adetorrent; photography, lifestyle.

If you're one of those people that don't like conversation - say, for instance, you'd rather people didn't ask you about your film camera, then this camera may be for you.  Look at it, the Minolta Dynax 303si, it looks like your first DSLR doesn't it? Fully automatic with some program modes, it doesn't let you do anything about aperture or shutter speed ( or ISO for that matter. It detects it automatically).  It basically takes all control away from you.  It doesn't even have exposure compensation. There may be a way out - you could swap out the lens with one with an aperture ring I suppose. I'm not certain how that would work seeing there is no aperture priority mode on the camera. So you're left with composition, which some people would argue is the most important photographic skill anyway. In the right hands, this camera should give good results. I took it out for a spin in the park in less than ideal conditions. It's Autu...

We were meant to move. By we, I mean human beings. When not asleep, we are meant to be running, swimming, jumping, climbing, fighting, procreating or lifting. The vast majority of those activities have been nearly eradicated from our daily lives. Instead, we sit. We sit all the time. Ours is the generation that is sitting itself to death. When we're all gone, extinct, all gone to that giant sofa in the sky, there will be one group left. Dancers. They will be here because they've kept true to what their bodies were made for. To move.

Never mind the tyre-shaped lard deposit around the old waistline, an excess of a different kind was starting to weigh me down recently. You know all those services you signed up for over the years that started up as 'great offers', but then crept their way up your bank account, ever so slowly, until they were significant outgoings? Yes, those. I had accumulated quite a number of those, and they had gradually, quietly gained significant weight.  The vendors, naturally, hoped and (probably even) prayed I wouldn't notice that their 'unbeatable value' had doubled in cost. I did. And today, I shed the weight. Bluehost. British Gas. British Telecom. Sky. NatWest Bank. You've all failed me, and I'm letting you go.

I can't remember the last time I watched TV by choice. I just stopped doing it, particularly the news. There came a time when I decided there is really nothing I can do about a collapsed building in Kenya, or an earthquake in Vietnam. Yet, I got fed the news almost instantly as it happened. I went through all the stresses and emotional trauma, then simply forgot about the incident. The forgetfulness is to make room for the next bit of bad news - the mass beheading of innocent people in some rogue state somewhere, say. The saying "No news is good news" says it all really. For some reason though, I can't seem to avoid these two LCD screens on the wall of this waiting room. Every time I pass by them, they are displaying some kind of bad news - missing airplanes, terrorist attacks, tsunamis, something.  Today as I grabbed my early morning coffee, there they were, serving up the bad news. I couldn't hear the audio, but my heart sank when I saw the image...

I recently discovered this vlogger guy Casey Neistat. He's a web-celeb, or what is now usually referred to as a social media 'influencer', thanks to his over 3 million subscribers on YouTube. Every day he adds more subscribers than my entire YouTube channel . To celebrate this landmark, he opened the kimono and revealed the secrete to his success. There are three words, said Neistat; "Just Keep Uploading" Ah! Persistence.  Long suffering, immutable persistence in the face of apparent failure. So this is another piece of the greatness puzzle that I have found. This bird appears to understand the principle well. I watched it try for over half an hour on the same spot, dipping its head into the water in an attempt to catch some fish ( for dinner I assume).  It must have failed over 20 times before finally emerging with a wiggler in its beak.  Success, it seems, is the endpoint of multiple failures that is only reached by sustained persistence.

I spent some time in the forest this weekend. It left me speechless at times, the order in the supposed chaos of nature.  

There is an old African saying; "One tree does not a forrest make". African is in italics because I've encountered this saying elsewhere outside Africa. It's a universal truth, and is one of the bases of our humanity. We are meant to be in a community, not alone. In an older post, becoming truly great - hiatus interrupted , I mentioned "hard work" as one of the ways to be great. In the time I have been looking into this greatness concept, I have found another to be community. The adage "Your network is your net worth" speaks of that power of community.  I'm quite the loner myself. I like to do things alone - photography and other things - without seeking help or participating in groups. I don't really like team sports or games that rely on other people to play a part in the plight for collective glory. Like many, I probably exhibit some social awkwardness when in a large group. Well, change is here. I attended my first ev...