Ever tried to focus in the dark? and some sad news

Focusing in the dark.

It's my own stupid fault.  I should know better and as my late father would have said, "...you're old enough and ugly enough to know better..." but I didn't.  I tried to focus in the dark.   For those of you who have never done this before it involves using a manual focus lens,  yes such lens made are still made, and then trying to focus on a particular object.   It is next to impossible!

So why was I doing this contorted and near impossible thing?   Well I was playing around with my Tilt and Shift lens of course.   I was not trying to correct perspective but rather to use the distortion of focus that is produced by the lens.  Now usually I have no problem making this happen but in the dark it was a different case.  Perhaps I should try and use the lens always in the dark and I wouldn't have any problems.  In the end I managed to make this photograph.  So I suppose all's well that ends well.

Some Sad news.

I received some sad news of the passing of a treasured member of Ian's, a colleague on the course, innermost circle.   His Mac G4 is to be replaced.  I spoke to him Wednesday about this impending departure and tried to console him and I think I did I managed to cheer him up a bit with my anecdotes of the anarchy that is running Windows Vista, still can't get the internal CF drives to work! and in the end I think this worked as he was able to pass some comments about Windows that you would expect a dyed in the wool Mac fan to say. Ian has sent all colleagues on the course an email lamenting this passing and I passed on my condolences in the only way that I know how, by pointing out how out of date Apple technology is compared to the latest Windows PC and it is just a shame that Apple are always having to play catch up and you pay through the nose for the privilege.  I think this will lift his spirits.

Now for any passing Mac fanatic that might think that the last item was some serious views please don't.  I love Mac's design and if I was starting out from scratch I would no doubt go down the Mac route.  It is just that to do so now would be too expensive in time, effort and money.  The only thing I would say is that I have used both and I don't really find there is much difference between the two when using Photoshop - so for me this is an added point.   There I have said it.  I too love Macs but not enough to replace all the PC's in the my house.