Stuart Herbert

Like many before me, I’ve swapped my Dell Inspiron laptop with a nice shiny MacBook Pro. For the money, they’re the best Intel-based laptops around – and I must say that the reviews you may have read online do not do them justice.

The next step is to switch all my photography and music apps over from Windows. Music was easy enough – Logic Express will do me just fine. I wish I’d picked up a copy of the Rhythm Jam Pack at the time, but I can pop into Cardiff next week and put that right.

Photography … that’s a bit more of a challenge. I’ve started playing with the Lightroom beta, and whilst I can see the attraction, there’s a couple of tricks I rely on in Photoshop that I haven’t figured out how to reproduce in Lightroom yet. I don’t want to buy Photoshop until CS3 is out, so for now I might be better off buying a copy of Photoshop Elements, and upgrading to CS3 if I feel the need next year.

The other thing I need to do over the Christmas holidays is either upgrade or replace b2evo, the blogging engine I’ve been using this past year. Unfortunately, Safari doesn’t get on with the admin interface, and Firefox continues to be too much of a memory hog for me to want to stick with it as my main browser.

Just in case anyone is reading this and getting worried that I’ll be completely turning my back on Linux … that isn’t going to happen. Linux on the desktop has always been my preferred development platform, and that isn’t going to change. All I’m doing is switching my preferred creative platform from Windows XP to Mac OS X.

I’ve been lucky enough to make two trips this year to Portmouth’s Historic Dockyard, and you can be sure that my camera was with me on both trips

We English have a long and glorious naval tradition, what with being an island nation and all (especially when it comes to stuffing it to our European neighbours), and major parts of that history is preserved and displayed at the Historic Dockyard. Without a doubt, the three main attractions are the Mary Rose, HMS Victory, and HMS Warrior, with the harbour tour boat a close fourth (especially if you like modern naval warships). There’s far more than you can see in a single day, and its a real treat for all the family.

After the Historic Dockyard has closed for the evening, it’s just a short way past the Spinnaker Tower to the many places to eat at Gunwarf Quays (ah, this is what Cardiff Bay should have been). I haven’t been up the Spinnaker Tower myself yet, but its quite a view just looking at it from the ground – or from the harbour tour boat!

All in all, this place is a serious tourist attraction and magnet; so I was very surprised to find that there wasn’t a group on Flickr for the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. I’ve set one up, and uploaded my better photos from the first two trips. Hopefully the group’ll soon attract more members, and serve as both a great preview and a great reminder of what a fun day out the Historic Dockyard is.

If you do decide to visit the Historic Dockyard with your camera, there’s a few things to keep in mind. Amateur photography is allowed, but professional photography is by prior arrangement only. Photography isn’t allowed in all areas (especially onboard HMS Victory); check the signs around you or ask one of the many helpful guides for advice before clicking away. Many of the more interesting parts of the ships (and the entire Mary Rose ship hall) are very dark. You’ll probably want a tripod, and/or a beanbag, even if you have VR/OS lenses or anti-shake cameras. Don’t count on being able to rest your camera on the fittings or the decks in order to get a stable shot; chances are you’ll find yourself blocking the way of other tourists whilst doing so, and end up being asked to move along by one of the guides. Finally, it may be a Historic Dockyard, but it’s also a Naval Dockyard, so don’t be surprised to find that there’s just too much grey going on if you’re not enjoying blue skies!

(Okay, that’s enough with the advert – now go look at the photos on Flickr )

Kristi and I have just gotten back from a weekend break at Whitby, up on the North Yorkshire coast. Whitby is famous for its magnificent abbey, and for being a Mecca for both photographers and goths – Bram Stoker is said to have written Dracula whilst staying in the town.

We had a great time up there, and I managed to snag a few photos with the D200 before the battery ran flat. We were really lucky with the weather; we got there the day after a full moon, and there wasn’t a cloud to be seen day or night until it was time to come home.

Despite it’s bulk and weight, I’m starting to use the 80-400 lens more often than not. I think half the photos I’ve uploaded to Flickr were taken with it. I have been looking around for the Sigma 70-300 lens (I was very impressed with Sebastian’s), but I’m told there’s a massive shortage of these in the UK; I’ll be sticking with what I have at least until Christmas.

Looking at the results, I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing

I’ve finished processing and uploading the rest of my photos from the weekend visit to the Wildwood Trust over in Kent. I ended up with 30 photos from the day.

The whole set of photos were taken using the Sigma 80-400mm lens. About two-thirds of the images were shot in RAW mode, and then converted to JPEGs through Photoshop. I’m very pleased with the level of detail that the Sigma lens has captured, and the colours from the shots. I’m particularly pleased with the contrast on the shots, making working with the RAW files a lot easier than I’d expected. I haven’t been through the photos with a fine tooth-comb, but I haven’t noticed any chromatic abberations. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the Sigma 80-400mm lens to anyone looking for a telephoto zoom lens for the Nikon D200.

These photos were taken using the older version of the lens. I was basically too impatient to wait for stocks of the new DG version of the lens to arrive in the UK. Apart from the fact that the lens weighs a tonne – it’s too heavy for the head of my existing tripod – I’m a happy camper.

Sebastian, I’ve finally posted a picture taken with the Sigma 80-400 mm lens. We’ve just gotten back from the Wildwood Trust over in Kent. Whilst we were there, I managed to snag this picture of a raven using the new lens. The image I’ve posted is a crop, but even so I’m very pleased with the level of detail that the new lens captured.

I’ll get a few more shots from Wildwood up on the gallery tomorrow.