In The Day,

I played with 2 more photographs,

that I took in Kelsey Park, a duck with ducklings, they all looked so cute,

and another one of the young heron stretching its wings, another few days and I think he will finally take to the air, I then had a final look/play with them a tad more, 

before printing them all off on A3 size paper, 

I have to say I am quite pleased with these, 

the trip to the Fujifilm centre in London yesterday was so worthwhile, it was now time for my evening meal, but as I prepared it,

2 of the foxes arrived, a large one, and one of the latest litter of cubs I imagine,

normally there are all sorts of 'unpleasantness' between them, but today all was peace and quite, 

next time for my evening read and sherry, 

for my meal this evening a huge massaman curry that Diana had made for me, 'Cheers!', after which it was a film, which I must admit I joined partway through,

 Midway, a huge film in every way, but one small point, a great play was made about a drink called a Mai Tai, the film was set in 1942, it is a fact that the Mai Tai drink was not invented until 1945! in 1942 there was no such drink in Hawaii, I would have thought someone in the studio would have picked up on that, but there it is, moving on, I continued to watch the excellent series,

 Pillars of the Earth, I have to say I just love series like this, as it happened just as an episode finished Diana arrived home, we decided to book our tickets to Thailand and for Diana her ticket to the Philippines, so just a couple of days after I return from a photography workshop in Namibia, you can see some of the details here, I will be off again! it was well past midnight by the time we had done all of that, so we were both off to bed.

I Eventually Decided That I Needed Professional Help,

my photography with the new lens and camera was not getting any better, 

and I am sure it is all my fault, so out into a cloudless blue sky day,

 

I passed the white wisteria, 

which I must admit did not have the aroma of the blue wisteria at the entrance to the park,

a look at the side garden of Foxgrove Lodge, 

the blue wisteria growing over the lodge, 

I was soon on my way to London, yesterday I had called the Fujifilm House of Photography, I was going to call in there with the camera and 500mm lens, hopefully to find out what I was doing incorrectly, in case you do not know it is,

image courtesy Amateur Photographer, a Fujifilm GFX 100S II camera and 500mm lens with the 1.4 converter, 

Battersea power station behind me, 

as I alighted the train, on the next platform, the Orient Express, 

I caught a tube from Victoria to Green Park, then disaster, a tube driver strike! I was told at the closed station to catch a number 23 bus to Covent Garden, I did, and it did not, it went in completely the wrong direction, so back to the bus stop opposite the Ritz at Green Park where I caught a number 9 that did indeed stop near Covent garden, 

I took a few snaps along the way, Eros,

at Piccadilly Circus, 

Trafalgar Square, 

with the lions,

and in the distance the fountains,

and here I was at the Covent Garden bus stop, but the tube station was on the other side of it, 

I needed to find the tube station as I could walk to the Fujifilm centre from there, 

though Covent Garden,

and its attractions,

the Nags Head pub looking very impressive,

and here is the problem, tube stations all over London closed, apparently a "full and final" three-year deal proposed in October 2025 aims to raise the base salary from £71,170 to at least £77,692 by April 2027 is not enough, the average London Underground driver's salary of over £64,000 is only 132% above the UK national average, so there it is, the good news was that having found the station,

I knew where to walk to the Fujifilm centre, 

a bit of street art on the way,

and here it is, 

inside, smart modern, 

and very welcoming, I chatted to one of the assistants, as soon as she put my memory card on her computer she knew something was wrong, she mention there were artefacts and aberrations as well as the shoots having the wrong focal point, crikey all in moments, she then called one of her colleagues over and went through what I was doing wrong, a switch on the lens,

 was not set to AF-L or AF, I was using an electronic shutter which was not compatible with the style of photography I was doing, also I was shooting in 'C' mode, I should have been in 'S' mode and a few other things, I was more than impressed with not only the level of skill the staff had, but also the time they took to help me with my problems, they also suggested I might like to try one of their 1-2-1 meetings or try one of their learning workshops, I will be booking a beginners course in the very near future,

filled with new found confidence I returned to Beckenham, 

off of the train and past the green, 

and into Kelsey Park,

the river level, 

the lowest I had seen it for years, 

past the weir, and I was soon snapping away, I could hardy wait to return home to see the results,  

I passed the crazy golf in the park, still not yet open,

and past the house by the park entrance, 

I called into the Park Langley Delicatessen, I had started out early and not had a breakfast or lunch, so a snack it was and to pick up a few treats for Diana, on the wall a exhibition of photographs from the club I belong to the Beckenham Photographic Society, next a bus back to the park, 

walking past the gate house, Foxgrove Lodge, the wisteria looked so nice, 

into the park and home, where it was time to see the results of my visit to Fujifilm, I decided to play with just 2 of the many that looked so much better than all of my previous attempts with the camera and 500mm lens,

the first one of the fledgling herons attempts to spread its wings and take to the air, 

I will be the first to admit that new born ducklings are so cute, but I can not find the same cuteness in a Coot's young, it must be me, I was so very pleased with the results so a very big 'Thank You' to the Fujifilm House of Photography, and the staff there that helped me so much, then time for my evening read and sherry,

the latest issue of Private Eye, 

on her way home from work Diana had stopped off to pick up a kebab,

'Cheers!', after which we watched a couple of Porridge, and then this weeks Have I Got News For You, before Diana was off to bed, for myself I started watching,

 Pillars of the Earth, after a couple of episodes I too was off to bed.