White balance.

As you can see, both of these shots were taken with the toys sitting in the same place. It's a corner lit by a north facing window and isn't the brightest spot in the house. I have never been a great enthusiast for flash, preferring to use natural light if I possibly can, and both pictures were taken that way.

Woodey, K-01 & FA43.

Teddy, TZ40.

Initially, on both cameras, using AWB I had great difficulty with getting the colours how I wanted them, then I switched the WB to daylight and things improved dramatically. It still wasn't quite to my liking though, so I fine tuned the WB towards the blue end of things and my satisfaction. I was particularly pleased to find that, whilst the range of adjustment was a bit more limited, I could do this on the small sensor TZ40 as well as the APSC Pentax. Thank you Mr Lumix.

Dodgy door locks and roses.

I was waiting for the locksmith to arrive (it's a long story!) so I thought I'd give the TZ40 a bit of exercise.

TZ40         1:1

Both shots have been post processed, using the Google+ implementation of Snapseed, on my Chromebook. To be honest this has now become my normal method of workflow.

TZ40                16:9

I really can't say why, but I rarely shoot in 16:9 format. Seeing this outcome though I think I'll try using it more often.

Cars not included...

Samsung Galaxy S3

Further developments on the home front, we've got a new driveway. It's double the width of the old one which means that now both our cars fit on, brilliant. Before we had cracked and worn out concrete, now nice new blocks, it looks so much better.

Talking of hedges...

Now this is what you call a hedge:

Nex-5r            f5.6 @ 1/250 iso100

I promise, no more hedges (for now!)

Going, going...

FZ200                   f4 @ 1/1000  iso320

Down one side of my garden I have a wall over which there is an old church with associated churchyard, wonderful to look at and one of the things which attracted me to the property in the first place. Down the other side I have had for many years the hedge you see here. It has given me a living green boundary which I really like, and I like to think it helps the local wildlife as well. Unfortunately, but for very good reasons, the time has come for it to be replaced by a fence. I'll be sorry to see it go, but sometimes change has to happen.

Just about 24 hours later and this is how it looks...

LX5             f2.8  @ 1/400 iso320

The guys worked hard, and it must have been hot work too. I don't like it, but it isn't quite as bad as I feared. Tomorrow the fencing goes up.

A further 24 hours and we have this...

FZ200      f2.8 @ 1/60  iso160

A good solid traditional fence, just like your grand dad used to have. I would still prefer my hedge but once its weathered a bit, blended in and lost the 'new' look I don't think it will look too bad.

A dream...

LX5

I don't often remember the dreams I have, but last night I dreamt I was on a photo shoot using a pair of Nikon 1 V2s, one black one and one white one (do they even make a white one?). Anyway, considering I've never even held a Nikon 1, I thought this a fairly odd camera choice, even for a dream. It got weirder mind, after a while I had to stop shooting and change the film in the cameras!

Scene Around...

What a beautiful morning! I do find photographing flowers very satisfying.

FZ200                         Dog Rose.

By the way, I'm sure you will already know this but if you 'click' on the photos you can see them in a larger temporary window. Good for a closer look.

       FZ200                        Cornflower.

Panasonic have announced their new FZ1000 model with the 1" sensor. At first I was very excited reading about the new model, but on a little more reflection I'm not sure it would have enabled me to have achieved more with these shots. Wait and see I suppose. Isn't it good to see though that, even in a supposedly falling market, manufacturers are prepared to come up with new ideas. Top marks to Panasonic from me.