Best Number 2 Goalkeeper in the World

I had to include a picture of Carlo Cudicini I took at the Chelsea training day. Up to 3 years ago, he was the best goal keeper in the English Premier League. However, Chelsea signed Petr Cech. Who would have believed that he could be better than Carlo??? However, he was, and Carlo has since spent life on the sidelines waiting for his chance to be back in the team. You just have to admire his loyalty and patience. As if he moved to any other club, he would be their first choice keeper.

Camera Club Outing

At last we are experiencing Summer, and it means that the scheduled camera club trips out can take place without getting wet!!!!

Last night we made the trip to Mountnessing. I have seen a sign post for this village many times, but have never actually been there. Unfortunately the time we spent taking pictures of the windmill, the light started to fail us, and we had a choice of visiting the local church, or the pub. I'm affraid the pub won!!!

Canary Wharf at Night 2

Another picture from my Canary Wharf scouting mission. This time I tried to make the look a little different and used the layer blending styles in PS Elements 4. I settled on Colour Dodge to get this effect.

Canary Wharf at Night

I'm enjoying my night photography, thanks to my tripod. I was out last night really scouting for locations. However, I took my camera with me just in case. I was quite pleased with what I got. There are loads of locations around the Canary Wharf area for great nighttime photography. I shall be back.

Chelsea Training Session

One of the advantages of my sabatical is to have the opportunity to go to special events such as the Chelsea Football Club training day. However, because of the number of injuries, there were only 12 first team players present. That doesn't really bode well for the start of the season this weekend.

However it was interesting watching the players train. It was a very hot morning as well, with the sun right over head. However, the players do seem to put a lot of effort in to what they are doing.

It was also nice to see José Mourinho present, and hearing him shout encouragement to the players. He has also promised another open training session later when more players are fit. Half of me wants to be able to go, but the other half is hoping I will have a job by then.

Owls at Camera Club

Meet Mapple:

She is a Great Horned Owl from Canada. Those eyes are so mesmorising.

The camera club had a visit from someone who shows owls. They bought along 4 or 5 different breeds of Owl. I was amazed how calm they were with so many strange people, as well as the flash lights from as many cameras going of.

Unfortunately, I didn't really get too many good shots from this session. I do need to do some reading up on lighting.

New Camera

Although I love my Olympus E-500 camera, I have wanted a point and shoot camera for the occasions where you can't carry a DSLR camera, and also to have a camera with me at all times.

Before I switched to a DSLR I had an Olympus c750uz, which had a 10x optical zoom. I like the idea of having such a large zoom, as it would cover most situations. However, this was a bulky camera as well.

So I wanted a slim point and shoot with a 10x optical zoom. Enter Panasonic, and their DMC-TZ3. My first impressions are very favourable. The only draw back, is that there is no viewfinder, and all pictures have to be taken using the LCD screen. However, at 3", this is one of the biggest screens on the market.

Off course I had to test the camera. With a 10x zoom, I thought Toby would be a willing subject. Here is my first picture with the new camera: