Category Archives: Humour

Although my "group panoramas" are a tradition, I am on this occasion frustrated, as on every night there’s less than half of group at dinner, between night hide slots and three of us staying at The Homestead, a separate accommodation block a few minutes’ drive away, with its own catering arrangements.
In the end Ann and I persuade everyone to line up for a group shot taken after breakfast on the last full day. Back row, from the left: David, Yasmin, Mark, Lee, Issa, Ann, Ray. Front row: yours truly, Mike, John, Martin, Ali, Sue, Colin, Chris.
1/10 to Lee, who could have shuffled along to the left to fill in the gap!
Technical Note
Regular readers will recognise two recurring scenarios regarding my relationship to tripods:
- I have a tripod, but it gets used for a purpose definitely not listed on the manufacturer’s website
- I have no tripod, and have to improvise camera support using an object to hand
This is a good example of the latter. Camera placed on the edge of the pool, pointing at the sofa, flip-out screen pointing up so I can check composition, albeit upside down (ground glass screen and cloth, anyone?) To adjust the yaw angle, fork from dining table wedged under the camera body providing exactly the right angle of inclination.
Personally I think all this nonsense about tripods is overblown.
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You don’t have to shoot Zimanga at 800mm! I call this “Absence of Elephant”. £4M please! (If Peter Lik can get away with it, why can’t I?) Oh, and about 5 minutes after shooting this scene, it disgorged a herd Continue reading →
One of the great things about watching a lot of cop shows on television is the endless variety of mechanisms used to set up key characters. Recently we’ve had… The Island: female detective born on Harris returns there after several Continue reading →
Tuesday, March 25, 2025 in
Thoughts on the World
Here’s my traditional group panorama for the 2024 Cinque Terre and Tuscany trip. From the left: Yours Truly, Grant, Elizma, Hildige, John, Buzz and Lee. Remind me never to book any of my fellow travellers for a portrait shoot – Continue reading →
Thursday, October 10, 2024 in
Italy 2024,
Travel
With Apologies to My Photography Tutors First, I’d like to apologise to all the authors, tutors, mentors and tour leaders who have tried to instil in me “correct” tripod technique. As they say, it’s not you, it’s me.I don’t particularly Continue reading →
We started day 2 by getting a train. There are essentially four ways of getting between the five towns which make up the Cinque Terre: you can walk along the cliff paths, go by boat, or get the excellent trains Continue reading →
Sunday, September 29, 2024 in
Italy 2024,
Travel
Just how wrong can an AI get it? As part of my effort to profile the power consumption of GenAI, I decided to try and summarise one of my travel blogs using ChatGPT and the other big public models, plus Continue reading →
Tuesday, September 10, 2024 in
Thoughts on the World
Just how bleak can an AI’s world view become? One of my clients asked me to write an article on the environmental impact of generative AI. Like a lot of large corporations they are starting to embrace GenAI, but they Continue reading →
Like it’s predecessor, Man Up!, this is a knock-about farce based around the capable but somewhat cursed sports agent, Patrick Flynn. This time the key protegé is a nymphomaniac Russian tennis player, but otherwise the cast of gangsters, hit-men (& Continue reading →
Monday, April 25, 2016 in
Reviews,
Thoughts on the World
This is a comedy thriller very much affecting the style of Carl Hiaasen. Hiaasen’s latest, the hilarious Bad Monkey, uses almost exactly the same Floridan and Bahamian locations, and reading this book almost immediately afterwards did feel a bit like Continue reading →
Tuesday, April 29, 2014 in
Reviews
Like the predecessor novel, Wahoo Rhapsody, this is an enjoyable romp which charges on at an impressive pace. As a complete antidote to all the “Templar Treasure” novels of recent years, while this does feature a long-buried fabled treasure, which Continue reading →
Wednesday, May 1, 2013 in
Reviews