Panasonic TZ70 Review.

I’ve been on the lookout for a small but mighty camera to not replace my DSLR totally but as something I can carry with me conveniently all the time. After months of thinking about it, researching different cameras, numerous trips to Currys and Jessops to fondle a few different cameras I finally settled on the panasonic TZ70. 

I had written a list of things I wanted from a compact:

Small and lightweight

Good manual options

A bloody good zoom

Copes well in low lighting

The capacity to shoot in raw

Something that covers all bases in regards to types of photography I would be doing.

So with this list in mind the TZ70 checked them all. I must admit I've had this camera going on nearly a year and I am in love! 

I take it with me on day trips, holidays, and use it at home too to capture my crazy dogs and I have used it for some of my blog photos. 

The first thing I noticed is how flipping easy this camera is to use. Obviously if you shoot in auto mode its as easy as turning the dial to auto and off you go, but it is super easy to set in manual too. I had narrowed my search down to this camera and a Canon but I just couldn't get on with setting the Canon in manual. I am a Nikon DSLR user so maybe this is why but I am so glad I got the TZ70! Even on auto the photos are super impressive. 

This model has a 12.1 megapixel high sensitivity MOS sensor, which enables better shots in low light, and it really does deliver. I recently used my TZ70 to get some snaps from the Strictly Live Tour, I was literally sat back row and I was really impressed with the shots I got in low light and with fast moving subjects. The pictures aren't perfect and I never expected them to be, to get good shots from that distance you'd need some bloody good equipment, but for a compact I was extremely impressed.

Now I’ve just touched on this, but the zoom on this camera is mind boggling! It has a 30x optical zoom and handles really well in stabilising a shot against unstable hands at full zoom. To show you how impressive this zoom is here is a wide angle shot, can you see the wind turbines way out in the sea there? With full zoom, here they are!

I needed a camera that could shoot in raw so when it came to editing and correcting boo boos I had greater options post production. I must admit I haven’t given my raw shots taken on this camera the full shebang on photoshop or lightroom because I suck at editing! But as I get better I will have more of a play.

One other thing I didn't think about at the time which I am now super grateful for is the live viewfinder you can fall back on if you cant see the screen in bright lights. Quite a few times Ive had to just shoot and hope for the best that I capture everything I wanted in the shot but now you can use the viewfinder! Genius!

I also absolutely love the way this camera looks, it has a slight vintage look about it and I like to be carrying round something that I like the look of, vein I know, but a sexy camera makes me excited to carry it around with me everywhere and get that shot!

The only downside I have found is it has a fairly short battery life. I shoot in raw most of the time so this will add to that but I have had to buy another battery to carry with me because when I get carried away snapping on a day out I easily drain the battery. Not the end of the world as I always carry a spare everything with my DSLR so an extra battery is nothing!

Overall this is a smashing little camera. I can’t think of any negatives besides the short battery life that I have come across. I am only an amateur photographer and I am confident that an experienced photographer will find more problems with it than I have but for what I use it for and for the price (£299, although I got mine with a cash back offer) I don’t think many people can go wrong choosing this camera. For a total novice it will improve their picture quality, and for an amateur enthusiast it will give you enough to play around with without limiting you in your capabilities. 

Happy snapping!

Vikky

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Makeup vs bare face: a look at our relationship with makeup.

Lets talk make up. Rather the lack of. A naked face, bare face, whatever you want to call it. I am allergic to a lot of make up, and when I do wear make up for an interview, parties, days out I always suffer with eczema that takes me months to clear up. For this reason, most of the time I wear my naked face with pride.

But recently I've been feeling a little inadequate, less of a woman, less professional because I dare to leave the house with no make up on. People don't know that I am allergic to makeup, but I am still judged. How is this acceptable? I was refused a job a year ago purely because the person hiring me expected me to have a full face of makeup on at interview, and I didn't. I wasn't professional enough! Wtf! Forgetting the reason I wasn't wearing makeup this struck a cord with me, women are expected to wear makeup no matter what. 

As I get more active in discovering new blogs and youtube channels I realise blogosphere is full of make up tutorials and product reviews, I am guilty of this myself, but this post is no means a bash at the beautiful people who write about this stuff, I mean I read and watch it for a reason! I love seeing people expressing their creativity with make up and sharing that with us all. I love that they are passionate about wearing make up and exploring new looks and creating art. I totally appreciate why beauty bloggers do this. But in reading more posts and seeing all the different looks and products out there I made myself feel ashamed because I can’t wear all these lovely things. Its difficult when people in the spotlight are routinely covering up a freckle, dark circles, a spot, a skin condition, to not think that it must be right to cover these things up, and that its shameful to have them on show. Its like being brainwashed that make up is the norm and to rock a bare face is sacrilege. But why should I feel this way? I've been bare faced 99% of my life and never let it get to me. I'm still figuring this out. 

There seems to be so much pressure out there at the moment that its expected that us girlies should have make up on. When did this become acceptable?! Because am I alone in thinking this is ludicrous?! Teens these days have enough pressure on them, and I hate to think that make up is now such a part of life that kids will get bullied for not slapping a face on before they go to school or college or go out with their friends, its wrong! But its not just teens, I am 28 and I have had my confidence knocked because I leave my house with a bare face most of the time.

I’m not trying to create some big movement here where I'm telling people to ditch the make up and go bare faced! Far from it! What I am trying to say is its ok to not wear make up. Its also ok to wear make up. Whats not ok is thinking you have to wear make up, feeling pressured into wearing make up, equally feeling pressured not to wear make up. It is disgusting that people think that a bare faced woman is unprofessional and the misconception that a bare face means you don't take care of yourself is utter bullshit and this needs to stop! Us ladies need to make sure we support each other no matter what our make up choices may be and stand together to help every woman feel confident in their own skin.

Here is my totally naked face! Love it, loathe it, I don't care!

Thanks for reading!

Vikky

Feb Favourites.

Feb Faves!

I haven't done a faves post since November!! I didn't really have much to rave about in December and January but February has been a month full of goodies and swishy stuff!

Theres a lot in here so get comfy and lets get the show on the road!

My biggest fave, quite literally, is I got a new bed frame for my birthday! I turned 28 on the 11th and my parents knew how excited I was about finishing my bedroom makeover that they surprised me with my awesome new bed frame. I love love love it and finally my bedroom is finished and looking fine!

I have had a lot going on in the family recently, I’m not going to go into it in detail because its not my place but I lost a family member at christmas and nearly lost another this month from cancer. Macmillan have been an amazing support system. Their website is packed full of everything you need and their email service which I used to have some questions answered was faultless. A bit of a weird favourite but I really don't think I’d be coping so well without them so they need a shout out. 

Avene skincare has been a godsend this month. With the allergy season beginning I am already suffering both sneezy wise and skin wise! Avene really soothes my skin and helps to control the flare ups I am having on my face, I am using a mix of products from their Tolerance range and sensitive range, including their micellar water.

I have discovered tea without milk this month and literally have no idea why I’ve been butchering tea in the past by adding milk! Its so much nicer without! I don’t very often drink hot drinks but I have been having a cup of black tea almost every day this month. Yummy yum yum!

I’ve been reading a book this month, shocker because I’ve never finished a book in my life! Relationship selling is a book that from the outside looks like it will improve the skills of sales people, but its so much more than that. I have never, and will never work in sales but I’ve read this book and come away with so much enthusiasm and motivation to get my shit together and do all the things I’ve been meaning to do! It can also help you to learn new skills generally no matter what career you work in so make sure you get a copy from Amazon!

Netflix has had some great shows and films on recently, and I've spent most of my tv time on Netflix over Sky and have binge watched The Fresh Prince of Bel Air! Such a great show, I watched it growing up and to watch it all again as an adult was brilliant seeing things I missed and didn't quite understand when I was a lot younger! Will Smith is such am amazing actor, but I suspect a lot of what went into Fresh Prince was his effervescent personality! And I didn't realise how much I missed seeing the Carlton dance! If you haven't seen it, see it! Now!

I’m a huge fan of anything David Attenborough and there has been so many of his shows on Netflix at the moment I’m in heaven! My fave being Blue Planet, I nearly popped with excitement when the BBC announced Blue Planet 2!!

I absolutely love a good action film. Probably my top film genre alongside Disney! Netflix currently has both Olympus and London Has Fallen and I'm not kidding you in the space of a month I've probably watched each film at least twice! I don’t know how but they make such a farfetched plot of one man against hundreds of baddies seem like it could actually happen! When I’ve finished watching one of these films it makes me want to go out and single handedly defend the world from scumbags!

An unlikely love of mine this month was the programme Tales from the coast with Robson Green. I probably wouldn't know who this guy was if it wasn't for my Dad. We would watch his Extreme Fishing programmes on a Sunday and I have grown to find him hilarious and a little crazy yet throughly enjoyable to watch on tv. I love how stunning the British coast is and I’ve realised from watching this programme how little of it I have seen and I have decided a few road trips around the country are in order! 

And last but not least… Creme eggs. Need I say more!

Thanks for reading!

Vikky.

Should I be living a completely different life?

I suddenly realised like 5 mins ago my life should have gone in a totally different direction to where it is now! 2 years ago I’d look at myself now having a masters degree, an awesome job, a relationship and a home, maybe a mini me on the way! Boy was my 26 year old self wrong!

2 years ago I decided that I was going to do a Masters degree. I’d been thinking about it for a while and never had the guts to pursue it. But my career wasn't going anywhere and I just couldn't stop thinking about completing a Masters. I knew I wanted to study either Osteoarchaeology, the study of archaeological human and animal remains or Forensic Anthropology, the study of human remains in a forensic context. 

I wasn't sure which route I wanted to go down so I applied for both hoped for the best. While waiting to hear about my applications I looked into how I was going to finance the degree and moving away from home. And of course I needed to research more into whether I waned to head more into archaeology or forensics. When I got accepted onto both courses with unconditional offers I couldn't believe it! 

I eventually decided on studying Forensic Anthropology.

I was beginning to worry about moving away from home and starting a Masters with everything going on with my back, you can read all about it here but keeping things short and sweet I had a herniated disc in my lower back pushing on my spinal cord and left and right nerve routes causing sciatica in both legs. Basically lots of pain, no sleep and I was unable to walk normally!

But in the meantime I’d accepted my offer and started to look into student finance and accommodation. I was dead set on starting a Masters whether I could walk or not! It was something I knew I wanted to do and needed to get my career really going. The course sounded amazing and I would also have the chance to work in Guatemala to help identify remains from the civil war.

Going back to why my life should be in a completely different place right now is that I realised just this evening I would have graduated with an MSc Forensic Anthropology last summer and would have hopefully been working in the field and it really shocked me that in that time instead of doing that awesome stuff, I was signed off sick long term from work, had surgery, lost my job, and got a new job on a till in a supermarket. 

So if you hadn't guessed it the reason I didn't go is because shortly after I accepted my place I found out I’d be needing urgent surgery. I wasn't prepared to sacrifice time, effort and a tonne of money from needing 6 to 8 weeks off the course and jeopardising my grades. So I cancelled my place.

I felt angry, defeated, frustrated, that I couldn't go, and was determined to make sure I would apply again to go for the next year, sadly the course isn't running at my chosen University this year so I have some more time to decide whether it is something I need to do and if it will give me the successful career I desire, for some reason my age is putting me off going at the moment. I’m having issues getting old at the moment! 

At the age of 28 I feel so unaccomplished in life at the moment, and then the sudden realisation that I would have a Masters now if it wasn't for my dodgy spine has really hit me hard. I feel ashamed sometimes telling people my job, like I get judged because I'm 28, still living at home, single and in a crappy job! What would life be like if my health didn't decline and I completed the Masters as planned? Would I be working abroad with a Masters now? Would I have gone back to Guatemala to bring peace to thousands of families waiting to lay their loved ones to rest? Would I be working in a police force solving crimes? Or could I be right where I am now? Sat on a till with a Masters degree and a tonne more student debt? Who knows? But what I do know is as I get older its dawning on me how much my back problem has held me back in every aspect of my life not just my career.

I still keep applying for new jobs and looking into new opportunities but haven't yet found my feet. I need to remember to not get discouraged from the rejection of job hunting and try not to feel ashamed of where I am now in life. I mean I did face my biggest fear of having surgery and without it I would probably be bed ridden right now so I need to remember to be thankful that my health, though not perfect, is at a point now where I can have a fairly normal life.

Does anyone else feel inadequate like this? Like their life could be somewhere totally different now if something didn't get in the way? Let me know!

Thanks for reading

Vikky

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The Fitness Diaries!

So I intended this to be a regular series but I've been so busy I've kinda neglected writing about my fitness journey!

I’ve still being going to pilates class every Friday, and as of next week will be doing at least one hour long session at home to accompany the class.

I’ve done 6 sessions now and I can really notice an improvement in my core strength, I have a long way to go but I can tell now I am starting to engage my core when I do certain movements, which is my ultimate goal to protect my dodgy spine!

Before the 6 classes I could maybe hold a 5 second plank, with bad technique, now I can properly hold a 20 second plank. That may not sound like much to some people but I am damn proud of myself for this and the fact I am noticing an improvement in my strength and fitness is really boosting my confidence and motivation.

I never intended to loose much weight, and it wasn't something I set out to do, if it happened then great, if not then thats also fine, but since christmas eve when I last weighed myself, I have lost 12lbs. I actually weighed myself the second week of the new year and realised I’d lost this weight in a matter of weeks. My nana passed away unexpectedly just after christmas and I really do believe the weight loss was from the grief and stress of losing her. 

I do intend to keep this weight off, as I could have done with losing a little of the podge I’d gained when I was suffering with my back but I don’t want to loose much more. In terms of the way I look I want to flatten my tummy and stay at a healthy looking size 10/12. But my ultimate goal is looking after my health and spine.

Thanks for reading!

Vikky

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Laser tattoo removal.

I have a horrendous tattoo! A horrendous tattoo in full view on my wrist! It makes me sick to look at it and I'm mortified by it! How did my 19 year old self think this was something I needed permanently inked into my skin?! What a twat! 

                                                                              1st session

Queue laser tattoo removal! I had to have this tattoo gone one way or another or I’d have ended up gouging my wrist off at some point in the near future, I thought laser removal was the more sensible option so I booked myself in!

I decided I was going to wimp out and get some skin numbing cream. So with my wrist all gunked up I made my way to the tattoo studio for my appointment. Ian, the bloke in charge of firing lasers into my wrist, described to me what happens during the procedure and explained depending on where the ink penetrates into the skin is how good a removal you will get.

So he fired up the machine and got started, I realised by now that the numbing cream had no effect whatsoever on my skin and had a mini melt down inside about the impending pain I was about to endure! I was expecting it to be excruciating and unbearable, from watching people getting it done on TV and YouTube, but I was surprised!

Don't get me wrong, it smarts like a bitch! But it is easily bearable and feels hot and very sharp on the skin. The session only lasts a couple of minutes because the tattoo is fairly small.

Afterwards I know a lot of people can get blisters and I would have been mortified if I did! Luckily my only symptoms were some swelling for a day or two and the most torturous itching for a week afterwards! Luckily this only lasts a couple of days now I've had more sessions but I’d say the itching is by far the worst part of the whole experience!

                                                                              6th session

But I am writing this the day after my 6th session, and although I can see a little progress in the removal, it is still very much an intact and dark tattoo I have to walk around with. Ian thinks the “artist” who did it hammered it in so deep its going to need way more sessions than usual to remove. Just my luck! I'm now paying a tonne of money to remove a ridiculous and idiotic decision my 19 year old self made!

I have no choice but to keep on truckin with removal. I cant stand seeing it anymore and it has to go!

Learn from me people! Think long and hard before you do anything permanent to your body. You may love it at the time but will you still feel the same in 10 years? I certainly don't.

Thanks for reading!

Vikky

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Why I'm single!

In light of valentines day rapidly approaching and I am once again spending another one single I thought it might be fun to explore the many reasons why I am a singleton!

I think one of the main reasons is that I have been single for a while now, quite a few years! I am used to doing things on my own, and I've grown to be very independent. When I have attempted dating its really hard for me to change so much about myself to let someone else in. Being single is the norm for me and I'm actually kinda happy with it! 

I'm scared of intimacy! Both emotionally and physically! I have never let anyone through the brick wall surrounding my emotions and true self and I'm scared to do that. It takes a lot of trust and faith in someone to do that and its not something I can easily do, it takes me a lot of time to build that up with someone and before I manage they've given up and I'm back to just me myself and I! I'm not totally against letting anyone in, I want to, its just so hard and I don't know how! 

I am waaaaaay to picky! Trolling through online dating profile like a complete stalker I will reject someone if they have a t shirt on that I don't like, or they aren't tall enough, or they have hair that makes me cringe! It is extremely shallow and I know I shouldn't judge people tis way. Its not something I do if I meet someone out and about but I do it online. I am trying to change this crappy way of thinking and I have met a few great people from not being so shallow. Also when I've met someone things will bother me, stupid things that shouldn't bother me but they do and I'm instantly put off!

I'm quite shy in social situations, I can feel quite awkward and I struggle being myself when meeting people. This means that guys never come back for a second date because in my awkward state I said something totally cringeworthy or my words wouldn't come out properly and it scared them off! Some of them I don't blame them one bit! Since starting my blog I feel loads more confident in social situations, I still have a long way to go, but I'm on the right path, maybe the end of that path will be a guy I haven't scared away! 

I am flippin lazy! I like my own time, and enjoy my own company, and if I was to meet someone I’d have to spend that time with them! Between my job, my family and friends, my dogs, job hunting, my photography course, my blog, and slobbing it seems like sooo much effort fitting a guy in too!

One major reason I have lost potential dates is they find out I'm allergic to nuts, and off they trot! I don't have any clue why! I am totally confident and sure of my allergies and I don't let them hold me back in the slightest, I still eat out, I still explore new food, I still travel, I still do everything non allergic people do (apart from eat nuts, duh!) but it has been a major deal breaker in the past, and I never really get a reason as to why. If anyone can enlighten me, please do!

My final reason why I'm single is that I do not want anything less than a long term relationship. Casual and fun relationships don't tickle my fancy in the slightest! It takes me along time to build trust with someone and be comfortable enough to be intimate and by that time they've given up! Its like relationships have flipped, before you got to know someone, hung out, no pressure, then build up to the intimacy and full blown relationship. Nowadays you're expected to put out almost immediately and thats just not me. Why should I spend time, effort and emotion on something if its going no where?

So I think thats pretty much why I think I'm single, I look like a right weirdo reading this back to myself! 

As I am, I’m happy being my single self. I do have a scroll through dating sites every now and then, and I welcome it if it comes. But after realising all of the above about myself I have a bit of work to do before I think I'm ready to accept someone in my life.

The right guy is out there, we just haven't found each other yet!

Thanks for reading!

Vikky

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