http://neil-rice.com/index.htmlHot News!enneilrice@mac.comCopyright 2010 Neil Rice2012-02-05T18:21:35+00:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 Sun, 05 Feb 2012 18:29:00 +0000neilrice@mac.comBlog2012-02-05T18:21:35+00:00http://neil-rice.com/files/a38a4fa1d2bd122b888abf32340d3788-53.html#unique-entry-id-53http://neil-rice.com/files/a38a4fa1d2bd122b888abf32340d3788-53.html#unique-entry-id-53It started snowing early yesterday afternoon and by this morning we had a reasonable covering of about 4 - 5 inches. Yesterday morning felt really cold and then strangely enough as the snow started it began to feel warmer :-)

We took the dogs out today, Sookie was very young last year when it snowed but she really seemed to enjoy it today.














]]>neilrice@mac.comBlog2012-01-09T19:10:26+00:00http://neil-rice.com/files/87d85724c8ba792df5916a6ba27b657c-52.html#unique-entry-id-52http://neil-rice.com/files/87d85724c8ba792df5916a6ba27b657c-52.html#unique-entry-id-52Bright and early on Monday 9th January I headed off to Chillington Hall for the Sporting Irish Water Spaniel Club’s Novice Any Variety Retriever 12 Dog Stakes.

Mr Giffard and his guns shot very well and were exceptionally patient between drives as the dogs were tested. There were a couple of Irish Water Spaniels, a Flatcoat Retriever with the rest of the field being made up of Labradors.

It is getting near the end of the season now and many of these dogs have been working very hard over the last few months, you can see from the pictures that they are not couch potato dogs.

































]]>neilrice@mac.comBlog2012-01-05T19:52:15+00:00http://neil-rice.com/files/aeafbd2ca354b941d5dfb1cf562fe0ee-51.html#unique-entry-id-51http://neil-rice.com/files/aeafbd2ca354b941d5dfb1cf562fe0ee-51.html#unique-entry-id-51I have been taking photographs for over 40 years they have appeared in books, magazines, posters, adverts, websites, television and many other places but I do not have a single one of my pictures on the walls at home. All that is about to change as I have framed a few prints, all I have to do now is work out where to put them.









]]>neilrice@mac.comBlog2012-01-02T19:47:57+00:00http://neil-rice.com/files/e77a0cc20c6e48ad01188b803a7c832e-50.html#unique-entry-id-50http://neil-rice.com/files/e77a0cc20c6e48ad01188b803a7c832e-50.html#unique-entry-id-50Using Adobe Photoshop 5 I have been working on a new workflow to produce antique looking prints. It’s a combination of adding a texture, desaturation, some selective distressing and adding a sepia tint. It’s getting there I think.





]]>neilrice@mac.comBlog2011-12-31T17:58:42+00:00http://neil-rice.com/files/91f58603e10bf1c779deb68ad0fc8b84-49.html#unique-entry-id-49http://neil-rice.com/files/91f58603e10bf1c779deb68ad0fc8b84-49.html#unique-entry-id-49We took the dogs to Bosworth Water Trust today for a New Year's Eve swim. The weather is so mild compared to this time last year but I still would not fancy a swim in the lake, the dogs loved it. Before they got wet we took a few end of year portraits.
















]]>neilrice@mac.comBlog2011-12-26T20:23:18+00:00http://neil-rice.com/files/71e6f2fa27c46f04999131166ea54214-48.html#unique-entry-id-48http://neil-rice.com/files/71e6f2fa27c46f04999131166ea54214-48.html#unique-entry-id-48My nephew was riding in the Atherstone Hunt Boxing Day outing today so we went down to see them off. They set off from the town of Market Bosworth which was the site of the penultimate battle of The War of the Roses in 1485. It is a small town and was absolutely crammed with people, horses and hounds. Taking any sort of coherent pictures would have been very very difficult so I thought I would just take a few pictures to try and show just how diverse a group of people hunt, all ages and backgrounds enjoy this traditional country sport and it is great to see so many young people out there. The only thing that is a bit disappointing is just how bad the posture is with some of the younger riders, the Army riding instructors that I used to know would be having a fit







































]]>neilrice@mac.comBlog2011-12-12T20:07:12+00:00http://neil-rice.com/files/e4f0859ca16292fe6f67dfc467f30e75-47.html#unique-entry-id-47http://neil-rice.com/files/e4f0859ca16292fe6f67dfc467f30e75-47.html#unique-entry-id-47On Sunday we took our nephews Jacob (4) and Oliver (2) to see Father Christmas. The afternoon was put on at Syston Masonic Hall just outside Leicester. The boys really enjoyed Bonkers the Clown and his naughty dog Dusty. Father Christmas arrived with his helpers and the kids really were excited. Life is so much ore fun when you are 4 and 2 years old.























]]>neilrice@mac.comBlog2011-12-03T16:57:02+00:00http://neil-rice.com/files/7bcc67248a5ffb9c29b5cf742da1d9b1-46.html#unique-entry-id-46http://neil-rice.com/files/7bcc67248a5ffb9c29b5cf742da1d9b1-46.html#unique-entry-id-46Teresa took the cars to be cleaned and as we recently swapped the Mercedes for another BMW it seemed like a good idea to take a few pictures, this is our second Z4 and to be honest I wish it was our third, the Mercedes SLK was a big mistake. This is a BMW Z4 30i sDrive M Sport Highline Edition and it is a serious risk to my licence.














Teresa not quite getting the top down enjoy the sunshine lifestyle :-)



The dogs and I were nice and warm though

]]>neilrice@mac.comBlog2011-10-28T20:27:00+01:00http://neil-rice.com/files/048cf7c06a80c2a3c64858c8b949fe47-45.html#unique-entry-id-45http://neil-rice.com/files/048cf7c06a80c2a3c64858c8b949fe47-45.html#unique-entry-id-45A good friend of mine, Louise Bailey, organised a Ladies Day Shoot, as a fund raiser for The Breast Cancer Campaign as part of their Wear it Pink Day.

It was a fabulous day, everything came together, the weather, the wonderful autumn colours, the birds, the ducks and everyone who took part.

The day started with a wonderful soft mist and then the sun rose and started to burn it off as the first drive started, a great drive with a good number of ducks flying over at decent intervals. The day carried on in much the same way and the last drive of the day was really spectacular. As of today the event has raised £1712.

You can see all the pictures from the day HERE but as a small taster …




The Guns



The Pickers Up



The Beaters























]]>neilrice@mac.comBlog2011-10-02T22:31:35+01:00http://neil-rice.com/files/82797079912194729e8f735b509f0c15-44.html#unique-entry-id-44http://neil-rice.com/files/82797079912194729e8f735b509f0c15-44.html#unique-entry-id-44It was a wonderful day at Westbrook Farm in Derbyshire where the Sporting Irish Water Spaniel Club ran an all variety retriever gundog working test. The weather was, if anything, a little too hot but given that the same event last year was held in torrential rain no one was complaining. The dogs looked wonderful and most worked really well. It was a real pleasure to see some really Fox Red Labradors, and truly golden Golden Retrievers.












































]]>neilrice@mac.comBlog2011-10-01T19:30:34+01:00http://neil-rice.com/files/d072b0235010cb808efa86bae55378de-43.html#unique-entry-id-43http://neil-rice.com/files/d072b0235010cb808efa86bae55378de-43.html#unique-entry-id-43Ride To The Wall. This is a mass ride by bikers, many of them ex armed services, from all over the British Isles to the National Memorial Arboretum at Alrewas in Staffordshire.

I set off with a group of about 500 other motorcycles fro the Leicester East services and we rode the 60 miles to the NMA with amazing support from both the police and the RTTW marshals. I have no idea how many bikes finnaly converged at the arboretum but it was way up in the several thousands.

The weather was glorious, and although it is a fairly solemn occasion you could not have a gathering of several thousand ex armed forces bikers without having a pretty good time to.

I met up with an old army buddy, Steve Bartlett who I have not seen for over 25 years. Unfortunately he still has a lot more hair than me.



















































]]>neilrice@mac.comBlog2011-09-18T20:41:00+01:00http://neil-rice.com/files/094f788a61010cc92ce7db387558c0ec-42.html#unique-entry-id-42http://neil-rice.com/files/094f788a61010cc92ce7db387558c0ec-42.html#unique-entry-id-42The Midland Game Fair at Weston Park, Shropshire. We had to be on site by 07:00 hrs each day which meant getting up at 05:00 to get the dogs sorted and to drive there. The show was smaller than it has been in the past but there were plenty of “last show of the season bargains”. There was no arena display or working for the Irish Water Spaniels but we did have a presence in the Gun Dog Pavilion, and as we only had 4 dogs there we did spend a lot of time in the pen. There were just over 100 Irish Water Spaniel puppies registered with the Kennel Club last year against over 40000 Labradors, yet when it came to the parade of gun dogs there were no labs to be seen so Harley had to step into the breach and Teresa had her introduction the display ring.

One of the great benefits of being out and about in the early morning,particularly in Autumn is the quality of the light and the combination of the golden morning light and the start of the rusty fall colours is stunning.



The ring had been set up for scurries so it made getting decent pictures quite difficult, but you should be able to pick out some of the more interesting characters :-)














]]>neilrice@mac.comBlog2011-08-24T18:35:00+01:00http://neil-rice.com/files/1f04beb4aafff48b03d95cfdcf7ed65b-40.html#unique-entry-id-40http://neil-rice.com/files/1f04beb4aafff48b03d95cfdcf7ed65b-40.html#unique-entry-id-40It was a lovely night stalking with Darren Phizacklea of Viscount Stalking. The season for Fallow Stags started on the 1st August so it is still early. We were on the Paddockhurst Estate near Turners Hill. It was a fine evening and we set out at around 18:00 hrs. The bracken is still really high and this makes it very difficult to see into the cover. Over the next two and a half hours we worked our way around the estate, he saw several fallow does and even caught a couple of fleeting glimpses of muntjac. As the light continued to fade we spotted a doe in a ride about 240 yards away, we were in the open in a large sloping field that had recently been cut for silage.. We stood and watched her for a while and after about 10 minutes two fallow prickets came into the ride sparing with each other. We were far to exposed to move freely so we started a long crawl to get into a reasonable position to take a shot. I took the shot downhill from 130 yards (we checked it with a range finder after the shot). The shot placed perfectly in his chest and he dropped instantly. He was a good looking melanistic 2 year old buck, that weighed in at 76 lb. as a dressed carcass.



]]>neilrice@mac.comBlog2011-08-14T15:07:51+01:00http://neil-rice.com/files/0501ad9c45363fbca7110d8661611d12-39.html#unique-entry-id-39http://neil-rice.com/files/0501ad9c45363fbca7110d8661611d12-39.html#unique-entry-id-39Warehouseexpress.com had a great deal on an Elinchrom BXRi 250/500 Twin Flash Head Kit so unable to resist the “bargain” I went for it. Unfortunately it looks like one of the units (the 500) has been assembled incorrectly in that the lugs that the modifiers key onto are in the wrong place. I spent several hours trying to sort it out as I was almost sure it was down to me being dumb, but I had both softboxes assembled identically as you can see.



but when they are attached to the heads the one on the 250 is square whilst the one on the 500 is not, as you can see.



Looking at the lights side by side you can see that the locating lugs are about 45 degrees different, the yellow line psasses through the lugs.



I have come to the conclusion that it is a fault and not just me being very dense so they are going back on Monday.

I took a few pictures with them before I packed them up and despite the wonky fitting they appear to work well.








]]>neilrice@mac.comBlog2011-07-25T21:05:15+01:00http://neil-rice.com/files/c019053869364d49464ecfb55b26521a-37.html#unique-entry-id-37http://neil-rice.com/files/c019053869364d49464ecfb55b26521a-37.html#unique-entry-id-37We have just returned from n excellent but exhausting weekend at the Country Landowners Association Game Fair at Blenheim Palace.

I was there with the Sporting Irish Water Spaniel Club, where we were giving demonstrations of the dogs working as well as having dogs in the Working Dogs Pavilion for people to see and ask questions of their owners / handlers.

Whilst we were primarily there to work the dogs, we also had a thoroughly good time, I can also now cross hijack and take a mobility scooter for a ride off my bucket list.

Even though I was there for the full three days I did not get to see too much in the main arena, but I did make the time to watch the final of the Arena Polo competition that had been t=running for the three days. Europe beat South America 6 - 5 in the final.















































]]>neilrice@mac.comBlog2011-07-11T20:24:27+01:00http://neil-rice.com/files/aff1cb8dc77a723f341cba0fa75fdb80-36.html#unique-entry-id-36http://neil-rice.com/files/aff1cb8dc77a723f341cba0fa75fdb80-36.html#unique-entry-id-36Sporting Irish Water Spaniel Club Water Test and Working Gundog Test in the grounds of Chillington Hall in Staffordshire.

I had hoped to run my IWS bitch Sookie in the Puppies 12 - 18 months class, but with her impeccable timing she came into season a couple of weeks ago so I could not take her.

It was an excellent weekend the venue was glorious and the weather was very kind indeed. I think Sookie would have done well as she is easily at or above the standard of the other dogs in her class, mind you it is easy for me to say that given that she was not there :-)

Here are a few pictures from a great weekend.



This is John Rolfe the Chairman of the Sporting Irish Water Spaniel Club running his dog Corcoran Cass





































]]>neilrice@mac.comBlog2011-05-29T21:05:28+01:00http://neil-rice.com/files/3038204834e810185aa15d907ec8ba06-35.html#unique-entry-id-35http://neil-rice.com/files/3038204834e810185aa15d907ec8ba06-35.html#unique-entry-id-35
As they say, “All good things must come to an end” and it looks as if they are right :-(








]]>neilrice@mac.comBlog2011-05-28T12:28:16+01:00http://neil-rice.com/files/bc06fe0d3205304c0b124c6532836338-34.html#unique-entry-id-34http://neil-rice.com/files/bc06fe0d3205304c0b124c6532836338-34.html#unique-entry-id-34


And this little fellow was doing his best to look as cute as possible



This trigger fish even wanted to show me how clean he kept his teeth :-)



And it was not jus the little stuff that was anxious to be recorded for posterity, these chaps also wanted to get in on the act.





On the surface, this guy was happy to hang around and have is portrait taken.



So the only wildlife that really wasn’t playing was T





We watched an air taxi depart this afternoon knowing that the day after tomorrow we will also be departing, the only thing I am looking forward to getting back to is the dogs.


]]>neilrice@mac.comBlog2011-05-26T13:38:39+01:00http://neil-rice.com/files/a41966396ecbc916199d345b26254335-33.html#unique-entry-id-33http://neil-rice.com/files/a41966396ecbc916199d345b26254335-33.html#unique-entry-id-33
The weather today could not be a greater contrast blazing sunshine all day, I kicked off the day with a dive and then spent the rest of the day doing as little as possible, with the exception of discovering that the barman makes a very strong “Long Island Iced Tea”

This is Michael Schauppner from Seelze in Germany, he has been my regular dive buddy, which is pretty good going considering he is here on his honeymoon!



This is not Michael








And this is Teresa my Non-Dive Buddy :-)









]]>neilrice@mac.comBlog2011-05-23T15:04:02+01:00http://neil-rice.com/files/5cc4185feab2e8555f5e9d9088bc623d-32.html#unique-entry-id-32http://neil-rice.com/files/5cc4185feab2e8555f5e9d9088bc623d-32.html#unique-entry-id-32













It’s coming on for 19:30 and it’s still raining.

]]>neilrice@mac.comBlog2011-05-22T13:48:22+01:00http://neil-rice.com/files/9944b39299ad91d93e48a42029bddfc5-31.html#unique-entry-id-31http://neil-rice.com/files/9944b39299ad91d93e48a42029bddfc5-31.html#unique-entry-id-31
I took a few pictures around the island today, these should give you some idea of just how small the island is. The water bungalows look ok but we have stayed in them on a previous trip to another island and both Teresa and I prefer to be on the beach.

We are heading off to an even smaller island soon as we are being cast adrift on our own deserted island to celebrate our wedding anniversary on the 25th.













If you look really closely below you can just make out Teresa reading her book in the shade.



]]>neilrice@mac.comBlog2011-05-21T13:49:48+01:00http://neil-rice.com/files/43112427b31c1b02252276c1e671523f-30.html#unique-entry-id-30http://neil-rice.com/files/43112427b31c1b02252276c1e671523f-30.html#unique-entry-id-30
It is not just the “Big Stuff” that is exciting underwater, some of the shrimps that work the cleaning stations are almost glass like and unbelievably delicate.



But the big stuff is also fun, we had a great display from some eagle rays that almost looked like they were showing off.









You can’t visit the Maldives without trying to get the “Ultimate Maldives Cliche Shot” so here it is :-)





As we came to the end of the reef and started to ascend up the sand we came upon a very knackerd shark that was trying to get a bit of shut eye. Unfortunately we woke him up.



And just because I really like them here is a Batfish for you.

]]>neilrice@mac.comBlog2011-05-20T13:58:54+01:00http://neil-rice.com/files/c992638c88a0405a46f904c4a9a71488-29.html#unique-entry-id-29http://neil-rice.com/files/c992638c88a0405a46f904c4a9a71488-29.html#unique-entry-id-29
Another interesting trip under the water today. You must have seen films of sharks swimming with other fish stuck firmly to their undersides (I can’t remember what they are called, it’s an age thing) well today my dive buddy and I swam thorough a group of them who promptly decided that they could not be bothered to wait for sharks any longer and that we were the next best thing, they were a real nuisance for a while.



Here are some pretty yellow fish, because I like pretty yellow fish.



And now for a “Beauty and the Beast” moment, some of the things you find in the Indian Ocean are very ferocious and ugly, others are completely serene and beautiful, I will let you be the judges :-)









]]>neilrice@mac.comBlog2011-05-19T14:06:20+01:00http://neil-rice.com/files/e75a3a55eb8742d326e4877f079280c0-28.html#unique-entry-id-28http://neil-rice.com/files/e75a3a55eb8742d326e4877f079280c0-28.html#unique-entry-id-28
I have not taken too many pictures above the water yet, I am sure I will get round to it eventually. Here are a couple from today to give you a bit of a feel for the place. The first is the jetty where the dive boats set off from and the second two are “Our little bit of beach” directly outside our beach bungalow.







Another interesting day under the water, so here are a couple of highlights ...









]]>neilrice@mac.comBlog2011-05-17T17:28:04+01:00http://neil-rice.com/files/2ad0953262279d643fd3c4de06b23d40-27.html#unique-entry-id-27http://neil-rice.com/files/2ad0953262279d643fd3c4de06b23d40-27.html#unique-entry-id-27
I spent a wee bit of time in the water today just to get used to the new camera housing, I still need to practice practice practice but for a first effort they are not so bad.













Teresa went to the spa for a massage this afternoon and on the way there (all of 100 yards we came across this guy.


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