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NaNo News

Well, this weekend I actually finished the first draft of the Floaty Boating book I was working on for NaNoWriMo, it is now with my editor. I know some of my readers have been eagerly awaiting new Floaty Boat episodes, and that was the original intention, but the book took on a life of its own and ran away with me. Maybe, over the coming weeks, I will share excerpts from the book that have not…

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Floaty Boat - Episode 9

Floaty Boat – Episode 9

After a chilly night aboard Gracie Mai we decided to have a walk into Whitley village as there is generally a car boot sale every Sunday morning.

It is a fair walk from the visitor moorings, across the lock and along the access road to the main road to get to the car boot. It is worth the walk however if the weather is fine and plenty of stall holders have turned up. As luck would have it we…

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Floaty Boat - Episode 8

Floaty Boat – Episode 8

After a restless night and little sleep I was up before the sun on the Saturday morning, as was hubby after his slightly more restful night. After a couple cups of coffee I grabbed my Nikon and got a few nice pics.

Once we were sufficiently caffeinated and hubby deemed it light enough to see lurking nasties on the water we embarked on our weekend cruise. The plan was to cruise…

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Floaty Boat - Episode 7

Floaty Boat – Episode 7

YES…. NaNoWriMo finally begins, and so I can update the Floaty Boat series along with writing a book…… Gracie’s Make Over saw us spend a night aboard and take her out for a short cruise after waiting the biggest part of the weekend for strong winds and rain to die down.

Our wedding anniversary fell the weekend after his birthday so we decided to spend the whole weekend aboard…. Maybe we’re…

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Floaty Boat Resumes

It’s almost November people. NaNoWriMo will be starting before I’ve had chance to blink.

Once again I will be blogging about the antics of Gracie Mai, hubby and myself. I’ll be updating you about our first full weekend aboard and a cruise to Whitley Lock. Have any more improvements been made? Maybe…. How is the colder weather affecting our cruising plans? All will be revealed……

There’s only…

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Landscape Photography

Admittedly one of my favourites. I love being able to capture a spectacular view; or occasionally a different perspective on a less spectacular view. I try to shoot landscapes with my 18 – 55 mm lens set to 18 mm, although occasionally I will have the wrong lens attached as I’ve been shooting something else and end up with a close up of the landscape. That isn’t necessarily wrong, I just think…

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Cusworth Hall

If you want to practice some wildlife photography, particularly waterfowl, you can’t go wrong at Cusworth Hall. The ducks, moorhens, geese and swans there are so used to people (and being fed stale bread) that they will come to you and pose for their photograph (especially if you have stale bread).  There are also usually the regular garden birds and a few squirrels knocking around the grounds,…

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This Weekend’s Challenge From iPhotography I'm not waiting until after the weekend to update on iPhotography's WeekendChallenge this week, purely because they've chosen 'Halloween' as the subject and I pretty much know in advance that I won't have the opportunity or inclination to meet that challenge over the weekend.

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DSLR/SLR Lenses

If you have gone for the DSLR/SLR camera option you are going to need lenses, or at least one lens, the camera body is pretty much useless without them. It is the lens that manipulates the light and focuses it on the sensor via the mirror (unless you have a mirrorless camera).

Quite often when you buy a camera body it will come pre-packaged with at least one lens, although it’s not unheard of…

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Floaty Boat PicTeaser

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Floaty Boat Postponement

Apologies to those of you (one or two) who are waiting to read the next Floaty Boat episode. I have the next two in my head ready to go….. but…… if I’m going to do a boating book for NaNoWriMo then I have to be a little bit mean with the material. I can’t use it for NaNo if I already wrote it before 1st November. So Floaty Boat stuff will be temporarily withheld, but only until next Thursday…

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Abstract Weekend Challenge

Another weekend passes and another weekend challenge is issued by the tutors at iPhotography. This past weekend’s challenge was ‘abstract’ photography.  Abstract is all about shape, colour, texture. It can be a little like those pictures in magazines where you have to guess what something is from a photograph of a small part of it; or it can simply be a picture from an unusual angle, or a…

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Camera Cases and Bags

Camera Cases and Bags

Did your camera come supplied with a case or bag? Does that case or bag provide extra space for peripherals and other paraphernalia? Do you want or need a different bag with more space or pockets? Then read on…..

Take a look on almost any shopping website or app and you’re bound to find camera cases and bags among the merchandise on offer. There will be shoulder bags, rucksacks, hard bodied…

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NaNoWriMo

The shortened way to say ‘National Novel Writing Month’. Not sure which nation NaNoWriMo originated in but these days it’s a global thing. I took part a few years ago, completed the 50,000 words throughout November necessary to call myself a NaNoWriMo ‘winner’ but never actually finished the book I was working on. We’ll call it practice for this year shall we.

A client in the salon where I…

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Photography Equipment

OK, so you have your camera; at least at this point I’m going to pretend you do as this post is a quick overview of the equipment that goes with the camera. If you’ve gone for a little point and shoot or a bridge camera there’s some stuff you won’t need, like lenses, but everything else is useful regardless of the camera you’ve chosen. As I said, this is a quick overview; I intend to cover each…

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Light Beams

Another weekend and another challenge from the tutors at iPhotography, this week the subject was light beams. Unfortunately I was too busy this weekend to participate in the challenge; I would have liked to try a bit of light writing or light painting. According to the wording of the original challenge post, and subsequent posts to boost participation, any light source was valid for the…

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Gracie's Make Over

Gracie’s Make Over

Our First Night Aboard and A Short Cruise

While hubby has been busy fixing all the mechanical and electrical stuff aboard Gracie Mai, in between shifts in the salon and writing blog posts, I have been busy prettying her up a little. Throws, curtains and scatter cushions are easy to come by and posed little of a problem really. So long as red was the predominant colour to match Gracie’s outside…