Remembering PRESTAGS

First Drive of the New Nikon D7500 with the New 16-80mm Lens

I had my first drive of my new Nikon D7500, with the new Nikon 16-80mm f/2.8 lens, this morning.

It was a grey and miserable day, with light rain. The landscape shots were never going to be exciting.

First testing area, Abbotsford wharf at the end of my street.

None of these shots are processed or cropped. All I have done is reduce the size so they will load quicker.

The first ever shot with the new camera. Yes - grey on grey. Grey sky. Grey water:

This shot of a boat - the Brian H - still captures the reality - grey - but there are some points of colour (eg a yellow stool on the small boat) that show the camera is working fine:

The Sea Scouts jetty (Port Neptune, 2nd Abbotsford Sea Scouts according to the sign). Hunting for more colour. Some nice bright blue to contrast the grey. The lens is good, with clarity right across the photos including the edges:

I noticed the lamps were on the the park. The camera captured the exact warm, pale yellow glow that my eyes saw. Focus was spot on the lamp:

Speaking of yellow, it came out nicely in this shot over a fence opposite the park:

Next, a test of bright red, and using the lens very close (about 40cm away). No problems at all:

Second testing area, Canada Bay around the corner from my house.

I was going for a close up of some pink flowers, when I startled an Ibis under the tree. I managed to get him scuttling away. A good shot for hand held and movement:

The pink flowers. Nice but could be a bit sharper. The flowers were blowing in the breeze a fair bit, so still a good shot in the circumstances:

Next a bit of excitement (well I was excited anyway). I came across a painting van (Tiger Painting Service) with a great range of colours on the van to test the camera. Perfect. The painter working on a house nearby was staring at me and no doubt wondering why I was so interested in his van:

The close up shows that the camera does a great job with colours, and a very sharp image:

Last shot, outside my house. The local council, or maybe NBN, decided the best day to do roadwork and disrupt traffic was late Saturday morning, the busiest time of the week:

So far very impressed with camera and lens. At the wide end 16mm is very useful. I'm still adjusting from so much previous use of the 18-200mm with the extra zoom, however 80mm is good reach. Already I can tell this is an excellent lens.

I'm looking forward to a bright day.

Here's a collage, with a bit of processing, of some other shots from my morning's camera testing:

20 December - O Clavis David

He is drawing nearer ...

Veni, Veni

To listen to O Clavis David click here

First 3 Os in The Poissy Antiphonal - a Dominican antiphonal c1350

 

Magnificat

The O antiphons are the antiphons for the Magnificat at Vespers.

But whence the Magnificat? It is the canticle of praise declaimed by the Blessed Virgin Mary upon the visit to her cousin Elizabeth (Luke 1:46-55) and is part of Vespers every day (just as the Benedictus of Zachary and the Nunc dimittis of Simeon are of Lauds and Compline).

To listen to the Magnificat with O Sapientiae click here

The monks are Spanish and if you listen closely you will hear there are slight variations on the melody of the antiphon relative to the Roman melody. Also the Tone 2 ending of each verse the Magnificat is the Monastic one rather than the Roman one - an extra note.

18 December - O Adonai

Today is the 2nd O antiphon, O Adonai.

To listen to O Adonai  click here

The composers of these offices had a little hidden meaning too if you read the capitals in reverse:

 

In praise of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation - Radio

 

You can get to hear stuff like this:

http://www.npr.org/2013/12/13/248195238/does-the-subjunctive-have-a-dark-side

or this:

http://www.ted.com/talks/gever_tulley_on_5_dangerous_things_for_kids - I heard this one the other night.

(here's another version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXhddUqNNjo - 5 dangerous things you should let your children do. )

You would never get any of this from the private firms ...

or this - THE trusted source of info in an emergency:

 

 

 

Great Cartoon

This is one of my favourites:

Infrared Photography

I have been playing with my new Sony video camera. Funny thing is, so far I have only played with the ordinary photograph function.

With ordinary digital cameras, they all have a video function these days, and in my experience the quality is quite good even on cheaper cameras. It is the sound with video that tends to be poor on these cameras. It turns out that specialist video cameras also have a function to take normal photographs, and I have discovered (at least on my Sony video camera) these are also of a high standard. The photographs also have the benefit of some of the video camera's unique functions, like continuous light (different to a flash) and infrared.

Above is the same shot, of my bookshelf in a room that is almost dark with just a little ambient light. The first is taken with an ordinary camera on automatic with no flash (pretty much all black), the second is an ordinary camera with flash, and the third is my good Nikon with no flash but using its settings to maximize the light that is available.

Below is the same shot using infrared. There is no flash and no lights, just an infrared beam that comes out of the front of the camera and is not visible to the human eye. This is an interesting option that can take a photograph (or a video) in complete darkness.

This also shows what a good job the Nikon did with so little light. However, if the ambient light was removed and there was total darkness the infrared would still have worked. Now I'm looking forward to taking some movies. I bought this particular video camera because it has three levels of sound options, and I really hope the sound quality will be high and match the high definition video.

Another anniversary - 50 years since Sacrosanctum concilium

Today is the 50th anniversary of the 2nd Vatican Council document Sacrosanctum concilium.

Here are three different takes on what has happened since that day. This will not be a universally held view but I believe we, the whole western church, was completely dudded by what we were given.

New Liturgical Movement: Is Your Liturgy Like What Vatican II Intended?

http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2013/12/is-your-liturgy-like-what-vatican-ii.html#.Up7TxOJCrK0

Fr Z: 50 years today: Bugninicare

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2013/12/50-years-ago-today-bugninicare/  (Fr Z must be having a really bad day)

Rorate Caeli:

50 years of Sacrosanctum Concilium and what the Council has wrought "The Destruction of the Roman Rite"

 http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2013/12/50-years-of-sacrosanctum-concilium-and.html

 This:

 

playing pseudo-novel self-centred (immanentist?) games in a building purposely built to lead us to a transcendent worship of the eternal God

or this:

 

Despite the less than transcendent architecture the form and disposition is focussed on the transcendent and the true relation of creature to Creator. The old, tried ways, made new in each generation.

History and tradition

An interesting article.

It seems that a particular view of interpreting history had a significant influence on the development of the Roman liturgy after 1962. Pope Pius XII warned of archaeologism but it seems that this is exactly what led to the 'de novo' and tectonic creation of the new lectionary rather than something that developed with an organic order.

Did the Roman Rite Anciently Have Three Readings? http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2013/11/did-roman-rite-anciently-have-three.html#.Uo_5ruJCrK0

sort of apropos of this is a quote I saw on a photography blog which I really like:

"Everything I write is a personal opinion. Even when I quote facts, they are the facts I personally choose to accept."

The other oldie but goodie: "If it isn't broke, don't fix it"

 

In Memoriam: J R R Tolkien

There have been a number of posts recently about my favourite author, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE.

Today is the anniversay of Tolkien's death. He died 40 years ago, on 2 September 1973, aged 81.

Both PythonMagus and Thygocanberra are also fans of Tolkien, and of his great books "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. The trilogy consists of "The Fellowship of the Ring", "The Two Towers" and "The Return of the King". Much has been written about Tolkien and his works, and I have read most of it. On this day I offer some random thoughts about Tolkien and my life.

When I was a young boy I used to travel to Albury to visit my grandparents. One of my oldest and happiest memories is staying in bed all morning, reading "The Lord of the Rings" for the first time, while my grandfather brought me cups of tea and bread & butter.

I also remember as a boy being intrigued by the Middle Earth alphabets in the appendices at the end of "The Return of the King". My favourite was the Dwarvish runes - the Angerthas - and I had hours of fun writing messages using these runes. I can't resist now grabbing my old copy of "The Return of the King", yes my original 1974 edition with a nice musty smell, and providing a copy of The Angerthas from Appendix 3 for any budding students of Dwarvish languages.

The world of Middle Earth created by Tolkien is so deep and so vivid that it remains in the mind like a real memory. Whereas the contents of other books fade, my imagining of Middle Earth still lives in me as fresh as it ever was. Perhaps I prefer Middle Earth to the world we live in now, and perhaps I keep Middle Earth alive by visiting it frequently in my mind.

Tolkien is one of the lucky soldiers who went to the trenches in World War I and returned. He created a code he could use in correspondence with his wife Edith to avoid the British army's postal censorship. This is pure Tolkien. He went on to invent entire languages and alphabets for the races of Middle Earth. When one thinks of the creative energy and achievements of Tolkien, only one returned soldier, the enormous tragedy of the loss of 10 million military personnel comes into perspective. The total number of casualties including wounded and civilians exceeded 37 million.

My father is an avid reader but he has never liked Tolkien's works. I wonder whether Tolkien is an author that you either love or hate. Or perhaps it is the fantasy genre that you love or hate. Tolkien has been described as the father of 'high fantasy' but I don't even know what that is. I have always been much more of a science fiction buff than a reader of fantasy novels. To me, Tolkien's creation is so unique that it deserves a category, even a genre, all of its own.

I have always admired the 'Catholicity' of Tolkien's works. For over two decades now I have attended the Traditional Latin Liturgy (the Tridentine rite, now the Extraordinary Form) and fought the good fight against modernism, and other heresies and uglinesses in the Catholic Church. Only recently I found out that Tolkien's grandson Simon Tolkien had offered the following recollection: "I vividly remember going to church with him in Bournemouth. He was a devout Roman Catholic and it was soon after the Church had changed the liturgy from Latin to English. My grandfather obviously didn't agree with this and made all the responses very loudly in Latin while the rest of the congregation answered in English. I found the whole experience quite excruciating, but my grandfather was oblivious. He simply had to do what he believed to be right". This is fantastic: Tolkien was a traditionalist like me!

When I was at university in the 1980s I rembering thinking how great it would be if there was a movie of "The Lord of the Rings", but I thought it would be impossible to ever translate the book to the screen. I was wrong. Special effects and computer graphics and Tolkien fans rising in the ranks of movie making all came together in 2001-2003 when Peter Jackson released the amazing trilogy of Lord of the Rings movies. Jackson was, in my opinion, largely faithful to Tolkien and he managed to capture the magic of Middle Earth. The casting, the music, the cinematography, the script - it was all amazing and most Tolkien fans were not disappointed.

The Lord of the Rings movies depicted some things exactly as I had imagined: Strider / Aragorn, Gandalf, the inside of hobbit holes, and the Argonauth. I'm sure every Tolkien fan has their own list. There was only one chapter in the whole "The Lord of the Rings" that I never really warmed to, being chapter VII in "The Fellowship of the Ring": 'In the House of Tom Bombadil'. Jackson left this out of the movies and I agree with this decision. However, I don't agree with leaving out chapter VIII of "The Return of the King": 'The Scouring of the Shire'. This is one of my favourite chapters.

Last year Peter Jackson released the first of the Hobbit movies, 'An Unexpected Journey'. While it was not as serious as the Lord of the Rings movies (and neither was Tolkien's book) the movie was great fun.

Just as Tolkien interesects with many happy childhood memories, so the movies intersect with newer happy memories. I remember seeing 'The Fellowship of the Ring' with my sister on one of her rare 10 year home visits from her religious order. My memories of 'An Unexpected Journey' are associated with my daughters, and a new generation of Toklien fans.

Tolkien was happily married to Edith for over 50 years, and they had four children. Tolkien and his wife share a grave in Oxford, which includes the inscription 'Edith Mary Tolkien, Luthien, 1889-1971' and 'John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, Beren, 1892-1973'. In Middle Earth lore, Luthien was a princess who forsook her immortality for her love of the mortal warrier Beren.

Tolkien lives on, in his great books, and in the movies.

It's Official ... Windows Sux

PythonMagus was the first to know, and I broke the news to him at lunch today. It's official for me now, Windows sux and I've had enough. I will begin the transition to Linux.

The Python was converted long ago, but he is an IT geek so it was expected of him. I am prepared to say, and I do so now, "You were right". (Python may want to print and frame this). That just leaves Thygomoonduck to join us, which should not be so difficult because Thygo has had Apple Macs in the past, and therefore has abandoned Windows before.

I have already commenced the transition. On the way home from work I purchased "The Official Ubuntu Book" (Seventh Edition). I have started to read it. A lawyer always starts with a book. I have also purchased "Ubuntu, the Desktop Beginner's Guide" for my kindle. A good lawyer always starts with two books.

The books are OK and not too IT heavy. I have learned the origin of PythonMagus' name. I have learned that I will be using "Ubuntu Linox 13.04 Raring Ringtail". I have figured out that a beginner like me will need to start by using the OS utilising Ubuntu's graphical interface. I have also figured out that to become a serious user I will need to learn how to use the command line. This will require tutorials from the Python, which I will barter for in exchange for wine.

Tomorrow I will purchase a new laptop with decent but not ridiculous specs. Python says Linux doesn't need massive hardware to prop up a pathetic operating system like Windows does.

The new laptop will come with Windows 7 or Windows 8 (666) installed. This is actually good, because it will give me the pleasure of watching the Python uninstall and terminate it. I want this to be slow so I can savour it, like the slow deletion of HAL's memory in "2001: A Space Odyssey".

I am looking forward to this new adventure. About 4 or 5 years ago I did look at Ubunto, but it was not particularly user friendly. Microsoft / Windows in its arrogance has learned nothing over the last five years, but I hope Ubuntu has.

New (old) Tolkien book

Amazon blurb

The Fall of Arthur, the only venture by J.R.R. Tolkien into the legends of Arthur, king of Britain, may well be regarded as his finest and most skillful achievement in the use of Old English alliterative meter, in which he brought to his transforming perceptions of the old narratives a pervasive sense of the grave and fateful nature of all that is told: of Arthur’s expedition overseas into distant heathen lands, of Guinevere’s flight from Camelot, of the great sea battle on Arthur’s return to Britain, in the portrait of the traitor Mordred, in the tormented doubts of Lancelot in his French castle.

Unhappily, The Fall of Arthur was one of several long narrative poems that Tolkien abandoned. He evidently began it in the 1930s, and it was sufficiently advanced for him to send it to a very perceptive friend who read it with great enthusiasm at the end of 1934 and urgently pressed him, “You simply must finish it!” But in vain: he abandoned it at some unknown date, though there is evidence that it may have been in 1937, the year of publication of The Hobbit and the first stirrings of The Lord of the Rings. Years later, in a letter of 1955, he said that he “hoped to finish a long poem on The Fall of Arthur,” but that day never came.

Associated with the text of the poem, however, are many manuscript pages: a great quantity of drafting and experimentation in verse, in which the strange evolution of the poem’s structure is revealed, together with narrative synopses and significant tantalizing notes. In these notes can be discerned clear if mysterious associations of the Arthurian conclusion with The Silmarillion, and the bitter ending of the love of Lancelot and Guinevere, which was never written.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0544115899/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_til?tag=whatdoesthepr-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0544115899&adid=1XQZWN41GRYY7YX3HMEV

 

 

PRESTAGS of the Rings

In 1977, SPI published "War of the Ring", a board wargame based upon JRR Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings". The game included a strategic adventure and wargame, and two related games, "Sauron" and "Gondor".

Being both an avid wargamer and a complete Tolkien fan, I purchased "War of the Ring". I still have this game, and indeed it resides it my boxes of 'the best of the best' along with (needless to say) PRESTAGS.

For fans of PRESTAGS, published two years earlier in 1975, there was a wonderful treat with "War of the Ring" (WOTR). The treat was: many of the awesome PRESTAGS counter pictures were used in the counters for WOTR. I have studied both of these epic games and I have identified ten (10) units where the same counter picture was used.

Number 1. The PRESTAGS axemen and (surprise, surprise) the WOTR Dwarves.

Number 2. The PRESTAGS archers and (again, no surprise) the WOTR Elves.

Number 3. The PRESTAGS heavy cavalry and the WOTR heavy cavalry of Rohan and Gondor.

Number 4. The PRESTAGS swordsmen and the WOTR swordsmen of Gondor.

Number 5. The PRESTAGS Improved bowmen and the WOTR Mordor Orcs bowmen.

Number 6. The PRESTAGS militia spearmen and the WOTR spearmen of Elves and Gondor.

Number 7. The PRESTAGS oriental horse archers and the WOTR Rohan horse archers.

Number 8. The PRESTAGS barbarian infantry and the WOTR Orcs (entirely appropriate).

Number 9. The PRESTAGS elephants and the WOTR Haradrim Mumakil elephants. The hobbits called these oliphaunts.

Number 10. The PRESTAGS ballista and the WOTR catapults.

There are of course many unit counters that are unique to each of PRESTAGS and WOTR, with ten examples in the following collage. However, for me there will always be a special bond between these two games, both from the great SPI at the high water mark of their game publications in the mid to late 1970s. Back when I was in high school. And mad about wargames. And mad about Tolkien. And still am.