Tim Pockney Photography

Last day of the trip!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 15 Aug 2015 07:20:00 +0000

This is my last blog post for a few days as I'm leaving for home tomorrow and then after that I'm going to be going to Devon for a mini holiday with my girlfriend. Today was relatively action packed as it started going to Marin County via the tour bus we still had valid tickets with. After listening to another really entertaining tour guide we got on a separate bus and got to see the less interesting but equally beautiful part of the area. Coming back from there we stopped in China Town and got food at a place called Emperor's Palace which was the best looking place we could find. We made our way back to the room before making our way out. We decided to get one of the famous San Francisco trolley buses down to Fisherman's Wharf and found a place that did crab and seafood to satisfy the proper adults and me and my brother could have pasta and pizza respectively. Since then we got the bus back up and walked the remainder back to the bed I'm currently lying down on when I shall be resting until the morning. Our flight is around 3pm and honestly. I'm going to miss this place. San Francisco has really grown on me due to the multitude of different neighbourhoods with a rich history as well as the enthusiasm of the locals to be friendly and who are really proud of their city. They make use of green transport and make sure that big supermarket chains don't terrorise local businesses. One issue though.

So expensive.

Goodnight.

Day 12 - San Francisco

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 14 Aug 2015 07:02:00 +0000

Today mainly was taken up by standard tourist sightseeing. But today something deeper happened. I really fell in love with San Francisco in what we saw. We started in the morning by going to a diner for some good all-American pancakes to get the day going in a good direction. We took a city tour on an open top bus, seeing sites from Fisherman's Wharf to the classic Golden Gate Bridge. After this we went and grabbed an early dinner. I wanted something light so ordered ribs, thinking that it wouldn't be too bad.

Mistakes were made.

Out comes a massive portion of ribs, mac 'n' cheese and chips leaving me feeling like a smaller man. I did my best though and I'm still here so that's what matters!

We passed time around pier 39 on some rides and looking at the view and the otters before getting prepared for the night tour which had a tour guide who was the best one I've ever had. I learned a lot about the city and we saw some special views. I wish I could share but my camera had lost its battery. However it is being charged tonight and will be in full use tomorrow!

I'm currently lying in bed ready for the last full day in America tomorrow so I'm going to sleep. I hope you enjoyed this daily blog and that tomorrow will top it off nicely.

Thanks for reading
Tim

Day 11 - Arriving in San Francisco

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 06:40:00 +0000

So today we moved from Monterey on towards San Fransisco and I feel like this is going to be one of my favourite places so far. We stopped on the way by an outlet mall where I finally picked up the clothes I was looking for with a large amount of pride about me. We went across the Golden Gate Bridge to a viewing point a few miles behind and were treated to nothing short of a panoramic view. After a short siesta period we went out to find dinner and after a while we found a steak house farther down the hill which had been visited by personalities such as Hillary Clinton, George Lucas and more. The food was nothing short of exquisite and now we find ourself at the end of the night as always, lying in bed and writing about my experiences. I really like San Fransisco, there's a certain feel about it that is really appealing to me, especially when seeing really talented musicians in the street. I have also been in that sort of mood where when I heard there was such a thing as "nob hill" it tickled me a bit too much. I'm really looking forward to exploring farther into San Fransisco and seeing more of it. It has a very different feel to Vegas. I like it.

Day 10 - Last Day in Monterey

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 05:39:00 +0000

Today we spent the start of our last day in Monterey by going to a local town of Carmel where we found a car event going on, featuring a lot of classic cars. There were a significant amount of classic supercars from Porches to Ferraris. After a while we had seen all of it so decided to move on and went on a drive down route one along the coast. After stopping for lunch at a pretty nice restaurant with a special view of the coastline we moved on. I finally got a part of my wish granted and we went to a shopping centre where I came away with two pairs of chinos and a promise that tomorrow, on the way to San Fransisco I could complete my wishes and finish off the potential outfit! However that is early tomorrow so I'll have to leave writing this now. I'm planning on doing some photo editing on the drive to San Fransisco and will hopefully upload those pictures up to today then. In the meantime my Facebook has all the other pictures!

Thanks for reading, speak soon!

Day 9 - Arriving in Monterey

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 06:10:00 +0000

Today we made the 4 hour trip from Yosemite to Monterey, but with a pit stop. The most interesting part of today was visiting Salinas and the John Steinbeck Centre there. It was really cool to find out about the author of a book that is so prolific in its appearances for GCSE English in the UK, "Of Mice and Men" and to see which other books he has written. It was surprising to see that there was not a lot of activity in the town and it almost seemed to be deserted but for the staff in the one coffee shop we visited other than the museum. After this we pressed on into the final stretch of the journey to Monterey and checked in to the motel in which I'm currently residing in. We have had a walk around Monterey around the sea front and gotten some really nice views. We had dinner in Bubba Grubs which featured a standard large American portion of fried chicken for me, leaving no room for any pudding, unfortunately, but I wasn't complaining. After more exploring of the pier we headed back home for some rest. Tomorrow holds definite clothes shopping for me, since today was unfortunately lacking in that department. I'm going to get some sleep so I have more energy tomorrow to argue until I get what I want!

I'm still a teenager if I believe hard enough!

Thanks
Tim

Day 8 - Last Day in Yosemite

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 06:37:00 +0000

Today we celebrated my dad's birthday, meaning that there was going to certainly be something to write about and I could hopefully be able to type a decent amount before using the excuse of being tired and waiting for the next day.

After the formalities of the morning were concluded, we set off out exploring and came across an old hotel where there was a small exhibit and an information centre. Following this we decided to go to a pioneers museum village where there was a small settlement of old houses with some actors in to educate people about the time that the village was set in as well as to entertain, including a blacksmith that we engaged in conversation. I got quite a few pictures around here and following this, we went farther up the road and took a 15 minute walk down to the river. Along here I spotted that there were quite a few felled trees and following from the focus of the photos that were taken yesterday, I wanted to continue to highlight the other side of Yosemite, that this place had its down sides. The river was in a prime location with a very amazing view farther down the valley. It was deep enough to allow a sizeable number of people to swim and play.

We arrived back at the lodge at around 1:30pm local time because the one thing that I wanted more than anything was to be able to message my girlfriend before she went to bed, so I spent a few hours in bliss talking to her until eventually I wished her a goodnight sleep and got ready for dinner to celebrate the day. It was a rather fancy restaurant and I could tell this due to restrictions on what we could wear. However the meal passed and I became full without even needing a pudding. The evening was mainly spent in the hot tub with not one but two beers to end the stay in Yosemite and deciding that I needed some clothes, which can be sorted out in Monterey where we are going before our final stop of San Fransisco.

I'm going to get to bed now but I'll speak when I arrive in Monterey. Have a good day.

Day 7 - Yosemite

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 09 Aug 2015 04:35:00 +0000

Today was a relatively uneventful day compared to some of the days that there have been previously. I started the day ready to go out and finding that I had forgotten to charge my battery so I was with 1 bar for the day, limiting my ability photos wise, but I think some of the views made up for it. After about 100 photos my battery died which didn't lift my spirits really, especially since I knew that there was a lot that I could be taking pictures of. After a while we had finished and with some iPhone pictures of a rather stunning valley added to the collection, it was time to move on.

We arrived back at the cabin at around 7pm local time and the first thing on our minds was the hot tub. After a relaxed evening including a barbecue I'm now lying in bed feeling very sleepy. I'm not sure what the plan tomorrow is but it's my dad's birthday so there will be something to write about at least!

Anyway, I'm feeling like I could drop off to sleep at any second so I'll leave this for today and there will, as always, be another post tomorrow.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the photo!

For more pictures and all sorts, like me on Facebook at

https://www.facebook.com/TimPockneyPhotography

It'll be worth it, I promise!

Day 6 - Arriving in Yosemite

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 08 Aug 2015 06:57:00 +0000

So it turned out yesterday that we were actually 3 doors down in the place we stayed at from some friends that we have from school. Completely by coincidence so we had dinner and drinks with them before the adventure today.

I'm currently lying in bed ready for sleep after a drive of over 300 miles lasting over 6 hours from Death Valley National Park to Yosemite National Park. After stopping off for lunch and a pretty large food shop, we have arrived in a pretty big cabin quite far removed that seems to have everything, even a relatively decent wifi connection!

On the way here we found a really nice spot where we stopped at took photos of what was simply one of the best views I've had on this trip. I couldn't believe what it looked like as you can see on the picture!

We spent the evening with a barbecue and enjoying the hot tub and now I'm just lying down getting ready for bed. Tomorrow should feature some exploring and no doubt some pretty good photo opportunities. I can't wait!

Day 5 - Death Valley

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 02:45:00 +0000

After roughly a 2 hour drive away from Las Vegas I'm currently sat in a ranch hotel room in the Death Valley National Park. Today isn't over but I wanted to write more than I have done the last few posts because the past few days I was writing as the last thing before bed so I naturally wrote a smaller amount than I might have wanted to.

Death Valley isn't quite what I thought it would be. So far after arriving at the ranch we got some lunch as we had been driving in about 115 degree heat (I'm not sure what that is in Celsius but it's pretty warm to say the least). The lunch was in the bar that was on the ranch and after the food had taken 45 minutes and still hadn't come we ended up complaining to the manager. The food was put on rush and we got it relatively shortly after. Chicken wings were good, pizza was good and hot, but we had also ordered nachos which didn't arrive even after finishing everything else. When asking after it they turned up cold.

Great.

Well every cloud has a silver lining, we ended up only paying for a beer that my dad had ordered so all that food came to $6.

After that we decided to find the visitors centre and got a load of information about places that we could go and take really nice pictures and get amazing views. These ranged from Badwater Basin to Artist's Palette. I'm currently, at the time of writing, looking through all of the pictures I came away with and once I get to a better Wi-Fi connection I'll be uploading them all. That might well be when I get to Yosemite tomorrow. I sweat I'm useless as a person without a good Wi-Fi connection.

I probably won't be going out tonight to get pictures because it has been raining, which although is really cool to experience in Death Valley, it restricts picture ability. I'm going to leave it here I think and if anything else interesting happens I'll be sure to update the post or include it tomorrow.

See you in Yosemite!

Day 4 - Last day of Vegas

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 06:41:00 +0000

Today we had the privilege of visiting what is claimed to be the greatest feat of engineering sine the pyramids in Egypt. The Hoover Dam was built in the 1930s under budget and 2 years ahead of schedule. It is located on the Colorado River before it runs into Lake Mead. We got there and the Dam tour that was being offered had no discounts on and had a 2 hour wait, in a queue, to be able to go on it so we took a tour which showed us the generators. It was simply ridiculous seeing how big everything is and I think I got pictures of all the important bits! After this we went to a large outlet store where we had a little bit of shopping. I ended up with a new baseball jumper which I've been after for a while. I came back really happy and am ready to move on to the next location in the adventure which is Death Valley tomorrow overnight and then on to Yosemite National Park for three days, where a lot of pictures will be taken :)

I'm going to get sleep and I'll be working on editing pictures tomorrow on the commute.

Thank you for reading

Tim

Day 3 - Las Vegas

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 07:51:00 +0000

Today was the most adventurous day that we have had so far. This morning we took a helicopter tour over Hoover Dam and The Grand Canyon. I'm still unsure how I feel about helicopters just because they're this really small blob in the sky and it can feel a little claustrophobic at times. Despite that and the hideous heat, it was a really amazing experience. I took a few videos and a load of photos but I'm not sure I'll upload them over concerns of picture quality, so we shall see what happens there. There wasn't a lot else today until this evening when we had dinner in New York, New York and then went to Paris in order to watch Jersey Boys. I've got a history in musical theatre and have had the privilege of seeing Jersey Boys on the West End. This gave me a certain level of expectation of the show and despite a smaller cast, they were really impressive, engaging the audience in laughter and developing an emotional attachment. It is definitely one of the best, if not the best show in Vegas. It was quite late on so we are only just recently back after having to take a taxi back to the hotel due to fatigue.

Tomorrow we'll be heading to an outlet store and seeing the Hoover Dam more specifically so it should be really interesting. I'll speak to you then so I can try out this sleep thing, I hear it's really cool!

Speak tomorrow
Tim

Day 2 - Las Vegas

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 06:34:00 +0000

Today started off like the last, but we had breakfast at the hotel instead of going out to source our own. I ended up with Bran Flakes in order to attempt to be a bit more healthy. We set out with the purpose of getting to the famous 4 mile long Las Vegas Strip. We walked as far as the MGM, passing Caesar's Palace. We went through the Mirage and got to the area where they have dolphins as well as Siegfried and Roy's Tigers and Lions. The time spent here was getting me more and more sunburnt in the 40 degrees weather. I hate my fair skin. We also managed to book tickets to see Jersey Boys tomorrow which is one of my favourite shows ever, generating kilowatts of excitement! Food wise we have eaten quite a lot. We went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch and came away with 3 cheesecake slices to eat at our convenience and then went to Planet Hollywood for dinner, which was way more filling than it needed to be.

Tomorrow I am getting up early to see The Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam so I need to be going to sleep. The photos from my trip can be found on my facebook page "Tim Pockney Photography" if you're interested. I hope you enjoy them!

Thanks for reading
Tim

Day 1 - Las Vegas

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 06:43:00 +0000

Today was quite a busy day really. It started at around 4 am local time. We didn't have anything planned but I just couldn't sleep. It caused much distress to my basic ability to function but as long as I don't write the same thing again tomorrow I think I'll be okay. This morning we went out to explore around the city so I took my camera. We had breakfast not far away from the Venetian and Treasure Island and I indulged myself in the American classic of pancakes with butter and maple syrup.

You better believe we walked quite a lot to burn that all off.

I was really pleased with a lot of the photos that I took this morning and in the early afternoon I edited them and uploaded the best ones onto my Facebook and Flickr pages. Soon after this we went out for dinner where we had what could only be described, in my opinion, as larger tapas portions. They took a long time to arrive but they were worth it. We decided to watch a show as there were discounted tickets available and chose one called "The Dream". I've got some pictures from the show as they allowed photography as long as there was no flash so I'll sort through them tomorrow I think. We also have plans to see Jersey Boys as well as to see the Grand Canyon in a few days so I'm looking forward to being able to get pictures of them. Excited would be an understatement.

I'm currently shattered lying in bed, my iPhone heath app says I've done 10,115 steps today and I am boiling.

This should be a fun night.

Speak soon
Tim

Arriving in Nevada

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 02 Aug 2015 04:59:00 +0000

Hi all, today I embarked, with my family on a 13 hour journey to Nevada where we are going to be visiting Las Vegas, Yosemite National Park, Death Valley and San Fransisco. Having woken up at around 5 am and getting to the airport around 8am, it has been a really long day. I'm currently lying down in bed in Vegas with it coming up to 6 am in the UK. It's 7 hours behind that time here. I'm sleepy to say the least!

The flight from Manchester to Philadelphia was arduous, especially in the final 20 minutes with a very difficult-to-stomach landing. After that we were fairly nervous about the 5 hour trip to Nevada, which was from one coast of America to the other.

I'm hoping to write a bit more about my experiences here each day and hopefully by doing that, it can help paint a picture for people who haven't been before.

I'm going to bed to try and eliminate jet lag so I'll write more tomorrow.

Speak soon

Tim

Beautiful Places #6 - Birtle

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 13:13:00 +0000

There is a commute that many parents take between Rochdale and Bury to take their children to school. It is often a source of a lot of stress and is where a lot of the year is spent driving. Bury and Rochdale are not considered some of the most beautiful places in the world by any stretch of the imagination but this past weekend I found myself in a part in between which is almost the polar opposite to the vibe created by the two towns.

Birtle is a beautiful place that can be found just a turn off from the main road between Bury and Rochdale and as you pass sets of attractive, modern housing and the inn you find yourself in a tucked away part of the countryside. You can treat yourself to views that let you see for miles and the area has a feel of seclusion and calm about it. Although, as a hayfever sufferer it might not be the perfect place for me to go to in the Summer, it is safe to say that without that factor I would find myself there more often. There is a feel of a mix of modern and classic in terms of the architecture there. A lot of houses are older in the sense that they feel like they could be converted barns and at the same time, not far after turning off from the main road, you can find a set of houses that look like they were converted from a barn.

One thing that really stood out to me while I was there was a tree that was stood by itself in the middle of a field and I took quite a few pictures of it just because it just appeared to look like a larger version of a piece of broccoli. But it was just the instinct that it would make for a really good subject for a photo.

It is hard to explain everything about my time that I spent in Birtle but I created the video below using the photos that I have taken which hopefully makes it easier to see all of them. They are also on my Flickr and Facebook accounts if you prefer looking at photos in that fashion but I hope you enjoy them regardless!

Addressing YouTube.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 12:57:00 +0000

I wanted to talk about one of the emerging platforms for visual entertainment in the past 10 years and that is YouTube. Since its inception it has been a centre for people to put out different types of videos for masses of fans ranging from videos of video gaming footage to comedy videos and short films to vlogging (like a blog but on video). This creates a lot of famous personalities with large amounts of adoring fans who watch every video.

Before I start writing this I wanted to explicitly state that I’m personally a fan of YouTube, I think that it is a great entertainment platform and I enjoy watching a lot of videos, some of the creators of which are mentioned below, but there are issues which need to be addressed that I don’t think are covered enough.

The area that I wanted to talk about specifically is that a lot of children and young people in general watch these videos making role models out of these popular "YouTubers". I've come across quite a few videos by YouTubers that attract a large audience, namely kids which feature a large number of obscenities that remain uncensored in videos that are accessible by everyone. These mainly appear to be in gaming related videos but you can find videos that aren’t appropriate for children on popular channels such as:

“PewDiePie”https://www.youtube.com/user/PewDiePie

“KSI” https://www.youtube.com/user/KSIOlajidebt

(As well as a few others from a group of YouTubers called “The Sidemen” e.g “Behzinga”).

"ComedyShortsGamer" https://www.youtube.com/user/ComedyShortsGamer

There are more but I would be writing a post too long and it isn’t hard to judge what isn’t appropriate for children really.

In the United Kingdom there is a strong emphasis on making sure that entertainment that is accessible by the public is appropriate and that during the day time when children are likely to be able to access it, it is kept either censored by editing or bleeps or isn’t available. Television is the U.K features a watershed time of 9pm and after this time, more explicit shows are aired which wouldn’t be appropriate for children. It is very common that if something is aired that isn’t seen as appropriate for children in the daytime that there are a series of complaints sent in, as there would be on the radio. Musicians performing live on radio will intentionally not swear or utter obscenities when performing if their song contains anything explicit.

Currently there aren’t many ways at all to filter videos available on YouTube and if the creator isn’t listing it as inappropriate then it can be seen by anyone under 18. This means that numerous role models that create videos are being inconsiderate of their audience including younger children which is damaging to say the least.

A lot of people argue against the idea that YouTubers should be censoring their videos to take consideration of their audience stating things such as the fact these people make a living from it and by censoring, it decreases their views on their videos having a knock on effect on their income as well as not wanting to feel like because people younger than them watch the same videos they should feel impacted.

It is true that there are YouTubers who create videos as a full time job and rely on their income to live but this should be done responsibly, by simply creating videos that are full of obscenities and allowing children to watch them makes it irresponsible and it should be considered before pursuing a full time job in the area that it is a serious issue.

In the current state of affairs when any possible action from YouTube itself is taken out of consideration then it appears the onus is on the YouTubers themselves to be responsible for their videos as well as their audience. This can be done either through censorship, listing videos as inappropriate for children or making it clear if a video could be considered inappropriate through the title.

I would encourage anyone to share this post and make sure that people, especially parents, are aware that monitoring which videos are being watched is important. I would like to see YouTubers be more responsible role models and be more considerate about their audience and I think that is something that should be the case across the board.

I won’t carry on out of fear of a seriously long post and I think that what I have said gets the point across. Please do comment your opinion on the issue and let me know what you think.

I hope this was interesting. Thank you for reading.

The story behind the picture #6 - Flaws.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 21:04:00 +0000

I wanted to write about flaws and how they are perceived by the general population through this flower in my back garden. I took this picture recently of a flower that stood out to me while trying to have a go at a technique of photography called "bokeh". I was really proud of it so I decided to share it around on social media and decided to find a quote that meant something to me and fit what I saw in the picture.

“At the core of your heart, you are perfect and pure. No one and nothing can alter that.” - Amit Ray

It was pointed out that it wasn't perfect as a flower due to the wilting petal however that was far from the truth. I believe that perfection doesn't have to mean that every little aspect of an individual has to be exactly at a certain specification. Perfection can be a subjective term and I believe that someone or something can be perfect because you can accept their flaws and see the subject for what they are. For example, I think that this flower is perfect because it gave me the picture exactly how I wanted it to appear. I think that the wilting leaf adds to the image and that it makes it look slightly out of the ordinary.

When an individual is perceived by their peers as having flaws then it can be a stumbling block in life and can mean that fitting in with crowds of people can be troublesome. I speak of that from first hand experience and it has given me a lot of trouble growing up, but now I find myself in a position where I am around people that can accept me as I am regardless of the flaws I may have as a person.

I believe that a perceived flaw in an individual is a lot like the wilted leaf on the flower in the picture. It adds a little something extra to the person.

I wanted this post to explore the other side to popular opinion that perfection has to equate to every little aspect of something convening to a standard which is socially set by society. I want to be able to provoke active discussion about a word that can be really subjective depending on the context.

Beautiful Places #5 - Beaumaris Castle

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 17:36:00 +0000

Today I wanted to write about Beaumaris Castle. You can get there by driving roughly 15 minutes from Menai bridge into Anglesey to drive to the seaside town of Beaumaris. The town itself tells a story of history and you can feel the sense of it as you walk through with the amount of old building around. There are a number of tea and cake shops as well as ice cream shops and bakeries. It is a town that is not dominated by large supermarkets that you can find in places such as Bangor and local business appears to do well. The seafront has a pier but there is can be strong winds due to the location of Beaumaris geographically.

The main part of Beaumaris that really stands out is the castle located in the heart of Beaumaris and towers over the rest of the town. It was built as part of Edward I's campaign to conquer the North of Wales in 1282 and still stands tall featuring several walkways around the inside of the castle allowing you to see Beaumaris from the view of an archer about to take aim and also allowing you to see the extensive courtyard in the middle of the castle and learn about the history behind it. As seen in the photo it is also pretty easy to be able to get up onto the battlements and it is possible to get even higher than I was to take this photo. It is possible to get to a height where you can have a panoramic view of Beaumaris.

The reason why I consider Beaumaris, and more specifically Beaumaris castle, to be beautiful is that what is provided is a centre for education with the added context of the environment of a castle as well as being able to host visitors to explore the grounds. Relatively recently I took part in an annual "Medieval Weekend" where the drama society I'm mainly involved in, the Medieval Reenactment Society, the archery society and the Music Society from my University all came together to produce two day long shows of "Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table". During this we improvised a lot and went around the castle interacting with the audience and after two days spent imitating the fragile "Sir Percival" I can always now associate Beaumaris Castle with the amazing time I had with the rest of the cast doing archery, acting and having fun.

It was very worth doing and all I heard was that it was very fun to watch from whoever I talked to.

An Evening with the dogs and Nikon D5300

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 17 Jul 2015 20:29:00 +0000

I just finished a photoshoot taking pictures of my two Labradoodles, Darcey and Purdey. My apologies for the filming but I had a lot of fun doing this and wanted to share it with you all. I put the photoshoot pictures on my Facebook account - TimPockneyPhotography as well as my Flickr and on my Google+ collections area. I hope you smile like I did when watching this, I didn't want to edit it in any way because I know how much I smiled when doing it and I wanted to reflect it in the video.

I hope you've all had a good day and that you have an even better tomorrow.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the video!

Nikon D5300 - The New Toy

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 17:42:00 +0000

I got a package yesterday from a delivery man and as usual I ran downstairs to catch him in pure excitement and anticipation. I did this because this package contained my first ever DSLR. The Nikon D5300. I couldn't wait at all to be able to use it because I knew it would add something special to the photographs I was able to take. I took a few around my garden of the two Labradoodles, Darcey and Purdey, so they could introduce themselves to you as well as some of the flowers. I wanted to be able to try taking pictures up close (macro) of the dogs and my brother (portrait) and of the surroundings (landscape). I think that they came out really well and I have to say that I'm excited about the photos I'm going to be able to take next month when I'm in Nevada and down in Devon.

There will be a better quality of photos and I can't wait to share them all with you. I hope you enjoy this video that I put together of the pictures that I took and are excited as I am for more photos in the future. There will be some more Beautiful Places videos when I am travelling next month as well as some more stories to tell I'm sure.

In the mean time I'll be working out what I'm going to post next!

Thanks for reading, the video is just below and I hope you enjoy it!

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/14245469/?claim=tu2x9nt9yde">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

An evaluation of modern equality

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 08:56:00 +0000

Hi everyone, I wanted to write about this because it is something that I have found interesting recently and wanted to promote healthy discussion.

I consider myself to be an egalitarian, meaning I'm an individual in favour of equality and I wanted to discuss gender equality, as that's something that recently I've been interested in. I've found it intriguing to look in to modern feminism and the flip side of it, how in some ways it has become distanced from the dictionary definition.

"The advocacy of women's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes"

After looking into modern feminism, it is arguably perceived that it is not always considerate of other issues faced by other sexes and can be more interested in the issues solely that women face.

I don't want it to come across that I am labelling every feminist as a "man-hater" or anything like that, the point of this post isn't to start an argument, it is simply just to be able to put across an opinion on a subject that I have found increasingly interesting in recent times.

I think that the first thing to highlight is the name "feminism", which can be misleading for many people and can suggest bias towards one sex immediately which should not be the case. This is why I refer to myself as "Egalitarian" as it shows that I support equality for the sexes without any doubt.

I'd like to highlight abuse, be it verbal, physical or emotional. It is often reported when abuse occurs from a man to a woman. It is less so reported the other way around, almost to the point where we can almost be ignorant as a society that it isn't serious or doesn't happen. The lack of reports of it occurring could easily be attributed to the man not wanting to appear "weak" and sacrifice any pride because he is being abused by a woman, falling under the stereotype that men are always the stronger sex, which is not always true. An example of this in action was seen on the Jeremy Kyle show, where a man came onto the show being domestically abused by his partner. After describing the abuse the audience laughed. The perfect statement followed from Mr. Kyle...

"I'll tell you why I don't think you should laugh. If this was the other way around and a woman was sat here and a bloke had locked her in a flat and she had to jump out and injured herself you lot would not be laughing. You would be saying "He's a complete nightmare, he should be locked up and that's disgraceful." But somehow if it happens to a bloke that's funny. That's not funny, is it?".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PR5ryhnYtQ

I believe that a short coming of feminism is that these instances are not addressed as much and you could be forgiven for thinking that it is looked at as one sided in most instances. I got sent a link from someone I talked to over twitter @amybeccaaaron that shows Harvard research stating that the majority of non-reciprocal domestic violence is committed by a woman against a man.

http://newscastmedia.com/domestic-violence.htm

Another issue that occurs with men is with manipulation. There are cases that have been documented on television where women have fabricated a story of being pregnant and even pretended to be raped. There is a serious effect on the male's life when this occurs which is often disregarded in cases that I've seen. The label that the accused carries with him until it is proven false is something that can only be regarded as terrible for anyone. There is also the fact that he could face prison. It occurs and destroys lives, but in countries such as the U.S, Canada and Australia it is often seen as nothing more than a "misdemeanour" and men or women found guilty often face no time in prison. In this report in the Guardian it is stated by Prof. Claire Ferguson..

“This can be hugely problematic and has led to many personal and professional issues for the accused [including suicide], even when the police have proven that they did nothing wrong and are not a sex offender,”

http://www.theguardian.com/law/2014/dec/01/109-women-prosecuted-false-rape-allegations

I am not sure if pretending to be pregnant in order to manipulate another human is against the law but it should be in my opinion.

Obviously there are other things to talk about but in the interests of not creating a seriously long post I'll leave it at that but it would be good to have a healthy discussion in comments below, I think it's a good thing to talk about because it is an important issue in modern society. This isn't intended as a hate post or inflammatory but if it has then I do apologise.

A more photography related post will be emerging soon ! :)

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/14245469/?claim=tu2x9nt9yde">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

The story behind the picture #5 - Exposure.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 13:43:00 +0000

The story I wanted to tell through this picture is behind the emergence of the three letters on the right hand side of this graffiti, "MLG", as well as the indirect impact that these three letters can have on the players.

For those of you that don't know, MLG stands for "Major League Gaming", which is a video game league which has taken the whole industry by storm, featuring leagues for games such as Call Of Duty, Counter Strike and more. Through platforms such as Youtube, twitch.tv, and the resident streaming network for MLG, it means that there is a level of exposure and an ability for people to make money from posting videos of their gaming online and streaming their gameplay for others to watch. This increases how attractive the lifestyle of a professional video gamer is. But what happens when this information is presented to a child of say, 10-12 years of age, or even younger?

The lifestyle of a professional gamer is becoming more and more attractive to the youth of today with the advance in technology and a relatively easy access to online gaming. A lot of people do not realise how potentially damaging online gaming is to a young child, specifically in games that have an age rating of 16-18+. There are a lot of stories in the media today about negative effects of violent video games but a lot of it is not backed up by good, solid research and I would like to input my opinion on this.

There is a lot of criticism for games such as Call of Duty that it will glamourise war and make it appear "fun" as well as desensitising people to violence. Personally I do not think this game will necessarily glamourise war or make the idea of it fun. This is because the way it is depicted, it shows that it is not a pretty concept. In one iteration of the Call of Duty video game series, you watch a character go through the grief of losing a friend, and in another, you get killed in first person. I find it hard to believe that just the rating of 18+ does not dissuade parents from buying it for younger children but some of the content should do more than anything. I don't want to come across as saying that all people under 18 should not play these games because I know that there are people who are 16 for instance who are more than mature enough to understand that it is only a game. They also have benefits to a lot of people as they act as stress relief for many after long, hard days. My issue, however, is when children as young as 7 can be exposed to it.

In my opinion one of the main danger areas for children in these types of games is playing online. It is not uncommon for people who are older to be swearing online and to be uttering all types of obscenities and for it to be heard by the child. If these things are reinforced by others laughing or doing the same, a basic psychological principe states that the child will learn to want to repeat them in order to get the same reinforcement and to fit in with the group. It is not hard to look up videos on Youtube of children getting exposed to this sort of language and repeating it, as well as getting bullied to the point of crying and screaming by other players who are often over 18 years old. This is nothing short of cyber bullying.

I fear though that my continuation on this topic could make this post simply too long, so I'll refrain from further discussion and leave it simply saying that children will try and fit in with older players and this is damaging as they will learn things that shouldn't be exposed to people their age.

With the whole area of "E-Sports" being on the rise with the advance in technology we will have a greater number of stories on the topic in the news, with large sums of money and exposure often given to winning teams, making the vandal responsible for defacing the small building aware of the context of these three simple letters.

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/14245469/?claim=tu2x9nt9yde">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

The story behind the picture #4 - Autonomy.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 13 Jul 2015 12:35:00 +0000

The above flower is the thistle. The story I want to tell is one relating to the symbolic nature of the thistle. It is fairly common knowledge that the thistle is the floral symbol of Scotland and the story I want to talk about is that of the struggle for Scottish Independence and about why people are for and against such a notion.

The thistle has always been associated with Scotland for the current generation as a national symbol for Scotland. Legend has it that the thistle's origin came around as a symbol for Scotland one night when a Norse army was attempting to ambush a Scottish encampment. During this a barefoot Norseman stepped on a thistle and cried out in pain, alerting the Scottish to their presence and thwarting the operation. There are many suggestions as to which variety of thistle that it was but it has been maintained as a heraldic symbol for the Scottish.

In recent years a movement for Scottish Independence has really come into the forefront of politics with the issue of the North Sea being a main talking point. The Scottish National Party (SNP) pledged a referendum for the Scottish people about whether they would like Scotland to remain as part of the United Kingdom, which occurred on September 24th 2014, where everyone Scottish above 16 years old would be eligible to vote. Campaigning occurred from both sides in the lead up with the "Better Together" campaign being mounted in order to preserve the union.

It is no secret that Scotland and England have always had a rivalry, as is the case with many countries that share borders. Some of the reasons for seeking autonomy include the differing national identity for Scotland in the unique music and national dress. Due to Scotland being peripheral in relation to Westminster and the rest of the UK, there is a feeling that the decisions made are not always in the best interest of the Scottish and that with full autonomy over their own affairs, Scottish priorities could be met. There is also the argument that Scotland could have a good relationship with the rest of the United Kingdom but on a more equal level. There are also concerns about the allocation for North Sea Oil revenues and if Scotland achieved independence the "Yes" campaign argued that they could be allocated more effectively.

However, the "Better together" campaign also had important reasons about the maintenance of the Union which dates back over 300 years. There is also more economic security for Scotland being a part of the UK and economic impacts could occur if there were to be the end of the Union, such as jobs lost, prices rising and a loss in trade. The BBC would be at risk and along with Scotland having less influence in world affairs, no one seems to know which currency Scotland would adopt. There is also the argument from the "Better Together" campaign that because the two countries share an island, then defences should be shared. The campaign also argues that an Independent Scotland would not be able to replicate the high level of security and intelligence that is in the possession of England.

After the referendum, the results came back with 55% of the turnout in favour of maintaining the Union. The leader of the party at the time, Alex Salmond, thanked supporters and asked that the democratic result be accepted.

With the recent influx of SNP members into the House of Commons in England it looks as if Scottish Independence could become a major talking point once again.

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/14245469/?claim=tu2x9nt9yde">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Instagram Mission

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 12 Jul 2015 18:38:00 +0000

As I'm approaching the point where I can get myself a new DSLR I wanted to go out and get some more pictures. So seeing as I hadn't posted anything new on my Instagram account recently I went out towards a local field and took pictures to see what I could do.

I hope that you enjoy the photos and be sure to leave a comment, like the video, +1 the post, anything if you do to show me that they're not that bad!

Thanks for watching

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/14245469/?claim=tu2x9nt9yde">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

The story behind the picture #3 - Travesty.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 10 Jul 2015 10:00:00 +0000

With my 13th post I wanted to recount the story behind this picture that I took of the sea of poppies outside of the Tower of London last year. I was using my digital camera which was new at the time so I wanted to test the zoom. As you can see I managed to get quite far in. This is a memorial for the soldier that died in WWI and these poppies are among 888,246 that are situated outside of the Tower of London. In my opinion, war is a man made atrocity that causes the loss of significant life and although it might be argued that it is natural because it is rooted into us, as humans, to be the most powerful and survive (Survival of the fittest). There is no need for so much violence if both sides are more understanding with each other.

One of the main reasons why this poppy field has a reason to exist is because of the trench warfare that was used in the first World War. One phrase which was first used during that war which is most likely to have caused such a great loss of life is "over the top". This is the command which was usually given after the artillery fire had stopped and soldiers were ordered to leave their trenches and charge the enemy through "no man's land" (the space in between two trenches). This was obviously a command that was dreaded by soldiers because it was basically a death sentence on most parts.

A few years ago I went on a trip with my school to go to some of the places where battles took place and we saw a war graveyard. I think it was one of the most hallowing experiences I have had, just to see how many graves there were and knowing that each one was a life. It just doesn't bare thinking about for me.

The largest loss of life in WWI was the Hundred Days Offensive, lasting from 8th August until November, 1918. During this period the Germans suffered 785,733 casualties however the allies sustained greater, losing 1,069,636 casualties including 127,000 Americans.

I don't believe that there is ever a reason for that many people to die pre maturely in such a small period of time. War is a travesty and the effects go far beyond the time span of the war itself. Take Hiroshima in WWII as an example. If you look into the area of Psychology, there are reasons behind war given but I don't believe that there is any excuse.

War is a travesty and nothing short of it.

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/14245469/?claim=tu2x9nt9yde">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>