I've attended the Rutland BirdFair a few times, as it's relatively local. I've seen & heard many amazing people, and learned a few tips/tricks along the way. I've also been to the venue a few times when the Fair isn't there. It's at Rutland Water, the site of the first Osprey colony in England.
I understand. Rutland Water is also the largest man-made stretch of water in the UK. As well as holding a lot of water for the Eastern part of the UK, it also has sailing and fishing on its banks.
The BirdFair has a collection of sellers of Bird watching related companies. Tourism, equipment and information make up lots of the traders.
One of the companies was WildWings. They sell ornithological trips around the world. Two of their trips have Israel as a destination. In late March/early April they contribute to the Eilat Birds Festival. This is hosted by a few of Israel's best bird watchers, and they had a presentation during the show, and a slide show one evening, with nibbles.
I bought a seat on the trip the following year after watching 2 successive years of talks. This was to take place in March 2013.
My parents had gone to Eilat in around 1981 with some family members, and regaled me of how they had speedboats with armed men out in the Red Sea to stop errant swimmers, and should you walk too close to the Jordanian border, a few men with machine-gun equipped jeep would usher you back towards the newly opened hotels on the shore.
We had visited Aqaba, Jordan in 2005 on a day trip to Petra from Sharm-El-Sheikh, and the road from the airport into town had great views of Eilat.
Anyway, I'd bought lots of shirts and clothing for the trip If I was going into the desert, I'd do my darnedest not to sweat like crazy. The flight was booked, I'd got a big carry-on bag full of camera equipment. Flash guns, remote controllers, zoom lenses, a travel tripod, spare body. On days off I was hoping to capture the markets, the architecture, the history of Eilat..
I flew with El-Al Airlines from Heathrow. As expected my carry on luggage was scrutinised by the ground crew. Every item was swabbed by a very efficient, and friendly guy at the boarding gate. Even the insides of the pockets in the bag were gone through. As I got on the plane, I was handed a bag of rechargeable batteries I had put in my main suitcase now in the hold.
This was a great start to a holiday. Sadly my experiences with airport staff would be soured by the crew at Tel-Aviv airport.. but thats for another post..
Monday, 9 February 2015
My first post in aaaaages!
It seems I've not posted to this blog for 4 years or so. A lot of water has passed under this bridge in that time. I've been on a few holidays, ticked numerous items off a bucketlist if I'd really drawn one up, and thought... This would be SO great as a blog post!
No promises, but I hope to have a try at recalling some of them.
No promises, but I hope to have a try at recalling some of them.
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
In search of the elusive Merlins pt1
My grandfather, George Parkin worked man and boy at Rolls Royce in Derby. It's been a long term wish to find out more about his time there, and what they got up to in the pre-War and WWII periods. We know he worked on the Schneider Trophy winning engines, and the Merlins that went into the Spitfires, Hurricanes, Lancasters and later a few Spanish built Bf109s for the Spanish airforce.
A Google search threw up a few references in an archive held at the Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge. I combined a visit there with an appointment at the Union.
In a set of papers in the archive left by Air Commodore Francis Banks, who worked on combustion engines all his life, I found a few references. This is a summary of my findings so far.
The testing of the engines would go on until late into the night on a regular basis. It was, of course noisy and many things were deployed to counter-act the effects of such prolonged noise and smog.
A document on the Evolution of Schneider Engines by FR Banks goes into details about his experiences.
At certain power levels of the engine, the sound is so intense, and the walls so bare it was able to bounce the sounds off and intensify them even greater, that the body would literally shake. He recalls that as well as the bone shaking, the assault on his eardrums was so massive, that after just 30 minutes, he would be effectively deafened for 24 hours, and still hear buzzing in his head after 2 days!
Of course nowadays, one would not dream of using cotton wool as ear protection. Apparently back then, it seemed normal. FR Banks noted that such protection was useless, and full ear defenders were absolutely necessary. He doesn't note if the effects noted above persisted after use of the defenders. If so, I'd hate to think what effects not wearing the tins would have had.
To get Air Ministry funding for the development of the engine, Rolls Royce had to prove they could get an engine to run for an hour at full throttle, above a certain RPM, and a certain Bhp. These figures varied on what class of engine, and the intentions sought in development. I later learned that Rolls were a reluctant, late entrant into the game, but more on that later.
Many a time, eager, hopeful eyes were checking their watches as timings for tests approached 50 minutes. One one occasion, after a running time of 58 minutes, the assembled crew got showered by hot aluminium rivets as the carburettor split open. Crank shaft failure was blamed, and things weren't looking good, until it was found that the particular shaft had already totted up nearly 5 hours of running.
As well as the ear defenders, the crew would drink lots of mugs of milk. This had the effect of counteracting the exhaust fumes and poisonous gases. No clues are given if this was mixed with anything else, like coffee.
The engine has to start at between 1000 and 1500 rpm, until it warms up, it then has to boost its speed, and then manage to run unhindered for an hour. As I said earlier, the ranges depended upon the eventual class and development of the engine. To pass it's tests, the "R" had to run at 3200rpm and give 2000bhp.
In the end, the engines managed to do 2350 bhp,and weighed in at 1630 lbs which worked out at 11oz per bhp, or 200 bhp per cylinder.
You can tell these days are before the Arab world went into revolt over the perceived cheap price of gasoline. The "R" burned 3 gallons per minute, resulting in 200 gallons per test. It's written that they needed 80 gallons just to get any circulation in the petrol system at all.
FR Banks concludes with a few choice words about the predominantly young test crew at Roll Royce, and their work...
I have only scratched the surface on what the Archives held, I feel.
A Google search threw up a few references in an archive held at the Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge. I combined a visit there with an appointment at the Union.
In a set of papers in the archive left by Air Commodore Francis Banks, who worked on combustion engines all his life, I found a few references. This is a summary of my findings so far.
The testing of the engines would go on until late into the night on a regular basis. It was, of course noisy and many things were deployed to counter-act the effects of such prolonged noise and smog.
A document on the Evolution of Schneider Engines by FR Banks goes into details about his experiences.
At certain power levels of the engine, the sound is so intense, and the walls so bare it was able to bounce the sounds off and intensify them even greater, that the body would literally shake. He recalls that as well as the bone shaking, the assault on his eardrums was so massive, that after just 30 minutes, he would be effectively deafened for 24 hours, and still hear buzzing in his head after 2 days!
Of course nowadays, one would not dream of using cotton wool as ear protection. Apparently back then, it seemed normal. FR Banks noted that such protection was useless, and full ear defenders were absolutely necessary. He doesn't note if the effects noted above persisted after use of the defenders. If so, I'd hate to think what effects not wearing the tins would have had.
To get Air Ministry funding for the development of the engine, Rolls Royce had to prove they could get an engine to run for an hour at full throttle, above a certain RPM, and a certain Bhp. These figures varied on what class of engine, and the intentions sought in development. I later learned that Rolls were a reluctant, late entrant into the game, but more on that later.
Many a time, eager, hopeful eyes were checking their watches as timings for tests approached 50 minutes. One one occasion, after a running time of 58 minutes, the assembled crew got showered by hot aluminium rivets as the carburettor split open. Crank shaft failure was blamed, and things weren't looking good, until it was found that the particular shaft had already totted up nearly 5 hours of running.
As well as the ear defenders, the crew would drink lots of mugs of milk. This had the effect of counteracting the exhaust fumes and poisonous gases. No clues are given if this was mixed with anything else, like coffee.
The engine has to start at between 1000 and 1500 rpm, until it warms up, it then has to boost its speed, and then manage to run unhindered for an hour. As I said earlier, the ranges depended upon the eventual class and development of the engine. To pass it's tests, the "R" had to run at 3200rpm and give 2000bhp.
In the end, the engines managed to do 2350 bhp,and weighed in at 1630 lbs which worked out at 11oz per bhp, or 200 bhp per cylinder.
You can tell these days are before the Arab world went into revolt over the perceived cheap price of gasoline. The "R" burned 3 gallons per minute, resulting in 200 gallons per test. It's written that they needed 80 gallons just to get any circulation in the petrol system at all.
FR Banks concludes with a few choice words about the predominantly young test crew at Roll Royce, and their work...
The cost of the "R" is very high, but the knowledge gained can be used immediately for the betterment of standard aero engines. Potentially this puts Rolls Royce and this country 5 years ahead of everyone else, and so it's cheap at the price.!
A finer crowd to work with would be difficult to find.
I have only scratched the surface on what the Archives held, I feel.
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
Tackling the Studio virginity pt the second
Once I'd stopped the brain racing towards jello-like consistency, and getting pretty pleased with my results, I recalled an idea I'd had to do as and when.
Former Buffy/Angel star Charisma Carpenter did Maxim magazine a few years before she did Playboy. In my opinion, the Maxim shoot was faaaaarrrr better than Hef's mag shoot. Anyway, one of those shots that seemed to get reposted in a Carpenter post in these online image boards is of dear Charisma on her front in fishnets.. as seen above :) I gave Katie a brief description, but sadly, no fishnets, but she'd see what she had.
As things turned out, the alternative worked out better! hahaha!
Working within the limits of the situation, we got another great, IMO, set of shots. Ok so there was the odd problem with flash stand legs, and if I moved too far to either side, I'd lose the background sheet.
So I got 'bored' of her writhing around on the floor. I got a few in the same outfit, but on her feet.
More to come soon!
Tackling my Studio Virginity
Google has it's uses!
A perusal through various blogs came up with assorted references to my Focus discovery, including blogs I check almost daily. One suggested that Katie had been spotted out on the town, with a sugar daddy! (All we know, he's not called The Stig, he's Lembit Opik!)
After a few false starts, including missing tutorials with Flash dealers, and a tutorial whilst we were on Holiday, 'It came to pass', as Lurcio said in Up Pompeii! that Katie was doing a shoot in darkest Northampton. As I have been known to go there in search of autographs and posters, I had a rough idea where it was. I arranged to drop off a fiscal deposit whilst returning from the autograph show.
I decided to combine the trip down with a visit to the Shuttleworth Collection. a collection of vintage planes and cars that I had heard about years ago. It was a fab time, which could bring other threads..
Eventually, I decided to make tracks, and slowly made my way to Greater Milton Keynes. The autograph show used to be held at Middleton Hall, so I went back to see how it looked sans-cubicles etc. Very strange. They were hosting a Garden Improvement show, with outdoor hot-tubs, and Alien Vs Predator figures made from metal wire.
Eventually, after passing the location I think 5 times, I plucked up the courage.. and called in.
Katie was shooting with another guy, and the organiser, Alan, who operates out of Saracen House Studios via Imagesexposed met me at the door, and showed me round the areas not in use.
Katie was soon finished with my predecessor, and I was introduced, and it was explained just how much of a newbie I was to shoot like this. Katie gave me a few ideas of outfits she had with her. I knew to what level the shoot was, and for a first time, was fine with it! LOL!
The studio had 3 fixed sets, with other areas available if you gave notice, or didn't mind waiting whilst stuff was shifted about. I was quite happy with basic white background sheet. 4 flash units linked to a zapper on my camera. Bowens gear, of course hahaha!
That's my first shot of the shoot!
It was great to finally use some proper gear. Flashes that would be consistent (I've had a few problems with flashes either overblowing it, or not registering) and a model who can give her attention just to me, rather than divide it between 20-30 horndogs at a camera geek show, and a demonstrator. The poses were I guess basic to start with. Classic over the shoulder, raised arm, look away etc..but heck, for a first time, you won't find me complaining! After a few poses, some of which are in the Flickr feed, and others are locked away in another online album... mwah ha ha! LOL We decided to change outfits.
Of course changing rooms are off limits to camera geeks, so had to rely on Katie's list of outfits. She picked a red dress.
A perusal through various blogs came up with assorted references to my Focus discovery, including blogs I check almost daily. One suggested that Katie had been spotted out on the town, with a sugar daddy! (All we know, he's not called The Stig, he's Lembit Opik!)
After a few false starts, including missing tutorials with Flash dealers, and a tutorial whilst we were on Holiday, 'It came to pass', as Lurcio said in Up Pompeii! that Katie was doing a shoot in darkest Northampton. As I have been known to go there in search of autographs and posters, I had a rough idea where it was. I arranged to drop off a fiscal deposit whilst returning from the autograph show.
I decided to combine the trip down with a visit to the Shuttleworth Collection. a collection of vintage planes and cars that I had heard about years ago. It was a fab time, which could bring other threads..
Eventually, I decided to make tracks, and slowly made my way to Greater Milton Keynes. The autograph show used to be held at Middleton Hall, so I went back to see how it looked sans-cubicles etc. Very strange. They were hosting a Garden Improvement show, with outdoor hot-tubs, and Alien Vs Predator figures made from metal wire.
Eventually, after passing the location I think 5 times, I plucked up the courage.. and called in.
Katie was shooting with another guy, and the organiser, Alan, who operates out of Saracen House Studios via Imagesexposed met me at the door, and showed me round the areas not in use.
Katie was soon finished with my predecessor, and I was introduced, and it was explained just how much of a newbie I was to shoot like this. Katie gave me a few ideas of outfits she had with her. I knew to what level the shoot was, and for a first time, was fine with it! LOL!
The studio had 3 fixed sets, with other areas available if you gave notice, or didn't mind waiting whilst stuff was shifted about. I was quite happy with basic white background sheet. 4 flash units linked to a zapper on my camera. Bowens gear, of course hahaha!
That's my first shot of the shoot!
It was great to finally use some proper gear. Flashes that would be consistent (I've had a few problems with flashes either overblowing it, or not registering) and a model who can give her attention just to me, rather than divide it between 20-30 horndogs at a camera geek show, and a demonstrator. The poses were I guess basic to start with. Classic over the shoulder, raised arm, look away etc..but heck, for a first time, you won't find me complaining! After a few poses, some of which are in the Flickr feed, and others are locked away in another online album... mwah ha ha! LOL We decided to change outfits.
Of course changing rooms are off limits to camera geeks, so had to rely on Katie's list of outfits. She picked a red dress.
Focus-on-Imaging and its benefits pt2
That night, I checked Flickr.com to see if/who anyone had taken any shots of so far at the show. It seemed I'd missed a cracker! Lastolite had this gal called Katie Green on their stand. The gal had modelled for Ultimo and Wonderbra and had been in the papers as Lembit Opik's occasional army candy. I must have walked past the Lastolite stasnd in my endeavours to seek out Bowens, and either got timings wrong, or blinkered! How could I be so stupid!
I remedied this mistake next day, whilst getting a new flash, and some other stuff like presents and whatever..
I'd taken my 400D and my 70-350 zoom lens. Thought that should do nicely considering the distances involved. You can't get too many close-ups at 20 yds with a 28-55 mm lens.
Found the Lastolite stand, which was next to the Lowepro camera bag stand. Lowepro have in various forms, got good business from me, either in direct buying of bags, or bags being given with mag subscriptions.
There was a scrum at the Lastolite stand, which was positioned right in front of one of the two entrances to the show. Provided you came in that door, you couldn't miss it. I missed it, obviously..! I forget if we were just midway through a talk. Anyway, I took up a position, and when the situation allowed, shot away.
It wasn't a total free-for-all. There was someone talking through various things during the day, some from Lastolite, others, from companies sharing the Lastolite stand, and a few pro-photographers demonstrating lighting setups using Lastolite gear, and the handheld meter a guy had been demonstrating earlier..
See! I do remember things besides Katie being on duty! LOL!
I also recall the frustration the demonstrators had with folks using Nikon gear. Seems if you set a Nikon to a particular flash cycle, it set their flashes off too. Boy did they get peeved at inopportune flashes! I felt sorry really, because they had limited battery power for the day on their system, and if the flashes did dry up, no shooting Katie...
I soon found the folly I had made by not packing the standard 28-55 lens. Despite the distance between the barrier and the focus of attention.. my 70-350 lens would not allow me to get a full length shot of the gal! Being a family show, Katie's attire consisted of dresses more than other outfits, and I wanted to get at least a few long shots. I had to make do with crop shots...
I know, I suffer, don't I!
I remedied this mistake next day, whilst getting a new flash, and some other stuff like presents and whatever..
I'd taken my 400D and my 70-350 zoom lens. Thought that should do nicely considering the distances involved. You can't get too many close-ups at 20 yds with a 28-55 mm lens.
Found the Lastolite stand, which was next to the Lowepro camera bag stand. Lowepro have in various forms, got good business from me, either in direct buying of bags, or bags being given with mag subscriptions.
There was a scrum at the Lastolite stand, which was positioned right in front of one of the two entrances to the show. Provided you came in that door, you couldn't miss it. I missed it, obviously..! I forget if we were just midway through a talk. Anyway, I took up a position, and when the situation allowed, shot away.
It wasn't a total free-for-all. There was someone talking through various things during the day, some from Lastolite, others, from companies sharing the Lastolite stand, and a few pro-photographers demonstrating lighting setups using Lastolite gear, and the handheld meter a guy had been demonstrating earlier..
See! I do remember things besides Katie being on duty! LOL!
I also recall the frustration the demonstrators had with folks using Nikon gear. Seems if you set a Nikon to a particular flash cycle, it set their flashes off too. Boy did they get peeved at inopportune flashes! I felt sorry really, because they had limited battery power for the day on their system, and if the flashes did dry up, no shooting Katie...
I soon found the folly I had made by not packing the standard 28-55 lens. Despite the distance between the barrier and the focus of attention.. my 70-350 lens would not allow me to get a full length shot of the gal! Being a family show, Katie's attire consisted of dresses more than other outfits, and I wanted to get at least a few long shots. I had to make do with crop shots...
I know, I suffer, don't I!
Focus-on-Imaging and its benefits pt1
Before I went and got cancer, I used to visit a photographic show at the NEC called Focus on Imaging. It's a show open to the public that features all sorts of different aspects of photography.
Photographic bodies like the Royal Photographic Society, SWPP have stands as well as companies selling equipment, storage media, display media, and the camnera gear itself. Seemingly it's quite important for folks like Nikon and canon, who usually have huge stands, and Nikon usually have lectures from their tech guys, professional photographers, and sometimes folks from the photography magazines.
Until 2009, I had done the show 3 times, the last 2 in consecutive years, during which I noticed just how dominant Digital photography was becoming. Fujifilm were almost non existent and even the mass producers of photopaper were becoming scarce, replaced by a few boutique specialist producers, and purveyors of both online and 'real' album manufacturers.
I was really pissed off that I couldn't get out of hospital until after the 2009 show. Not that if I had gone, I'd have been up to much, what with my short-range walking abilities, and need for plenty of sleep after walking oohhh 200 yards in a few minutes! I'd checked online when the show was on, and tried to work out when I'd stop getting the chemo, and then allow a few days to be neutropenic, and then they'd let me out.. and... and....
For those that don't know (ie probably everyone bar me, nowadays) neutropenic is the after effect of some chemo drugs that wipe out your white blood cell levels. Having B-Cell Lymphoma, and with it being in the bone marrow (and elsewhere) it was pretty important to kill off infected cells, and if that involved collateral damage, like healthy cells, tough titty. It can last for a few days post-chemo. Being in hospital having daily blood checks let the docs know how I was doing. God it seemed ages waiting for my white cell level to register.
Anyway, I missed it in 2009, and from the shots on Flickr.com, I missed a great time.
Some of the stands have promo-girls, and in 2010, there was even a promo-boy, who should have taken bravery pills by the bucket! LOL! xSome are there to hand out leaflets, others to be the muse of the photographer on the stand for the week.
During my visits in 07 and 08, I discovered a producer of flash and lighting systems called Bowens. They had a big stand, with a few sales bods hanging around, and one side had a lighting rig, and a big sign giving timings of demonstrations.
Jon Gray was the photographer and Jade Cartwright was the model. Jade had been in Page3 and done various other lads mags. His set-up was simple. Have a camera set up pointing at Jade, and talk through various poses, lighting rigs, how different gels have different effects, different cones on the flash concentrated the light in different ways, varying the flash on the back etc.. All the while he would take photos of Jade, and they'd be shown on big monitors, so Joe Public could see. Then we could give it a go ourselves.. using our camera, and his set-ups.
Oh that was fun. I've posted a few on my flickr feed here.
example...
That pose became known as the 'Pulp Fiction' look.
Anyway, this year I went back to the show, unsure if Jon or Jade were going to be there. I knew pro-photographer Andy Rouse was going, and talking on the Nikon stand. Until 3 years ago, there wasn't a hope in Hell that Andy would say anything remotely complimentary about Nikon. Nikon was the work of Beelzebub. Then he got given one of their new cameras, and.....as he demonstrated with shots of Rwandan gorillas taken at ISO levels a mere 400D Canon can only dream about, and a clarity I could then only dream about.. he converted. Andy was doing a talk, and publishing a new book of Tiger shots, to help his Tiger charity.
I entered the show and found the Nikon stand. Not hard as its black and yellow Kubrickian Monolith dominates the hall it's in. I then walked round the place to find the Bowens stand. No Jon, No Jade, and a very different, more ad hoc set-up. No microphones, no real area to demonstrate.. No attendance from me!
I walked around the place again, and watched a few other demos, better set-up than Bowens, and got some gear ideas.
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