Under 13s rugby and colt news.

Under 17s match had been cancelled. I stayed to watch the under13s game at Swiss Valley. Exceedingly good game, fast and clean play. Sent two pics to the papers if they wish to use them.

Heard that the colt injured Saturday had got a hit on the back of the head. He was kept in overnight for observation but released this morning.

Colts Rugby

Went up to the school field at East Clevedon to watch the Colts Vs. Weston match. At half time the colts were winning 10 - 5, a few minutes into the second half one was badly concussed and an ambulance was called. Helicopter medics turned up match abandoned. I shall find out on Sunday what the result was when I go over to watch the under 17s game.

Pics used in the paper.

Sent 2 pics of the rugby to North Somerset Times with "Compliments of Clevedon RFC & Regards from myself.
They used both.
Now I must wait and see if the Clevedon Mercury uses any. I think they had a 'photog' there but it may well have been a Bridgwater supporter.
Had a request to post one of the ones on my Flickr Rugby Pics group to a Flickr All Sports group.

Watched rugby for the first time in a month. Colts Versus Merythr Tydfil on Saturday and 1sts Vs Bridgwater development side on the Sunday, - Somerset Cup match. -

Left in a rush to get there and had the wrong lens on for the colts match. 27mm actual focal length is not too good for action shots unless you are in the middle of it.

Sunday back to the Tamron 28-300 mm lens. Good light and some good pics.

Red Skies

Following my Sunday Morning trip I looked up a few pics of sunrising on the moors.

Macro 2

Some time ago I mentioned on the "Think Camera" website the difficulty of getting a lens reverser to fit the front of my Tamron 28-300 mm lens and allow me to use a Pentax or Praktica lens reversed on the front. One of the members suggested that I could make one quite easily by using 2 cokin units glued together back to back. I did this and found it to be very useful because it eliminated any problems of binding when trying to unscrew the fitting.

I had been using my Minolta 80 px ring flash for some time on my 90mm Tamron macro lens and the thought occurred to me that it might be possible to use it on my reversing lens as well.
Unfortunately the Pentax and Praktica lenses that I had been using were too large for the ring flash to fit.

I then thought of the Takumar lens on my old Heiland Pentax. The Honeywell H2 model had the early lens that did not have the automatic re-opening mechanism and was therefore smaller in circumference. It also meant that the light button on the ring flash could be used to easily find the subject if pics were being taken with the camera hand held rather than tripod mounted. Set on the front of my Tamron 28-300 mm lens it can give an enlargement of approx. 5x life-size.

Macro 1

For macro work the inflatable diffuser is cheap yet very effective.

It will fit any size flash head because of the elastic fastening and the curve of the front panel sends light downwards even when used with a 1.7 tele extender and a 10 dioptre lens on the front of the Tamron 90 mm macro lens.

Although the 3 times life size image is close to the camera there is still enough light from the flash for small apertures.

In the picture of crab apple blossom the flower spray was mounted with a crocodile clip and stood in a white polystyrene box with a blue cartridge paper used as a background.

The flash used was a Minolta 4000AF with the diffuser on it held at approximately 10 inches away to the left at about 30-40 degree angle.

As the diffuser head measures about 8 to 9 inches across the light spread was enough to diminish shadows and give a natural appearance to the flowers.

Not much there yet.

No sign of an early spring yet. The frosty mornings are still lasting, but thank God, no snow for us here. I pruned back the Buddleia very tight in the autumn and it has started to show a few small sproutings. The birds have not taken all the Cottoneaster berries but the rowan tree berries have all gone thanks to a neighbouring blackbird.

Wandered out and took some pics for something to do. Used the Tamron 90 mm macro lens and the Minolta 80px ring flash. It works quite well and allows me to use f32 stop which at full focus transforms to f40 I believe.

Had an idea about chocolates. If I once start eating them I just keep on going, so I decided to take pics of them instead .

I was 85 yesterday and had 2 boxes of choccys given to me for my birthday.

I decided as a New Years Resolution to limit myself to 1 per day [Choccy not box] It will be a strain but I will try my best to keep to it.

Trouble is Belgian chocolates are so delicious.