Come walk with me ... to the supermarket!

[desperance]

Here's what we see, as we step out of the door:





Cater-corner across the junction, this is Birdcage Walk:










I keep telling people that I may live in the heart of the inner city, but there are cows two minutes from my door:










Across the road that cuts the moor, and guess what? More cows! One of which is slightly naughty:






And then it's just town moor all the way to the motorway:






























Until at last:






The supermarket!






There now, wasn't that fun? Next time I shall take you to the Lit & Phil. Which actually, I confess, is a lot more fun; but I am fond of this walk, and I was playing.

Just to round off, here we are coming home:

Comments

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

That looks like a decent walk. :)

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed going to the supermarket with you!

[song-of-copper.livejournal.com]

There is a Birdcage Walk in Clifton, Bristol, too. But it has a cemetery around it, rather than your pastoral surroundings. :-)

I hope you remembered to pick up tea, milk and biscuits. ;-)

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Pretty.
You've seen out supermarket walk. It doesn't compare (unless we go the long way round, I guess).

[pjthompson]

Wow, what a lovely walk to the market. Mine is asphalt all the way.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

My walk has nothing to look at particularly -- but then, it's only about 250 meters.

[pjthompson]

Perfunctory, then, at least.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like this idea! I am afraid my photographic journey would be far less attractive, but I really enjoyed yours. Especially the cows. *has cow envy*

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Ah, but yours would have far better photographs...

(I have bought myself a "bridge" camera, with numerous dials & switches & stuff. If I ever learn to use it - basically, if I ever switch it out of "auto" mode - then I'll start thinking seriously about a DSLR. Thus far, though, we point and click...)

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

Which one did you get in the end?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I always do what I am told; I got the Fuji Finepix 9600. All tips & wisdom gratefully acknowledged...

[abserdman.livejournal.com]

I used to have a Fuji Finepix! Just a simple one though, no dials and switches for me.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Urgh. You may have made the wiser choice. But hey, a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a DSLR for...?

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

I haven't taken it off auto yet either! I haven't used a manual SLR in so many years I've pretty much forgotten what I'm meant to be doing. One reason I especially like the 9600 is the large CCD which means it's got better image quality than most compacts.

Re: tips. Whilst playing with it on holiday I did find that the AE Lock was my friend - especially when it comes to landscapes to ensure that the exposure's right for the bits on which you want the best results. Also tweaking the contrast and the brightness a bit in photoshop or similar is A Good Thing.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Thanks. It'll be the Gimp for me rather than Photoshop, being Linux'n'all (oh, and free; we like free), but that again is a whole new world, and I just don't know how much I'm going to go there. There is a side to me that says I spend so much of my time editing words, do I really want to start editing photos too...?

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I'd like to know which camera you have, too, and I like the second photo in the series. It makes the Birdcage Walk looks so magical. The diagonal of the posts invites the eye in.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

It's a Fuji Finepix 9600 (http://www.cameras.co.uk/reviews/fuji-finepix-s9600.cfm), and I'm a wee bit scared of it. It's very ... authoritative, y'know? Do this, do that. When I don't know what I'm doing...

I love the Birdcage Walk. I did like it better before they restored it (the original Victorian arches were taller and narrower, much more pleasing in proportion; but also rotting, alas), but it still makes for a very pleasant walk to the shops.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's a good camera! Excellent choice, it's not unlike the one I use.

One thing that's really great about it is the ISO extends up to 1600, which means you can shoot either very fast (sports shots, birding) without getting a blur, or get a good shot in low light conditions. My camera's ISO only goes to 400. My new one will do 1600, so I look forward to getting rid of all the grain in my night shots.

Also, that's a very good range in your lens, 28-300! You can do wide angle and telephoto, it's nearly as good as an SLR but you don't have to fuss with lens changing. Nine mpx, that's plenty, not too much time between shots but high quality. And you can shoot RAW or JPG, gosh Fuji makes good cameras.

Altogether you have a good camera that has most features you'd want in a DSLR. Just learn one or two features at a time. The most fun ones to start, I think, are long exposures. You can get photos of water looking soft as silk, or cars in an endless stream of color.

[agoodwinsmith.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed that - thanks!

[martyn44.livejournal.com]

I've only ever driven around that area. Must get on foot some time soon. You're a brave man getting up close and personal with those cows - Get off of our grass!

If the writing doesn't work out you can always get a job as a tour guide.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

You're a brave man getting up close and personal with those cows

One time last summer, they were right the far end of the field and I was walking cheerfully towards home, when I heard a distant thunder far behind me. And looked back, and yup: stampede! Heading straight for me!

I guess they were just feeling frisky, but still. Heading for me. Hooved and heavy and disturbingly fast. I walked quicker. They kept coming. I was not, was not going to run; I walked quicker yet. They kept coming.

I did make it to the gate ahead of them, and without running; but I could've entered the Olympics speed-walking event, I worked up such lovely style of not-running. And I was only a few metres ahead, and they didn't stop running till they actually reached the fence. I like to think that they wouldn't actually have trampled me underhoof - but it's the kind of think you like to have with a good solid fence between you and them, just in case...

[durham-rambler.livejournal.com]

It's a real risk, it's happened in Suffolk and Wales and there was a case some years back when a man was trampled to death by a ram in Hexham. (We ramblers know these things.)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I'm kind of glad I didn't know that? I just thought I was being fanciful and romantic, and they'd veer off long before they reached me...

It'd look good on the CV, though. Or the CM, I suppose. "Tragically, Brenchley died in a lamentable accident - trampled to death by a herd of bullocks - before he could quite achieve the great novel for which all the world was waiting..."

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

That was fun!

*checks specs*

Your camera is more highly specified than mine (mine is now rather out of date), so I expect to see great things :-)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, your skillz are much more highly specified than mine; I know nothing. Literally. I have no visual sense at all, and don't even know how to begin constructing a good photo. When people tell me that a picture is worth a thousand words, I just up my word-rate...

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

When people tell me that a picture is worth a thousand words, I just up my word-rate...

*g*

My skills have been developed entirely by trial'n'error and looking at other people's photos. I've taken about 10,000 photos now with this camera, so I'm pretty familiar with what it can and can't do. Actually, I think that's an important tip: find out what the camera can do/does best and choose what to photograph accordingly.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

See, that might seem obvious, but it would never ever have occurred to me. Like suggesting that a particular computer might be better at writing some stories than others...

D'you suppose there are any cameras out there that actually advertise themselves as "good for cats"?

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

:-)

I think if you can find a camera designed for photographing vampires, that it would be a good choice for capturing cats as well. Especially black cats.

I'm rather taken with the idea of content-specific cameras...

[pennski.livejournal.com]

Ooh that's lovely.