St Agnes Carnival 2008

Spent some of the day in Truro. The clouds didn’t look good for the Carnival in the evening.

Some flowers :)

Back to St Agnes, I am sure these signs would have confused any visitor!

The carnival itself

We decided to go to the field where all the entrants were preparing and being judged.

The Morrisettes - The Aggie Old Girls, Merry Morris Maidens.

There were a variety of dogs walking around on two legs…

Name? Austin Danger Powers. Sex? Yes please!”

Loving the bright colours, especially against the nice dark grey sky.

Giant bolster arising.

After this I swiftly walked back to some friends for dinner, I just got in before it started to rain quite hard…

These people however would have got quite wet.

“Where’s my food?”

“I’m still waiting.”

The morris girls as they dance in the rain.

Brightly coloured, wet fairies…

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Another sunset but quite a different look

Well this is a post and run, no time for words, well apart from these of course…

Crazy, flash + long exposure

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Sunday

Out for a quick walk around town to do some things, was a nice clear, bright, contrasty afternoon.

The SouthGate development in Bath is finally starting to take shape.

Some random wall somewhere, I like the shadows and yellow lines.

Nice bright red door.

One of a little clothes shoot we did.

Then Gratin for dinner :D

It was very nice.

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Another July Sunset

Went out to my favourite spot for more sunset photos. Here is what I came back with, I quite like them.

After getting back I had more of the marrow-sized courgette for dinner.

Picture just for Rob who wanted to know what happened to it after being photographed last time.

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Courgettes trying to be Marrows

Camera Phone shot of Mike shooting himself with an oversized Courgette
Camera Phone shot of Mike shooting himself with an oversized Courgette

Some shots of the marrow Courgette right before being prepared for cooking:

P.S. Thanks to Clive T for the Courgette!

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Around Falmouth

Went for a drive/walk near Falmouth with a friend who I’ve not seen in ages.

I am wondering if it is better to put the text or an image above or below… any thoughts get in touch.

So, on with the show.

Maybe underneath is better, so you can see the image then read what ever it is I have to say about it?

Or would on top be better so you get my input for the photo before seeing it. The one below, for instance I like how the sky is still exposed and the lines/layers of the picture, or something like that.

I think I will stick with below.

There was a large black cloud in the middle of the sea. Perfectly clear and sunny on the beach and near the coast. The water almost looks tropical.

Picked up some detail of the pebbly beach were we sat and chatted for a while.

The good picture of Gen :) (or maybe a combination of below and above depending on the picture and what I have to say)

Well hello there.

After teaching Gen how to focus she took this picture of me which I quite like. Very arty :D

Love this photo, unfortunately just happened to capture a strange expression. Will need to do some more when we next meet up :p

Was she trying to match the flag?

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Yet more of Cornwall - Poly Joke (nr Newquay)

Poly Joke is a little ‘unknown’ beach next to Crantok in Cornwall. At the start of our trip the weather looked changeable but we went out regardless.

Actually it turned out quite nice.

Yellow Field

One of the nicer shots I took of the beach its self.

Poly Joke

Switching to the 70-200 to capture some detail I snapped this girl carrying a load of seaweed accross the beach; who knows why?

There were a few poppies in the fields, these two caught my eye. They were promptly photographed, I didn’t even ask their permission!

And these.

Went for a walk over the headland, snuck a shot of the beach.

Back to the UWA (10-22). This outcrop of rock looked great as the sun was peaking through the clouds behind me.

Just showing off the wide end of the 10-22mm.

More UWA-goodness. A shot with Hugh looking over the edge.

Finally, a shot of the sea into the sun. I like the colour of these sea along with the shape/pattern of the white surf/foam.

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More of Cornwall

Having finished processing the photos I took on Sunday (13th) I thought I would create another photo journey through my day.

I started the day in Idless Woods near Truro.

Leaves

Again most shots are with my new 50mm f1.4.

Tree

The weather was quite changeable during the morning, cloudy but with enough gaps for the sun to poke through.

Caution

I saw this on the way back; The sign above was at one end of the road but not the other, good job I have a light car.

Later that afternoon…

St Agnes

Boat

The sun came out and beat those clouds away, producing the glouriuos day you see above. Shots taken on St Agnes beach. It happened to be packed with people.

The more rocky side of the beach had less people, and more inanimate things like rocks, seaweed and boats on it.

I wonder if I will finish writing this post before midnight. Ah well, here’s hoping. Still got a few more pics to go kids!

If you are still reading this far, maybe you would be interested in my RSS feed for new posts (http://ham1.co.uk/blog/feed/)? Just put this in your browser (if you are unsure then download firefox and use that as your browser) or in your favourite feed reader.

Maybe even sign up for an account (or openID) to let you post comments on my posts. How about sending me an email (graham at ham1.co.uk) to let me know what you thought :)

Visit my flickr account for more pictures?

So, enough of that, back to the photos! Where were we? Ah yes, the beach!

Fishing

A man, fishing, standing atop of the ruins of the old St Agnes harbour.

Sea

Ultra-wide-angle! Isn’t the water an awesome colour?

More 10-22mm goodness at Perranporth Beach.

Perranporth I

More portrait-ultra-wide-angle-landscapes. I like the evening sunlight casting long shadows and giving everything a golden yellow glow.

Perranporth II

On the beach its self; I like the flowing water on the sand and wispy clouds in the sky.

Perranporth Sand

Arty shot of the sand with some bokeh sand people (ok maybe not real sand people). Taken with the 70-200 f4 L by the way.

Perranporth People Silhouette

Some silhouetted people upon the Perranporth sands, did I mention they were silhouettes, not their fault.

Perranporth III

Look at all the far away small people on the big long beach.

Footprint

Foot! Well footprint in the sand. I like the nice shadows made by the sun, especially in the big toe hole.

Running Dog

It was running towards another dog (and its owner) in the sea, but it got called away at the last minute by its owner some way back on the beach behind me.

Back to the UWA (ultra wide angle)…

Sun

The rainbow type thing on the right of the sun is not lens flare as you may think. Notice it has a reflection in the wet sand. I am not sure what this phenomenon is called, if anyone knows, let me know.

Beach Spade Handle

A lonely broken spade handle I found half buried in the sand as the sun started to dip lower in the sky.

We moved back to St Agnes to view the sun setting.

Sunset
Fin.

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A Cornish Sunset

Just managed to make the sunset on Saturday, wish I would have got there a few minutes sooner, I just caught the tail end of this:

Sunset

I love the way those clouds are backlit and offset against the larger bank of dark cloud.

Sunset II

About 20 minutes later it was all over.

Sunset End

More pictures from Cornwall soon.

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The walk around Bath on Sunday

I thought I would try putting some of the pictures together to tell a little story of my walk, in between the showers, last Sunday (06/07/2008). Oh and also to show off the pictures taken with my nice new Canon 50mm f1.4 USM :)

I eat some lunch
My Lunch

I then take my jacket

I take my jacket

and head into town.

Not long after I start walking some dead window plants, catch my eye. Symmetrically framed by the blandly coloured window frame, yet, the vent breaks this symmetry, almost forming a face.

Dead Window Plants

Around the corner, well, a few of them, reflections make this “Pedestrians <=” sign almost interesting to look at.

Red Pedestrians Sign

It decided to rain again. After I emerge from shelter some Bath architecture presents its self in a puddle.

Bath Architecture Reflection

Remnants of the rain are all around.

Rain Remnants (water drops)
I love the way water drops form on some cars after it has been raining. The dark rain cloud along with some welcome blue sky provide a reflected backdrop for these drops.

Drops of Rain on a Car Bonnet

Walking around town again after a quick respite I meet this dog tied up to the railings outside the Podium. It seemed very set on looking through the (glass) door (waiting for its owner) rather than noticing people around it.

Dog

An American couple seem to like the dog and ask if it was mine, I deny knowing anything about it; they then ask me where they could buy some bottled water, restraining myself from saying “a shop” I pointed them in the direction of a corner shop as they said they were going that way anyway.

A seagull lands at the end of the wall, naturally I take its picture.

Seagull Sat Upon A Wall

There goes the rain again, leaving a reminder of its temporal existence on the metallic arm of a chair outside a café.

Rain on a Chair

Walking towards the Circus in Bath water streams down the side of the road and I happen upon an empty bottle in the gutter. At first I walk past but the lighting and running water catches my eye…

Bottle in the Gutter

Bench

It’s just a bench, but I like the lighting and the fact it is slowly drying off in the sun, just to be rained upon again later.

The Circus, Bath

I snapped part of The Circus then round the corner I stumbled on the “Taste of Bath Festival”.

Taste of Bath

The view from the Royal Crescent, Bath.
View from Royal Crescent, Bath

I am tired after walking about 17km, and it looks like rain, the real sort of rain rather than just some more showers. I head back to the car, just in time, the heavens open and it really starts to rain.

Double Yellow Lines

All in all quite a nice afternoon.

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One line of code to make any website editable

Simply copy and paste the following, replacing the current URL, in the address bar:

javascript:document.body.contentEditable='true';
document.designMode='on';void 0

Original post: blogstorm.co.uk/cut-and-paste…make-any-website-editable/

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Canadian Female Street Magician in Bath

Update: Someone on flickr pointed me towards her website: http://www.billykiddshow.com/

While walking around Bath this afternoon I stopped to watch this magician perform, she was pretty good. She asked if anyone had seen a magician before (3 ppl put their hands up) then she asked if anyone had seen a female magician (no one put their hands up) and she mentioned a few times she was Canadian. Hence the title.

Canadian Female Magician 3839

I took her photo after the show; I wish I got the focus better on her face, but it started to rain (as you should be able to see in the picture) so I was rushing.

During the show I was asked to partake in one of the tricks. I selected a card, well I say selected, it was more that she chose a card for me and wouldn’t let me choose another. I wrote my name on the card and put it back in the pack. She then put the pack in her mouth, not all the way, about 1/3 was still visible. After a few moments pulled out the pack of cards shortly followed by my card folded into four.

She offered me the card as a souvenir, I declined, she offered it again and some German guy shouted “go on” so I did… she then said no one ever takes them; at least it wasn’t still wet.

Ace of Spades 3899

I got some other pictures, I might post some more of them tomorrow after work.

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Nice view 2697

Some shots from my trip to Stockholm, Sweden…

This was taken in “old town” an old area of Stockholm

Eyes 2648

This was taken just after lunch on Sunday, not quite sure where it was but it was somewhere south/south-west of Stockholm.

Nice view 2697
The trip was pretty good, I got a lot of good experience, it exceeded my expectations and was not as scary or bad as I thought it could be, all in my first time travelling abroad.

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Disk performance: why aren’t you using ionice yet?

A cool article about a lesser known Linux command, ionice, it’s like nice but for disk usage.

http://friedcpu.wordpress.com/2007/07/17/why-arent-you-using-ionice-yet/

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* ERROR: wrong args ( > ) when redirecting output from an init script

While writing a script to help ease maintenance of my Gentoo installation (i.e. the portage tree) I came across the following error when trying to redirect the standard output of stopping/starting the rsync deamon

/etc/init.d/rsyncd stop > /dev/null

..stopping rsyncd..

* ERROR: wrong args ( > )

The line in the script was:

$SUDO /etc/init.d/rsyncd stop $QUIET_REDIRECT

where $QUIET_REDIRECT=”> /dev/null”

Turns out you need to do something like the following:

 eval "$SUDO /etc/init.d/rsyncd stop $QUIET_REDIRECT"

If anyone knows exactly why, please let me know :) email-lclsync at domain name.

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