Focus on Imaging 08 (Part 1)

Thanks to Phil Campbell for the hard work in editing this film and to Yellow Snapper for introducing us to some great Think Tank kit..

All three parts of the video are here.. Part One Part Two Part Three

Back On The Road

It’s been a long ten days since the Landy incident, and in the mean time I have been too-ing and fro-ing with the insurance companies mainly just trying to get a straight answer out of them.

Getting myself to jobs has been a bit of a pain in the ass what with living in a village and having to either borrow cars, cadge lifts or use public transport..

That is until now..

Today I set out in search of a cheap car only to return with a not so cheap motorbike.

I have always had motorbikes of one type or another but this is my first BMW.

For those that are really interested it is a BMW F650GS.. I bought it with the money I have put aside for the tax man in the hope that my insurance company will reimburse me for my Land Rover. It’s a gamble I know, but I really need transport now so I can get on with my photographic assignments.

The F650GS’s engine has won the Dakar Rally at least twice and with a listed fuel consumption of 74.3 miles per gallon it is one of the most environmentally friendly motorbikes of it’s size on the road. I calculated that if I can keep the bike and myself in one piece for two years, the money I would have saved on fuel compared to driving the Land Rover would cover the cost of the bike.

So why a motorbike..?

Free parking.
No congestion charge to pay in London.
Easy to negotiate traffic jams.
Cheep road tax and insurance.
Low fuel consumption.
Good on and off road.
Hold their value.
Fun to drive.

On the downside there is the weather issue.. But when needed I have waterproofs and there is alway a car not to far away to borrow should I need to take the dog to the vet etc etc.. Yes I miss the versatility of having a truck that I can throw all kinds of crap in and not worry about a muddy dog etc.. But for all the other times where I am trundling along in a 5 mile tailback I would much rather be on a bike.. Lets face it, our roads in the UK are getting busier and busier, this is the ultimate congestion beater.

That said.. I will be realistic and see how the next few months go before I decide if this is just going to be a spring/summer thing. This bike with it’s ABS and it’s heated grips should do me well in all seasons. We will just have to see what the British summer decides to throw at us.

Check Out My Box

What Can I say.. Other than Thank YouI

There is nothing quite like getting post that isn’t a bill.. I love unexpected mail and this box came out of the blue and has really brightened my day.

You can see more about my recent crash by clicking HERE ..HERE and HERE

Or you can click these links below.. If the links aren’t working come back in a bit as the servers are being refreshed..

http://www.ourmaninside.com/blog/files/84acdca4295a8c386c63fbcf7954a1c2-77.php

http://www.ourmaninside.com/blog/files/0188b4e27e4482e04cf38d5effcd1afa-78.php

http://www.ourmaninside.com/blog/files/dbf66fea33e89f3defea42ce486c88e5-79.php

Thanks again to Summersault Communications

Crashage

Desperate times call for desperate measures and whilst thinking about how I can regain my freedom and leave the village I remembered a little Vespa wannabe I had hidden under a pile of junk in the garage.

I am not normally a winter rider, I don’t have the electrically heated kit that is normally required to survive our extreme temperatures. I don’t like falling off on the ice either.. especially after the Landy incident.

Still, i do have a fat no claims bonus on a motorbike having never claimed and the little 125cc LML Star Delux does do the length of the country on a cup of fuel.. so why not. If it weren’t for the ice this week I would have about 9 years no claimes on a car too.

I can insure tax and mot the bike for the same price as a set of Land Rover seat covers. So I have. And for the moment I have limited freedom and the means to get out of the village and at least into the nearest two towns without resulting to our sporadic and expensive public transport.

I am still going to need a car for those long distance kit lugging journeys but having a burn on the little bike today has made me yearn for another ‘practical’ bike that I can use for work.

I would also like to add a big thank You to the kind folks that have donated to the Land Rover fund. I can’t tell you how cheeky i feel having this on my site. It wasn’t my initial idea and I was asked from more than one person to set it up. I also won’t be a hypocrite and say i don’t appreciate the idea.. I do.

Insurance companies are notorious at being difficult and mine is no exception. After over 14 phone calls i have found the right person to talk to, only then to be told my claim has had to be re-started due to an internal error. It will be a while before I see this resolved and in the meantime I really need to be mobile. At the very least so that I can work.

You never know, Land Rover may still get wind of my appreciation and sponsor me to produce more content.

Parody and when to not look into a horses mouth..

parody |?par?di|
noun ( pl. -dies)
an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.

I am loving the seesmic films that have sprouted after yesterdays crash.. It is linked here if you havn’t seen it.

Here are a couple of the parody’s posted so far..

There has also been talk of a Land Rover Fund and whilst I am sat at my Grand Mothers (an 83 year old Italian woman who makes killer pizza named Ofelia) she has seen a couple of people talking of a collection so I can get another sensible vehicle. This is amazing to her and she is more than a little shocked that a website made up of people I mostly haven’t met are considering helping me in acquiring a new car..!

I said they were joking but she said “Never look a gift horse in the mouth” or words to that effect. She actually said, “Never look in a horses mouth”, but i know what she means..

So i am not.. Perhaps I am being cheeky by posting this chip-in link here.. but hey-ho.. I did just get a repair quote for £6780.. and that pretty much means my Land Rover is a write off.. I can’t ever imagine getting another in the same condition for what i paid for this one.. Not unless someone out there knows the folks at Land Rover and they want to use my original post for marketing..

I do feel like it saved my life.. But whether i could ever get another.. who knows..

Crash!

Whilst i wait for a lift to the hospital.. Here is a record of what happened today..

Episode 41 – Two Clips

Whilst feeling a little bit guilty for not having posted a (self-made) podcast in a while I decided that I would paste a couple of random recordings together and stick the outcome into my feed. Forgive me if it is a little rough around the edges..

It’s not my normal fare.. but it is what it is.

If you have not subscribed to the podcast (free) in Itunes already, you can listen to the mp3 here

Work in progress, streaming live with Qik.

I have been playing with a video streaming mobile phone application called QIK (pronounced quick). This enables me to stream live video from my Nokia N95 straight to the web and simultaneously hold conversations with people viewing on Qik’s site.

As you chat and explain what you are up to, little text comments scroll up onto your phone screen and a real time conversation is possible with anyone in the world who is viewing your video on Qik. As an added bonus as soon as you film you can notify anyone following you on twitter that you are live and as soon as you stop filming the video is also sent to Seesmic.

Not content with all that exposure I have also embedded the clip here below…