Photojojo! Lenses

PhotojojoLenses1I had been on for ages about lenses for my iPhone, but one of the problems was my hardwearing case.  I drop my phone loads so it lives in an Otterbox Defender that I love because my phone never gets damaged even when I drop it outside!

When I got the new case for the 5s it looked as though the lenses would fit with the case on, I even measured it to make sure.  So I ordered my lenses from Photojojo! and waited for them to arrive from the States.  It seemed my measurements hadn’t properly taken into account all the lenses different shapes, however that was easily solved! I took a file to the phone case and then removed the little bit that was in the way! Perfect!

The lenses (fisheye, telephoto, wide & macro) now live in my bag or coat pocket! At present the macro is my favourite.

A West Wales Winter Holiday 2013

I won’t lie, winter is always holiday time as accommodation is cheaper and the beaches are all but empty! 2013’s vacation was Newcastle Emlyn in West Wales. We splashed out a little and rented a lovely spacious farm cottage 🙂

Penbryn BeachPenbryn was a lovely beach, wide open space and hidden caves. The only other people around were local dog walkers. I always look for beaches / areas that have interesting features and the waterfall on the beach at Tresaith was very pretty. One of the rock formations at Cilborth looked rather like a dragon in my mind, but I guess we were in Wales 😉

 

The only problem with Wales is the Cilborthweather but I guess you could say that for the whole of the UK! Unfortunately, one of the days was so stormy that there was little point leaving the cottage as we would have just got soaking wet. Luckily I always go prepared and a DVD collection saved the day.

One thing to remember when visiting Wales is they do not provide you with carrier bags in shops, so keep one tucked away in your bag or it could be a difficult trip back to the car with your groceries!

OKDOTHIS

OKDOTHIS BlogI don’t normally write about apps but recently I bought OKDOTHIS which has got me hooked! I normally try to get out and take iPhone images but as I don’t always have the time to go to different places all the images start to look similar.  OKDOTHIS comes with ‘DOs’ which are categorised into topics, so when I get stuck with new ideas there is a whole list of ‘DOs’ to pick from.  Its helped me to go out and look for new images to complete the ‘DOs’. I like to see them as mini assignments and also find a home for some more of the random things I photograph 🙂

Photographer Jeremy Cowart is the creator behind this idea-sharing app, check out their website for more information.

 

 

Birty Dastards Off-roading – Cheapfest 2013

Birty Dastards; Cheapfest 2013So September was time again for the annual trip to Cheapfest – I know this blogs a little late! ;).  The Friday turned out to be good weather for putting out the punches, the night however was horrendous rain, turning parts of the site to a muddy mess.

Cows were the main feature of the first day of the event, 35 of them in fact.  They had pushed through a fence and invaded the site breaking apart into small groups.  Messages came over the CB of calls for help to locate and round them up.  It was not an easy task on a 500 acre site!

Birty Dastards; Cheapfest 2013For the first time in a while there was a night drive up to the trig point and a small but impressive fireworks display.  Rich lead the convoy of cars to the point. However, he didn’t lead back since he got lost. He won’t be allowed to forget that in a while!

Although the days away are all about trucks when the men are stood around chatting about the best lines, through the trees my attentions falls to the forest itself – not to say that they are boring me…honest! ;).  There are not generally any animals on the trails however this year we had to watch out for piglets! They had dug out of there pen and no one could catch them, not exactly natural wildlife but very cute.

An eventful trip – looking forward to seeing what Cheapfest 2014 brings!

Greenfields Forest Camping 2013

The last time I was looking online for campsites I came across Greenfields Forest Camping a 10 pitch site in the Dorset countryside.  It sounded perfect, camp in amongst the trees with geese running around, all the natural wildlife in the woodland and the deer that the owners keep in the field next door.

Greenfields Forest CampingWe decided to make a booking at the end of the season, keeping our fingers crossed for good weather.  When we arrived we were cheerfully met by Foo one of the owners, who gave us a choice of whichever pitch we liked as we were the only ones booked in on our first night.

Sleeping in a forest was great, complete darkness apart from the full moon and although I thought the noises of the forest would keep me awake, I slept a solid 10hrs!!! I think it was thanks to my amazingly snuggly sleeping bag that kept me so warm.  I have to have some home comforts! 🙂

It was to be a leisurely break so a cooked breakfast was definitely on the menu.  Thankfully we put up a tarp next to the tent that we cooked under and didn’t get much rain at all, only at night but we were under part of an acorn tree that was dropping nuts. I like to think there was an old angry squirrel in the tree throwing them at us, but maybe my imagination was getting away from me!

Greenfields Forest CampingOn the site there is a very peaceful lake, which is where we spent all of our days just sat watching and photographing the wildlife.  Dragonflies were a challenge and although I got a few photographs it was like they were playing peek-a-boo flying out from the grasses and back in.  The butterflies were much more obliging sitting pleasantly still for minutes on end.

We had an amazing few days and the owners, Foo and Tim were lovely and very accommodating.  I think we will definitely be taking a trip back again next year.