Saturday, 22 August 2009

Big Splash 2009

I was supposed to go to this last year, but for some reason I missed out. Nearly managed to go 0 for 2 this year as well, but luckily I was alerted after it got a bit of coverage on the Friday evening news.

Basically, there's a short ramp on the bank of the River Spey in Aviemore, and folks take turns going off the ramp and into the water, by bike, skis, snowboard, shopping trolley, whatever. Competitors (or "idiots", as they're referred to by the organisers) are then marked for acrobatics, splash-size, audience reaction, etc etc. It's not exactly the superbowl, which is probably why it appeals to me.

It was my first big trip since my car returned to rude health in July, and I got a respectable 69.2 mpg for the 350 miles. Not quite as economical as I was hoping for, but there's probably enough room for improvement that I'll one day get 70+ for a tankful. And it certainly makes it easier to save up for camera goodies; a quick bit of maths-on-a-napkin suggests my old Escort would have cost me £65 more in fuel for the 1500 miles I did this month. Hence why I'll be imminently reporting on some new gadgetry for my camera, woo-hoo!

Monday, 3 August 2009

Birds of prey > lesbians

Over the past couple of months I've been tracking my most popular photo, a close-up of a hawk, as it was chased down in the "most viewed" group by a perv-magnet picture of two girls kissing one another. It's been obvious to me for a while that the race to be first to 1000 views was going to be close, and now that it's done I'm just preserving their respective daily stats here for posterity.

In the weeks running up to the big day, the differences were: 950-876 (12 July), 970-918 (19 July), 977-950 (26 July). In the last 28 days, 73 views for the fearsome avian glare, compared to 183 for the canoodling females; didn't look good for the poor birdie, eh? But a wee spike of activity in the final weekend made all the difference, and it squeaked over the finish line just in time. Of course, the lesbian kiss will quickly and inevitably become my most viewed shot anyway, but that close-up of the hawk will always be the first to 1000.