both sides

Imagine being able to see on both sides of your head... With a fish-eye, one can, almost. The world doesn't look altogether what one is used to. The new addition to the family is a Samyang 8mm f/3.5 lens (here's a review). So, using a DX sensor, this gives a 180° field of view on the diagonal with its stereographic projection. Or, in normal speak, a very wide angle with lots of distortion. Whatever it is, it's fun, and in my opinion makes for photos that are either interesting or rubbish, depending on how it's used, up to you to decide.

Wouldn't want to meet them in a dark alley. RATP security guys always look like they have a different night jobs.

Crossing over after the Tour de France. Here the horizon is mid photo, hence straightish. 

Solferino, amongst other things, home to the Socialist Party HQ. Here you get a nice feel for the fish-eye distortion where only the lines passing through the centre are straight. Less obvious in the metro tunnel where straight lines are few and far between to begin with. In my opinion, it is for this reason that the distortion works. If you look very carefully at the edge of fluorescent lights, you'll see some chromatic aberration, which I haven't processed out. Just one of those things that comes with squeezing such a huge angle into view.

So now you're in for the occasional fish-eye, let me know if it is rubbish or not.

Tour de France

It is impressive to be at the side of the road when the riders of the Tour de France come by. It has been a long hot tour, and yet even on the last day their strength is remarkable.

Positioned at the quayside, next to the Jardins de Tuileries, it was fun to try capture some of the action. Yes one could up the ISO, or open up the aperture to freeze the cyclists, who must be doing 50 - 60 km/h. Instead, it seemed more fun to try get some motion blur of the background. I won't let you know my success rate, but it wasn't high. Good thing they did eight laps of the finishing circuit around the Place de la Concorde and the up the Champs-Elysées.

Here are some efforts that came out OKish.

Is that Daniel OSS (46) of LIQUIGAS-DOIMO?

Difficult to be sure, but perhaps 153, Anthony CHARTEAU of team BBOX BOUYGUES TELECOM

 Francesco BELLOTTI (42) of team LIQUIGAS-DOIMO 

Maxime BOUET (82) of team AG2R LA MONDIALE

 Steve MORABITO from BMC RACING TEAM

Christophe RIBLON (89) of team AG2R LA MONDIALE

Boulogne fireworks

Music by DJ Omatic

fête nationale

13 July

The 14th of July is nearly upon us in France, which means fireworks in front of the Eiffel Tower. Outside of Paris however, fireworks night is the 13th. Here are a few shots from the Pont de Sèvres, looking down the Seine at l'île Seguin.

Elsewhere most people seem to refer to the 14 July as Bastille Day. In France, I'm not sure I've ever heard it called that, here it goes by "La fête nationale", or just plain "quartorze juillet"... The meteo predicts rain for the 14th in Paris... hmm is that what's called a damp squib?

Montpellier

It is hot in the South! Summer is here, even at 11pm in Montpellier.

She sells sea shells...

Very cooperative models by the seaside, although sitting still isn't their thing.

Wishing you sun and salt water.

London

Photos for now, write-up will come.

It's beeeeeg (and wobbly)

It all started off with a typical Air France lounge breakfast, it could have been the 10h30 to Houston, but it wasn't, this was a special weekend jol to London. What's so special about waking up early on Saturday to fly to London? The special part, was that there were 516 of us, and we weighed 360 tonnes.  

Air France is busy running some short hauls with their new Airbus A380. They sell it as a promotion, bringing this special experience to those that aren't destined for Jo'burg or New York. My suspicions were confirmed by the landing on the way back, I reckon it is more like training. Our A380 below, will apparently be taking on the Tokyo route in September.

Everything about this double decker beast feels big, one feels the inertia even when turning on the tarmac. Despite its size it is amazingly quiet, with completely effortless take-off. It really doesn't feel like one is going fast enough to get off the ground, and it certainly doesn't sound like it. The seats are a bit wider downstairs, and the walls are still going out by the time they hit the luggage storage, so there is a great feeling of space. Upstairs, however feels a bit more like a normal plane.

I really like it, except for one thing. They go about making this magic plane, and then they plonk in the old seat moulding with its crappy screen, handset and table. They've ignored all the potential to do something interesting with the interface with the passenger. It really feels like the changes are only in the fuselage, pity!

The wings hang when on the ground, and are relatively straight in flight, unlike the Boeing 777 that turn up with the effort of flying. I'm not sure I want to take on serious turbulence in this beast though. Everything is supple, so you wobble through the weather. I have always wondered why there are sick bags in modern planes; in all my flying, I don't think I've seen anyone hurling. I'm not sure it is going to stay that way, the wavy boat feeling may just do it in the future. Will this be the new vomit comet?

Being on the A380 leaves few opportunities to take a photo of it, so you'll have to make do with photos from it. From the top deck you do look down on the world. The A380 is obviously still something of a novelty at the airports, with at least 5 trucks stopping at Heathrow to take photos of us going by.

The Air France flagship coming home, crossing over the coastline. 

Mmm look at those lovely clouds, where's that barf bag?

Back home. The other models in the Air France fleet look quite little from here, even the 747 back there.

Wishing you a new experience weekend, without the wobble.

more Prague

The home of Pilsner, so naturally a trip to Prague must include a Urquell or two.

World Cup

I can only imagine what a party it must be back in South Africa. However, when talking to people overseas, inevitable the subject of violence and security comes up. Having watched the France, Uruguay game, I can now understand their concerns. If you attend this world cup, you probably won't get mugged, but you will return deaf.

So, forget the journalists and their quest for sensationalism. Your biggest danger is that monotonous goddam vuvuzela. Ja, you were all so excited about this wonderful African horn... what do you think about it now after the first two games? You going to make it through the month?

Delta

It's not called the Delta for nothing.

lagos