Dino-Snore Adventure

I’ve made no secret that I am soon to be retiring from the day trippers circuit. it has been a beautiful summer and we have been to (many) lovely places, the kids have had a blast and they are now ready to return to respective schools and nurseries. Hubby is going back to work shortly thereafter and us mums can hang up our sun hats and return to being Ladies Wot Lunch. Yay!

The last, well, maybe one before last, trip was centred around Max and Ty’s birthdays, which are within days of each other. Whether they like it or not they are lumped together every year, this year no exception, although we seem to have celebrated for about a fortnight.

Dinosaur Adventure park, somewhere north of Norwich was the destination and an attractive one at that. the weather was perfect, hasn’t it been all summer?

The park is another sibling to Banham Zoo and Africa Alive and is similar to a Zoo, but without animals. Actually that is a fib, it does have animals; sheep, chickens, gerbils and I think I saw a fluffy white rabbit too.

A lot of what makes up the attractions so to speak are plenty of man made dinosaur models. They are suggestive of the size the real dinosaurs would’ve been and kids have a ball climbing all over them – though Chris took the time to loudly exclaim that this was in fact prohibited. So our kids didn’t, aren’t we mean?!

There are trails to follow, stamps to collect resulting in a medal, shows including sheep dog trials, feeding the animals and jeep excursions around the park.

There are also large areas dedicated to all sorts of play equipment and I imagine that kids from wee to teen could happily spend a day in these parts without  claiming boredom.

We really did have a nice day. Our three smaller children all left clutching a dinosaur toy each and were snoring by the time the car left the park gates.

Happy Birthday Boys XX

😀

Meet The Millers…

……and  the Pentax K30. Testing, testing…

(Thank you for the pretty flowers Mrs M). Well, this is the second time I’ve had the K30 actually, but this time i’m keeping it, I am officially a Pentaxian.

I had another go round with the esteemed (and expensive) D600 and again inspiration failed me. I’m not knocking it, it is amazing, but once again I think I am just not ready, or able, to get from it what I believe the cost suggests that I should.

Anyway, today a fabulous time was had. Glorious weather, a bite to eat and great company:

Mr Miller – looking happy

Mrs Miller – looking very happy!

The Young Lady Miller

and handsome Master Miller

Donkey’s years long friends to Chris and now good family friends to us.

The kids had a whale of a time, honestly, they were filthy and stuffed full of sweets, lollies, crisps and other essential childhood food items by day’s end.  Hopefully happy, and more hopefully knackered!

😀

Day Trippin’ Out (Guest Editor – Sasha J. Harding)

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The Portraitblographer

Ok, one more day trip and I’m about ready to end it all.

The seaside, Banham Zoo, Africa Alive (also the Zoo), camping, shopping, swimming, you catch my drift?

This past Monday we spent the day at High Lodge, Thetford Forest. It was one of the better days for me as it was a little more restful, a little less busy and we managed not to lose a single child.

The dog came with, finally recovered from surgery after the gold ball incident.

I shouldn’t complain, and in reality i’m not complaining at all. it is the summer holidays and the kids need entertaining.

 Luckily, the weather has been kind and we have been able to enjoy mostly outdoor pursuits.

But, is this the stuff of recuperation?

Er……I don’t think so. Rock on September!

😀

P.S Sasha has used The Chromebook extensively this week and edited lots of pics using web…

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Day Trippin’ Out (Guest Editor – Sasha J. Harding)

Ok, one more day trip and I’m about ready to end it all.

The seaside, Banham Zoo, Africa Alive (also the Zoo), camping, shopping, swimming, you catch my drift?

This past Monday we spent the day at High Lodge, Thetford Forest. It was one of the better days for me as it was a little more restful, a little less busy and we managed not to lose a single child.

The dog came with, finally recovered from surgery after the gold ball incident.

I shouldn’t complain, and in reality i’m not complaining at all. it is the summer holidays and the kids need entertaining.

 Luckily, the weather has been kind and we have been able to enjoy mostly outdoor pursuits.

But, is this the stuff of recuperation?

Er……I don’t think so. Rock on September!

😀

P.S Sasha has used The Chromebook extensively this week and edited lots of pics using web based apps such as Pixlr Express, iPiccy  and Funky something or other.

A Day At The Zulu

We go to the Zoo. A lot. We have season tickets (are you as excited as I am??…….I’ll bet) and have had for about the last three years.

A season ticket has, in past years, offered half price entry to Africa Alive and Dinosaur World. This year, entry to these parks is free, Yippee. (do you read the sarcasm?)

So, we took a day trip to Africa Alive. A beautiful day, a picnic, and a ‘less’ visited destination. Pretty good so far.

I must confess, I was so uninspired at the idea of the trip that I took maybe TWO photos of any of the animals. We go to the Zoo often enough that there really is not much point. Lots of cages, sleeping animals and plenty of Lemurs (or Owls if you’re at Banham). I already have these photos, and never look at them.

But, the day did get a little more inspired. From whichever point in the park we were in there came the sound of drums, not Fleetwood Mac style, a little more primitive, a little more um Bongo Bongo (Chris thinks he is funny, in light of recent news items), a little more somethin’ somethin’ in my book.

We headed over to find a small area with a ‘troupe’ of Zulu’s performing. Performing what? I dont really know. Dance, drums, lots of stylised tribal shouting. It was pretty cool, the boys were riveted.

After the show, the troupe members were happy to partake in photos, then it was on with the rest of the day.

Picnic lunch, playground, a general wander taking in the various animals etc.

It was pleasant, the weather was gorgeous, the kids enjoyed it.

We went home and opened a bottle of Vin Ordinaire. We enjoyed that 😉

Here’s One I Made Earlier..

Summer is running away from us now. It has been a fabulous few weeks and over it’s course I’ve taken many photo’s, and surprisingly, quite a few of flowers.

Now, flowers/macro aren’t usually my thing, but I was in possession of the Pentax K30, which I thought was great.

And, the Sigma 70mm f2.8 macro lens, also great.

Looking through my files I realized I had just enough images to make a post. I quite enjoyed taking these pics, flowers are quite willing and attractive subjects, there is lots of variety if you go looking (I went as far as my parent’s back garden).

I personally like the splash of colour that flowers often give.

Also, I have promised myself to use the Samsung Chromebook exclusively for a period of time, in order to discern if it has a place here with me…

………alongside an IMac of course.

😀

From Mac to Chrome

The Apple Macbook and I did not get on. I loved the UI, the screen, the keypad, trackpad etc, but I wonder if I had a dud unit. Certain functions just didnt work consistently and it was interminably slow. Coming from a laptop with a hard drive to a macbook with a solid state drive should have seen an increase in general speed, not the reverse.

So, I started hunting for an ultrabook – knowing full well that I really want an imac – and in comparison to my current laptop, which is only 6 months old, couldn’t find a reason to buy one. Then, out of nowhere, an ad for the Samsung Chromebook pops up and I remembered having looked at these a couple of years ago when they were first released. The original Chromebook was widely panned and remains somewhat of a niche choice, even though the system is hugely improved and there is more unit choice available.

The idea behind the Chromebook is basically a laptop with no operating system; no windows 8, Mac OS X or Linux whaththehelleva. It is entirely web based, with the ability to still utilise certain functions offline (though I have yet to check that out.) Any files can be stored in Google Drive, which, if you have downloaded onto other devices, such as your PC or Mac, means that your content is instantly available across the lot.

When I bought the Macbook Air all i really wanted over and above what I already have was a backlit keyboard and better display for photo editing and viewing.

Does the Sammy Chromebook offer those things?………….er, no actually. Well, not this model anyway (that’d be the Chromebook Pixel, which includes Macbook pricing)

In some ways it isn’t a far cry from a tablet with an SD card slot and fixed keyboard, but I hate typing on tablets, i’m a touch typist and the tab lends itself to the pecking style of a chicken. (i know they can’t type).

But, I actually find the Chromebook to be a hugely compelling idea. Instant switch on, shut down, access to all files stored in my google drive regardless of which device they were created on. An SD card slot (imperative) and plenty of ‘apps’ available in the chrome web store for editing and any other function you might require – they aren’t actually apps, more file extensions or links to web pages, but that would be splitting hairs now wouldn’t it?

For a lot of people it could be the perfect backup to a desktop or imac…..you see where i’m going with this right? 😉

For others, who don’t like tabs/ipads or those who almost live in The Cloud, it could be the go to device; jack of all trades, master of none as they say. But who needs it to be?

And all for less than £200

The app I’ve used in this post to edit images is Pixlr Express, as you can see it offers some pretty funky options. But, it’s somewaht unstable, and prone to crashing.

😀

Muse

Not the band, neither the verb, but the noun (hmm….or is that the other way round?)

I have said before that my variety of subjects, photographically speaking, is limited. Mostly to one, occasionally two or three others, largely incompliant.

I mentioned yesterday to a visiting friend that I am hesitant to whip a camera out and start taking pics of guests and especially their children. Largely because people are very camera aware and its hard to catch natural portraits of people, especially flattering ones, in this way. Children are less camera aware than they are camera uninterested. Less than keen to stay still long enough to catch one frame, let alone the dozens (hundreds) I like to be able to choose from. Some are excellent models and most are photogenic but I don’t really move fast enough to keep up or to change settings in relation to such speed.

So, back to my age old, ok, year old, problem. Variety. Casey is still my main subject and I try different things to make the pictures different from those I have taken before. My most comfortable style of shooting is sort of ‘studio’. Posed, head and shoulders, with various accessories, lighting (hand made) and stages.

I would like to b able to shoot ‘lifestyle’ or ‘environmental’ portrait, as my friend and fellow portraitist Claire does, of www.itsnotthecamera.wordpress.com – with such skill and flair.

I have tried, it doesn’t happen, at least not successfully.

I will keep on practising, as I think this kind of shooting is the key to variety, it enables the photographer to shoot any number or array of subjects in any place, under various conditions.

I hope its an amateur failing, one which can be surpassed with effort and attention. Until such time, Casey edits will have to suffice.

🙂