I didn’t believe the hype but you know what I’m starting to believe – the iPhone 15 Pro is very very good – especially in low light. These are all hand held low light ProRes images which have absolutely no right being this sharpe (trust me they are in full res – not so here). They are not perfect by any mean but that really isn’t the point. Any camera that is hand held in low light isn’t but these are really good despite that qualification.
So what have I learnt? This is looking promising and lets hope over the months and years it keeps up this promise.
Well that didn’t take long. New year new camera. Actually, I’ve been turning this plan over in my mind for a couple of months. Anyone who has been following this blog will know I’ve been undertaking an awful lot of testing over the last few months, mostly with my iPhone. The conclusion I came to was very simple – the iPhone 13 camera just wasn’t cutting it. It wasn’t actually bad but it wasn’t really that good. I suspect the real problem lies with the dreaded computational photography – I just thought the results produced by the Apple camera app. were usually very suspect. (Of course your views may vary and that is fine.) So today was the day I took the plunge and podded out some more of my cash into the Apple money pit. I am now the proud owner of a iPhone 15 Pro.
There are so many new features I’ve got to get my head around but the first images are very promising. Now I really need to underline the iPhone 15 Pro is not really a match for my ‘proper’ camera and the selection of lenses I have built up over the years. What it is is the best camera I have with me all the time and so will be used when I’m out with family and friends when carrying a large back with a selection of lenses just isn’t going to work.
The weather has been impossible. We are having a very very wet winter and todays it has rained all day. Still I have got out and tried the camera in what will probably the most demanding conditions it is likely to face. It made quite a good fist of everything thrown at it. It is early days but I’m impressed.
I have had a love/hate relationship with my iPhone this year. Be that as it may – these are my selection of images captured with my iPhone in 2023. Are they the best images? Probably not as I tried to spread things out over the year. Anyway…enjoy?…
What will 2024 be like? Not long now to find out. (At the time of writing 2024 is already here for people in the west Pacific)
So 2024 is going to be one of those crazy confluences where it will appear that much of the world is undergoing an election. Of course the one that I am most concerned with is the UK general election and yet another rerun of the Tory psycho drama that once more swirls around Nigel Farage is being played out. As the year grows more mature I will expect the column inches/social media nonsense (this blog included) will be concerned with what the Nigel Bot 3000 does next and what that means to the collapsing fortunes of the once great Conservative Party. Meanwhile in the real world most people will look on in bafflement.
This election is unfortunately likely to be really nasty. I hope and pray that it is nothing more than mean, misleading and mendacious words. However, since 2015 two MPs have been murdered so…
I do hope you had a good Christmas – I did. One of the ‘new‘ things we got this Christmas was a new Doctor Who. He was great. The episode was great and quite honestly that is all I care about. Of course other views are available and that is fine.
Apologies to anyone south of the equator who might come across this post but this is the shortest day here ‘up North’. I had planned to spend the day capturing image to make some form of photo essay but the weather forecast says it is going to rain most of the day and I am just getting too old to spend the day deliberately getting wet.
So instead I thought I would post some gloomy images captured in and around the shortest day.
At times its grime ‘up North’. But then the weather breaks and we get a wonderfully colourful dawn…over a flooded field!
I hope anyone who finds this post has a great Christmas.
So the parliamentary season is almost over and it is a reasonable time to take stock as to exactly where things stand. Well as I write this on 17th december 2023 it looks most likely that Labour will win next year’s election. (Yes I know it could be actually drag on until January 2025 but at this time this does seem highly unlikely if, for no other reason, the anger the Tories are likely to face could wipe them from Parliament). The question is ‘…what does a Labour win look like?…’ I suspect there are 3 possible scenarios:
Largest Party
Here they don’t win an overall majority but rather become the largest party in the House of Commons. This means that the Conservatives have lost their majority and are most likely the second largest but some distance behind Labour. This would also mean that the Liberal Democrats may well have done quite well and so whilst Labour doesn’t have a majority it is unlikely to be defeated in the House of Commons because I suspect that hell would have to freeze over before they vote with the Conservatives to defeat Labour. In short, whilst this is difficult it is reasonably manageable.
Small Majority
Here Labour have a small majority of perhaps 5 to 10. This would be an incredible result considering where Labour have come from and, as discussed above, is likely to be pretty secure.
Very Large Majority Indeed
This is existential threat territory for the Conservatives. Here the electorate take it into the hands and give the Conservatives a really good kicking. It is way way too early to predict this but I have feeling that this is the vibe at the moment in the country. Whether this vibe will carry on until the general election is uncertain. However, with every bit of bad news that keeps coming out this will move from a vibe to a real possibility. If this were to happen then the Conservatives could return with as few as 100 seats.
Many suggest, with good justification, that this is very unlikely and I can see their argument. However, it has happened before and not too long ago. In 2015 the Labour Party in Scotland went from dominance of 41 out of 59 seats to only having 1 seat. The SNP had a 30% swing to them. A similar result at the next election might see the Conservatives have perhaps 15 to 20 seats. This is unlikely unless Rishi Sunak decides to run the clock out and go for a January 2025 election.
Perhaps the only thing to say with any certainty is that the next 12 months are going make the Brexit debates look like child’s play as the Tory press throws everything they have got at Labour. It is not going to be edifying.
The problem they and all the bright tech bots that will be employed will face is simple. Will the people listen?
Strange old day patrolling the borders between Leicestershire and Derbyshire. After a brisk walk a cup of tea and bangers and mash in the Calke Abbey canteen. It’s a hard life but what can I say?
After lunch we visited Breedon – it’s still there.
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