New Camera

Bought myself a new camera yesterday. Unfortunately my old camera - 4 Megapixel Vivitar 4345 - gave up the ghost a few days ago. It was the battery compartment not the actual camera. Some bits had fallen off the part of the battery cover that connect to the batteries hence no power could go to the camera. So bought myself a new one yesterday - Vivitar 7330, with a 3 inch LCD screen for viewing images, 3 X Optical Zoom but more importantly it is a 7 Megapixel Camera with SD card support. Getting a camera with macro lens was also important for taking photos of wargaming figures. I have always taken photos of wargames on the maximum setting for my camera and in future all wargaming pics will of course be taken at 7 MP so should capture more. In the end it cost me £80 after a little discount.

Since I got it I have taken some photos of my back garden which has been going through some changes, starting 3 weeks ago. First my mate Andy, who also owns the flat, arranged for some other mates of ours Karl and Chris to come down and knock down the west wall in the back garden before then starting to lay concrete foundations for the new wall to replace it. A week later, at the weekend, Karl then came back with Chris to build the new wall and begin laying the foundations for the rest of it. There is still some very old wall near the entrance to the alleyway at the back which we will be knocking down soon to build a new wall also. A skip will be arriving in the next few days for all the rubble to date. The area where the bricklaying has been going on is going to be turned into a driveway.
The back door has also been moved a few inches forward. Where it was previously it didn't look right. It also had some spaces between the frame and the wall which has now decreased. On the outside the brickwork was so unstable, old and rubbish basically that it was removed and replaced with new brickwork - also by Karl. I have joined in to help where I could. Of course, with a skip coming the flat has been going through a spring/summer clean, emptying it of rubbish and clutter slowly. Nearly done on that. There are some photos of the back garden improvements below - taken with my new camera.

The back garden at the moment. Notice the shed has moved forward. Huge pile of rubble on left from wall that was knocked down.

View of the newly built walls built by Karl.

The Old Wall (right) is soon to be demolished. Looks terrible and shabby next to the new wall.

My Back Door. New bricks above it done by Karl.

Much work to be done inside and out over the next few months.

Back to Wargaming! Its the other Partizan at Newark tomorrow. Won't be able to go this time. Which reminds me...there is a lot of wargaming photos to be put up on this blog but mainly the website over the next month or so. Many overdue by several months. Photos from...

Partizan May 2007 - All the best photos that came out, showing off all the games I took photos of including Mollwitz by the War Gamers.
Durham 9th June 2007 - All photos from that show at Durham.
Club Photos taken over the past few months including the Rapid Fire! photos given to me and general games.

Steve Spence, a member of our club for a short period and one of the Durham Wargames Society, posted the photos I took of his demo game on 9th June 2007 at Durham. When you get to his website go to Wargaming, WW2 then Durham Wargames Show 2007. There you will find a small selection of the photos I sent him and took of his game. His website is at http://www.boggles.demon.co.uk/. Those photos were taken with my old 4 MP camera with tripod.