Yum Yum…

More lens tests in the drizzle and damp. My type of weather. I have to say I like the close focus (Am I allowed to say Macro capabilities) of the new Zeiss lens?). Hopefully the start of a long and productive relationship.

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Bargain Basement…

Anyone who knows me will say I’m not really a bargain hunter. I know I should be but I’m not. Life is getting way too short to worry about such things. I never have been and teaching this old new tricks is just not going to happen.

So why did I this morning take delivery of an almost new 40 mm Zeiss lens? Because I’m a human being and I can hold two separate views at the same time. The amount of money I saved over a brand new version was significant. So far, it looks like it was an unbelievable bargain. Perhaps this old dog might manage to learn new tricks.

Early Days.

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No More…

So that is that. Britain no longer generates electricity by burning coal. No more getting up before dawn on frosty mornings to capture the dawn through the steam of the cooling towers. No more looking to the north and seeing the plume cloud climbing high, high into the stratosphere. The clouds slowly being blown eastwards towards mainland Europe. All gone. No More.

What awaits the beating heart of the East Midlands? I don’t know. What I do know it is unlikely to have anything like the symbolic pull on my soul as Ratcliffe.

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Back to the Future…

For reasons too boring and first worldly to mention I took my veteran A6000 out for a spin yesterday.(BTW Sony are still selling this camera and actually as a starter camera its very capable!). It took a few snaps and I was back into the swing of things. The image quality is first rate – in fact there are certain circumstances where only 24 M Pixel has its advantages.

The only real drawbacks are:

  • The battery life is poor;
  • It’s a bit fiddly to operate and
  • The screen and EV are very ordinary compared to later models.

None of these really matter and if anything for an aspiring photographer they make the experience more rewarding. However, if you are coming from a smartphone world it is really like stepping back in time, not quite to the stone age but near enough. That is until you start working with the RAW images and you find there is so much more you can do with them. (Full disclosure my iPhone is set to RAW Max so they are the largest that Apple can provide – they’re great until you compare them with an image captured with a ‘real’ camera lens.)

Battles with the Master.

My frustration with our AI overlord continues. It seems not to understand why someone might use a comma. Also it must have been trained on American text because it really doesn’t like the use of language that could be described as ‘Unconfident’ or weasel words:

Screenshot

It also doesn’t like the word Unconfident which it claims is misspelt even though the AI uses it in its message box. (This sentence is loo long BTW)

So perhaps this is another arm of the American attempt to colonise the English language and yes it didn’t like the use of an s instead of a z. (That is ZED not ZEE.).

Good I’m starting to sound like disgruntled of Tunbridge Wells.

The next that the overload will want me to do is use its generated image:

ARGGHH !!!

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At a Glance…

According to the WordPress data this is the 3897 th post. Has this any significance? NO none at all but I thought I would mention it!

Our AI overlord is not happy with what I have written…

Screenshot

I particularly like the like the last suggestion. I have never had any idea what I’m going to write. Also if I removed unrelated anecdotal elements then I doubt I would have reached double figures.

Pip Pip from our new overlords.

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But the Sun’s Been…

Everything Internetish appears to be coming with added AI just at the moment. Everytime I post something to this very small blog I am assaulted by AI suggestion on how I could make this post better and therefore drive traffic to the site (it has had a field day with this opening paragraph. )

The words used lack confidence or the sentence is too long or whatever else. I do not care. Bill Gates was on TV last night making gnomic propositions about AI. He may well be right but one of the thing very few people can answer is: Just how anyone is going to make a penny out of AI given the unbelievable amounts of money that have been thrown at the technology?

According to a report I read circa $500 billion dollars so far has been spent which is an awful lot of capital outlay. And the returns? Nobody knows – there maybe some some day – but $500 billion and counting? Or could this be the thing that brings these unbelievably large tech companies to their knees? I have no idea. The one thing I do know is that I have turned the WordPress AI assistant off because it is mangling my mindless wittering.

I hope I don’t sound like a luddite but perhaps you weren’t able to understand me because I have only got a 7.39 Reading grade score. I have no idea what that means?

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I Wish Those Days….

Well thank you Storm Boris – you wet me well! Talking about Storm Boris I understand the other Boris is flogging his new book by giving a talk together with Waterstones at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. Now seeing as this is basically a publicity stunt it is interesting that you still have to pay for the privilege of attending this shindig. Each attendee gets a signed copy of the book (£30 in Waterstones). However, the cheapest tickets on the night are £45 going on up to £80 plus admin charges. So any punter is having to pay to hear the literary giant waffle on about how great he, and by extension his book, is. Interesting???

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One More Day…

Only one more full day of my self imposed seclusion. Hurrah! I have used the time well I think having pulled together my yearbook for 2023. What I didn’t notice until after finishing the book and sending it to the publisher is that I had already started the books a few months earlier – such is life. In truth I think it was better to start a fresh as the extra few months have given me a different perspective on 2023.

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Housebound…

I’m sort of housebound for the next week which gives me time to pull together my 2023 Yearbook. Will I manage it? I’ll let you know next Thursday.

Note from Editor: I tried the WordPress AI generated titles: way too literal and lacking in my sense of nonsense. Probably generate more interest in the blog – as if I have ever been interested in such things!

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Things Not Working…

Some days are good and others less so. Yesterday was very much an autumnal day. My very good friend and I spent an enjoyable day wondering around the more empty parts of the Leicestershire, enjoying each other’s company and putting the world to rights (Note form Ed: The author is very well aware that he has little or no impact on the great events of the moment that were discussed but at the end of the day both interlocutors felt they had expressed their considered opinions.)

I then I got home and felt like I was going to be sick. Perhaps it was something I ate? I don’t know but I had a very different evening. The day, as the meteorologists are wont to say, was changeable.

Today I feel like resting.

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