Saturday post, great images and a lot of Canons

14 February

It’s Saturday again and two thing I love happen today; a, my copy of AP arrives, and b, I get a weekly history mini-lesson. But for now I’d like to concentrate on AP. We subscribers get it through the post on Saturdays, while buyers from shops have to wait until Tuesday. Anyway, my first task on Saturday is to make a cuppa; my second task is to have a quick flick through AP – see, I got me priorities right! What always amazes me is the standard of photos in there. Starting with today’s cover shot of a cypress tree under a Milky Way sky from Paul Marcellini. I’m not surprised that this is shot is on the cover, even if it only got 3^rd place in a completion.

Cracking images continue for page after page. I look at them, I lift them up for my wife Jan to see. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve said, ‘That’s it! I’m giving up and selling my kit!’ Of course, I never do sell it. The idea that I might one day produce something of equal merit keeps me going out and trying.

Great images is not the only reason to buy the mag; oh no. The piece I always read first is Roger Hicks writes the final article every week, in which he looks at and discusses one image. His Final Analysis is always a good read and this week he has picked an image by Samuel Heracles Gascoigne Simpson, made in 1867. What a name; can you imagine having to write that out in full for some today’s forms.

As with all such mags, a lot of pages are taken up in product reviews. This week it seems that Canon are having fun flooding the market with now kit. There’s a new DSLR, the 5DS and 5DS R, with 50mb sensor. Makes my 24mb D5200 look puny really. But hang on a mo … to get the full benefit of that resolution, standard lenses are next to worthless. How many snappers can afford to buy the pro-standard lenses that such a sensor demands? I know I can’t.

One lens that would be useful is the new Canon 11-24mm f4L USM wideangle. But here’s the catch; it costs £2799, not an amateur price. Now here’s a thought, nice lens that might be, but would their latest entry level bodies, the 750D and 760D be able to get the most out of it? I would suggest not. And yet Canon still have new models out; there’s a new CSC out too, the EOS M3, an improvement in their earlier moves into CSC. No price details yet though.

That is a lot of new kit from just one manufacturer. One wonders why really seeing as camera sales are supposed to be falling all over the world, including here in the UK. Perhaps they are an attempt to boost sales, but the 750D and 760D run out at £599 and £649 respectively, way out of my price range, even I was ever interested in Canon kit. And so I come to the mini-history lesson.

Today is St Valentine’s Day, I’m sure all you that, but did you it was on this day around 270AD that the man who carried the name was martyred by the then Roman Emperor Claudius II. Yet another famous person died on this day too; Captain James Cook was died on this day in 1779 after he landed on the Hawaiian Islands. The natives already living there didn’t take to kindly to him it seems.

Today’s photo is another from Thursday … 

A set of steps downwards.

And today’s funny …

My elderly Jewish grandmother was giving me directions to her apartment. “You come to the front door of the apartment. I am in apartment 4012. There is a big panel at the front door. With your elbow , push button 4012. I will buzz you in. Come inside, the elevator is on the right. Get in, and with your elbow , push 4. When you get out, I’m on the left. With your elbow , hit my doorbell.”
“Grandma, that sounds easy, but, why am I hitting all these buttons with my
elbow? ”Vaat . . . . You coming empty handed?”