Wednesday, I celebrated the St Catherine's midweek Eucharist, did some domestic errands, and not much else. We have warmer weather now, making life more comfortable and relaxing. I didn't get out and walk, as I should have done as curiosity led me to explore how best to take a good crisp close up photo of a piece of silver jewellery created by Clare from pieces of scrap silver fused together. She'd posted a rather blurry picture of her latest oeuvre on Instagram, using her phone, and I wondered if I could do better. It was less than easy, whatever camera or lens I used as I don't have a macro lens for this purpose. Although the closeup range of the cameras I have is fairly good, the ability to focus on a small object below 10cm reduces with a conventional lens.
I settled for using my prime lens on the Alpha 68. I need to make more of an effort to use it and learn more about what it does best. Without any zooming capacity I find it rather narrow and restrictive for anything except portraiture, but then the majority of my photo interest is landscapes, urban and rural. Adjusting lighting helped to bring up the detail, but pinpoint accuracy while focusing hand-held with manual or auto focus, was elusive. Another time I must try mounting the camera on a tripod, and use a timer setting to hold on to the optimum sharp focus and distance.
Thursday, the longest day, no locum duty, so I took a walk with my Lumix LX5 camera to capture progress on the Central Square development. The pavements immediately surrounding the the BBC HQ are still being laid. There's been some activity on the bus station site next door, although I am not sure that and ground breaking work is yet under way, presuming that foundations will need to be dug to support the frame of the apartment building above. The steel skeleton of the HMRC building is nearing completion. It's an impressive sight.
I then visited the CBS office to catch up on the current difficult situation confronting the business, and on my way out og town, called into John Lewis store, whose electronic clearance sale has started. Not that there's anything I really need, or could make a case for buying, but just for interest. I met another old geezer just like me, ogling the hardware on offer and contemplating a purchase he knew he didn't really need. An extravert Chinese lady accosted me with questions about some of the low cost bargains, as she and her husband needed a device to Skype her son in Hong Kong. She know nothing about why there was such a range of bargain prices or the reason for it. I wondered how she'd get on with a Windows 10 machine once she got it home and working. But, I helped her to make a decision on a bargain 15" HP device, before she started chatted up the sales assistant and obtaining a further mark down on the already discounted kit.
There was one very recent and expensive Chromebook on display which I fancied, but now that I've discovered I can get a replacement battery for my immaculate Toshiba Chromebook CR104, whose battery life now is a third of what it was when I bought it two years ago, it's hardly worth considering a replacement for my everyday workhorse. It's far superior to any Windows 10 machine. There were several really cheap Windows 10 netbooks on offer, which could be run more efficiently with Linux instead. Indeed I have a laptop which I consider converting every time it annoys me by taking an age to open and update. But again, it is worth the effort?
Thanks to a cloudless sky it's been light this evening almost until bedtime. Summer delight.
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