The Gallery

Visited The Photographers Galery with Amber again. New exhibitions to see including entrants for Deutsche Borse prize 2015. Images and styles varied and hard hitting. Probably best viewed on separate days, so you can process and appreciate all the visual information. I enjoyed the display by Mihhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse. A project documenting a decaying building and the effext on the residents.

I wouldn't like to be a judge on the panel, So many superb images and graphics. 

The plan was to hit the streets after the gallery, and despite the rain, we did manage to get a few shots.

I experimented with some slow shutter speeds, attempting to capture passers by in the rain, with their umbrellas and any other feature that would catch the eye, but I didn't get anything good enough to post. I did learn a few lessons, that background is still important even when blurred, and panning takes practise and patience. 

Eventually the rain defeated us, as we were worried about water in the cameras, so headed home to Herts. 

Poker as life

I have heard many sports compared to life. Football, chess, but none of them come as close as poker does. Playing poker seriously, as opposed to recreation or fun play, is a seriously hard business. You have to study strategy, keep up to date with the trends in the game. Have the courage of a lion, and the temperament of a zen master. There is a concept called Fundamental Theory of Poker, which basically says, you must minimize your mistakes versus maximising the errors of your opponents. Even if you put the hours of study in, and have a good understanding of the many concepts there are, poker will still test you. Test you in ways, that will make you question your objective existence. Things will happen, you will not believe. All that is because of luck, otherwise known as probability, variance, dancing with the poker gods and "OMG, I cannot believe he hit that river card".

The great poker commentator and author Jesse May once said mastering poker is about how you deal with luck. Because you can do everything right and still get punished. Punished again and again, and while you are getting punished, the poker gods will interupt your punishment and find ways to punish you a little bit more. So why play?

It can take many thousands or tens of thousands of hands to overcome variance. It's when you do, that the profit rolls in. Bad players make bad mistakes and they pay you off hand after hand. Sometimes it's harder to notice when this is happening as this is how things SHOULD play out.

I played 15, 367 hands of poker in April, not including tournaments, I am talking cash game hands only. Not a big number of hands by any means, some grinders notch up hundreds of thousands or even millions hands per month.

For a loss of 5.16 big blinds per 100. I checked through my hands and made a few errors, but nothing too bad. I am also running above above expected value, which is slightly worrying as I was luckier than the maths expected. I have been playing for about fifteen years, and should have progressed to higher stakes, but it just has never happened (yet). Who knows? keep plugging away.

This hand was a highlight from a session I have just finished

Always nice as the odds of making one are huge. 

The magic button — Make Everything OK

The blog been a bit sparse lately, so I tought I would gift you a magic button.



The magic button — Make Everything OK

Great Days

Today is a great day for road cycling. Not that I have been out on the bike today. Even though I have a day off work, feeling a bit tired, so will endeavour to get out tomorrow.

No, today is the day I changed the lens on my cycling sunnies from clear, to full on shady. A day that says Winter has gone, Spring has sprung. Paris-Nice is done and Milan-San Remo is under way. I have a 100k IOW coming up, so need to start getting some K's in the legs. Although coming to road cycling relatively late, I enjoy it so much. The lanes around North Herts ideal to get some fresh(ish) air and see some wildlife.

Here are my rides, add me if you are on Strava, and I will post some to blog. 

Lastly, always remember, The arms of your sunnies shall be OUTSIDE the helmet straps.

Amber Pics!

Are here.

Very nice selection of her personal fav's. Head on over and let her know what you think.

Dean Street Soho London Feb 2015 Part 3

Concluding set of pics from recent shoot. Overall I am happy with them, and I feel my personal vision continues to develop. Feel free to comment, I am not afraid of criticism and it may help me be a better photographer.

Dean Street Soho London Part 2

Edited a few more pics today.

They have all had some post processing. Hope you like them.