mjhughes.co.uk

I keep coming across amazing tilt shift images. If you’ve never heard of this, it’s a photographic technique for creating a shallow depth of field (using lenses or digital post-processing) and can be used to turn a suitable photo into a fake miniature. There are many ways to do this using the digital post-processing route – many people do it in Photoshop, there are also online tools (e.g. Tilt Shift Maker). I thought I’d have a go at doing it in Aperture. Read the rest of this entry »

argh … fucking incompetence all around … DVLA never sent me a reminder before my driving licence picture expired (like they say they will) and now I can’t hire a car when I need one, Islington Council are just shit, Amazon and John Lewis deliveries all late and now I’m away for a week, Interflora/Royal Mail have failed me massively, don’t even ask about British Gas – they are just totally disfunctional … I mean c’mon guys, like I haven’t got enough shit to deal with in this life! Even this fucking facebook post says it is too long to be posted so I try and post it via my Wordpress site and I can’t remember my f’ing pasword! ARGHHHHHHH to the power of 10.

OK, so it’s not the most daring of overland journeys ever undertaken but then it’s not a journey most people would ever have to do overland. The Ryanair flight should’ve taken 135 minutes and cost £80, we did it in exactly 48 hours at a cost of £500 per person. Read the rest of this entry »

Night O is the deviant branch of standard orienteering. Tonight it involved navigating around Hampstead Heath in the dark and the pouring rain with nothing but a headtorch and a compass. Now, I’ve been orienteering since I was a teenager and I love it but until tonight I’d never done a night event. Navigation skills are really put to the test since you can’t see more than 5-20 metres away (depending on the power of your headgear … more on that later!). Techniques that normal orienteers use sparingly in daylight become essential in the dark – pacing, use of handrails and catching features for example. Read the rest of this entry »

Last September we went on a beach holiday to the Turkish village of Çiralı. Before going I’d had a quick Google to see if I could get into the nearby mountains easily and Mt Tahtali (Tahtalı Dag or Mt Olympos) seemed the best option. Found in the Bey Mountains in the western branch of the Taurus (Toros) Mountains, it rises to 2366m from the coast 9km away and rather handily, a new cable car had opened up in 2007 allowing access to the top. For several days I’d been able to see the mountain from the beach and it had to be conquered! Read the rest of this entry »