Right then...

Hopefully my long period of inactivity at deviantArt has not been regarded as turning my back on deviantArt. Apparently my life has been going down a path where, except during holidays, there is very little opportunity to spend time with the camera or to browse the internet. With a busy job, married life and a handful of hobbies and juggling with time, the new reality is that the camera is not getting as much attention as it used to.

After having been through hectic periods, my wife and I returned from a well deserved holiday to China and Hong Kong where we met with friends and managed to see some amazing scenery. Once I'm done with uploading the first pics, I'll start working myself through the hundreds of deviations and activity messages that are in my inbox.

How has your summer been so far?

All the best,

J.

I finally found the time and peace of mind to do some photography during our holidays and the time to do some post processing on the pictures. Yes, you have been looking at holiday pics! A lot of credit goes to my better half for her seemingly endless patience. I'm one of those photographers who sometimes take ages for a good shot and to then decide to not take the shot at all, because the light is too far from how I want it. She must have lost count of the occasions that we had to pull over by the side of the road during our trip to take a some shots of landscapes and scenery.

I'm glad that I can say that I'm really pleased with the new camera. And the heavy 100-400 mm L lens is worth carrying around, but does attract lots of attention, which can be a bit unsettling at times. At some point during our holiday I had to reluctantly admit that some of the pain in my back could be related to the heavy load that I have been carrying with around in my single strap bag: a Canon 40D, a 10-22 mm lens, a 24-85 mm lens, a 100-400 mm lens and a tripod. The holidays are over and the pain in the back has gone... and a new lesson learned.

The weather on this island has been absolutely sh*ite on most of the days where I have the time for photography. This means that, save for the occasional sunny day that coincides with leisure time, I see no other way than to keep uploading holiday pics...

I hope that you have had a great summer.

Hi all,

It has not gone unnoticed by some of you that my activity and presence on dA have sunken to an all time low over the last 4 months. I had not even realised that my subscription expired. I am pleased to say that I have been away for some very good reasons.

During these four months I was mainly busy with preparing for our wedding, which took place on 30 May. Living in London and getting married in Amsterdam is quite a organisational challenge. Many things can be arranged by telephone and internet, but for many other things our physical presence was required, which involved flying in regularly during weekends. We then experienced how much time goes into details. We had clearly thought too lightly about this. Well, in the end the wedding went very well, she kept her word, I'm now married to the love of my life and we had an unforgettable day.

We also moved to a new apartment just a couple of weeks before the wedding (which caused stress levels to peak!!), which was the fifth time that we moved apartment since April 2006. We're really happy at our new place and adore the extra space, which allows for inviting people to our place for a diner or to spend the weekend.

Finally, the third change that is worth mentioning is that I have purchased a new I very much enjoyed my Canon EOS 350D for the last 2 years, which was my first SLR. It has given me lots and has been an important step in development of my photography skills. After having used it for a year or two, I felt that it was time for upgrading. It was based user reviews and press reviews that I have chosen the Canon 40D over the 5D. For it's money, the 40D is a better camera than the 5D and has a better sensor. I have not had the opportunity to take the camera out on a shooting session, but first impressions are very good. I'm looking much forward to my first outdoor shooting session with the 40D.

As summer '08 unfolds, it is already much better than summer '07 ever got. If it stays like this, it means more opportunity to go out shooting.

I am now uploading some of the pictures I took in Scotland recently. I hope the photos will speak for themselves. Please allow me some time to go through the hundreds of deviations and journals...

That's it for now.

Wishing you a great summer,


Tulanez

Member of:

Hi All,

Summer is more or less over now. I hope your summer was sunnier than mine this year. I eventually took off to Colombia for two weeks and got that touch of summer that I had been craving for. Fortunately there were plenty opportunities for taking pictures. Tonight I'll upload the first bunch. Please be patient for more.

I'm afraid that I will not have much opportunity until early next year to go out to shoot pictures. The last quarter of the year is traditionally hectic for me and working days will become longer and longer as 2007 rallies to its end. That does not mean that I will not be uploading new pictures, but it will be far less than during the first nine months of this year. Yes, i will be on DA during those months and will be following the work of people I watch.

My activity on DA has been poor lately and I'm aware of it. I've been bad at commenting on your work lately, but the fact THAT I watch you on DA is because I like your work!

All the best,

TdlC

Member of:

Indeed, a new journal layout . I have been playing around a bit with CSS to kill the time today (I'm grounded by flu...). Not a lot to entertain you, but just a random collection of things I stumbled upon of which I reckoned would be worth sharing with you.

For those of you who are into architecture, you may find the following websites of interest:

(1) Great Buildings Online a database of historical and modern architecture, indexed by architect, name of a building or place. As a source it is far from complete, but definitely interesting to do a search.

(2) Skyscrapernews.com a U.K and Ireland's tall building database and news source. Curious what a 1,500m tall building looks like?


Work by other Deviants that caught my eye:

by by

by on

by by


Shameless self-promotion:

(maybe next time)



Wishing you a great summer,


TdlC

Member of: