Life – Page 5 – Riccarpics

How much is that camera?

I hark back to the days of film when you bought a camera and used it until it got broken beyond reasonable repair or it was worn out.

Now some camera manufacturers bring out a new model every couple of years. I think Canon and Nikon work on a four year cycle which is a good sign. It shows they expect the likes of the EOS 5D MK4 or the Nikon 850D to last for four years professional use. Many last much longer.

Although not used professionally (but not treated very sympathetically) my EOS 5D MK2 is still going strong and I bought it in 2012 when the mark 3 was released.

You can save a lot of money by buying the camera before the current model. You can save even more by buying it second hand although look out for cashback’s and discounts on new cameras. Some photographers like to have the latest camera and buy it as soon as they can, trading in their old model. This keeps the second hand market buoyant. Buy second hand from a reputable dealer and you can get a very good camera at a keen price. Cameras don’t hold value well and depreciate at probably around the same rate as computers and cars.

The photographic internet is waiting with eagerness for the release of the Canon EOS R5 which is due out soon and by some accounts is a remarkable camera. We know some of the specifications but not the price or resolution. We know that it will record 8K video and is rumoured to have probably a 44 megapixel sensor. It may be over specified for many. To me, the lack of price rings alarm bells. I’ve found that when an item is well priced the amount is usually displayed prominently.

The amount of $10500 Australian was released on an Australian website some time ago. It was later said this was a placeholder amount to facilitate comping. If you are cynical you may well think it was Canon testing the market.

Many will be hurting financially after the crisis and reluctant to part with money to upgrade their current camera, that is more than likely still working just fine. Also I’m not convinced everyone is as eager to dump their DSLR to go mirrorless as some YouTubers would have us believe.

It has been suggested that the R5 will be priced similarly to the EOS 5D Mk4 when it was released. That would price it at about £3500. This pricing estimate seems to owe much to the fact that both cameras have a 5 in their name. It may well be wishful thinking. The Canon 1DX Mk 3 is around £6400 so we can be fairly sure it will be less than this. In a post Coronavirus world what photographers will see as a reasonable price is anyone’s guess. There is also talk of an EOS R6 with lower specifications and a lower price.

Most of us believe that lenses are more important than camera bodies and Canon photographers, who choose to buy a Canon mirrorless camera, may well want to keep their ‘L’ series lenses to keep costs manageable and ease into the new model. Lenses for the Canon mirrorless range, although very good, are expensive. Both current Canon mirrorless cameras, I believe, come with adaptors allowing EF lenses to be used so I imagine the EOS R5 will too.

I’m looking forward to seeing it.

I walked into Bangor yesterday and saw that children had attached artwork to the railings of the Presbyterian Church to say thank you to front-line workers during the Corona virus pandemic. As well as images of Doctors and Nurses and NHS staff, Taxi Drivers, Police Officers, Pharmacists, Supermarket Workers and others were depicted. It was good to see.

Bangor, Northern Ireland, 29 May, 2020: Drawings and art from children thanking frontline workers in the Coronavirus crisis attached to the railings of First Bangor Presbyterian Church, Northern Ireland

The new normal?

Yesterday I walked into Bangor town centre. There’s a lot more traffic on the roads than even a week ago although most shops are still closed. There are more cyclists than usual, many on shiny new bikes and some of them looking a bit shaky.

At the marina there was some activity with boats being tidied in anticipation of the restrictions being eased. We haven’t been given much freedom back so far but people sense the end of the lock down approaching and are moving towards whatever the new normal will bring.

Conversation is turning to life after the pandemic and what the future holds. There is insecurity over employment and Brexit, as always, looms in the background. Whether for or against, it adds to the uncertainty.

There is much discussion about when and how the lock down can be eased. Although it reduced the spread of the virus we have yet to see the full cost with domestic violence, mental health issues and possibly the murder rate increasing.

Many with serious medical conditions have had treatments and procedures postponed or cancelled because of the pandemic. Attendances at Accident and Emergency Departments and referrals for specialist consultations have dropped away as people avoided hospitals. Some dental treatments have been put on hold. There will be a lot of catching up to be done.

With the gyms still closed I’m doing more walking than usual. Proper walking, tramping the roads rather than tramping on a treadmill. I used to walk the roads every day but reduced the road walking when I joined the gym. I’d forgotten walking roads is harder on the feet than walking on a sprung treadmill but it is more interesting. I see people on bikes, jogging and walking and most greet me. When I’m on the treadmill all I can see is the car park.

As far as photography goes I’m constantly on the lookout while I’m out walking and if that doesn’t work there’s always the garden.

I’ve been meaning to get a decent photograph of First Bangor Presbyterian Church for some time. There’s a striking willow tree at the front but it’s not quite in leaf yet. Maybe in a month or so and with a wider lens.

While on churches – I noticed this sign for Drive in services. They are possibly common enough in some places but this is the first one I’ve seen.

I’m left wondering if face masks and drive in church services will be part of the new normal.

Drive in Church Service sign, Bangor — Drive in Church Service sign

Hair Dye and DIY

The lockdown continues and with hair salons being closed and no one having any idea when they might open Rosemarie took things into her own hands and got some hair dye.

Surprisingly, as I assisted, things went well and when I wasn’t assisting I took some photographs. Stock sites need more pictures of people dying their hair.

With hair rinsed and dried she did her own makeup.

With hair dressing salons closed during the Corona Virus crisis a woman dyes her hair at home — Home hair dying

On a more glamorous note. In an article about the supermodel Naomi Campbell in DP Review yesterday we are told she did her own hair and makeup and took her own photograph with an iPhone for the cover of Essence magazine. The Coronavirus lock down prevented the magazine from dispatching the team that had been booked. You could say it was Supermodel DIY.

Naomi Campbell was one of the super, supermodels of the nineties along with Linda Evangelista and Christie Turlington. They were as famous as film stars and pop singers. Evangelista is remembered for the quote “We don’t wake up for less than $10,000 a day.”

Naomi Campbell is not alone. Actor Robert Patinson is on the cover of GQ Magazine having also photographed himself although he used a DSLR rather than a phone. I’ve no idea how much he gets paid for waking up but he looked like he just got out of bed. Somebody said that’s the look many aspire to nowadays.

Some photographers expressed concern about celebrities taking their own pictures. If supermodels can still demand $10,000 for getting out of bed they shouldn’t worry.

Deep Water

This site is built or published (I’m not sure which) using WordPress. Recently I’ve started to host images on Smugmug. As well as providing me with another copy for backup it will be quicker and easier to get photographs on the site as I can upload directly from Lightroom.

While playing around to learn how my new workflow will actually function I decided to embed a gallery on my Introduction page. I didn’t expect any problems as I’ve embedded galleries in WordPress before, although not with Smugmug.

I got it up and running with very little trouble and left it to go in search of my image for the day (a topic for a future post).

Later I brought the site up on my iPad and no gallery. I checked the computer and it was working as it should. iPad again and still no gallery. I checked it on an Android tablet I have and again no gallery. It was late so I left it for the day.

Next morning the gallery was still showing on my computer, using Chrome. I tried Microsoft Edge but no gallery.

Not knowing if the problem was with Smugmug, my computer, or some issue with browsers but suspecting it may well be down to me, and completely at a loss, I stepped back. I’ve been here before. You don’t understand why something doesn’t work but continue to tinker in the hope you’ll find a solution by trial and error. Often you quickly find yourself in deep water and discover that you’ve created problems more difficult to fix than the situation you originally faced. I wimped out, I emailed Smugmug help.

Praise where praise is due. Within 30 minutes I had a response, an answer. The problem, as I suspected and everyone reading this will know, was me.

While working on the galleries I had kept them all private. I had copied (Smugmug talks about collecting) the images I wanted to display to another gallery, made this public and embedded it in the page. What I hadn’t even thought of was the images, in their original galleries, were still private. I made the various galleries public and success, gallery displaying. It had worked correctly on my computer because I was logged in on another browser window.

I’m happy to have got it working but I’ve been left with the vaguely uneasy feeling that a few years ago I would’ve seen where the problem lay fairly quickly and not had to contact the Help Desk. On a more positive note I realise as I get older I’m prepared to ask for help sooner.

Anyway crisis over.

You will see gradual changes in the site as I move some images from WordPress over to Smugmug. Hopefully there will not be too many problems.

In the Garden

Lock down continues as does the good weather and fortunately the weather has been very good with near constant sunshine. People are usually happier when the sun is out and Its a lot nicer going for walks when its sunny.

I’ve been spending a lot of time in the garden generally tidying things up and doing those little jobs that you don’t seem to get round to in normal times. A few years ago we removed the flowerbeds and now just have grass. We place pots around the garden with plants or flowers in them to add some interest and colour. With no flowerbeds gardening is a lot less work and you can easily change the look of the place by moving the plant pots around. It was all my wife, Rosemarie’s idea. She’s in charge of the garden.

Plant pots on grass. Garden in the Spring — Plant pots being prepared on grass.

We have a garden shed and a summer house and some wooden fences all needing stained. I’ve given the garden shed and the back fence a coat so far. They’ll need a second coat. The summerhouse and two other fences have yet to be done. The summer house is really just an upmarket shed but it has lots glass and a small porch area with handrails which make it time consuming to stain. I’ve been told that painting is therapeutic but I’m not convinced.

I suppose its sensible to get all the work done during lock down have free time when its lifted and we can get out and about again.

Our neighbour has a blossom tree in their back garden and in the morning when I wake I pull the curtains to see what the day is like. I have a clear view of the tree and in March I see the buds coming out. In no time at all it’s blossoming and that’s when I feel Spring has arrived. I’ve been spending some time photographing the petals in the garden and on the summerhouse.

It was reported on the news this evening that the restrictions were to last another three weeks but there is talk now of an exit strategy so things are looking up.

Ben at the summerhouse — Ben at the summer house. Garden in the Spring

Cats and Haircuts

Recently on the Today programme there was a report about a tiger in New York Zoo that had been infected with Coronavirus by its keeper. The report said there was no evidence to suggest the virus could be transferred from cats, big or small, to humans but they quoted a vet as saying that cats should be kept indoors where possible.

The cat below is called Fluff. Fluff adopted us about five years ago and she’s now about six.

Fluff the cat. Fluff came to live with us about five years ago and is about six years old. She has a very long, thick fur that gets badly matted when she loses her winter coat in the Spring. Its impossible to comb out so she goes to the Vet for a haircut. This is why she looks a bit ragged.

She looks a bit bedraggled in the photograph. This is partly down to prowling in ditches and through hedges but mainly because she’s recently had a haircut. She has a very long, thick coat and has difficulty grooming. I comb her but when she starts to lose her winter coat the fur gets badly matted and is impossible to deal with.

This means every year, in early Spring, a trip to the Vet, a general anaesthetic and a trim. Just now she’s got a Mohican. You can’t see in this photograph but both sides have been shaved.

Jump forward to a few days ago and as we were eating lunch a woman walked past. My wife remarked that people’s hair was getting untidy as hairdressing salons were closed because of the lock down. I hadn’t noticed, I haven’t got much hair anyway. It’s funny how your mind makes connections. As soon as she said this I thought – they wouldn’t need an anaesthetic like the cat did to get a hair do.

My wife’s comment on untidy hair was enough for the Coronavirus conversation to kick off. It’s on everyone’s mind. How long will the lock down last? How long will it take to develop a vaccine? When will people be able to get tested for antibodies? How long will it take to get back to normal?

We’re into the third week of lock down and no one knows how long it may last. The priority now is to stop the spread of the virus and keep people safe. It is possible that we will have to live with this illness, perhaps for many months – eighteen months is often mentioned – until a vaccine can be developed. We can’t stay in lock down for that long.

Empty Bloomfield Shopping Centre car park

The people in the NHS are doing a fantastic job but they’re running at full throttle and we can’t ask them to do that indefinitely.

At first I couldn’t believe what was happening, it felt unreal, it still does sometimes. There were many like me. Now as it sinks in, people are starting to talk about the economic carnage and the problems that will follow as we try to move back towards some normality.

The medical emergency will have a knock on effect for years because many treatments have been postponed as medical staff deal with the pandemic and waiting times for some treatments were lengthy prior to the Coronavirus outbreak.

Who knows how long the economic emergency will last? The billions spent to support us all during the pandemic will have to be repaid. Factories, retailers, education, the NHS, the economy in general will not recover overnight.

Stay safe.

It will get worse, then it will get better

We’ve been in lockdown now for nearly two weeks because of Coronavirus or Covid 19. We were told it would be for three weeks but now there are mutterings of it lasting much longer, possibly until the end of April. They say this will save lives so no argument from me.

I heard an epidemiologist on Radio 4 recently talking about the pandemic. He said it would get worse and then it would get better. Simple and to the point. His words had the ring of truth.

Few will have seen anything like this in their lifetime. I’m in my sixties and I certainly haven’t. I stare in disbelief at closed shops, closed schools, the queues at supermarkets and people wearing masks. And it’s happening everywhere. It feels like the world is closing down.

I’m practising social distancing as are most people. It is amazing how quickly talking to someone from six feet away has become the norm. People avoid getting too close to each other when passing on the pavement.

Some Health professionals are putting their lives on the line every shift they do. Some have died. Essential workers, many doing, what were previously classed as everyday jobs, expose themselves to danger by continuing to work and are now spoken of with a new respect.

Using a thermometer — A woman taking her own temperature

I’ve become very selective where I get my news. Online forums are overflowing with advice on how to deal with the pandemic. Many keyboard warriors have moved from Brexit and climate change to Coronavirus. I have little interest in politics but It quickly becomes obvious that many opinions on what action should be taken to fight the pandemic are coloured by dislike of those currently in power rather than any basis in fact.

The coffee shops are all closed or at least the ones I go to and I’m working on learning how to make a decent cup of coffee. Lesson one is that it tastes much better when someone else makes it.

On the photographic front things are quiet. I go out most days for a walk as my daily exercise and of course bring a camera. Having said that most images are from around the house and garden as my routes for walking don’t offer many opportunities for photography.

I think I need new routes.

January

It often rains in January and and its usually cold. I think I’ve said it before that I don’t remember anyone ever telling me they came to Ireland for the weather.

Last week I had an appointment in Belfast and with some time to kill had a walk around the city centre. It was raining – that light drizzle that soaks you without you realising it until its too late. There were more people about than I expected on such a day, perhaps drawn by the New Year sales

What I was surprised to see were people, obviously visitors to the city, posing and and taking pictures at the Big Fish.

Shortly afterwards I came across a walking tour preparing to set off from the city hall and I saw another couple of walking tours as I wandered around.

Belfast suffered badly during “The troubles” with few tourists in the height of summer, never mind January. To people that remember those times these visitors bring a sense of normality.

Good to see.