6 posts tagged “camera”

The Department of Transport today warned road users to expect significant delays across the UK as the Google Street View service launched and gained excessive publicity in the country. 

The DoT reacted with concern to reports that motorists in numbers might attempt to locate and then follow in convoy one of Google's camera-equipped Street View cars or vans.

"We are highly worried that this will lead to almost complete gridlock on several key routes", said a spokesman.

Rumours have circulated on the internet over the past several days concerning the possibility of catching a blurred but recognisable image of someone falling off a bicycle, or a smudged image of a "lady" collecting a milk bottles delivery off their doorstep in their nightclothes, or perhaps the sight of someone just wearing a short skirt walking alongside the road. 

In addition, there is the mere curiosity factor which will swell the numbers of potential vehicles on the roads, warned the DoT.

One Google-Van-seeking motorist, travelling salesman Derek Bennett, 34 and single, from Solihull West Midlands, told us:

"I have my BlackBerry and my Sat Nav so I'm primed and ready to go. I do about 18,000 miles a year around the UK with my job, but I'm really looking forward to catching a glimpse of something I wouldn't ordinarily see on my travels."

"I'm ready to see the world in a totally different way than I did before."

Motoring organisations, such as the AA and RAC, have warned motorists who are not keen to follow the convoy of would-be sightseers, that they should avoid well-known Google Street View hotspots or "stay at home until the fuss dies down in a couple of days".

Details of the hotspots can be found on any web site aimed at prepubescent teens. 

I don't know where today, Saturday, has gone.  Strictly speaking, though, I do know that it's somewhere behind me.  Somewhere over there, over my shoulder, to the rear of my rear.  The day is not too far behind me that I cannot remember it, but it's far enough away to warrant being called history.  Saturday - you're history, ain't no good for me.  Actually, it wasn't too bad for me, although I won't be writing home about it.  Not only would that be a foolish endeavour and a waste of a stamp, but it would be an excruciatingly dull letter to receive.  And not only because I would know of the contents of the letter in advance, but also because of the contents of the letter per se. 

But now that Saturday is behind me, I cannot recall the details of what it looked like when it was right in front of me.  It was definitely there, but it's a bit indistinct now, or something.  As it passed me and was alongside me, I will be honest, I didn't get much of a look at it.  I need to pay more attention, be more observant, and at least try to concentrate on the distinguishing features.  At the very least I could then recognise it in a line-up should that be necessary.

One item that I can recall from the day that passed by me earlier was some experimenting with my new camera, a Panasonic FZ8.   It is more than a little bit different from (i.e. more advanced than) my old camera, the usage of which was as easy as a Daily Mail headline lapsing into fear-mongering.  It was actually quite a feat to take a bad photo with my old camera (fingers in front of lens excluded).  It appears to be a little bit too easy to take a bad photo with my new camera.  I think it's something to do with the settings or perhaps it's more sensitive to jittery hand syndrome, but results have been, to put it kindly mixed. By which I mean, a lot of the results have been crap.  No doubt I'll get used to it.  But so far it has been a little bit like the old days of 35mm film cameras, where your pristine and 100% unspoilt roll of film was magically transformed into a set of prints, perhaps 24 or 36, of which a more than reasonable portion were next to useless due to blurring from camera movement, incorrect exposure, or any one of a number of possible defects...  ah, the joys of technology.  At least I can get an instant sense of failure and disappointment rather than have to wait a few days.  That's progress.  Instant disgruntification.

I'll get used to it.  I'll get used to it.  I'll get used to it. 

May 08 misc 023 sm

May 08 misc 021 sm

Yesterday's photos of the church near me reminded me of the photo below which I took a couple of years ago.  It is in my opinion a rather dramatic and atmospheric scene that unfortunately I captured only with a second-rate camera I had on my person whilst out walking.   It's also now quite a poignant photo for me personally.  It was around Christmas 2005 and my Nana and Grandad were with us for a family gathering.  It was probably the last time that they were both genuinely able to fully participate in and enjoy such an occasion.  Since then, the effects of their advanced age meant they were unable to truly do so.  And today it is with sadness and a heavy heart that I share the photo - now that their partnership in this life has ended with the passing of my Nana.  Somehow the photo fits...

Christmas 2005

I love eBay, I fully admit to it.  It's not just that there are bargains to be had (although fewer and fewer of them as time goes on it seems) and that it's quite an easy way to sell things that you once convinced yourself you needed but which are now about as desirable as that Clairol Foot Spa that sits in the cupboard underneath the stairs after one solitary call to arms... err... feet.

There's an element of eBay which I must admit that I find highly entertaining in a twisted way.  It's what I have decided to call the understated listing syndrome.  This is classically evinced by the way in which sellers portray goods which are more or less faulty to the point of being utterly useless for the purpose that they were originally manufactured to serve.  The syndrome also commonly appears when sellers attempt to describe flaws in their goods which, whilst not rendering an item inoperable, are sufficiently serious to probably be the reason they are being sold in the first place. 

I give you today's peach of an example of the former case, which I stumbled across in my search for a decent yet cheap digital camera.  Boy, am I sorely tempted to purchase the camera from the listing below?  No, I'm not even sorely tempted not to buy it.  But, I'll let the listing do the talking...

"Camera has a slight fault - everything on it works fine (screen, dials, zoom, batttrery, charger) except it doesn't take photos"

Now, it's 10 out of 10 when it comes to being open and honest about the problem with the camera at the end of the sentence there.  That is to be applauded, of course.  But, one feels that the opening gambit sits about as comfortably as I would sit comfortably at my own funeral.  Or worse, at the evening disco after my own funeral.  Naked.  On a wooden chair with splinters, watching family members and hangers-on reeling around drunkenly to some terrible tune from their youth.

But rest assured, everything on the camera works fine.  Which is more than I could say about myself.  And I cannot take photos either at the moment, since I am lacking a camera, amongst the many other things I lack.

Then again, we all have our faults...