Friday, November 21, 2014

A Dog On The Turn Amid A Lot Of Megapixels

Amy is on the turn - she is becoming  nocturnal. For the last thirteen years she has been more than happy to go for a walk through the Crematorium in the morning and a stroll around the block in the early evening. Together, we have grown into this routine: our twice daily walks providing a daily timeline, like some peripatetic minaret call. Now she shuns our tea time outing, rolling over on her back, sinking into some deeper level of unconsciousness. And then, at half past midnight, when all good folk are tucked up in bed, she wants to take to the streets. It's a better time of the day, she explained to me the other day, a time when you don't bump into other dogs or other people (she is not that fond of other dogs). It's a time when the only life you are likely to meet is a fox on its evening stroll or the milkman making an early delivery. It's a time of the day when you can be alone with the street lights, the fog, and your thoughts.

I have just taken delivery of a new camera (message to the GLW if she is reading this, it was a bargain). It is just a little point and shoot Nikon, the kind of camera that you can slip into your pocket and forget about until that moment when a good shot sneaks up on you. Despite the fact that it is by far the cheapest camera in my collection, it happens to have probably the best sensor of any camera I have ever owned - packing a mighty 20 megapixels. I remember buying 3 megapixel cameras and thinking "nobody could ever need more than that" I remember telling someone that wanting more than 5 megapixels was nothing but greedy. I remember hitting double megapixel figures and thinking "that is more than enough for the rest of my life".  No doubt within the next few months I will be penning another blog post as I try out some new 50 megapixel camera (message to the GLW if she is reading this, no I won't, my camera buying days are behind me).

20 comments:

  1. I must confess I did a double-take when I first saw your headline, and was relieved to see I had mis-read 'turn'. I'd like to have that kind of relationship with a dog, but when we last discussed it Head Office and I agreed that we are far too selfish to have other pets. The megapixel thing is worrying - I am running out of storage space on my PC - it's already hard to get the coal for it. And that is a very well-organised study. Impressed, as usual...

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    1. As for my study - a surface of well organised calm hides, like the clouds of Jupiter, a maelstrom of disorganised chaos

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    2. I'm pretty sure my PC was clockwork.....

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  2. Amy is so right on so many levels! Dogs are always right too, you know. WooHoo on the new camera to, because we don't ever want to miss those sneaky shots! You have fans waiting to view remember?!

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    1. As you say, Amy is always right - but when I get home from the pub tonight, well after midnight and slightly worse for wear, so may well discover that she is left : left at home whilst I go to bed.

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  3. What no snap of Amy!!

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    1. She charges for photographs and I am not prepared to comply with her copyright restrictions.

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    2. Hang on Alan. Wouldn't it be your copyright if you took the photograph? Or is Amy so fabulously trained that she takes her own photos??

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  4. I have my cell phone for those spur-of-the-moment shots that pop up now and then. Of course, my regular camera also goes everywhere with me, it's just that sometimes the cell phone is faster to get to. As for the whole megapixel thing, I can easily translate that to my experience in bytes and computer capacity; I well remember when we measured storage and RAM in kilobytes and thought we were blessed with such abundance. Now we're up to gigabytes and terabytes, and I still clear the computer's caches and logs to squeeze out a few more megabytes. The unalterable rule in computers and digital cameras is - If you increase capacity, they will fill it.

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    1. Yes, you are right Roy - whatever the memory size they will work out ways of filling it. I too can use my iPhone for those off the cuff moments, but I do find it a little fiddly - the little Nikon CoolPix will hopefully look after my random photos - the phone can then concentrate on running the rest of my life.

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  5. Listen to your inner dog.
    Unless you drop it on concrete, you will be reaching for that little Nik for a long time. I still use mine, although its fall to disaster only broke the flash led's. The camera store did a reset on the rest of its shaken interior and we're still in business.

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    1. Since it dropped through the letter-box I have been in search for a name for it (I tend to give inanimate objects names to overcome my inability to make friends with animate objects). Now it has one - Little Nik it always will be.

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  6. Ah 20 megapixels! I never go anywhere without my handy fits in my pocket/handbag camera. Great for every day although I do often wish for Terry's DSLR which has a fabulous lens.
    But Amy! What are you thinking girl? I like to pretend I go to bed at 8.30. This means in practice that I (we) get to bed around 9.30. Lying down is good for you especially after 10pm.

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    1. Could she be an Antipodean Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier I wonder?

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  7. Oh dear, and I was looking for a shot of Amy too!

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    1. I will try to catch her when she is asleep some time during the next few days. There are plenty of occasions when she is asleep, after all.

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  8. 20 well that's a treat! I have a 16 that fits in my pocket...it is especially good to use on sub zero days. Your desk is so organized...I am impressed!
    Amy has her nights and days mixed up. Chance has been waking at 6AM but readily goes back to sleep once his business is done:)

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    1. My desk is well organised as a counterpoint to a disorganised life.

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  9. A midnight stroll...well now, that might be appealing during the summer, but when the temperatures dip, I'm not sure I'd be happy to be dog walking at that late hour. haha. But we'd do anything for our pets, wouldn't we? :)

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    1. We would indeed - and to go against her wishes is not something I would recommend.

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