24 December 2014

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone, and happy new year.

Now bring on the toys, food and Scotch.

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23 December 2014

Missing in Action

Yep, I’ve been missing in action for a few weeks now. With finishing up work for the year and the big distraction of a new camera lens, blogging has taken a back seat. So what have I actually managed to get done in two weeks.

Well game wise, my Japanese kicked some more American butt in a game of Bolt Action on Sunday. I took huge casualties but easily won on victory points for the mission. I managed to keep my focus on the mission and not worry too much about what Phil was trying to do with his out flanking manoeuvres. Then we got in a few games of King of Tokyo which is always a good laugh. I also got my butt kicked by Kevin at the South Auckland gaming club the week before. We busted out FOG and my poor Vikings took a right Royal walloping.

Mainly I’ve been working on my new photo web site and taking photos. But I have been chipping away at my Greeks for Hail Caesar. So I’ve now finished putting together the box of Victrix models so that means I’ve now got 5 units put together which is half my 300 point army. So 94 models built so far … only 50 fully painted. Which I’m pleased with my progress, and I’ve now got my painting schemes all sorted and really enjoying painting the Greeks.

Today was my last work day, which was dead slow, so I managed to put together my army list. Currently working on the Hoplite Greek list and depending on how far I get through the painting and how often we play I may add a few other units so I can run some other lists. At 181 models I’m not counting on going to crazy … not yet anyway.

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07 December 2014

Bit of this Bit of that

It’s the time to be busy. So like everyone else I’ve been busy at work and at play. First up I’ve now finished my first box of Greeks. So I’ve now got 40 painted and ready to go.


Now I move onto the Victrix box of Greeks for something a little different.

On the photo side of things since I didn't manage to get out to Marks to game today I cruised down to Muriwai in the late afternoon for some more practice with my new lens. I was hoping to test it out on some surfing, but the tides and waves were against me there. But the Kite Surfers were out in force, along with a few buggy surfers or land surfers… not sure what you call them. Dudes speeding around on the beach in two or more wheeled buggies. Looked like alot of fun.

I’m getting use to the “The Dog” … that’s what we call my big heavy new lens. (That's a story for another time) The lens is simply awesome, I can now pass as a paparazzi and the reaction I get from some people is quite funny.

The funniest was a bunch of non English speaking Asians (Korean's I think) stand shoulder to shoulder to me and take photos of whatever I pointed my camera at.
Hmmm….. sorry mate, your 105mm lens just an’t going to see what I’m looking at with my 896mm. .. but hey, they were friendly enough even if we didn't have a clue what each of us was says.

Anway, here's the shots from today.
Kite Surfing Muriwai

Kite Surfing Muriwai

Kite Surfing Muriwai



Kite Surfing Muriwai




Kite Surfing Muriwai





Kite Surfing Muriwai



Kite Surfing Muriwai

27 November 2014

Photo Practice

 I got out to Murawai tonight and shot a few frames and practice with my new lens and discovered that the Turns with some young chicks they were feeding. The extra reach of the new lens is awesome.








25 November 2014

NZ Warbirds at Ardmore.

On Sunday I meet Will and Mark G. at Ardmore for the Warbirds Air show. Will was wanting to get some practice in with his new Canon 7D MrkII and Mark G. had picked up a new Nikon camera body as well (cant recall what it was, I'm not a Nikon guy) and I wanted to get some practice in with my new lens that I had unexpectedly acquired.

Now I've been saving for quite some time for a new lens, a rather expensive bit of kit. One just happened to come up on sale, second hand... practically new with 7 months on a 12 month warranty to go. I couldn't pass it up. So I'm rather broke, but extremely happy... early Christmas for me.

So I played around all day testing out the new lens, and what a lens it is... Awesome.
Canon 200-400 F4 with 1.4x Converter ...Big , Heavy and Awesome
Here's a bunch of shots, unedited apart from my logo.