Take me here. Now.

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Spotted this yesterday. A report from a photographer at the Olympics: he’s Jeff Cable, and he took the pics below. But they’re not sporty pics.

No. Because he’s an official ‘tog at the Games, and he’s using a Canon camera, here gets access to the Canon Professional Services (CPS) area.
What’s that? Oh, just a place with a full on Canon technical team to look after your camera and glass.
Oh, and where you can borrow just about any Canon camera body (yes, including the R1 which hasn’t even been released yet) or any lens to assist you with your photography of whatever you are photographing.

It’s like a photography candy shop.

Oh wow.

But wait! There’s more!

These things aren’t cheap:

As you see when you watch TV, all of us photographers rely on really big lenses here, to get photos close to the action. Each of these lenses that you see here costs thousands of dollars. These start around $6,000 and go all the way up to $20,000 (for the Canon 1200mm lens). You can see three of these on the second shelf from the bottom, far left, below.

$20,000 is a cool R365,000 as I write this post.
But if you want to buy that lens locally, you’re looking at R400,000.

The gaps may look unsightly, but it’s where stuff has been loaned out already.

Each of these camera bodies goes for R100,000 at Orms in Cape Town.

Can you even imagine how much fun you could have at this place?

Take me here. Now.

Here’s Jeff’s full blog post.

The monks are the monks

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More from Geoguessr, in which I found myself dropped in Thailand somewhere near the Myanmar border, and close to a UNESCO World Heritage Site (there was a sign with the logo on).
Not too great on the guess, sadly – 131km away – but my curiosity was piqued and I ended I revisiting the place after the game to have a look at another sign which was nearby:

Turns out that I couldn’t find out much about it, because blue signs with white writing on are very popular in Thailand. (Aside from being able to recognise the Thai language, it’s actually a good way of working out that you’re in Thailand.)

Still, maybe using Google Translate would assist me in trying to learn a bit more about the place:

Well, this suddenly made things a lot clearer.

I don’t think that I’m assuming too much when I say that we all know that the monks are the monks, but equally, we often have doubts as to whether that goes deep enough in ascertaining what the monks actually are. Therefore, logically, any clarification of their actual full status is always going to be helpful.
And what I – and many others, I would guess – would have never imagined, is that the monks are the monks – and the the monks are the monks.

It’s that sort of attention to detail that Thailand is known for, and I’m very glad that I took that time to go back and have another look at this. Otherwise, I would only have got as far as thinking that the monks are the monks, whereas quite obviously (now, at least, lol!) the monks are the monks and the monks are the monks.

I think we’ve all learned something here today.

Xtra Savings Plus

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First off: this isn’t an ad. I tell you when I do ads.
Second off: this is a rather dull post, but I figured that it might benefit some local (SA) people, and I’m all about helping out where I can.

I signed up for the Checkers Xtra Savings Plus programme a couple of months ago. It costs R99 per month, and my first month was free. You’re not paying for nothing, obviously. There are a few benefits:

Look at the first one – essentially – R35 off every time you’re too lazy to shop. It’s a 10.6km round trip to our local store, so you’re looking at about R24 of diesel to get there and back. I’m not adding that onto the waived delivery fee, but it’s nice not to have to go out in the rain (and yes, I do tip my drivers, whether I’m paying or not).
That’s nice, but then that middle one is worth R200 alone, so if you already shop at Checkers (we do), then it’s already a no-brainer.
And then those double personalised offers: they add up. Sure, they get your shopping data (oh no!), but then you get money off the stuff you actually want, rather than a kettle, some baby food or a frisbee.

There was a little issue with my Checkers card today when I went to use my 10% extra in-store. Nothing major, sorted quickly, but what it did do was mean that everyone (cashier, lady behind me in the queue, store manager) all watched as R568.65 got taken off my bill.
R2600 to R2030 just like that. All because of my R99 per month spend.

I left once I’d paid, but I think the LBMITQ signed up on the spot. Why wouldn’t you?

And overall this month, I’ve saved R836. Take off the R99 fee and do some rudimentary maths, and I make that R737. What’s not to like?

Times are pretty tough here in SA at the moment, and I recognise that we’re lucky to be able to speculate to accumulate. But if you think that this could save you and your household some cash, well, I’m here as a neutral, unbiased, impartial, non-partisan (although somewhat tautological) individual to tell you that it does actually work.

Go for it.

RBOSS is back!

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It’s been a while since we’ve seen some RBOSS (click here if you need an explanation, and here to see other posts about RBOSS), but it’s back with an absolute classic, a stone-cold banger, a perfect example of the genre. Not least because it’s actually of Ramsey Bay, and that’s the R and the B sorted immediately.

And just look at the O and the S. Wow.

It’s dreamy.

And next up, the photographer’s disclaimer:

not done a lot to it TBH

Ja right.

Of course you haven’t, mate.

The yellow is from your pants that are on fire after that statement.

And all that orange was the early morning nuclear test in Cumbria. A bang so big, it made one end of your photo go down. The Lake District is a whole lot less hilly now, and it’s sloping downhill strongly to the left.

It’s a shame that someone took a video of the same sunrise from about 300m to your left.
And that it looked like this: Ramsey Bay No Saturation Society.

Although you can still see the black smoke from the explosion.

See, that’s how a pro works. No dehaze (see the telltale white haze around the lighthouse on the left above), no silly saturation, straight horizon.

But while it might be more accurate and a whole lot less aggressive on the eyes, it doesn’t get you as many LIKES: the true currency of the RBOSSer.

And that – sadly – is why RBOSS will continue forever.

Video: CJ Wormwell

Tent camping in Australia

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If Geoguessr was an Olympic sport, I’d be all over it. I already enjoy watching the regional qualifying for the upcoming World Cup. If you have a few minutes, take a look at some of these games. The skill level is right up there with anything it would take to be an Olympian. Incredible stuff.

But Geoguessr isn’t an Olympic sport. So I’m watching handball instead.
France 22-27 Norway. Thanks for asking.

But that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been playing Geoguessr.
And today, I got dropped here:

Easy for you to say.

Actually, easier for everyone to say when you realise that Google Maps has maybe added an extra syllable again. But why hasn’t it added anything to the second line.

I’m confused.

Anyway, it’s up in the Northern Territory of Australia, in case you were wondering. I came pretty close from the name (whatever that is), and the vegetation: just 22km away.

The two main things to do there, according to their website, are “birdwatching and croc spotting”.
And not swimming, presumably.

Crazy name. Crazy place.