Royal Photographic Society’s Licentiateship Distinction

• Photography

This weekend I was awarded the Royal Photographic Society’s Licentiateship distinction. It is the first of three distinctions that recognises the creative and technical skill of the photographer.

Ten images are displayed and must work individually as well as together to create a cohesive presentation. I concentrated on portraits of course! The images are designed to be hung in a certain order.

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Polaroid Pogo Printer: £20 & No Ink Required?

• Log

A colour printer for £20 that fits into your pocket and doesn’t require any ink? No, I didn’t believe it either but I have stumbled upon a palm-sized printer made by Polaroid that puts the fun back into digital photography. This product has been around for a couple of years now but the price has dropped so much it seems silly not to buy one. In this quick summary I take a look at the pros and the cons of this fun Christmas gadget. To give the review more gravitas we’ve introduced a new rating system and there’s also a quick video clip too!

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Audley End In Autumn

• Photography

My favourite season is captured here in just five photographs, taken on one of my favourite walks around my home town of Saffron Walden. This is Audley End, the mansion and gardens to the west of Walden, captured on a bright but chilly October Sunday morning. They’re actually hand-held HDR images, which helps accentuate those wonderful autumnal colours.

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Stellarium: Free Astronomy Software For Kids & Sailors

• Boat Maintenance & Skills

The kids are on half-term and the nights are drawing in. What free entertainment could be better than teaching them the stars? As a boat-owner with just a passing interest in astronomy I’ve reviewed a great piece of free software called Stellarium. It’s really easy to use and is perfect for both kids entertainment and playing around with in the cockpit at night.

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Hollywood Beckons: Our TV Interview

• press

Just before we left India Liz and I were interviewed by MarineBiz TV, a global television channel which has been putting together a series of programmes called ‘Sailor’s Diary’. In it each member of the Vasco Da Gama Rally was interviewed and asked about their backgrounds, experience and life at sea. We’ve managed to get hold of a copy and reproduce it here. Do please let us know if television really does put on 10lbs because I’m sure I look slimmer than I feel 😉

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Wandlebury: An Autumnal Walk

• Photography

Wandlebury is a country park in Cambridgeshire covering 110 acres and is a treat for anyone with a love of the English countryside. What with autumn being my fave season my trip back to the UK was rewarded with some photographic opportunities when Liz and I went for a wander in Wandlebury with my family on Sunday. In this set I hope to capture the essence of autumn. The slide-show only lasts a minute so I hope you get a quick moment to enjoy these shots.

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Turkey to India Video: A Geography Lesson For Kids

• video clips

We have put together this educational video for children aged between 5-10 but at 50 Liz was just as entertained, so we hope everyone gets something out of it.

Using Google Earth we have animated the course that we took on the rally from Turkey to India. It starts off with a few clips of the rally boats to give children an idea of what a boat looks like when it is sailing but the main part of this clip is an explanation of each country visited and where they are in relation to the UK.

We put this together to accompany the podcast we’ll be publishing in October for Nancy Lake’s class at Wybunbury Delves Primary School. Nancy’s class, who have asked us a whole range of questions about what it’s like to live on a boat, is aged between 10-11 but the commentary on this video clip is more suited to 4-7 year olds.

We hope you enjoy it. It was great fun to put together and we look forward to reading your comments.

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Back To School Round-Up: Kids Projects & Trading Secrets

• press

Got kids? Facebook this week has been awash with proud parents posting up pics of their kids in their new school uniform, compete with descriptions of teary eyes… and that’s just the adults. Liz and I have got into the new term spirit too: followtheboat is involved in a school project which might be of interest to any parent out there with young children. Some educational audio and visual treats coming soon. Also we might just be contravening some international act with our surreptitious recording of the Royal Navy trading secrets with us in Oman. That’s our exclusive podcast that comes out today. Oh and Liz got shortlisted for another writing comp but we said we wouldn’t bore you with those announcements any more 😉 Anyway, it’s all in the link below.

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What Do 7 Metre Waves Look Like…

• video clips

So what do 7m waves look like from the inside of a cruise ship? I’ve put together three video clips in this post. In the first we see the effect of a storm on a cruise ship’s passengers, crew and gear. This CCTV clip was taken from a cruise ship that hit 50 knots winds off New Zealand and makes for scary viewing! The second clip gives you a bird’s eye view of a rolling cruise ship, and the third is a small clip taken from the bridge of a commercial vessel enduring some sci-fi looking waves. Anyone booked their cruise this year?

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Boo Hoo! India Is So Expensive!

• Log

I had one of the most ridiculous conversations with two yachties last week. The couple were complaining that India was really expensive. Incredulous I responded by arguing that food here is so cheap one can eat out at a restaurant for a quid. Quite frankly these Moaning Myrtles really get on my wick. Ready for a rant?

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Frui Awards FTB Portrait Competition

• press

Those who have been to Turkey may well know this lady… Frui, the creative learning holiday specialist, has awarded followtheboat winner of the August Photography competition. It is held monthly and the theme changes each time. This month’s theme was Portrait and my winning shot features a picture I took in Kekova Roads, Turkey, of an old lady. When I tried to take this shot the lady indicated that she was too old for the camera, saying her face was ‘broken’. I beg to differ; it’s one of the most interesting close-up portraits I’ve taken. Check the link for a peek…

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Dreamy Goan Bus Stop Pic Shortlisted For Telegraph

• press

We’ve yet to publish our blog on our trip to Goa. We spent a few weeks there and Jamie took a lot of pictures which he is still editing. On one trip we stopped off at a tiny village near Shri Mangesh and took a picture of the busy bus-stop. The Telegraph’s Big Picture editor clearly liked it enough to shortlist it for this week’s competition. It’s a wonderful, dreamy HDR (high dynamic range) photograph that captures the late afternoon ambiance of that part of the world.

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