Magnolia Stellata

Last night we had a very interesting competition evening at our camera club, with the judge giving a very detailed and informed critique so that we ran over time and could not break for tea or else it would have been a very late night. He was very strict and scores were quite low for some, but at least we all learnt from his knowledge regarding composition and technical aspects. Unfortunately for me on the way home one of the roads was closed for night repair work, so I had to do a very complicated detour which took me half an hour to get home instead of the usual 10 minutes.

After Xena's walk I went to get her 'wet' dog food from the pet store - her dry dog food is delivered so I am all stocked up for when we are away. Then after lunch I started packing my camera bag for our trip and I spent ages deciding which lenses to take with me. I decided to go light and only take three lenses, I am not taking my longest 500mm lens but am rather taking a 100-400mm lens and will crop, I did not think it was worth the extra weight of another long lens in my camera bag. 

I then started deciding what clothes to take - it is currently between 30C and 40C in most of the places we are going to, so it is shorts and T shirts with a warm top for any sunrise or evening shoots. I is going to be hot!

Yesterday I had my sensors cleaned on my cameras in readiness for the trip. I could not believe how expensive it has become since Wex took over Fixation, it used to be around £40 a sensor but now it cost £66 per sensor to get them cleaned. Of course it is necessary for the blue skies and red sand dunes as sensor spots will show up easily on those backgrounds, but on the other hand it is so dusty there I have to be careful never to change a lens while outside. I am taking two camera bodies so I can avoid changing lenses when outside.

Everything is blooming in my garden at the moment, even the tulips have flowered. Not that we have noticeable swathes of bulbs anywhere, the squirrels ate most of them after they were planted a few years ago so this autumn we may need to re-plant as what we have are a few random flowers scattered over the beds which does not look good. The star magnolia is looking good at the moment, it never lasts long though.