Posts Tagged ‘fuji’

and to follow on, here come the big cats, well and some meerkats because, well because they’re cute and some jellyfish because they’re pretty.

The light on the day way dire to say the least and my primary focus was ensuring I didn’t lose the kids in the crowds too often, I still came away with a couple of shots that I am over the moon with and several hundred more for the scrap-heap.

as previously shared

as previously shared

darn sticks

darn sticks

my favourite picture of the day

my favourite picture of the day

here kitty kitty

here kitty kitty

lioness

 

am I regal enough?

am I regal enough?

 

ok I'll move along then

ok I’ll move along then

 

why hello there

why hello there

it wasn't us we're innocent I tell you

it wasn’t us we’re innocent I tell you

 

we're

we're not aliens

we’re not aliens

I hope you like them and please do add your thoughts and comments to the section below, I’m obviously emotionally attached to the pictures and critiques and ideas are always welcome.

Hope you’re having a great day.

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

 

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oh what a hopeless host I’ve been, I can only apologise it’s been a hectic couple of weeks on both the home and work fronts.

on a positive note I’ve entered one of the Trip to Brighton pics in a photography competition on the dreaded Facebook and would be hugely honoured if you’d click on the link and vote for it by clicking like on Facebook. I’m not much of a facebooker but please feel free to add me there if you want to.

The theme for week 37 was in the garden and I’ve ummmed and ahhhed over long and hard, my own garden is definitely not for public consumption at the moment and I’ve done dozens of roses at night for you so I thought I’d share this technically terrible but still rather fun shot of the blogs namesake Bunny Chow chasing a fox in a neighbourhood garden (the gardens attached to a block of flats I don’t make a habit of traipsing through people’s back gardens)

Bunny and Master Fox esquire

I apologise for the terrible quality, it was taken with my 50mm and a big arse flash gun

Until next time

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

 

I have failed to find you a sunset within the prescribed time frame so have decided to go with a spooky moonrise as a substitute.

Moonrise over Croydon

Time has kinda run away with me this last week with Grandma Bunny Chow now having returned to Zimbabwe I hope to be able to dedicate a little more time to you all in the coming weeks.

I haven’t forgotten the deadline is fast approaching for Nick and Shannon’s monthly community collaboration project either, although I may have to miss out on this one as time and idea’s are rapidly running away from me, we shall see.

Next weeks theme is going to be metal and I already have some great idea’s lets hope that I manage to execute them in a timely manner.

for now though

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

 

first off I wanted to say a huge thank you to all of you who read these random ramblings of mine, I’ve now reached the landmark of 100 wordpress.com followers and having that support and following has been great. As some of you longer term readers will know I started rambling around on the web in frustration at shoddy customer service and to give poor Mrs Bunny Chow a break from listening to me whining. At the time I’d never even read any blogs and had no idea that this community even existed or dreamed that I could become part of it.

Blogging has become a hobby for me and keeps me out of trouble, I became really down a week or so ago when a close friend began questioning why I would be “doing shit drawings and putting them all over the internet” well my friend I do them because it’s my hobby and I gain pleasure from it and thanks to you good people out here in the blogosphere seem to gain something from my photography and art, I could have retaliated in person and attacked his passions and questioned what led him to do what he does in his free time but I was grown up enough to drop it and remember that art is subjective, just because he might not like what I am doing that’s entirely his right to make that decision and whilst my feelings at the time were deeply deeply hurt and poor Mrs Bunny Chow had to listen to me griping and whining, having allowed myself time to simmer I realise that in reality I would defend to the end his right to his opinions, I may not agree with them but the internet is a wonderful democracy and if he chooses not to enjoy my artistic that’s his prerogative, I’m not going to give up my hobby because it doesn’t float the boat of someone else, be they a real life friend or the occasional internet troll.

Next I’d like to talk about artistic inspiration, it’s a topic I’ve covered a couple of times before in these pages but would like to touch on again inspired by the lovely Patricia over at Pixygiggles who asked about artistic Mojo and how creativity can be commanded, well the simple answer is that it can’t be commanded, well at least not by me, there are plenty of weeks that go by where I battle to keep taking pictures but I keep going. I draw my inspiration and ideas from a variety of sources, Google+ and especially the Project 52 list have thus far inspired at least 34 posts with plenty more to come, Nick and Shannon from www.nickexposed.com and http://seeingspotsphoto.wordpress.com/ have been equally inspiring with their monthly community collaboration projects.

Then there are just people like the aforementioned Patricia who goes out of her way day after day to share her interpretation of the world and what it means to her at any given time, I’ve discovered so many people who inspire me to go out and create on a daily basis, I don’t share every failure with you but I do share plenty of them and do you know what sometimes I cringe but more often I’ll just look back with pride and think I created that, sure I’ve learned a lot about photography in the last year or so and might approach things differently if faced with the same opportunities today but isn’t that what learning is all about, do golfers ever shoot that perfect round and think sod it that’s enough I’ll quit now?

Phew this is turning into something of a rant, deep breath, I started writing today because I wanted to thank all of you who have welcomed me and inspired me to keep going and enjoy myself, at the end of the day this is my little fiefdom but all of you make it a happy little fiefdom so thank-you for being you.

My last little ramble is to ask opinions of phonography and the proliferation of filter apps like instagram and hipstamatic, I keep changing my mind about them, they’re fun, they’re quirky, they’re always in your pocket but the pictures that come out of them are crap, yet it’s that same crapness that I somehow like about them and keep finding myself drawn back to even when editing my photographs from my camera I find myself drawn back to retro feeling editing styles, is this because of the cliché or just because it’s what I’ve always found aesthetically appealing, I’m not sure I can answer that at the moment so I’ll leave the floor open for your thoughts.

The pictures interspersed throughout this post are not new, they’re just a few I’ve chosen because I liked them and felt like sharing them, I’m pretty sure they’ve all been seen in these pages before but if they’re new to you I hope you like them and if you don’t then that’s fine too.

Comment your lives away.

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

wow, gosh, blush lurvee alarm etc. et al, I am honoured and flattered to have had one of my posts recommended by the talented Matthew Durr whose blog I have followed for a while now, he posts lots of photography and plenty of fabulously geeky and in-depth lens reviews detailing such nerdy things as chromatic aberrations, corner to corner sharpness at varying apertures and all manner of other such wonderfullness.

I’ve learned plenty from him as well as admired his photography from afar from some time.

I can’t thank him enough for this kind recognition and urge you to check him out.

I’ve also just discovered him and added him on Google+ which my regulars will know I’m a big fan of.

otherwise it’s Wednesday not Thursday or Friday.

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

I love the architecture of churches and old gravestones so I thought I’d share this series of pictures with you.

 

I’m very happy with how they’ve come out, If you want to see the album full size click here.

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

I just wanted to share the below email exchange between an old family friend and myself as I think the rambling advice I give may be of some use to others out there.

Hi Mr Bunny Chow,

I will be over to the UK in Oct!

My plan is to buy another camera – only a point and shoot as I can’t afford a DSLR and the lenses to go with. Have been pounding round the internet as one cannot walk into any shop here to see things in the flesh.

My choice is between a Canon SX40HS, Nikon Coolpix P510 and Fujifilm Finepix HS30EXR.

They all have pretty good zooms – the Nikon is 42x. They each have similar features/capabilities – Fujifilm is the only one with RAW, which I know absolutely nothing. Nikon has GPS. Canon has the reputation.

None seem to have a socket for remote triggering of shutter.

Prices are much the same.

In all the reviews there are people who rave about their choice, and those who can’t find anything good to say about rival cameras.

I tend to favour the Nikon, because of it’s 42x zoom and from reading the reviews. I would mainly use it for birds and game photo’s.

Do you have any thoughts and/or is there anyone in your circle who could advise?  I know you like your Fujifilm Finepix HS20EXR.

Cheers Hwange

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Hwange,

I’ve been very happy with my Fuji as I was with it’s stolen predecessor an S5000 which gave many happy years of service, saying that I’d be happy to recommend any of your three choices below, Canon and Nikon are the two biggest names in Digital Photography and choosing between them is a bit like choosing a Merc or BMW, i.e. which badge do you want. Fuji do things a little differently, one of the reasons I chose the HS20EXR over some of it’s rivals was the advantage of it using standard AA batteries rechargeable’s are cheap and replacements can be found anywhere even Zimbabwe, I believe the HS30EXR has a proprietary battery so that’s no longer a consideration but what ever choice you do make then I’d highly recommend buying a spare battery or two at the same time.

RAW is basically the file that the camera sensor captures in its entirety so will be aesthetically unpleasing to the eye straight out of the camera and you will then need to use digital post processing software like photo shop, the advantages of this are getting perfect colours and tonality etc, but in reality my life’s too short and jpeg compression software is pretty good at approximating colours as we see them anyway, unless you really want to play with photo shop then don’t consider it as a concern.

Next up is zoom 30x is the equivalent of a 720mm zoom lens in old money, without a tripod you’re going to be on pretty shaky ground at this range so also consider whether you need the extra especially considering that you should be able to get teleconverters for all three.

Have a read of http://www.safari-guide.co.uk/fujifilm-finepix-hs20exr-digital-camera-review.php#teleconverter which is one of the reviews that led me to buy the Fuji in the first place.

He’s also reviewed the HS30EXR and he’s a Zimbabwean.

http://www.safari-guide.co.uk/fujifilm-finepix-hs30exr-digital-camera-review.php

If you can I’d highly recommend trying to find all three camera’s or at least similar models from each brand in your hands and feeling which is the most comfortable for you, some may have fiddly buttons or just feel wrong, I know this can be difficult and I bought my HS20EXR blind although I had handled it’s predecessor.

Now going off on a tangent I completely understand why you are scared of DSLR’s my Fuji is technologically light years ahead of my 6mp Canon EOS 10D which is now nearly 11 years old and battered, scratched and tired, yet it’s simplicity and solidity give me so much more satisfaction to use every day even if the pictures don’t look as good. The current lower end DSLR’s are very plasticky in comparison to my old magnesium alloy beast though and lenses are hideously expensive, especially seeing as you need at least a 300mm for birds etc, I’ve only got a very cheap plastic 50mm fixed length lens and am hanging on to the Fuji for it’s flexibility of zoom.

Still saying all of the above if making the choice today for a superzoom camera today I’d still think like most men and go for the Nikon with the biggest willy.

Hope some of that above waffle makes sense and hope you’ll pop in for a beer or seven in October.

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

when I first started this blog I’d never even read another blog or even given much thought over to blogging as a means of communication.

My early posts were mostly long rambling complaints about terrible customer service I’d received from a succession of terrible companies and restaurants and I was seething and boiling over to the point of driving my nearest and dearest to distraction so rather than continuing to vent my frustrations on those nearest me, I started ranting, initially on blogger and then shortly after emigrating wholesale to WordPress. Rather than finding a niche early on as my anger faded I began doing a few reviews and even wrote what remains my biggest hit as far as search engine traffic my glowing review of the service provided by the Courtney Boot Company. As a side note, nearly a year on from getting my boots back I’m still wearing them daily.

I also began writing a few posts about becoming a father for the second time and my thoughts and feelings surrounding that as almost everything I read or heard would discuss the mothers thoughts, fears and perspectives, that’s not to put those down it’s simply a comment about the lack or support I could find for us blokes who’re too tough and macho to talk about our feelings with real people, and where there is plenty of support out there for mums there’s not a lot out there for dads.

In the run up to the new year I gained a little fervour for food blogging and launched www.mrbunnychowcooks.com which initially gained great traction but fell largely by the wayside when I managed to stab myself and began my Ouch series, I also began my project 52 at the start of the year, rekindling my long-held passion for photography and bringing another change of focus to these pages.

Anyway what I’ve been meaning to get around to with all of this rambling is what initially brought you to www.mrbunnychow.com do you visit regularly, do you know me personally, do you like reading about me blowing a gasket, do you like looking at pretty pictures, do you subscribe or just pop in occasionally having seen a link or comment on another site.

Blogging success has never been and never will be my aim I’m just a curious geek wondering who my readers are and why you are.

Please do comment below and let me know as much or as little about yourself as you are comfortable with.

alternatively you can always send me a private message via rantingmrbunnychow@gmail.com

I hope you’re all well out there

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

tut tut tut I have been naughty, I apologise for my laziness when it comes to my original photography project, I have been shooting through out my times of absence and although I was distracted by the scavenger hunt from Nick and Shannon and then my ouch series but I think it’s high time for a bit of a catch up, the pictures were all taken in the correct weeks I’ve just not had the time or perhaps just not made the time to edit and post them here.

Week 25 the theme was love and as I’m in a rush and still feeling anti computer and lazy I’m just going to go with a cliché night shot of some roses.

Love

Week 26 the theme was water and again I’m going to stick with roses

Water

Week 27 the theme was red white and blue.

some people take patriotism a touch too far

Week 28 the theme was my home town which as I don’t live in what I consider to be my home town wasn’t easy so I’ve used my adopted home town of Croydon instead. As Croydon is a pretty grimy, dingy and depressing place I’ve tried to reflect that in my chosen editing style for this shot of Croydon’s iconic 50p building. It has been identified before as one of Britain’s biggest eye sores although I quite like it.

Croydon

Week 29 the theme was Summer/Winter and as it has been such a crap summer so far I’m again going to share a picture of a dripping wet rose with a grey miserable sky as I’ve yet to get a pretty summers day captured on sensor.

global warming my arse, this is summer?

Thankfully the weather this week is a vast improvement but seeing as I’m still pretty down I’ve stuck with gritty black and white for week 30’s theme of The S-Curve

I promise I’ll do my best to get things back on track and my posts up to date moving forward.

Both this months project from Nick and Shannon and Week 31’s suggested post are “silhouette” so hopefully I’ll be able to combine them and bring you something new and exciting next week.

As I’m sure you can tell from the above pictures themselves I’ve been pretty disheartened and feeling sorry for myself over the last couple of weeks but the sun is shining today and my hand is feeling better every day so whilst I have a few more dark and dreary things that I want to share with you in the pipeline fingers crossed that this dreariness is all in the past now.

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

HEY CREATIVES!!  IT IS THAT TIME!!!!

We are excited to bring you this months Community Collaboration Project (CCP? That could catch on ;)  )!!

But first, before we get into the AWESOME project theme, Shannon and I wanted to send out a HUGE thank you to all who have participated in our last couple projects!! With out all of your continued support, these projects would be uber lame. We look forward to continuing to make these projects bigger and better in order to consistently stretch your creative imagination and skill sets. :)

So with that being said… if you’ve been following along on our Facebook pages (you doooo follow the Nick Exposed and Seeing Spots pages, right??) then you know we’ve been leaving you clues about this month’s theme.  The trick was…the fact that we were leaving clues was the clue!  So, without further ado… We bring you this month’s CCP theme…

THE SCAVENGER HUNT!!

Are you excited? Because we sure as hell are!!

Not sure how much explanation this project needs, but here’s the Nitty Gritty:

15 days and more than 15 scavenger ideas to shoot. We are urging you to do as many possible – one per day would be great – but we are including a few extras for those over-achievers out there.  Now we know, this is an ambitious project, but we’re confident that will all give it as much as you can. You can do all 15 as a once a day kind of thing, or you can pick and choose from the list and shoot just a small handful of ideas. We chose a wide range of somewhat off the wall, creative ideas for you guys to pick through, each with endless possibilities on how you can approach it.

The project will go from today June 15th to Sunday June 30th at midnight EST.

Anyone and everyone is welcome to join in on the photography fun.  *hint hint hint* Share with your friends! Spread the word! Post on your Facebook/Twitters/G+/local grocery store community board. Reblog! Scream it from the rooftops! (But make sure it’s before 10pm….otherwise the neighbors get grumpy. :-)  *end hint*  Ahem…now where were we?

Oh yes!  This project is for you, Aunt Betty and your smelly brother Sam.  It’s for your neighbor, your neighbor’s neightbor and their Uncle Bob.  Anyone with a way to capture images is welcome to join us.  Shoot with your slr, dslr, point n shoot or camera phone. Hell we don’t care if you shoot with your little sisters Barbie camera. Just get creative with it.

As always please send an email to submit@nickexposed.com with “Count me in for the Scavenger Hunt” in the subject line. Also include the blog/web address you will want your pictures linked to when we put together the gallery at the end of the month.

Below is the list of scavenger ideas to choose from. We cant wait to see your creative interpretation of the different items.

  • “Chuck Norris Was Here”
  • “Big Foot Footprint”
  • Reflected Love
  • Abstract Self Portrait
  • Framed Moon
  • “Whats your sign”
  • Anti-gravity
  • Unusual Perspective
  • Abandoned
  • Silence
  • Pride and Joy
  • Emerging Star
  • Buried Treasure
  • Sparkler fun
  • Clownin Around Upside-down
  • Lyric Quotograph
  • Summer
  • Patriotism
  • Night

We are truly excited to see what you can do with this collaborative project.  We know what creative people you are – and it’s a real treat to see how you interpret these challenges.  It’s a great source of inspiration for us, and for the other participants!

Keep checking our pages, FB’s and twitters (SSP & NE) for updates and shout outs!