Adrian's Photoblog

A very different feel from our usual February citybreak, and (myself as a very young child excepted) our first visit to Africa.
We stayed in a lovely Riad called 'Dar El Souk' where we could relax and be well looked after. Which was just as well as it was quite hard work out on the streets, dodging bicycles and mopeds which seem to appear from nowhere..!!

We had some interesting experiences, including a Full massage, sauna, seaweed wrap at a Hammam, deluges of Moroccan rain, and the resulting muddy passageways, and an evening at a stunning restaurant which included live music, and belly dancers.

Great place, and the locals were all very good humoured, even when you don't buy anything from their stalls...!! Click on the title above for the full set of photos on Flickr.

Brocken Spectre and glory on Cadair Idris. Interestingly, you can only see your own, so although 10 of us were all lined up, I could only see my own, cast by the sun on my own back.

The passage below relates to the trip

The largest group ever (12 of us) assembled NE of the Aran mountains on a road none of us had ever been to before, to climb mountains most of the group had never heard of, let along been up.

We walked out of fog at about 450m and thereafter had a wonderful day walking over Aran Fawddwy and Aran Benllyn, and the outlying Foel Hafod Fynydd, from which you get a great view of Aran Fawddwy (which is saved from popularity by being about 30ft short of the magic 3000ft contour).

We felt so bless-ed that we sung the chorus of 'Bread of Heaven' on the summit of Fawddwy, and from thence forth the usual nonesense was unrelenting for the weekend.

The next day was equally spectacular with a cloud layer lying from 300-600m on the south side of Cadair Idris, and rising through this gave stunning Brocken Spectres and glories over Cwm Cau, followed by a dead calm on the highest summits of Cadair.

A classic weekends walking, "shared by companions whom to may be defeated, but whose spirits I have never seen shaken" (WH Murray), yet whom also revel in rediculous banter.

Click on the title above for the full set of photos...on this occasion, worth a browse..

This is about the 4th time I've done this offroad round which Peter created, and the weather for this outing with Tony was really superb, with a light cover of snow on the highest hills from the previous night being a real bonus. At about 3 hours duration, it makes an ideal short day out in some impressive coastal scenary

The thaw after the prolonged cold spell kicked in the previous day, but overnight frost and a clear day gave Richard and I a wonderful walk around the Neuadd Reservoir horseshoe, with some stunning views from these fine hills. This photo is the Reservoir, starting to thaw...

Here's an extract from my weather station for the coldest spell of the winter. If you click on the picture above, you can see this in larger scale.

Our coldest snap for many years gave some good opportunities to try out the new Camera, and an early morning dash with Andy gave us cold hands and some all too rare shots of our local area with some of the wonderful white stuff.

Click on the image for more photos from that day

After 4 years of stirling work, I decided this autumn to upgrade my Casio EX- P600. Not an easy decision given the fact that it continues to be so reliable, but the world of digital has moved on and so a few aspects have made me reach for my wallet. Firstly, the Casio's high ISO performance is awful, only iso50 and 100 are good quality. This is very limiting in poor light, where you need a mini tripod and very still subjects..!! In good light it captures clean and noise free images, its 6mp sensor is not overclogged with pixels which keeps noise down and stops blooming. However colour sensitivity and dynamic range is not great, so in strong sunshine the images look flat - so post processing is required to beef up the contrast.

What to buy instead was quickly limited to 4 options:
Canon's G11, Canon's S90, Panasonic LX3 (with 24-60 lens at f2.0-2.8), Panasonic GF1 (with much larger 4/3 sensor and fixed 40mm f1.7 lens). The GF1 is clearly the quality choice, but it's large and quite heavy, though much smaller than a DSLR. The LX3 is smaller but I think if I'm having a zoom then I'd find the 60mm long end a bit short. Canon have made a bold move with the G11, bucking the trend for greater pixel counts in order to reduce noise and improve high iso results. The G9 was 12mp, the G10 was 14.7mp, so the move to create a 10mp G11 was a change in direction, and one I've been hoping will come. The same sensor has gone into the Canon S90 too, and in a smaller body...about half the weight of the G11, and with a f2.0 lens as well.

So after much review reading the S90 seemed to be the choice for me. Not cheap at £350, but after a month's use I'm pleased with the results which rarely need any post processing. With acceptable image quality at iso 800 and an f2 optic, I'm about 3-4 stops more flexible than with the Casio, and colour sensitivity and dynamic range are much improved. It's a bit fiddly in the hand, but very comfortable in the pocket, at just under 200g. I hope it lasts as well as the Casio, which I'm pleased to say Sophie has now started using.