by their new tactics of blatant deception.  I bought two small pre-pack containers of Indian food. One was marked (on the shelf, of course) at $2.98 and one at $5.68.


Going through the checkout, the prices came up as $5.98 each. “Hang on”, I said and explained that this was the wrong price. The girl said, “Have you got a Woolies Discount card?” Yes. “Oh well, let me scan it and the correct prices will come up.”

So I did, and a new line appeared, -$2.40 discount.  I grumbled but wasn’t sure whether this was the correct reduction so we moved on. When I got through and checked the strip, it showed both items were charged as $4.78 each!

I wasn’t having that so I went to the “Customer Service” counter to explain and complain. The poor, young, harassed girl looked at the strip, then said please wait and walked off to the other end of the shop to check the shelf prices.

I waited a good three minutes, with another woman making a similar complaint beside me, but the girl didn’t return so I walked away in disgust.

So the new tactic is, to get the shelf price, you have to produce your Woolies card. Otherwise you’ll be charged some higher price, which you may not notice. If you do, you may be home by then and not bother following it up.

This is outright deception and this time I’m going to make a complaint, not just to Woolies management but to the Competition and Consumer Commission. And CHOICE magazine, for that matter, because I’m a member.

I’ve been noticing this for years now – I shop for food about twice a week, not just at Woolies but at Coles and IGA too, and I almost always find a pricing error on my bill, almost always in the shop’s favour. It’s reached the stage where I have to check my bill as soon as I leave the checkout, because I am sick and tired of getting home, finding the error and having to go back to the shop to get it corrected. I’ve got two packets of alkaline batteries in my bag at the moment waiting to be returned to another shop because I found I was charged double the shelf price last week.

The shops have it made: there are no prices on the items, so it depends on your memory or sharp eyes to spot the errors. Then they rely on you either not noticing, or being too tired or lazy to follow it up. We are being cheated, people, big time. Check your bills!

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Has anyone else noticed K-Mart? They were always a junky shop, the by-word for low priced rubbish, but they’ve gone so far down market now I just can’t shop there any more. I didn’t think it was possible to go any lower, but they’re doing it.

Almost everything in K-Mart is now their own brand in their own red/black/white packaging. There’s only one colour in men’s clothing anyway: drab. Just different shades of drab. Black dominates, but everything is dark, gloomy, dirty looking colours. Lots of purple and sickly greens.

So why do I go there? Good question – because I have to to. Unfortunately I need size 4XL and bigger, especially jocks, and K-Mart is the only place I can get them. Big-W sizes stop at XXL in men’s underwear.

However, even though K-Mart has my size, they only have a few in stock at any one time or any one shop. AND, they are doing their bit for our health: the big men’s sizes, 4XL, are on the bottom hooks, right down near the floor, so we big guys have to bend right down and fumble around among the jumble of sizes to find the few they have. The SM sizes for the small, fit guys, are at the top. Isn’t that great?                          _____________________________________________

Something lighter to finish with:
Aaaah, Bali

This is the first frame of a video clip that was on the ABC web site a few weeks ago (hence the arrow in the middle). Nice, eh? I just had to grab it.

Crushed and burnt

Grrrrr!
[I should have pointed out, after all my talk of copyright, that the picture above is not one of mine. I wish it was. I would credit it if I knew who to give credit to, but it’s just an image I admire that I found on the web. Sorry, whoever took it. Great shot.]

In my earlier posts, although I said I was disappointed in the ABC’s coverage of the Thames Pageant, at least I had the security of thinking I had a hi-def copy on my Panasonic DVR hard drive.

The main recording was 6hrs 30mins long, so I figured I’d divide it up into recordable chunks (about 3 x 2hrs plus a bit) to get it off to DVD. To do that, the Panasonic DVR has to convert hi-def recordings to what they call XP quality. It needs to do it in real time, so it takes 6hrs 30mins!


I let it go overnight. It converts while you sleep and erases the original DR version which can’t be copied to DVD.


What I didn’t realise is that it converts the 16×9 wide screen vision to 4:3, then stretches it back to 16×9! All the vision now looks like this:



I’ve lost it!  I didn’t check the recordings and just let them go. Only now, after I’ve converted 3 out of 5 recordings, do I realise what’s happened. Don’t convert DR to another format!!! Hi-def tuner, check. Hi-def recording, check. Wanna get it off onto DVD? No, mate.


Therefore I’ve lost most of my hi-def vision and my SD copies are unwatchable.


Oh, simple, I’ll just wait 60 years for the next one. Aaaaaarrrrrrgh!


By the way, lest you think I’ve been sounding off in isolation, take a look at The Guardian’s web site http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/06/jubilee-pageant-composers-bbc-coverage. The BBC are being roundly criticised for a poor coverage of the Thames Pageant and other Aussie viewers have complained about the ABC cutting off the live feed before it finished. You’ll see my criticism in the comments section as PCPete.


No worries, mate. 

Take two everybody. That was a stuffup, but we’ll get it right in the second take. Everyone back to your places. Ready, lights, camera, take two, ACTION.