Author Archives: Sparkie

Norfolk field trip (remix)

Four years after my visit as an undergrad, I returned to Burnham Ovary Staithe last weekend to demonstrate on the Norfolk field trip. I think I learned possibly more this time, especially having to teach as we went round. Due to the vast quantities of mud involved, I took my first digital camera with me, the venerable Fuji Finepix A340. It is still rubbish, the zoom is still broken and it’s restricted to only one setting, but it forced me to try and be creative with it. Looking back I’m not sure which set are better, though last time I did have the advantage that it wasn’t freezing cold and raining lots of the time – turns out cold, wet fingers are less keen to take pictures than warm muddy ones.

HIGNFY

Last night Adam, Sonya and I went down to London to watch Have I Got News For You being filmed. For the price of a train ticket and an hours queueing we got a one hundred and fifty minutes of comedy which I guarantee was better than the half-hour programme coming out tonight (although that should be pretty good too). No photos I’m afraid, but you’ll see what it looked like on the telly anyway. Maybe at the end you’ll even see the back of our heads. Go us.

Odessa

Round two for the Bennett wedding, this time in the Ukraine! We had a fantastic weekend, if massively hectic, involving jetskis, caviar, a-capella Take That, private jets, concerts, cruises and borscht. Irina’s parents pulled out all the stops to make us feel welcome and we had a truly fantastic time. It’s a shame the weekend didn’t last longer, although we were so wiped out after just four days that we went to Greece to recover (more on that later). These photos are a mere taster.

Shamini’s folk music barbecue party sleepover thing

I took these a while back, when the weather was still pretending that it was summer time. I’d just bought my 50 mm lens, and this was a great chance to try it out. For £100 (thank you Taiwanese exchange rates) I think it’s a bargain. While it’s very plasticky, this does make it extremely light and (relatively) unobtrusive, and the large aperture means you can use it inside without the flash.