Can technology help?
We spent most of the afternoon today walking
around St Ives. On the way back to the car we
decided to take a break to take in the views from
the cliffs above the beach. Whilst sitting and
enjoying the sea crashing on the beach I noticed
an old gentleman sat doing the same as us. He
looked a little sad though as he sat there dosing
off every now and then. Just then a Seagul flew
down and rested on the railings just in front of
him. After a few seconds the man shuffled quickly
inside his trouser pockets and after a bit of a
struggle he eventually revealed one of those
cheap disposable cameras. He then tried to frame
a picture of the gul, but by the time he had
taken control of the camera the bird flew away.
Over the next 30 minutes or so I continued to
watch the man as he fumbled to take two more
pictures of resting Guls on the Railings.
I wondered if this was now the old man's daily
routine, spending the hours wandering and resting
around the streets of St Ives trying to take
pictures of the local wildlife, whilst sneaking
in a quick nap here and there. This got me
thinking; if only he had a digital camera and
even a photo printer how easier this task might
be for him. He wouldn't have to worry about
wasting film and could take hundreds of shots on
the hope that just one would capture the subject
as intended. Having the small photo printer may
also work out cheaper allowing him just to print
out the best shots without the worry of having to
pay for developing the whole film roll.
The problem with this scenario though is that
even if the old man had a digital camera and
printer he probably would not be able to use it.
It makes me wonder just how much easier the lives
of our grandparents would be if we could spare a
few hours to show them how to use technology and
help build their confidence in using it?
The above photo was snapped using my iPhone.
Pictures of Madrid
Back in June last
year I spent time working away in Madrid, Spain.
I managed to find a few hours to walk around the
centre of Madrid visiting the famous landmarks
such as the Santiago Football Stadium (Estadio
Santiago). I've sorted through the pictures and
picked out 30 for a photo album on my site for
you to view. Don't forget if you have any
comments please feel free to leave them using the
comments link below. To view the Madrid 2007
album click on the image above or on the link
below:
Madrid Photo Album
Copenhagen
I've just posted a new photo album of pictures taken during a recent business visit to Copenhagen, Denmark. It was a short last minute visit I took just before taking my holiday in Cornwall. Copenhagen is a beautiful city but unfortunately I didn't have much time to explore. To see the full photo album click here.
Neighbourhood Cows
As mentioned in my last post the weather during our stay in Cornwall has not been the best so unfortunately I've not been able to take as many photographs as I had hoped and planned to. The only pictures I've managed to take have been of our current neighbours, a heard of cows and some distant shots of surfers on Fistral Beach in Newquay. I need to check how the surfer pictures have turned out and whether or not they are worth posting, but for now here are the pictures of the neighbourhood cows! You can also few some of my previous postings of images taken in Cornwall during 2003 and some others taken in 2005.
Moscow
Earlier this year I
was given a unique opportunity to work in
Moscow, Russia. During
my visit as well as meeting some great work
colleagues I was able to spend some time in
the city visiting the likes of Red Square
and the Kremlin. My hotel, The Renaissance was
situated next to the Moscow Olympic
Stadium erected for the 1980
games.
The city was not what I had expected, it was much
more and is definitely a place I hope to spend
more time getting to know in the future. The
locals I met where friendly and very interesting
and I was lucky not to have experienced many
language problems. It's weird but having visited
Russia the world almost feels smaller now. If you
ever get such an opportunity to visit Moscow I
would tell you to jump at it, everything about it
is interesting from its history, the people, the
architecture, it's culture and the treasures such
as the Fabergé
Eggs found in the Kremlin.
The weather was cold, it averaged around -10
degrees Celsius, but dropped as low as -27
according to the local news, we also experienced
20 cm of snow fall on some days. As well as the
50 plus photographs which I've posted tonight I
also took some video footage using my Sony
digital still camera. depending on how this turns
out when edited I hope to post this in the next
week or so. Until them you can click here or on the
photograph above to view my Moscow photo album.
The Lakes
I was talking to a colleague last week and trying to explain about why we like to go up to the lakes so much. I thought I'd got some pictures on my web site to show him but I was wrong. Therefore I decided to sort some old pictures of the lakes out and post them. Well here they are. I'm not totally sure what year they where taken but I do know that they are of Wasdale Water and the surrounding area. The white building in some of the pictures is Wasdale Head Inn, a great place to stay if you want to visit the lakes. I hope you enjoy these photographs for now, we have many more of Wasdale and other places up in the lakes. One day I will get around to posting them too.
Monaco 2006
Earlier this year in September I spent some time in Monaco whilst attending a job interview and providing an overview of Linux to some of my work colleagues in the Monaco office . Luckily I remembered to take one of my cameras with me and managed to get some snaps. Unfortunately I arrived after days of storms and the weather wasn't the best and for the most part was very cloudy. I've added the photographs to the site, and if you wish you can click here to view the slideshow now. Whilst on in Monaco I also took some video of an helicopter flight between Monaco and Nice airport. Depending on how it turns out once edited I will most likely post this too.
Benalmadena, Marbella and Puerto Banus
Sorry all, I'm still
waiting for the universal version of FCE so still
no movies to post but here's some more
photographs. My latest photo album contains 37
photographs taken during our break earlier this
year to Southern Spain. Pictures include the
award winning Benalmadnea and Puerto Banus
marinas where you can literally see £Millions
worth of ocean going yachts and boats. To enjoy
the slideshow click here.
Canada Trip
More Photographs added this week, this time from Canada. These latest pictures were taken during the SARS outbreak in April/May 2003 which fortunately didn't really effect our visit. Day to day life seemed to be as usual despite the outbreak and everyone we met were very open and friendly, they could chat and wanted to for hours! The trip got us thinking that may be we'd like to move out and live in Canada later in our lives if we had the opportunity. It really is a great way of life and as I mentioned above the locals are great. Most of the photographs with exception of the tram were taken of the Niagara Falls and town. The tram was taken in downtown Toronto on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Click here to watch the slideshow now.
The Maldives
As promised I'm
continuing to sort through my many photographs
taken over the years, and once in order post as
online photo albums here on my site for anyone to
see and comment on. My latest album posted
earlier today consists of pictures taken whilst
on holiday in the Maldives November 2003. We
visited the Island of Meeru which is
situated in the same Atoll as Male. We had
hoped to, and had booked to visit Meeru again
in January 2005 but unfortunately the Tsunami Disaster
prevented this. We will definitely be visiting
the Maldives again, to me it is one of if not
my favourite holiday destination so far.
To view my photographs from the Maldives click here.
Tunisia Photographs
To complete my posts of content taken from our trip to Tunisia in 2000 I've managed to get some photographs taken on a Pentax 35mm camera converted to an electronic format. The images follow our camel ride to visit the troglodyes who still live in caves on the edge of the Sahara Desert and then the amazing ruins of El Djem. The videos posted over the last month or so covering footage from this trip are also available in my video archive. To view the Tunisia photographs click here now. Enjoy!!
London
Another set of
photographs, this time taken in London on a
cloudy Saturday morning at the end of May 2004.
Most of the pictures were taken from the top of
the London Eye. So if you want to see what a
cloudy and cold London looks like click here.
As a foot note, depending on how my assessment
goes later today, I may be ok to go back to work
soon. This means less posts I'm afraid. I'm
actually hoping 'Friday the 13th' is a good sign,
and that my physiotherapy is going well. :)
Pinnawela Elephant Orphanange
During our tour of Sri-Lanka in November 2000 we were able to spend a full day with the elephants at the world famous elephant orphanage at Pinnawela. These photographs were taken using a small point and shoot 1.3 megapixel camera. However we also took a number of photographs with a standard 35mm which I also hope to add to this album at some later date when I get them converted to a digital format. To view the Pinnawela album so far click here. I will make further posts to notify you when I update this album with images taken on the 35mm camera.
Wreck Photographs
The next photo album I've published online contains more photographs taken last year in Barbados. This time they are images taken whilst diving on a shallow wreck just off the beach in Bridgetown. These snaps were taken using my Sony DSC-P8 digital camera with a 40 m underwater housing. I hope you find the world of the oceans as interesting as I do. Click here to view the slideshow.
Barbados Snaps
I'm still sorting through my many photographs taken over the years looking for snaps to publish online. This time I've added 20 pictures taken whilst in the Caribbean on Barbados during January last year. To watch the slideshow click here or on the thumbnail above. I also have some video footage taken in Barbados which I will edit and publish online at some point in the future.
St Ives Photographs
I've managed to download some of the photographs we took whilst in Cornwall over the Christmas break and published them as an album on the site. Click here or on the photo above to view. Hope you enjoy them, I'm going to make a start editing the video footage I recorded and hopefully publish a video blog of the trip by the new year.
Content Added
Once again hope you all have a great christmas, and all the best for the new year.
