Six Forty AM
I apologise to those that saw this on twitter this morning.
Sometimes I don’t mind being a passenger in a car when I can get a photo of the Sun setting fire to the sky as it awakens from it’s sleep.
Earlier I had to fight the urge to stop the car and take pictures of the mist coming off the fields in the pre-dawn light.
– Could be remote blogging or just too lazy to fire up laptop/Macbook/netbook. But still this has been posted from my iPhone 4.
Camp Routine
When I am solo backpacking I have my morning routine. When I wake up, I like to do the morning “business” and instead of getting back into bed and try and get warm again just for possibly an extra hour in bed. I like to get packed up, and start walking. I’m not a breakfast person you see, I prefer to have something to eat maybe an hour or so later on the trail.
My routine changes slightly when I am hiking with others, I don’t break camp as early (I wait until the others are breaking camp) but I do have a hot drink sometimes.
But everyone’s camp routines are different, they may be similar, but they are always personal and differ in some way.
So what is your morning camp routine?
Go Check This Out – Possibly!
You all know what a fan boy I am of Scott Bourne, well his latest blog post on Photofocus is a review of a photography book that would be of interest to us all “Photo Book Review – Outdoor Photography Master Class”. The book sounds interesting and maybe one to add to the library if you have some spare cash in the pocket burning a hole.
I’ll leave you with a slide show of stuff from the Posterous account which I put together in hope that it will be used on the iPhoneography blog (thanks George for putting me onto that).
Competition Reminder
Just a post to remind folks that this competition is coming to a close. No entries have been received yet, so it only needs one person to enter to win the swag.
Here is my effort that will hopefully show you the sort of thing I had in mind “Striders Big Night Out” when I thought up this competition. Whilst this post will show you what I took for our night of adventure “What I Took On Striders Adventure”.
Final Prize List For One Lucky Winner:
- a brand new Sea To Summit Ultrasil Daypack (donated by Burton McCall)
- a brand new MBD QMH with gnome stove (donated by mystery benefactor)
- a copy of the ebook Food to Go (donated by Frank at Our Hiking Blog)
- Sea To Summit X-Mug and X-Bowl
Here is a summary of the competition details
I have a plan for this pack this Summer. I want to try and get everything I need for an overnight in to it, and then go and spend a night out using what I have in the pack.
The rules I have come up with are:
- The pack being used has to be a daypack with a capacity of no more than 20 litres.
- Everything has to fit in the pack (not including photographic equipment). I’m going to allow no more than 2 litres of water to be carried in hand. So any more than that has to be found on route or near the camp site, or carried in the pack.
- You have to be able to cook a hot meal and make a hot drink in the evening.
- No pre dropping of supplies or equipment.
If anyone wants to join me in this venture and try doing this themselves using the above rules, then let me know, send in some photos and maybe a description of how you got on. I’ll post them on here and then during September I’ll get readers to vote for their favourite and give a prize to the one with the most votes.
My Posterous Account
I’m not sure how many of you follow or look at the iPhone photos I post over on Posterous (click on the Posterous graphic on the right if you are interested). But for those that don’t I’m posting one I took of Strider yesterday.
I started the Posterous account as a home for this stuff so I wasn’t continuously boring you with my photographic efforts. Most of the photos are taken when I’m out and about, but still I’m conscious that some may get bored with them.
Hopefully for those that do pop over for a butchers at my iPhone photographic efforts you will enjoy what you see.
– Could be remote blogging or just too lazy to fire up laptop/Macbook/netbook. But still this has been posted from my iPhone 4.
The Sound of Britain Project
I’ve admitted in the past how I like some of the photography projects and competitions I come across on the web because they give an excuse (if we ever need one) for getting outdoors.
Today I came across a great project that could produce interesting results that we could do while out. By we I mean those of us with either an iPhone or Google Android based phone (but I will mention a way round this later for those without either of those phones).
First go over and read the post “BBC – dot.Rory: The sound of Britain“, which gives a good overview of the project.
Next head over to “Audioboo” to get the app for the iPhone or Google Android phone.
It’s when you visit the Audioboo site that you will see a link on the page that will allow you to record a sound or upload one to the site. It is this functionality that should allow those without the two phone types to record some sounds while they are out and submit them. As long as you are able to record the sound and put the recording on to your PC or Mac, then you should be able to upload your recording to this project.
Just a note Audioboo is a free service.
Another project I came across in that initial BBC post is a BBC run one by the World Service to capture endangered sounds from around the World. You can find out more by visiting “BBC World Service – Special Reports – Save Our Sounds“.
I’m certainly going to keep my ear out while I am out now so I can contribute some stuff to these projects. I have a Barn Owl (not put that up yet from about 3 weeks ago), plus there is that frog noise from earlier in the year. But I want to get some new sounds as well to contribute.
I just love the idea, it will add a new depth the time outdoors.
Todays Walk Mystery
On this evenings dog walk I came across this…
I’d love to know what bought this up.
A bloody frog carcass! In that black stuff!!! Whichever end it came out of still not an easy thing to pass.
– Could be remote blogging or just too lazy to fire up laptop/Macbook/netbook. But still this has been posted from my iPhone 4.
127 Hours
What’s a 127 Hours? It’s the name of the new movie by Danny Boyle (he of Slum Dog Millionaire fame). So why is this being mentioned on here? Well 127 Hours is the movie based on the book “Between A Rock And A Hard Place”. Well that book title sounds familiar but I just can’t place it. Well if you remember “Between A Rock And A Hard Place” is the true story of a climber Aron Ralston and how on his way back out from a climbing trip he got his armed trapped, and ended up having to amputate his own arm off to survive.
The actor James Franco is playing the title role in the movie of Aron. You may remember James Franco from the Spiderman movies. He played Harry Osborn, the son of the Green Goblin.
Sooo one of the reasons I’m bringing all this information up for you is that the BBC are running the story that 127 Hours is going to be closing the BFI London Film Festival on the 28th October. So if you are able to get tickets do, as this will be an early chance to see the movie. Which is not scheduled to go on general release in the UK until January 2011.
Read the BBC story here.
Another Article On The Outdoors And Mental Health
Following on from my “Outdoors Is Good For You” post from the other day, here is a link to another article on the subject of mental health and the outdoors, “Can a Stroll in the Park Replace the Psychiatrist’s Couch?”. Love the fact that in the US that they have ecopsychologists and ecotherapists. Do we have them over here?
Thanks to Falcon7012 on twitter for sending me the link. You can see some great photos by Falcon7012 at Falcons Eye or his mobile stuff here.
Update 21Aug10 5 minutes after posting!: I forgot to include in this post a link to a very powerful set of photos by a photographer called Matt McDonough in this post called “Matt McDonough Visits Mental Asylums”. Which also has a link to another powerful set of photos in another post “Showcase: Emptied but Still Secret”.
Liquidmetal
In the last week or so the tech/geek world has covered a story where Apple has signed an exclusive deal to use liquidmetal in consumer electronics.
So what has all this got to do with the outdoors? For feck sake this is gadget talk on an outdoors blog, get back on subject dude. Hey give me a chance and I will tell you why this is being written about on here.
Currently the in vogue metal to make outdoors gear from is titanium. Sporks, pots, stoves, tent pegs to name a few are the things made from it that we use. Now imagine if a metal came along that was lighter and stronger than titanium. How cool would that be?
Well just such a metal has come along, and that metal is liquidmetal.
To quote an article from Cult of Mac “Liquidmetal is a high-strength metal that can be processed like plastic. NASA has says it is “poised to redefine materials science as we know it in the 21st century.””.
So imagine a world where our titanium pieces of kit are redundant and have been replaced by liquidmetal.
Now as far as I know, no outdoor manufacturer has even thought about using liquidmetal. It’s not even clear at this stage whether liquidmetal is even suitable, for all I know it maybe toxic and can’t be used in food or cooking because of this. Or it may have poor thermo conductive properties and be useless for use in cooking gear.
It’s still early days, but I can see the potential uses of this material in our favourite activity. So all the thoughts and applications for it are just pie in the sky thinking by me at the moment. But I can dream, but remember if it does happen you heard it hear first.
I’ll leave you with this interesting demo of liquidmetal that is on YouTube.
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