Look Up (Again)

A day at the cricket.

England lost to New Zealand. Not unexpected by any means, but still dissapointing.

SONY BMG Music Entertainment (UK) Ltd. sucks!

<rant>
Last November I wrote about my disappointment at missing Brandi Carlile's London gig. So in attempt at being proactive and avoiding further disappointment I signed up to the notifications facility on her UK website, which is run and managed by SONY BMG Music Entertainment (UK) Ltd.

Lo and behold, I received an e-mail from them this evening saying:

Hi Jon

Good news! Brandi will be back in the UK for 2 shows in late July! The London show is sold out but there are still some tickets available for the July 26 show.

26th July - Sage Gateshead SummerTyne Festival, Newcastle (Buy Tickets)

28th July - Mean Fiddler @ Arts Theatre, London (Sold Out)

- 2008 SONY BMG Music Entertainment (UK) Ltd

SOLD OUT!
SOLD OUT?!?!?!?!?

Why send me an e-mail telling me that the gig is sold out? I'd rather not have known she was playing in London.

Why wasn't the e-mail sent out before the tickets went on sale?

Those idiots at SONY BMG Music Entertainment (UK) Ltd. really, really, SUCK.
</rant>

My Lomo Fisheye Camera

A few words about my Lomo Fisheye Camera.

Starting with the technical details. The camera is a 35mm film camera with a 170 degrees field of view! The focal length is approximately 10mm (which is very wide) and the lens aperture is fixed at f8. The shutter speed is also fixed at 1/100 sec and there is a little flash available on the camera but no hot shoe.

Now, these are the specs of the version that replaced the one I actually have, but they seem reasonable based on the results of my first roll of film.

If I had known the technical details before I loaded my first roll of film I would probably have taken entirely different images with it. For starters even with a 400ASA film this is definately a camera for brightly lit situations!

Yes I know the very first photos I attempted with it were in a dark pub, but, the photos were all significantly underexposed. Even the photos taken outdoors in Richmond park on an overcast spring day were underexposed. However summer is coming, so I'm going to load it up with some 200ASA colour film next and hope for the best.

The lack of a hot shoe is a bit problematic for indoor photos. The built in flash isn't very powerful and the lens obstructs some of the light as well. I'm thinking that I might get a slave flash. Apart from helping to even out the illumination it opens up a whole barrel of creative possibilities, which I'm looking forward to experimenting with.

I do however have to find a slave flash unit that will also work with point and shoot digital cameras and have no idea as to where to start looking, so it may be some time before I find one.

That's about it, more photos to follow when I get around to scanning the negatives.

170° View

Fisheye Fun.

I finally got around to finishing the roll of film in my Lomo Fisheye (thanks Martin). Here are the first few scans from the camera, the rest I'll post later.