Ben Shephard

Well this week I’ve been on a real downer. I had a great weekend and I never wanted it to end. I spent lots of time with all the new friends I’ve made over the last six months or so and I couldn’t have been happier. Then Monday arrived and I felt like I didn’t want to get out of bed. I used to love my job but just recently I just struggle to find the motivation to pull myself out of bed in the morning. I’ve come a long way in the 4-5 years I’ve been working in IT. I’ve worked my way to where I am now from starting out answering the phones on the helpdesk and it’s been hard work. I’ve put a lot of hours in on my own time sat at the computer learning and experimenting with ideas. As time goes on I’m being pushed harder and harder at work but for little or no reward. The people i work for aren’t known for paying well but I just want to be treated equally. I don’t find it fair that i work with someone else who’s job is exactly the same as mine and he’s no better at it than me yes he’s paid a fair few thousand pounds a year more than me just because he was recruited from outside. There’s been a lot of things happen over the last year that have really put my back up like that. last year I worked a Saturday doing some testing and when I put the over time form in I was laughed at for requesting payment instead of time in lieu. On another occasion I was scheduled to do some Saturday work at the weekend of a week I’d taken off to go on holiday. I cut my holiday short to come go back and do the work which I found out was canceled after driving all the way back from Cornwall. I wasted a full tank of petrol in doing this and lost two days I could have been sat on the beach. As a result I’m reluctant to do such over time any more. I’ve worked really hard to get to the level I’m at and I’d have hoped it would have earned me some respect and financial incentive to carry on but it’s just not happening. As a result I’m starting to find I’m losing the passion for what I do. I used to enjoy tinkering with my computers and services but now I really struggle to find the motivation to sit down and learn something. Now I spend more time at fur meets and out with my camera and this makes me happy and gives me a reason to carry on. I hate feeling like this but I just can’t seem to get out of the rut. At the very least I need a good holiday but I don’t think a new job would go a miss but that’s easier said than done these days.

Anyways I should really stop yabbing on and get some of the stuff done I’ve been intending to do for ages. That said If I make it as far as my computer room I usually just end up staring out of the window and playing with my slinky spring

I decided to buy a few accessories for my new Fuji HS20 bridge camera. One of the things I wanted was a circular polarizing filter and I’d been looking around for a good one for a reasonable price and I think I managed to get one. I decided to have a look in forums and stuff to see what brands people seem to think were good and what peoples opinions were of Ebay cheapos. It seemed most said to stay away from Ebay especially for CPL filters and recommend the expensive high street brand names. Looking at the high street prices the cheapest I could expect to pay was £50 but you can pick up an unbranded one for as little as £8 on Ebay. I did some digging and came across a set of thee filters supposedly Polaroid branded on Ebay. I know there is a lot of fake stuff on there so I was a bit wary that this could be as cheap as £12 and they weren’t to be found anywhere on Polaroid’s website. In the end I decided £12 was worth the risk but I wasn’t disappointed.

Here’s the filter in question

It feels fairly well made and the threads are pretty smooth. It screws on to the front of the lens quiet nicely. I’ve already got a UV filter on there to protect the front element and I decided to screw it on top of that but this meant that with the lens at the widest angle you could see the filter rim covering the corners of the image so for any wide angle work I’d have to take the UV off and screw it straight onto the end of the lens. The filter twists to adjust it and it moves quiet nicely. It’s not too slack and not too tight. It certainly doesn’t feel like it’s about to drop to bits. From what I’ve read people have said the cheapo stuff is poorly made, it falls apart, poorly made glass (I’ve seen some examples with wrinkles in the polarizing material) and worst of all they they are a con and they just don’t work. I was talking to someone who’s bought a couple off Ebay and said they didn’t seem to have any effect so I was a bit worried that this wouldn’t even work.

I put it on the camera and went out side to give it a go. It’s January and I’m in England at about 1:30pm GMT. The sun was fairly low in the south and the sky was blue with a few patchy clouds kicking around. First off I tested this on the reflection on the roof of of my Mum’s greenhouse which looked blue since you could see the sky reflecting in the glass. I shot some video and twisted the end of the filter to see what happened and the blue glare of the sky disappeared beautifully.

Here’s the video I shot so you can see for your self.

Then I decided to try a few sky shots so with the camera in auto mode I fired off a few test shots for comparison.

The first is with the filter rotated for the least effect.

And then with the filter rotated to get the strongest effect. See how the sky is darker and the clouds really stand out nicely also the roof on the house opposite isn’t as under exposed and colours of the washing on the line are more vibrant.

I’ve not done anything to these off the camera except for a quick re size in GIMP to make them a bit easier to upload. I didn’t take a lot of care over the photos as I was only after a quick and dirty test of the filter and I think for the price it does a reasonable job.

If you fancy getting a set for yourself here’s the link the the item on Ebay but if that’s no longer working here’s a link to the sellers Ebay shop. I don’t have anything bad to say about them. Delivery took 2 days which is quiet snappy for an Ebay order. usually I expect things to take weeks to come airmail from Hong Kong.

If you want a CPL and you don’t want it to cost the earth while this might not be up there with the £100 plus filters it’s certainly worth every penny for the £12.99 it set me back.

I’ve also bought a few other bits and bobs like a remote shutter release and timer, a bunch of colour filters and some ND filters which haven’t arrived yet. I might write a quick review of some of my other stuff in the coming days but I was so impressed with this I thought it was worth a mention.

Later

Ben

Since I’ve been getting quiet into this photography lark I decided I’d invest in an even better camera. Not a DSLR because I’d probably never be able to afford more than one lens so I bought the best bridge camera I could afford in the sales. A FujiFilm HS20. This gives me far more scope and flexibility than the S2960 I bought in September. A nice camera but I found myself pushing the limits of what it could do at times. I tried to take a shot of the moon and it just couldn’t zoom in tight enough. I’d love to be able to get closer to my subject but when it’s the moon that’s easier said than done.

Anyway it’s been a while since I posted any of my images so I thought I’d share a few. My Mum and Dad bought me a photography book for Christmas called “The complete digital photo manual” which covers quiet a few interesting topics. One I picked out at random was replacing a boring sky with a more interesting one in photoshop. I use GIMP instead but it’s the same idea. I had a shot of a tree I took at Newstead Abbey a few weeks ago and some sky from another shot I took on a drive to Lincoln. I played around with them in Gimp and I was rather pleased with the end result. I think I could still do better. I’m still not much good at editing images but practice makes perfect.

Today I headed down to the airport with my camera as there’s usually something nice to look at down there. If it’s quiet and there aren’t plane spotters milling around you can see all kinds of wildlife in the fields but today was rather busy. I took a fair few pictures to say there wasn’t a deal of activity on the runway but this was by far my favorite. The moment a Jet leaves the tarmac and soars into the sky.

Anyway I’ve just given my galery page a bit of a clean up and got rid of all the old crap. From now on it will be a place where I post my best work, most of which also get’s uploaded to my Furaffinity gallery because people actually look at that. I like Furaffinity because it’s a nice platform for interacting with others. My blog is really rather personal and while I love posting it’s pretty much only read by stalkers and crazy ex girlfriends. It serves a lot of uses but I don’t have much of an audience here these days. Anyway as a new years resolution I’ll try and write at least once a week and post as much of my photography as I can.

If I get time over the next few days I’ll try and write a post about the year looking back and what my hopes are for next year but until then adios amigos.

Ben

It’s that time of year again when we have to buy pointless tat for one another. I decided after an earlier attempt at Christmas shopping I’d not put much effort into presents this year and get everyone pretty much the same. I want to try and get away from this idea of buying gifts at Christmas but I think it will take a while to get that message across so that no one bothers getting me anything. Anyway I can think of far better ways to spend a day off work than wandering around a mall looking for gift ideas. After a few hours this got me to thinking about what the point of all this is supposed to be anyway.

Christmas (as in the celebration of the birth of Jesus)

I suppose the thing about Christmas is that it’s supposed to be a religious affair. I’ve never been to church and I’ve certainly never been on Christmas day nor will I ever. I don’t mean to offend any Christians or anyone of any other religious persuasion for that matter but I am in no way a Christian and never will be. I’ve no intention of celebrating the birth of a guy who probably never existed anyway. If Christians want to celebrate then that’s up to them to do so how ever they please so long as they don’t try to impose it on me.

The commercial Christmas (The Coke red Santa)

I really don’t understand where all the commercial bull crap came from. My dad was in a pantomime that some of his work mates put together to raise money for charity. This was their portrayal of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. It struck me that this story contains little or no reference to the religious aspect of Christmas and I think this could be where a lot of the commercial aspect of Christmas and the pressure to buy into it comes from. If I don’t buy people presents I’d be labeled as Scrooge type character. Christmas seems to become more commercialized every year and there is a lot of pressure to get people something they’ll like. Over the years I’ve always tried to do this. Sometimes I do rather well and sometimes I don’t. This year has to have been the worst ever and It’s really made me think why I do it.

The family Christmas

OK besides the church who’d try and ram their views down my neck given half a chance and the companies trying to get me to buy their over priced shit made in 3rd world sweat shops using child labor what else is there. Well someone decided to make it an official holiday which means I get a couple  of days off work every December. This makes me happy as it gives me time to spend with family and friends who to be honest I don’t see often enough. I like Christmas dinner but I’d sooner let the turkey live. I’m not keen on it and there’s always too much and everyone has to have turkey sandwiches for the next week but the fact is it’s one of the few times I sit around the table with family every year for a formal meal. My Mum makes a lovely Christmas dinner but even more than that I just enjoy spending the day with them and calling in on my sisters to see them. I suppose kids get the most out of this part of Christmas because they’re always told that Santa is real and get really over excited. I can cope with buying a few new toys for little kids but the fact is the youngest person in our family is now 18 and it takes more than a visit to the local toy store to find a gift they would like. I last bought for kids when I was seeing someone who had two young boys aged 4 and 7. They seemed to have quiet taken to me and didn’t mind me around the place so I thought it would be a good treat to get them a really nice present. I couldn’t afford to go to the lengths their Mum had but I still spent more on them than any one else that year. I got them a copy of Mario Cart and a Wii steering wheel each but on Christmas morning they opened their presents and I think their favorite present was a couple of cheap toy guns. I don’t think they ever did play Mario Cart but it just went to show how easy it is to please kids at Christmas.

Christmas Shopping

Like I said I don’t go to church but every year since I’ve had money in my pocket I go to the shops to worship at the alter of consumerism. The local cathedral to consumerism would be Meadowhall in Sheffield. I remember a time when I could find a gift for anyone and everyone there and I’m not talking when everything was in black and white this was just a few years ago before the economy took up sky diving. 1.5 million square feet of retail space and all I managed to buy there this year was a couple of books and I probably paid over the odds for those. After several hours of walking around I sat down on one of the benches to think for a while. I have two people left to get something for but no idea what to get them. All of the above thoughts started flying around in my head and I decided i should write it all down. I’d taken my camera with me as it happened just in case I saw something interesting worth snapping and I decided to see if I could get a nice shot of shoppers scurrying around on the ground floor from above with all the christmas lights in the background. I snapped a couple of shots and adjusted the apeture and shutter speed each time to try and get closer to the desired effect. A security guard came over and asked me what I was taking pictures of so I explained to him that I was trying to capture the movement of shoppers below on a long exposure. He informed me that I’d need written permission to take photographs inside the mall . I asked why that was and he told me they don’t allow photography in case terrorists come in taking reconnaissance pictures. Now I’m no expert but I’m sure if terrorists wanted to know where the best place to put a bomb in Meadowhall is they would just had a wander around and decide for themselves. They won’t pop out a camera and laptop and take pictures for a PowerPoint slide show for their head honchos in Afghanistan or Pakistan or where ever they happen to be. In any case they can always pick up one of the free maps available at all information points throughout the mall. It really doesn’t take much to work out that the best place and time for a bomb at Meadowhall. It would be in the food court on a busy Saturday lunch time the weekend before Christmas when everyone is there buying pointless shit. I didn’t even need to go there to work that out. Stopping the average Joe taking a picture won’t stop this if someone wanted to do it. If I’d taken it on my mobile no one would have batted an eye lid and I’d have probably got a better picture for the terrorist henchmen anyway. Not that it would have shown much apart from people, a stone floor and perhaps some of the shop fronts and some fairy lights. I really feel that is we allow ourselves to be afraid of terrorism in this way then the terrorists have achieved exactly what they set out to do. The clue is in their name, terrorists try to terrorize and intimidate people. If stop doing things because of this then I’m sad to say thousands of people have died for nothing in the war on terrorism because we lost if we are really that afraid. If your so afraid that your mall will be blown up that I can’t take a nice photo then I don’t want to shop in your mall. Why should I risk life and limb shopping there just for a few crappy Christmas presents?

All in all the run up to Christmas really gets me down. I don’t believe in the baby Jesus and I don’t want my friends and family to waste their money trying to get me presents and I don’t want to waste money buying them over priced toiletries and crap. Its better for everyone if we just don’t bother with that part of Christmas. Lets just get together for a bite to eat and perhaps watch a good film together. The best thing about Christmas is spending time with the people you love and I can’t see why we have to buy into all the other rubbish most of which has nothing to do with the original point of Christmas anyway. If Meadowhall does get blown up tomorrow perhaps it will help this get this message across. I don’t like feeling pressured into perpetuating the current image of what Christmas is today. If we all stopped buying pointless shit at Christmas and put our Christmas budgets into one big charity we could wipe out third world debt over night. If you really want to spend a few quid at Christmas do me a favor and go see those carol singers in the mall who were collecting money to help the homeless today, give the money you would have spent on me to them. I really don’t need that overpriced Lynx shower gel and deodorant set but there is someone out there in the cold who could really do with a roof over their head on Christmas day. It’s cold outside and I’m lucky enough to be sat in the warm writing this so give that money to someone who needs it more than me.

Thanks for reading this far.

Merry Christmas and happy new year to all.

Ben

On my way home today I was wondering if I’d be able to get any nice photos. The weather was grey and dank and the light fading and it felt pretty miserable. I turned the corner from Derby Road and Mutton Hill to go down the hill and from there there is a view out over the fields and on a good day you can see as far as Crich Tower. The first thing to catch my eye was the rain over the church on the other side of town. The clouds were so black it looked like that side of town was on fire and it looked like smoke rising at the edge. Then the sun shining through the rain clouds made them glow a nice golden colour. Here’s a few of my favorites.