Saturday, March 29, 2008

Film vs. Digital...

I'm an amateur photographer and have I must admit, three cameras and more lenses, filters and accessories than you can poke a stick at. They all even have a special home - a photographers backpack (Expedition 5) made by a company called Tamrac in California. I tell ya - these backpacks are the dogs b*llocks as they would say in the U.K! Waterproof zips, pockets everywhere and super well made.
http://www.tamrac.com/frame_exp.htm

Anyway, I changed systems from Pentax to Canon when I was in Iraq as the lens and flash back-up was just light years ahead with the latter brand, and remember the day that I got my Canon EOS 1V 35mm film camera delivered to Taji APO (digital was only just starting to be taken seriously on the SLR scene).

http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Cameras/SLR/EOS_1V/index.asp


To feel the heft and shape of that beautiful beast... This was the camera the pro's used and boy it felt like it. All the National Geographics I had read usually had a small note on the last page about the photographer and his/her work and all those spectactular pics - they were made on either a Canon or a Nikon.

Later that same year I splurged out on a Canon EOS 20D digital SLR and man that was one smick picture making machine too. I've since sold that and upgraded to a Canon EOS5D full-frame (equivalent 35mm) so all my lenses will work on both the flm and digital cameras with no lens effect.

http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Cameras/Digital_SLR/EOS_5D/index.asp


As a learning tool it is wonderful and I love being able to try techniques and get instant feedback - things like slow shutter speeds, fill-in flash, panning, shallow depth-of-field etc.,etc.

The only gripe I have with digital is well, the fact that it's digital. When I take a roll of Kodak Elitechrome (I love this film - so punchy yet still colour faithful) and get it developed, that's it. Finished. I look at those images on my slide projector and see those saturated colours and whoa.....
But with digital, if you really want Elitechrome/Fujichrome results and not some washed out Jpeg image, you have to shoot in R.A.W. and then post-process the file. So you end up spending hours on the computer manipulating the image in Photoshop to get something like what Kodak/Fuji gives you straight out the box. Hmmm....

Now although I'll usually wait until the hullaballoo has settled on new technology (I.E. the VHS vs. Beta or Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD debates) I'm not a luddite and just lurv my EOS5D, but at some point I want pictures that I can show people. With digital you just seem to end up with a computer full of picfiles of various formats...

I don't get to spend nearly as much time as I would really like picure taking but that's another matter. I just had a five day break over Easter in Provence putting several rolls through the EOS 1V and enjoyed every minute.
I'm torn. It's like being married to a hot babe but having a love affair with a flashy newcomer. Like choosing between the elegant seduction of Sharon Stone or the raw energy of a ripped Natalie Portman.

Somebody help me!

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Driving with George Costanza and Crazy Joe Davola

The popular 90's sitcom Seinfeld had a couple of great characters and I swear their spiritual descendants are alive and well here on French and Swiss roads!

I've just come back from five days driving in the South of France and was reminded of a couple of amusing and not so outlandish stereotypes as I shared the highways and byways with the neighbours and the locals.

French drivers are like George Costanza. Apparently normal people most of the time but when they get behind the wheel, boy they're on a mission! Driving like men and women possessed, happily ignoring world class scenery that other people in the world save years to see as they zoom on their way to 'get somewhere'. Charging hard and hanging on your bumper even while climbing up the steepest of mountains, it's like having an Me-109 you can't shake sitting right on your six!


Meanwhile, drivers from the nearby Swiss Canton of Vaud remind me of the 'Crazy Joe Davola's' of this world. These folks just east of Geneva are from the money belt and between you and me I'm not sure they're entirely stable! Maybe that's what comes from being rich and Swiss and getting your way a little too much eh? These folks are just a wee bit too aggressive and should be taking their medication.. Elaine?!
So whilst your average red-blooded Frenchman or woman is like a tenacious fighter pilot bobbing around in your rear view mirror, anyone sporting license plates with those fateful initials VD (Vaud), always gives me the impression that any minute now they're gonna tie on that rising-sun headband and yell Banzai as their propellor chews off my tail!


Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Going Postal

The last couple of weeks has been really, really, busy. Our fearless leader has been giving us one urgent (?) job on top of another with tight deadlines to go with it and yours truly has been putting in the big hours trying to plough through it all!
After several weeks doing that I reckoned it was time to chill out before I reached my 'going postal' point and started ruminating on the relative merits of putting TNT vs. Nitro in the office coffee machine...

So I took a days annual leave on Friday to have a three day weekend and drive the couple of hours across to Lyon, the second largest city in France and home to amongst other things, several schools of fine cuisine, the silk trade, the home of the Lumiere brothers (inventors of the movie camera) and museum.



It was a nice time of year with unseasonably early spring-like weather. Lots of nice restaurants to eat delicious food (just dine where the locals do and avoid the tourist places with production-line meals on the main drags).

It also has lots of beautiful boutiques and huge sports shops since it is many times larger than the town where I live. They have one chain called 'The Old Camper' which has separate dedicated shops -one just for scuba, one just for mountaineering, one just for hiking and climbing boots, etc., etc. Awesome.

I managed to get some outdoor gear at a serious end of season discount. I bought a great North Face thermal jacket to go inside my Goretex shell (after my chilly weekend in the Jura) at a really good price as well as some Swedish hiking trousers by Fjall Raven (Snow Fox in Swedish).

http://www.fjallraven.org/Products/Product.asp?ItemId=101&SectionName=yes&Menu=menu1&SectionId=3785


On Sunday I went up to the Fourviere cathedral on the top of the hill and from there you have a stunning view all the way to the Alps on a clear day.


Lots of cobblestoned streets, laid back people (tourist season and the inevitable coach loads of visitors are still a few months away), charming buildings and walks along the river in the old town. Wonderful.


Back to work on Monday and feeling very Zen again...



With apologies and all due respect to his Holiness the Dalai Lama

Monday, March 10, 2008

Hiking in the Jura

Hello again.

Sundays are usually a day for me to get out and about and if you are an outdoor lover then you are spoiled for choice in this part of the world.

I went for a hike on the Swiss side of the Jura mountains just thirty minutes from Geneva. These are another mountain chain separate from the Alps that form part of the frontier here. There are rolling pastures, pine forests, high mountains, x-country and alpine skiing, little villages. It is great and the more adventurous can even connect up a village or possibly two depending on your stamina in a weekend walk.
It was cool and dry back down in the valley but once yet get above 900m, you are in the snowline. This pic was taken just outside a 'buvette' where you can get solid alpine fare and hot herb wine for a well-deserved lunch.
Like most mountain areas, it has it's own micro-climate too. This area was really cold on this day and tends to be a lot colder than other areas in general.
It reminds me of a fascinating place I heard about once in New Hampshire called Mt. Washington. It is not a particularly high mountain by world standards, but has a micro-climate which can have intense (and very unpredictable) weather. Sunny one hour and then a raging blizzard can hit the next. They have guide ropes around the observatory as you can be within feet of the building in a snowstorm and not even see it (and freeze to death in the same distance from your kitchen to the front door!). http://www.mountwashington.org/. Amazing!
There are areas where kids slide down the slopes on toboggans and others for hikers and skiers. Easy trails near the village(s) for the Mom, Dad and the kids day walkers and more challenging treks for the mountain hikers/wilderness lovers. There is something for everyone.
Gotta get me a mountain bike for summer....!

Winter wonderland

Hey all.

Thought I'd try and attach some video I took with my little Kodak digital.

It's a neat little camera - I bought one from Amazon.com when I was in the sandbox and it manages to take very acceptable snapshots in even some of the most trying conditions. It's got this video mode too which, depending on the size of the memory card, can record several minutes of footage.

This is some movie I shot coming down the mountain and Samoens ski station. A top day.

Saturday, March 01, 2008

Free Trade?

I was very disappointed to see the reaction to the U.S. Air Force decision to replace its aging tanker fleet with aircraft supplied by the EADS/Northrop-Grumman venture.

EADS/Northrop-Grumman only competed on the basis that it would be a 'free and fair' competition where the best product with the best price won. But judging from the reactions from some in Congress as they howled in protest, in their minds it was a foregone conclusion that Boeing would/should get the deal and that the idea of someone else actually winning a supposedly open bid not only never crossed their minds but was unacceptable.

Boeing workers protested "American workers equals best tankers" and "Our military deserves the best" which implied (and not very nicely) that any product made in technologically advanced countries such as Europe, Japan, U.K. etc., were somehow second rate. But if it was the U.S. Air-Force that awarded EADS/Northrop the tender based on them meeting or exceeding a very strict award specification they themselves had written, then surely it was that same military who decided they had found the best?

They said that Boeing had been ‘building refuelling tankers for 75 years’. True. But complacency in any company breeds laziness and ultimately contempt and once that sets in it is time to pull the rug out from under and go back to a time honoured (and also American) value of having to chase that (taxpayers) buck instead of having it handed it to them on a plate.

Wichita's Rep. Tiahrt said “I cannot believe we would create French jobs in place of Kansas jobs”. Well apart from the very unattractive anti-French sentiment, EADS/Northrop is set to create thousands of jobs in the to be contstructed assembly plant in Alabama and the Governor of that state is as happy as a clam. Besides, these are highly sophisticated aerospace products and there are only a handful of companies (and countries) in the world that have the knowledge, industrial base and money to make them.

Boeing lost the original contract because of illegal/unethical activity. Two Boeing executives went to gaol (jail) and the Chief Executive resigned because of corrupt contracting behaviour which did nothing to dispel oft-stated claims of a sometimes too-cosy relationship.

Perhaps it is a good thing that EADS/Northrop-Grumman won. The U.S. Air Force got a good product that delivers more fuel, more cargo and more passengers than its rival and the incumbent will spend more time, money and effort on the shop floor instead of K street next time.

The days of the million dollar monkey wrench charged to the long suffering tax payer could be coming to an end…