Warhammer: Tyranid Termagants

I bought a £6 box of Tyranid Termagrants for my son. I only had the starter pack of paints for Space Marines and that didn't come with a white primer paint so I used the skull white paint watered down as a primer and it didn't turn out that great. I'm relatively happy with my paint job but I had to mix a lot of the colours myself. Here is the result on my first Termagrant.

I'm using my iPhone camera to take the picture and not my good camera, which would show better detail. It gives you the idea anyway.

Shocking video of motorcyclist's own death

The most shocking thing I've seen for a while was published on the Internet yesterday. It was a video released by the Norfolk and Suffolk Constabulary, with the approval of the family, as part of a hard hitting road safety campaign. The crash lasts only seconds but clearly illustrates the deadly effect of combining speed on the part of the rider and driving without due care and attention on the part of the car driver. The fact that the rider was wearing a helmet cam allowed the world to see his death, which is a rather morbid thought. It allows us the benefit of hindsight not available to the rider and I can understand why the police have released it as a lesson to all of us road users. It was a very brave move on the part of the rider's parents and they should be applauded for having the strength of mind to allow their son's fatal crash footage to be used in such a manner. Shame on anyone posting silly YouTube comments on copies of the footage and arguing about who was to blame: have some respect you people!
At the moment of realisation, the rider can be heard shouting "No!" and this is the saddest and most shocking part of the clip for me. It makes me appreciate that life and death can be divided by the simplest of things and being human we are all very close to the line every day. The road is a dangerous place and we don't have the control over it our routine daily life allows us to presume. Seconds before the realisation, the rider and driver were both unaware of how their lives were to be forever changed by both of their road decisions. I try to drive in a cautious, defensive way but all too often I see drivers and riders showing no heed for safety. It worries me that my own children will one day be regular road users.

Food

I was looking forward to getting back home today so that I could cook one of my favourite meals for supper tonight. It was basmati rice, salad leaves, avocado, minted lamb kebabs, roasted vegetable cous cous, fried egg, sweetcorn, mint sauce and sweet chilli sauce. Mmmm yummy!

Warhammer 40000 Space Marines miniatures

Last day of my son's summer holidays. We had a few things to do today, including book him a birthday party for the end of the month. As a spontaneous activity we decided to visit a Games Workshop store my wife mentioned to me. It was one I wasn't aware of and when we got there found that it wasn't really a Games Workshop but they do stock GW models. My son is interested in some creature models they sell called Tyranids. However, we went in looking for something potentially to start a collection with. The man in the shop was very kind and suggested how to get started. Some stock was coming in on Thursday but it would be too late for my son by then, so to tide him over until Thursday the guy was kind enough to give my son a small model from a box of spares I think he had in the back of his shop. Amazing! We will have to wait to get the paints but the miniatures look cool, here they are in their raw form.

Last day of August 2014

This is the last day of August 2014. It seems weird somehow to think of the end of the month like that. As the last of something special when it was just another month. I managed to watch the second of the new Dr Who programmes tonight on BBC 3 and I thought it was a good one. There's still a little too much 'do you like me?' or 'don't you like me?' between the doctor and Clara for my liking, I wished all that was over by the second show in the series. However, I can see it being a bit of a running theme until Clara leaves - which has already been announced I think.
August has not proved to be a good month for West Brom, they have drawn twice and lost once so far. Quite a poor start to the season, lets hope for a run when we win some matches soon.
I have a couple of days off this week, not sure yet how I'm going to spend the time. It is just a couple of days though, nothing to get too excited over.

Dr Who played by Peter Capaldi

I watched the first episode of the new Dr Who on Saturday and I enjoyed the new doctor's character more than previous ones. I often watch actors who play the doctor with some minor annoyances but I felt quite relaxed watching this episode. I believe the doctor is in safe hands with Peter Capaldi. The plot of the episode was the usual fodder but probably a bit more coherent than some of the other recent episodes, Matt's Smith's reign came to end with a final storyline that was, frankly, beyond comprehension. I like the new doctor, I've heard some say he is too scary for children, well good. It's about time that Dr Who made young children hide behind their sofas again.

RIP Richard Attenborough

Sad news that yesterday Richard Attenborough died at the age of 90. This great man made such an enormous contribution to the international entertainment industry, you could say he was a giant. Everybody knows him for his work on such great classic films such as Ghandi, A Bridge Too Far, Jurassic Park, Brighton Rock, The Great Escape, Miracle On 34th Street, I'm Alright Jack and Whistle Down The Wind amongst many others. My own personal favourite is possibly one of the lesser known titles in his back catalogue, it was a grim horror tale of a serial killer operating in working class London. The subject of the film is very bleak and the film stars Richard Attenborough with John Hurt as Co-Star (who was Oscar nominated for Best Supporting Actor). The film was called 10 Rillington Place after the apartment building where the murders were all committed. The acting is superb even if the subject nature of the film is, as I said, very grim indeed. I like the great man's other films too, especially the war ones but Jurassic Park is probably my second favourite, the first film in that series is a personal favourite of mine.

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

It's weird how some things go viral on the Internet. The latest I've seen is the ice bucket challenge, so many people have posted up videos of themselves doing this, including famous stars and celebrities. I didn't know what ALS was before so it must have driven up donations and traffic to the charity's website vastly. ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and I may be over-simplifying but it is what we in the UK know as Motor Neurone Disease. I think people post their videos because there is something fun about seeing other people's reaction to the shock of cold water and there is something of showmanship about it. I think some videos exist just because people want to jump on the bandwagon and be part of the phenomenon. That's why personally, I won't be taking the challenge.

New series of Dr Who starts today

Today is the day lots of Dr Who fans have been waiting for. The first episode of Dr Who starring Peter Capaldi as the new doctor is screened for the first time. It does feel like an event worth celebrating. I'm not a massive Dr Who fan but I do like the show and I have an affection for it. My favourite doctor was Jon Pertwee, I found him slightly scary as a child and this is what I feel makes the doctor such an interesting character. I like the idea of a doctor who has an edge to the character. This is why I'm looking forward to watching this TV event of the year.

High Contrast graphics - based on Elinor Stecker

I bought a copy of a book today by Elinor Stecker titled "how to create and use high contrast images", it was published in 1982 by Fisher Publishing in the US. The book was written when Lithofilm was used and I'm not sure if this film is made these days, Kodak was one of the main suppliers and I don't even know if they still sell film for consumers anymore in the digital age. Lithofilm was high contrast black and white film where no grey was rendered, so the contrast factor was incredibly high. We've all seen lots of images using this kind of technique. The way the images are produced today is digitally and this makes the range of options for creating images much greater today than it was with film and chemicals. But it's a tribute to the photographers, graphic artists and technicians who worked with this film that high contrast images are still everywhere we look today. I wonder whether Elinor Stecker ever wrote an update to her book for the digital photographic medium?

In an attempt to use some of the ideas presented in the book, I've used Gimp on a couple of my photographs. Hope you like the results below. Hopefully I'll get better at this, I was just playing around this time and having some fun.

Football season starts again

The football season has started again today. It must be a day full of excitement and anticipation for UK footie fans. I'm usually excited to a degree about football and this year I am again but not as much as I thought I'd be. My team didn't end last season very well, however they survived and are in the Premier League yet again this season, so that's something to hold on to. Today's game was one they should have won because of the team they played and they were in the lead at 2-1 but eventually the visiting team scored again and it ended a 2-2 draw. Draws are not very satisfying, at least it's not a loss though. My team has a new strip this season, much more white than in previous seasons and thinner blue stripes. I think it looks pretty good though, better than recent strips in my memory.

Supermoon

I managed to get a shot of the "supermoon" tonight from my son's roof-window. I balanced the camera on a mini tripod, the legs didn't properly fit the window ledge so I had to handhold one of the legs. I used Aperture priority mode and spot metering on the camera to get the exposure of the moon's surface correct against the dark space. I also used the digital zoom capability, which explains some of the noise in the quality of the photo. For my first shot of the moon with my new camera I don't think this is a bad attempt. Clouds obscured the moon just after I took this shot.

Kendal Mint Cake

I've been staying in Kendal in The Lake District for 4 nights and I don't recall buying Kendal Mint Cake before for myself. I might have tried some in the past because when I tried some today it tasted quite familiar. It was a translucent white minty bar that was brittle enough to break but biting it revealed it to be soft enough to easily chew and break down because it is made mostly of sugar. The mint flavour wasn't overwhelming, just pleasant sort of similar strength to an After Eight mint if you know what that is. I was trying the white bar but there is also a brown bar and a chocolate covered bar. I can say that I have eaten Kendal Mint Cake in Kendal now.

Holiday time

This week I've spent quite a bit of time on my own exploring photography techniques with my new camera and also shooting some video. I've visited Ivinghoe Beacon and Dunstable Downs for the first time ever. And now into the second half of the week I'm in The Lake District. I'm hoping to see more scenery this afternoon but a quick stroll around Kendal yesterday revealed a lovely town.

Holiday breakfast

My morning got started a little stressfully. Had to take my wife and kids to the rail station but they were running a little late and that sent everything into a bit of a mad panic at the end. However, I managed to drop them off in time for them to pick up the tickets. Then I went to Tesco and picked up some food, including my breakfast. I have always enjoyed sausage rolls. My preferred way of eating a sausage roll is hot, the only time I eat one cold really is when I just have one in a picnic hamper or something like that. Here is my breakfast, two lovely hot sausage rolls with a streak of HP sauce down the middle - this was an artistic surge!

 

The photo was shot on my iPhone 4 using the Hipstamatic app: using the Jane lens and the Blanko film with Standard quality.

Holiday

I finished work yesterday for two weeks, yay! I shall be blogging regularly I think. The weather has been very hot recently, which has been great. But as soon as my holiday begins here comes the rain! This is a picture of the rain falling outside my window right now.

We were going out for a bike ride this afternoon as a family but I don't think that will happen now. Day one of my holiday is a bit of a wash out because of this really. Shame. But not completely unexpected.

Hair

My hair is long enough now for me to need another haircut. It comes around quickly enough. Last time I got my hair cut was ... I don't know exactly. Not that long ago, it was a Sunday and I walked in with my son and we were able to get our hair cut straight away. I have been considering getting a self haircutting product called the Babyliss Easy Cut. It's a handheld device that has a central circular series of blades and you just attach a guide that cuts your hair to the desired length. It looks very simple and seems to give reasonable results if you aren't too fussy about having an even cut all over your hair. I don't know whether I'll buy one but am considering it.

Manchester skyline

Here is a photo I shot tonight on my iPhone. I like taking photos with my iPhone camera, it is a well used camera. Digital cameras allow the cost of an individual photograph to come right down. So much so that it is often cheaper to shoot a photo than copy information down. Digital smartphone pictures can also be used to capture evidence - for example we were travelling on a train without tickets but had a photo of the ticket machine that was out of order as proof.

This photo has been slightly adjusted by a photo app, not sure which but it's possibly one called Snapseed. There are a huge number of photo apps for the iPhone. Here are the apps that I like to use in my iPhonography. I use PhotoShop Express for image editing on the iPhone itself.

World conflict: Ukraine and Gaza

There is always some conflict in the world. At the moment, it seems that Israeli and Palestinian conflict has escalated to another extreme. What seems so ironic is that this conflict should occur in what is supposed to be the holy land. The way the Middle East was just carved up administratively by super powers has a lot to answer for.
Ukraine is another area that has seen escalating violence. The apparent shooting down of an airliner bound for Asia from the Netherlands is a tragedy. Fair play to the Ukraine Prime Minister for calling those responsible "bastards". It's the first time I've seen a politician express himself like that infront of world media. And what does the UK get? David Cameron displaying outrage just for the cameras in his stage managed way.

Germany win world cup

Well Germany must be a pretty happy country at the moment. They won the 2014 World Cup Soccer Tournament and on Sunday Nico Rosberg, a German, won the the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. I must confess however that although I watched the soccer final, I was slightly disappointed with the result. I don't know exactly why though.