Category Archives: Pictures

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Heart Surgery, Pictures

March walk in Woolhampton

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Yesterday I bought myself a new ‘travel and cargo trouser pocket camera’ (a [amazon_textlink asin=’B01AAU7T3A’ text=’Panasonic Lumix TZ100′ template=’ProductLink’ store=’thearmingrewehom’ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’e6a0b17f-0748-11e7-8240-c53967e2d49c’]), as my old one simply wasn’t good enough anymore and was starting to show signs of its age. Today was a ‘walk day’ as part of my ongoing recovery from my heart surgery, so I took the camera out for a walk to the gravel pit lakes near Woolhampton. Here are a few early spring impressions from the walk:

(Click on the pictures for the larger versions)

Pictures

The Sailing and Beach Bum Years

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Most people probably only know me with very short hair, the haircut I’ve now had for over a decade, probably closer to 15 years. But my hair hasn’t always been this short. In my younger years my hair for several years (mainly at school and at university) was quite long. When someone else shared a picture of him with long hair in younger years I had a look through some older prints I still have and ‘scanned’ two of them with Google’s PhotoScan. Here’s how I looked in 1989 (I think at least the picture with my Oma (Grandma) is from 1989) and 1993 (I know that’s from 1993, as it was taken when my parents and sister visited me while I was living in California):

(as usual, click on the pictures for the larger versions)

Heart Surgery, Pictures

The Birds and the Berries

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No, not the birds and the bees, the birds and the berries. Stop being naughty. For the last almost three months I haven’t been able to fully use my camera due to my heart surgery. Almost all the pictures I’ve taken were with the phone, except for the ones of the roses, but for that used the lighter ‘normal’ zoom. As I was limited in the weight I was allowed to lift I was unable to use my big (and unfortunately rather heavy) telephoto zoom lens. Only recently I’ve been allowed to start lifting more and on the 3rd Christmas Day (i.e. the 27th of December, the bank holiday in lieu of Christmas Day falling on Sunday) I decided to give the big lens a first go. I had spotted a number of birds going into a tree with red berries to feed. Not being used to lifting the heavy lens any more I wasn’t particularly successful, these three pictures I thought just about presentable:

(Click on the pictures for the larger versions)

I only lasted for about 10 minutes, then I really started to notice the weight of the heavy lens. Still a long way to go until that part of my body will have fully recovered, but I’m happy that I at least had a start now and have something to build on.

Heart Surgery, Pictures, Thoughts

A frosty November Rose

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Time to revisit my November Rose, as it presented a new photo opportunity this morning. The last few days have been very cold and sunny, yesterday morning I used the opportunity for my longest walk yet: Over three miles in beautiful sunshine walking back from my GP appointment/review (taxi is ridiculously expensive as mentioned earlier). While I must admit some of the inclines were rather tough the flat parts and certainly the downhill sections were beautiful (especially as they were south facing in the sunshine). Quite motivating after some not so good days before (more about that some other time). When I arrived home at lunchtime the Rose was bathed in beautiful winter sunshine, so I took a few pictures. However, they didn’t turn out too different to the ones I already had, so I didn’t do anything with them. Good thing I didn’t, as this morning after a very cold night for here (-6°C, we don’t get that often in West Berkshire) ice crystals had settled on the Rose, giving me some nice views:

(click on the pictures for larger versions, including a bonus picture of a view over the canal)