Notes From The Top Left Corner

[Chris Bennett]

Wow! That is a dramatic sky.

That particular spot is quite elevated - it's the shoulder of a hill which is kind of an outlier to the Bowland hills. We're looking west (obviously) towards an area just north of Blackpool, across the Fylde coastal plain, which is incredibly flat.

 

[Rhonda Smith]

Hahaha ! Who would have thought about the work camera... Still, it must have been beautiful to see in real time.

 

[Chris Bennett]

Hahaha ! Who would have thought about the work camera... Still, it must have been beautiful to see in real time.

It was RJ.

 

[Chris Bennett]

Well, the new leather skin for the Yashica arrived this morning. We went for a dark green.

 

[Pete Askew]

Very smart.

 

[Chris Bennett]

Well, it's a whole lot better than the horrible flakey mess that was there before, Pete.
The £9.00 camera just became the £23.00 camera. I have a plan for a project / learning excercise, which it will be perfect for.

 

[Chris Bennett]

I've never done this with a wide angle lens before and I thought it was about time I joined in.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Works for me. Excellent shot.

 

[Pete Askew]

Just as well you did! It has created a cracking shot.

 

[Chris Bennett]

Thanks gents.
It's a compartment of larch mixed with Beech, which I have a hand in managing. The larch will most likely contract Phytopthora ramorum disease (the word phytopthora means destroyer of plants) and the Beech has been ruined by grey squirrels. Every few years, I go there and scratch my head a bit, wondering how to deal with it. I then walk away with no answers. I defend myself by remembering a college lecture in which I was told that a decision not to manage is a valid management decision. Forestry is a long game and I'll be back in a year or so!

 

[Rob MacKillop]

The dandruff from years of head scratching might work wonders...

 

[Chris Bennett]

Chain-a-saurus!
Timber Harvester

 

[Pete Askew]

A great angle. That tree has it's hands up - I hope it was spared!

 

[Dave Farnes]

Good one. That looks like a fearsome beast.

 

[Chris Bennett]

Thanks gents.
Yes Pete, all the trees you see were spared - this was a thinning operation, so the worst specimens were removed to allow the best quality ones to have a bit more room to develop their crowns and bulk up in volume.

 

[Chris Bennett]

I was tidying up some bits and pieces and came across a niftily named device called a Bennett's Tele-X-tender. It was part of a job lot of bits and pieces that came with a lens I bought a couple of years ago and is a 2x tele-converter in an M42 mount. I don't really like tele-converters, so I never tried it, despite that fantastic name. Finding it again yesterday, I thought I'd give it a go, just to see what it could do.

No, it's truly, truly bad.

So, what use can it be put to, I thought.

Well, I could whip out the elements and use it as a macro tube. Maybe. But probably not.

What else?

Something I've never done before.

Something interesting and educational.

Pinhole lens!!!!

Bennett's Tele X-Tender / Lens cap / Pointy tool / Packing tape.

 

[Chris Bennett]

One more.

 

[Pete Askew]

Excellent idea, Chris. And, just in time for World Pinhole Day on the 26th April. Plenty of time to practice too.

https://pinholeday.org

 

[Chris Bennett]

I am quite pleased with the results, as I did no research on how to do this, or what is required. Just poked a tiny hole and stuck it on the camera! I'll be doing some more experiments in the coming days.

World Pinhole Day - who knew there was such a thing!?

 

[Dave Farnes]

You have gone and explained it now!
Remarkably good results.