I’m a gamer, a miniature painter, a role-player, a cross-stitcher and enjoyer of good movies and TV at home. Here’s where I share my progress on whatever project currently takes my fancy, plus any relevant discussion on supporting technologies.
51 items in this landscape.
My interests are Astrophotography, Landscape Photography and Panoramas. Equipment § My Photography Gear My Camera History .
There are two aspects to my astronomy hobbying. Direct visual observation using my Celestron SkyMaster 20x80 Binoculars and Astrophotography.
For sure this page is a bit of a mess. Instructional guides § Astrophotography 101: A Lesson Series on Photographing the Milky Way – Lonely Speck - large MOC with multiple articles to work through on all topics Planning § Light Pollution § Light Pollution Map for Bendigo - I have this app on my mobile phone.
A list of the TV series where I've seen every episode. There are many more TV seasons I've finished, but not the whole (yet!).
I only ever saw a few episodes of Babylon 5 on TV when it first aired so my first full watch through was on DVD. Smart science-fiction with a planned arc over 5 seasons is still rare in TV even now.
I first saw Band of Brothers on TV, then DVD, then Blu-ray. A 4K version would be visually amazing. This is a TV series I could watch all day long. It is engaging and scary at the same time.
A dramatisation of Discworld’s Night Watch. It took me a long time to get through this series and I would tackle only a couple of episodes at a time.
Artistic, black and white, side-scrolling, button-mashing, samurai fighter. Short at about 5 hours to play. That’s enough. Here’s a screeshot. .
A list of computer games I’ve completed, added to as I complete them (which is pretty rare I must say compared to some people but which did have a decided uplift during COVID-19 lockdown in 2020).
My earliest memories of a camera come from my Dad and the 35mm SLR camera he had when I was young. The detachable lens, film canister and dust blower all fascinated me.
During my time at University, I owned a Commodore Amiga. I can’t remember exactly where I got the money (may have been selling the family Commodore 64).
The workflow I use to develop RAW photos.
This is the first of a series of articles I plan to write on how I take a photo or movie shot on a camera right through to archive with full metadata for future family historical purposes.
Currently a placeholder as I work out how to get the flowchart on From Camera to Digital Asset Management linking properly. See also RAW Photo Developing.
Alongside my Celestron SkyMaster 20x80 Binoculars I’m will keep an eye on telescopes with a view to purchasing one in the future more suitable to my needs.
Commissioned by the BBC for the 40th Anniversary of Dark Side of the Moon, I first heard this radio play around 2015 and only the once. It was pulled from Spotify not long after.
Tips to Shooting Panoramas § Ideally use a tripod, but can be done handheld. Get the exposure right Set to shutter priority so that ISO and aperture don’t change Set white balance to anything other than AW Focus Set focus to manual so it doesn’t change Shoot with plenty of overlap .
This is a list of the albums or artists I come back to time and again. You can pretty much guarantee that if artists release new music, I’ll be listening to it.
There is a growing list of people I’m following on YouTube who are my go-to for learning about photography. They are all people I can imagine spending the day with.
All things video games and the platforms I play on.
A summary of my current photography gear (cameras, lenses and accessories). With a bit of a wishlist as well 😉.
DUST is a wonderful and wide-ranging collection of short science-fiction stories on YouTube.
I have some very beefy binoculars for stargazing.
The authors on this list are those whose books I come back to time and again. You can pretty much guarantee that if a new title is published, I’ll be reading it.
To achieve a Platinum Trophy on a PlayStation means completing a set of trophies representative of fully completing the game.
I’ve been wanting to document and share my photography workflow — from camera to archive — for a few weeks now. The introduction of Adobe Lightroom into my workflow recently has meant a delay which has ultimate turned out for the best.
This afternoon, as I was importing DNG files into Lightroom, I found way too many that it won’t import. There is some kind of corruption in the DNG file.
This week I pulled my Canon 400D DSLR out of the cupboard and clicked the shutter button a few times. I’m through my camera gear and familiarising myself with everything again.
With notice that Netflix has made a series of The Three-Body Problem I’m revisiting the novel as an audiobook. Though I read it first only 18 months ago, I only have the barest memory of the story.
This note is part of the Gaming Teaches series of observations about what gaming can teach me when its use as a lens on life. So this is interesting.
Gaming teaches us the usefulness of chasing our perspective if what we are doing isn’t working for us. I use sim-racing to help explain.
This week I’ve returned to playing Elden Ring. Movement, combat and management of weapons, armour and spells, is all handled by a “controller”1. Games will generally ease you into which button to press when but after a while you end up not having to think about what to do and you just do it.
Today I spent some time playing the original Resident Evil. Games have evolved since 1996 in many more ways than graphics alone. To me it felt a lot like the text adventure Zork I with graphics.
I'm listening to the complete discworld series of audiobooks. All 40 were released across 2022-23 and it will take me much, much longer to listen to them all.
This game got a lot of negative press just before release. It was a game I’d been looking forward to since it was first announced at around the time of the PlayStation 5 launch.
This is a record of my effort building the LEGO DC Batman Batmobile Tumbler (76240). It has a total 2049 pieces. Finished it is sized 16 cm (6”) high, 45 cm (17”) long and 25 cm (9”) wide.
A game where I get to play as a cat. With 2 cats in the house, have to say it’s animated very realistically. Catinum Trophy § I have the Platinum Trophy on Stray.
This morning I finished Carrie the book and this afternoon I watched the 1976 movie. Book Carrie is by far the stronger of the two. She has a purpose and drive that isn’t in the movie.
This week sees the release of Forspoken, a new RPG for the PlayStation 5 and PC. My copy should arrive in a few days and I’ve been looking forward to it since I saw the trailer alongside the original PS5 release.
For the last 4-5 years I’ve used my Sennheiser 4.50BTNC headphones every day. The BTNC stands for Bluetooth and Noise Cancelling. For Christmas 2022 I was gifted a pair of Sennheiser Momentum 4 headphones.
My 2022 reading stats are in and this year I clocked 20,871 over 46 books. Since first purchasing a Kindle some years ago my reading has increased substantially, and my annual target is 20,000 pages.
I’ve been a fan of Stephen King since I first read The Bachman Books and IT in 1988. Under the Dome is the darkest of them all. It’s not the supernatural horror but the human greed that brings about the downfall of so many people and places them in horrible situations.
Every now and then I use Amazon/Audible’s Matchmaker tool to see if there are any Kindle books for which I’d like to purchase the audiobook cheaply. Today I picked up Leadership and Self-Deception and The Anatomy of Peace for $9 total.
FOMO generates extra dollars for the gaming industry, both PC/console gaming and board/tabletop games. Two words. DLC and Expansion. Both represent additions to the base game.
At the edge of your consciousness you may be aware that over the past few years there has been a resurgence in board games, tabletop role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, and tabletop wargaming like Warhammer.
Tubular Bells 2003 § I listened to Tubular Bells 2003 properly for the first time on 6 October 2022. I had thought it was more of a remaster until I learned it was a complete new recording.
Have you ever carefully considered a purchase from a store then when you got home realised there was an aspect you’d missed that made it completely unsuitable? I do it frequently with trips to the hardware store for screws where somehow I’ve managed to get the wrong diameter or length.
This is a record of my effort building the R2-D2 in (73508). It has a total 2314 pieces. Finished it is over 31cm (13”) high, 19cm (8”) wide and 15cm (6”) deep.
Nagash, known by many names such as the Great Necromancer, the Great Betrayer, the Usurper, the Undying King, the Supreme Lord of Undeath or simply He Who Shall Not Be Named, is the ultimate personification of death and the undead, an ancient, evil being who sought to conquer this cruel, chaotic world and bring about an age of undeath that will rule for all eternity.
This is a record of my effort building the LEGO Millenniuum Falcon (75192). It has a total 7541 pieces. Finished it is over 21cm (8”) high, 84cm (33”) long and 56cm (22”) wide.
It’s fair to say that the Lord of the RIngs spin-off, Shadow of Mordor will always hold a special place in my gaming heart. Not only did I throroughly enjoy the game and appreciate the mechanics, but it’s the first game for which I ever achieved a Platinum Trophy something I never thought I’d be able to do.