Surfing in Bude

Alastair BegleySports Short Link

With the weather feeling more like summer than spring this weekend I decided to take a break from work and head to Bude to see a friend and while I was there attempted to do some surfing photography. Though while the air temperature may have felt more like summer than spring the temperature of the sea certainly did not! As usual I braved the surf with my camera and was standing up to my waist in it and having to jump over the waves to keep the camera dryish in order to get closer to the surfers.  The surf however did not want to play ball and wasn’t great which lead to not many surfers managing to get up on the waves and this is obviously problematic for getting pictures of them! But thankfully the surf kayakers were being more successful and enabled me to get these pictures.  Unfortunately while the weather was lovely it wasn’t great for pictures due to being very directional harsh light that I was almost shooting into which was also mixed with a very hazy day, so these are what I managed to make of the time I spent in the water.

Ogof Craig A Ffynnon

Alastair BegleyCaving Short Link

This weekend was time for another weekend away with my university caving club.  We headed to the South Wales Caving Club at Penwyllt near Swansea where on the Saturday we went down Ogof Ffynnon Ddu which is the deepest cave in the UK and the second longest cave in Wales which also happens to have the deepest through trip which is where you go in one entrance and exit at another, we went in at the bottom entrance and came out the top entrance. As this was a long trip that we were trying to do quickly so we could get out in time for the rugby I didn’t take my camera so there are unfortunately no photos. However on Sunday we headed to Ogof Craig A Ffynnon which is a cave in the Clydach Gorge near Abergavenny which is the prettiest cave I have been to though however also one of the muddiest! As this was a shorter trip and so well decorated I took my camera with me and managed to produce these photos. It was a one of the best caving weekends I have had for caving in quite a. Read the full article…

Eurofighter Typhoon in Libya?

Alastair BegleyAviation Short Link

With the United Nations recent decision to back a no fly zone over Libya and in my opinion the most likely jet of ours to be deployed being the Eurofighter Typhoon due to the probability of air to air combat meaning that jets that have air superiority are required. For this we have two alternatives, the Tornado F3 or the Typhoon and there isn’t much of a choice with the F3s due to retire next week and the Typhoons ability to attack ground targets too. There are however alternatives for just ground attack which are the Tornado GR4 which are currently deployed in Afghanistan so fairly busy or the Harrier GR9 which have just being retired along with the carrier which the Harriers can land on. So with this information in mind I have decided to write this blog post in respect of the pilots that are going to be send into the front line where they are likely to come into danger from both air and ground and to show off the great aircraft that is the Eurofighter Typhoon which I think is the most likely British aircraft to be deployed. These photos are all. Read the full article…

A trip to the zoo

Alastair BegleyWildlife Short Link

This weekend was one of the few weekends that I spend in Exeter and it happened to coincide with a friends birthday and to celebrate this we headed down to Paignton zoo for the day and I couldn’t resist the chance to take my camera to photograph the animals. It turned out to be a very enjoyable day with great company despite it being bitterly cold and overcast, though I nearly didn’t make it there twice as I missed the train as you can no longer buy tickets on the train from Exeter Central and there was a long queue for tickets and then when I was driving down I nearly ran out of fuel on the duel carriageway! Getting photos was harder than I expected due to having fences and people in the way or animals just not playing ball (though that is expected!). Although it was a good day I couldn’t help but feel sad for some of the animals, especially the larger animals such as the elephants and rhinos as well as some of the birds such as owls that were confined to what seemed like fairly. Read the full article…