Up to the edge!

Alderley Edge is a little place in Cheshire just outside of Manchester and it is RIDICULOUSLY expensive. A lot of footballers and stars live there as it's not too far from Manchester. It does however have a national trust place and so myself and my girlfriend went there for a little walk and to take some photos! We had been before, but it was extremely busy as it was a bank holiday weekend and we couldn't find anywhere to park so we went back home to the pub, just as good! But this time it was a normal monday and so it was empty, success!
So we started our walk up to the edge, and spotting things to shoot on the way. When we got to the top, it really is an edge, as you will see from the photos! Pretty impressive view though! Just as we reached the top, the battery on my camera died, nightmare! so I resorted to using my iPhone for a few snaps, but it's just not the same!

Now here is a little side story for those of you interested in my antics:

When we were leaving the top an old lady asked us if we could shout 'Izzy' at the top of our voices as she had lost her dog! So we spent a few minutes shouting it and listening out, but she was nowhere to be seen! However just as we were turning to go back, I spotted something white running around right at the bottom below the edge, and it was the dog! No amount of shouting could stop her from having the time of her life down there, so I offered to go down and get her. After making my way down the hill, slipping numerous times on the way, I finally got to the bottom where I hearded her up the hill back to her owner, however I was still stuck at the bottom of the hill! It took me a good ten minutes and all my energy to get back up, when the dog did it as quick as a flash! Finally, as I made it to the top, they had the dog and all was well, except for me who was completely knackered, but it was a little adventure all the least! Moral of the story is, keep hold of your dog if it runs off so nice people like me don't have to go chasing after it! Thanks!


anyway, here are the snaps from the day:

Wrapped up warm, poser!

 someone planning on staying the night?

 Woodland shots...

The edge! Awful shot as the light was terrible, but I had no time to set it up as the battery was dying!

 In one of the crevasses...

A panorama shot from my iPhone

For some of these photos I used my Gorilla Pod! Don't forget to enter my competition where you can win one for yourself!

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More Markets

German Markets are really popular over here in England and so in every major city you will find a german market. The first german market I went to was the one in Leeds, which my post The German Markets covers.

This time however I went up to visit my girlfriend and so we went to see the german markets up there in Manchester! I spent a year working in Manchester last year and so during the Christmas period myself and colleagues would go to the german market every now and again to have some drinks on a friday evening, it was great! This time we went round all the markets looking at all the things we couldn't afford to buy as we are now poor students, but had fun taking photos of everything there!

The markets in Manchester are a lot better than in Leeds, there are more shops, wider walkways, a more chilled atmosphere and better decorations! wahey! So if you do get the change go to Manchester over Leeds, you'll have a much better time and you can actually spend time within the markets and enjoy yourself, rather than feel rushed around and forced to leave!

Here are some of the snaps I got at the Manchester markets:

Some light fittings that were for sale...

A huge tower with wooden statues in the middle that walked around it!

 and a little one attached to it's base...

 Harvey Nichols shop fronts are always amazing, this one doesn't let itself down!

 This crazy thing actually sang christmas songs! And no, I have no idea who that woman is, but she pushed in front whilst I was trying to take a picture so now her photo is on the internet whether she likes it or not, uhoh!

 A huge santa on top of the Town Hall...

And just to show how big it is, this is it sat on the roof infront of the clock tower!

Don't forget to enter my competition where you can win one of these for yourself!

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Woahhhhh we're halfway there!

Woahhh-oh! Living on a prayer!

Okay I'll stop. Just a quick shout out to say that I am halfway there to the 100 followers, and so the competition hopefully will soon be under way!

Don't forget to enter the actual giveaway on the rafflecopter widget, once you have followed/shared/posted. Also don't forget that you can do all 4 options to get all 26 entries into the raffle!

A big thanks to those who have already followed and entered. Get your friends to follow and blog about it and we can reach the 100 quicker so hopefully the winner can have the stand before Christmas! Yay for extra presents!

And for those of you who have absolutely no idea what I am on about, here is the competition:

Camera Stand - 100 Follower Giveaway!

 First of all I am going to review/show you my gorilla pod camera stand, and then one of you lucky folk can win one!

 So... Those of you who know anything about cameras will hopefully have seen these Gorillapod stands as they have become pretty popular these days. I bought mine on that little known site called eBay! I got it pretty cheap compared to what they can go for so I was happy with that! They have different weight limits for different types of cameras, but I went for the heavy duty DSLR version just to make sure my camera was never dropped! I must admit that using it at first was a little bit scary. Putting your faith into something that has your camera holding onto a tree was pretty scary, but it really does hold on well!

Now I take it everywhere with me when I go out shooting as it's light and can really be used anywhere. Plus if I'm doing some macro shots of things on the ground I just whack my camera onto self timer on the stand and there is zero wobble in the photo, brilliant! Also if out and about with nowhere to put the camera, I can still take photos of me and my girlfriend. I actually did this on holiday with the camera resting on a steep hill in the middle of a bush, it actually worked!

One issue with the stand is that it isn't very tall so obviously if you want to have an eye level stand this isn't the one for you unless you find something high up to hang it on, but if you want to go exploring in the woods or on some walks then it is ideal as it is reasonably small and light, and can be used anywhere!

It comes with a 1/4" adaptor so for most modern cameras it fits, and can fit compacts aswell as DSLRs. If you have a camera with a 3/8" mount an adaptor has been supplied with it so yours can fit on too! yay!

Here are some photos showing you what it can do. Now, I apologise for the quality, these have just been taken on my iPhone in my dark bedroom, so they are grainy and rubbish, but they do show what the stand is capable of!

And now for the competition!

Rules:

1. All you have to do is enter the competition below to get your name in the hat! Once I reach 100 followers I will give it 2 weeks for the competition to close, to give the new followers a chance to enter themselves!

2. There are 4 ways to enter the competition -
a) Follow me on Bloglovin for 3 entries
b) Follow me on Google Friend Connect for 3 entries
c) Grab my button and share it on your blog for 10 entries! Yes, TEN! Also if you let me know, I will share your button on mine too! Buttons must be shared until the competition closes, you can keep it on there longer if you want!
d) Write a post about the competition for 10 entries! Yes, another TEN! Simply write a post about the competition and include either a link to this post or include the rafflecopter competition widget itself by following this link: Rafflecopter Widget and pasting the HTML into your post.

3. The winning entry will be checked before the prize can be awarded. If the winner is found to have entered without completing the entry rules, for how they entered the competition, they will be disqualified and the prize will be awarded to someone else. Let's be fair folks!

4. I will send the prize to ANYWHERE in the world! Once you are announced the winner, we can have a chat and I can get your address and I will post it as soon as I can!

5. Once posted I will inform the winner and all responsibilty for the item shall then be theirs. Should it not arrive for any reason, a new stand will not be re-sent, I only have the one!

6. Good luck!

Any questions then just post a comment or email me!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hocus Focus

I was looking for photos for my Macro Mashup 2 and I found this photo. I was just going to put it into the mashup, however the more I looked at it the more I liked it so I thought it deserved a post of it's own!

I think the great thing about this photo is that the majority of it is out of focus, not something you usually strive for! However there is just a small line of grass across the middle of the photo which is in focus, easy to miss! And that is what I like the most about it. That the point of the photo was for it to be out of focus, and for it to be different to the usual photos you would expect from a photo like this.

Focus really is something that I love to play about with, and I think you can really see things from so many different perspectives when you just play about with the focus.

So go out and have a play with the focus yourself and see what you can come up with, I'd love to see it!

Don't forget to enter my competition where you can win one of these for yourself!

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Macro Mashup 2

Another rushed post from me as the uni work is piling up and I'm struggling to get out to take photos!

So today's post shall be a cheeky macro mashup of things I have taken which havent made it onto the blog yet! See my first Macro Mashup post for more shots!
On a quick edit point after looking through these I realised how 3 of them aren't even remotely macro! You can tell my brain was frazzled! My bad!
Today's installment consists of:

1.The birdhouse in the back garden.
2. My old hamster cage. Now there is no hamster actually in the picture, however I just really like the colours in this.
3. Pirhanas!! And yes, they do actually have gold fleck on them!
4. A Flower at Speke Hall.

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