simonh.uk - reviews

Lonely Planet's Best Ever Photography Tips

2025-01-17T00:00:00+00:00

Introduction

This is my third post tagged photography. However, I’m no photographer. I would say that I’ve got a fairly good eye for pictures, but doubt I’ve taken anything above mediocre. Not to worry, these things can be learned and with practise one can get better at anything. So today I picked up a copy of Lonely Planet’s Best Ever Photography Tips.¹

The Gist

I’ve only just got the book so this isn’t an in depth review. Just a quick scan to see whether it’s worth my / your time. From what I’ve seen, all the advice seems simple and sensible. The book is broken up into the following sections:

The 10 Golden Rules
- Take Control of the Picture-Taking Process
- Learn to See the Transformative Power Of Light
- Practise, Practise, Practise
- Research & Plan
- Develop a Picture-Taking Routine
- Be Patient & Commit to the Image
- Pay for Photos Only When It’s Appropriate
- Shoot Raw Files
- Become Proficient With Image-Editing Software
- Critique Your Photos Objectively

The 45 Best Tips
- Choose the Correct Camera
- Accessorise!
- Use the Quality Control Settings
- Select a Suitable File Format
- Adjust Your Exposure
- Capture the Widest Tonal Range
- Check the Exposure is Correct
- Stay Within Range of Your Flash
- Reduce Red-Eye
- Use Your Phone Like a Camera
- Prevent Blur
- Highlight Your Subject
- Follow the Rule of Thirds
- Vary the Look of Your Images
- Vary the Depth of Field
- Reduce Reflections
- Talk to Strangers
- Use a Short Telephoto Lens
- Use a Wide-Angle Lens
- Show Landscapes Some Love
- Shoot Early or Late
- Use a Tripod
- Override the Light Meter
- Fill the Frame
- Move Around
- Light Your Lunch
- Capture Cityscapes at Dusk
- Gauge Light to Shoot Interiors
- Use a Fast ISO
- Get to the Parade Early
- Visit Famous Places
- Grab a Window Seat
- Add a Sense of Scale
- Anticipate the Moment
- Capture Reflections
- Make Sunsets More Interesting
- Avoid Lens Flare
- Shoot Wildlife
- Set Your Alarm Clock
- Be Patient
- Record Light Trails
- Don’t Put Your Camera Away
- Protect Your Camera
- Back Up Your Images
- Work With Your Images

Each tip has a page of text and a page with a photo demonstrating the tip. It’s clearly aimed squarely at people like me. Comfortable looking through a viewfinder or at a screen and just pressing the button. People who’d like to feel a bit of pride in their future photos. The book is written in a conversational, non-technical style. When technical jargon is necessary, it’s briefly explained beforehand.

Conclusion

At first glance (after only about ten minutes scanning through), I like the format Lonely Planet has chosen. It’s not dense with text and at only about 140 pages, it’s not intimidating like some photography books.

Afterword

Over the next few days, I’m going to read the book cover to cover and use some of these 55 tips. Anything interesting or important will be added to this post.

Footnotes

¹ I got the 2013 edition. An updated edtition was released in 2017.

Quick Review of AlphaVPS Storage VPS

2025-01-11T00:00:00+00:00

256GB for €3 Per Month!

I’ve just noticed that I’ve been a customer of AlphaVPS since December 2021. So here is my review after three years as a customer.¹

AlphaVPS have not asked me to post this. I know that sort of things goes on, but not here.

I can’t remember where I first heard of AlphaVPS, it was probably lowendbox as I’ve picked up a few deals there over the years. Back in 2021, when I signed up, I went for the €20 per year plan as:

256GB would be sufficient for my needs
If it turned out to be rubbish, I wasn’t losing a lot

For that tiny price, you get 1 shared CPU core, 768MB of RAM, 1TB of data transfer:

So I ordered it, set up an Apache vhost and have been using it for the last three years without a hitch. Here is a screenshot of htop running, taken just now. As you can see it’s using 110MB of RAM, 2% of CPU. The only service I have running on it is Apache, by the way. Notice the uptime (464 days)!

Customer Support

Back in 2023, I noticed that I was getting charged twice each month by AlphaVPS. So I opened a ticket, and after some toing and froing to find out what had happened (don’t think we ever got to the bottom of it), they agreed that I’d been overcharged and credited me for the overpayments. Here’s a screenshot of the email:²

Problem reported, problem solved. All dealt with very professionally and promptly.

There was a slight delay of a couple of hours (if I remember correctly) as I’m not sure they’d ever had this problem before.

My Rating for AlphaVPS

10/10

Conclusion

It can take a while with a VPS provider to determine if they’re worth staying with. Well, as I’ve said, they’ve got a happy customer here. Well done to the team and I hope they have a great 2025!

One other thing to note is that you can pay annually, which I prefer (one invoice per year instead of twelve). I don’t recall this being an option back in 2021 but it is now.

Footnotes

¹ I’m not a big fan of those “I’ve been using something for 3 days and it’s great!!!” reviews. How are you finding it after three years? That’s what I want to know.

² This is why you should always be careful how you interact with your customers. You never know when some blogger is going to screenshot it! Alex at AlphaVPS is a gentleman and I think he’s been in the business long enough to know that.

Audio-Technica M20xBT Wireless Headphones Review

2024-12-25T00:00:00+00:00

The Second Best Headphones I’ve Owned

Many years ago, circa 2002, I treated myself to a pair of Sennheiser HD580’s (I think that was the model, certainly look the same as the photo I found below). Man, these headphones were something else. To my ears, every sound was pure perfection. The soundstage was unlike anything I’d heard before or since. You could hear something and think:

That’s about ten feet in front of me, slightly to the right.

They were amazing. I had them and loved them for many years. Eventually, the cable started playing up (hard-wired, not detachable). And then one day, they stopped working entirely. I took them apart and attempted to extend their life a bit longer, but it didn’t work. They were finished.

I still miss them to this day.

In the years since owning the HD580’s, I’d had a family, and spending a couple of hundred quid on headphones wouldn’t fly. They were the first and last studio grade headphones to sit on my head.

I’ve probably bought about fifteen or twenty headphones since then. The bud, in ear type. The cheap, wireless Amazon ones at about 30 quid. Never happy with the sound quality after being spoilt by the 580’s. Nothing came close. Nothing.

Trying the Sennheiser HD400S

In March 2024, I decided to try another pair of entry level Sennheiser’s (think they were about forty or fifty quid). Since it was probably twenty two years since my last Sennheiser purchase, I assumed that technology would have moved on and these would surely be comparable to my beloved HD580’s. Sure, they looked cheaper, much more plasticy, but 20 years of innovation must count for something, right?

Sadly not. I was very disappointed with the 400’s. The soundstage is tiny. The sound reproduction is muddy with only the mid-range being decent. They were hardly any better than some unknown Chinese brand from Amazon. If this was the best Sennheiser could offer for ~£50 after twenty years, I’d have to get my next pair of headphones from someone else

Audio-Technica M20xBT

The other half got me these for Christmas (I chose them though). Cost: £75. Just put them on charge earlier today, ready to try them and fully ready for yet more disappointment. However…

These aren’t half bad at all! The soundstage has opened up again. Not to the same level as the 580’s but reminding me of what a good pair of headphones sounds like.

I’ve owned probably five wireless headphones and these are the first ones to tell me:

Battery level high

When I turn them on. That’s a nice touch. Every other pair waited until they were nearly discharged before screeching:

Battery low. Please charge!

Every two minutes, for ten minutes. Then they would turn off. Ugh.

There are plenty of videos on Youtube giving you a full guided tour of these headphones, so I won’t go into massive detail.

There are three buttons on the left side (from bottom to top, these are):

Volume Down
Power
Volume Up

I have no complaints about them. They’re in a good position and once I’m fully used to these headphones, I’m sure I’ll just know where they are. The headphones seem comfortable on first use and block out background noise adequately.

Bear in mind that I’ve only been using them for a couple of hours so can’t speak about longevity, or how they feel on the head for extended periods, but I’ve got a very good feeling about these ones. For seventy five quid, these are miles better than the Sennheiser 400’s. That 45% price increase is worth a 100% increase, in my opinion.

My Rating

As of today, 25th December 2024, they get an 8/10

Updates

I’ll update this post if there’s anything more to say in the future.

Nulea M501 Wireless Trackball Mouse Review

2024-12-25T00:00:00+00:00

Trackballs Only For Me

I’ve only used trackball mice for years. For probably the past ten or so years I’ve been using the Kensington Orbit:

I was on my third one and decided I’d try a different model this time. Even though trackball mice are pitched as ergonomic, I’ve found some hand fatigue on the Orbit, my middle fingers in particular. As I spend way too much time on my computer, I even swapped to using my left hand for mouse duties a couple of years back (which did help). So I thought I’d try a different style of trackball this time.

Generally trackballs either have the ball on the top or on the side. I thought I’d give the Nulea M501 a go as this one has the ball under the left thumb, which I haven’t used since this one:

The Nulea M501

I paid £30 for this on Amazon (a couple of days ago), nearly half the price of a Kensington Orbit. Build quality seems good and the rubber feet do the job of keeping the thing from moving around nicely. You’ve got three connection modes: two bluetooth and one usb (with included adapter). As I only change a mouse if I need to, it took me a while to realise that I couldn’t use it through the USB cable (that’s for charging only I think)! Once I’d figured out I needed to plug the adapter into my PC, everything worked. I should note I’m using Linux Mint 22 as my OS, and it worked with no fiddling whatsover (usually the case these days).

Now it takes quite a while to get used to a trackball mouse when the position of the ball moves. As I wrote before, I’ve been using a top mounted ball for years and this one is on the side. So it feels weird. I think the best thing for me to do is update this post in a few weeks, once I’ve got used to it.

Overall though at the moment, I think I’ll be happy with this Nulea trackball.

Updates

Once I’ve got used to this mouse, I’ll update this post below with more information

Dropbox Plus 2025 Review

2024-12-22T00:00:00+00:00

One Year In

In early January, my Dropbox plus subscription is up for renewal. Overall, I’ve been happy(ish) with the service and will be renewing. This post is a quick look at what we get for just less than a hundred pounds per year and whether it’s worth the money.

Price

So, how much exactly does Dropbox plus cost? £95.88 if you pay in one go, which works out at £7.99 per month. For that you get:

2TB of storage
File transfers up to 50GB
30 day file restore

For me, the main reason for upgrading was the storage space. Nothing more.

What I like

In the year I’ve had my subscription, nothing has gone wrong (that I know of). Uploading files is easy. I like that they have a partnership with Microsoft to edit Word, Excel and Powerpoint files directly from their site which is handy.

File transfers work well. You get emails when links are clicked, files downloaded.

Dropbox Paper is interesting. I’ve only used it a few times, but it could be useful for notes, presentations, that sort of thing. How committed Dropbox are to keeping it around long term is uncertain.

I use their website when I’m on desktop and the Android app on my phone. Both are well designed, fast and intuitive. When they make significant changes to the interface, you always know as they have popups telling you what’s new.

What I Don’t Like

What I dislike the most is how they’re always trying to get me to upgrade. Random popups appear. On one of the nav bars this monstosity is trying to get your attention, all the time:

There’s a link to a feature called Send and track. Try to Track file and you get this:

I find that very annoying. You get that a lot. It’s almost like they’re trying to make you feel guilty for not giving them more money.

If you create a tranfer and want to set an expiration or add a password:

No thanks.

Another thing that’s annoying is (as many people have pointed out) that they’re missing a Dropbox Lite plan. Google and Microsoft both have 100GB plans. For many people that’d be sufficient. I pay both the aforementioned companies for that service (~£20 per year).

Conclusion

For less than a hundred quid a year, you have 2TB of storage accessible through pretty much any device. I don’t use any sync functionality, but it’s there if needed. Overall, after nearly one year of use, I’d rate the service as:

7 out of 10.