Ryan Hellyer

Year: 2012

  • Cycle touring in/near Oslo

    It seems people are fascinated about where I end up on my weekends, so here are some snaps from a couple of weeks ago. I ended up somewhat lost during a cycling trip as I forgot my phone so had no Google maps, I had an awful map which barely showed any detail and I forgot my compass to boot, so kept losing my bearings. I eventually ended up sitting beside an awesome lake called Nøklevannet; I didn’t take any photos whilst there because there were girls bouncing around in bikini’s everywhere and so I didn’t want to look like the creepy guy taking photos of them (plus I was too busy staring at boobs to take photos). It ended up being a 40 km round trip, including lots of detours attempting to find something interesting. Next time I will take a good map, compass, phone and figure out where the heck I’m going first 🙂

    Oslo sure does get some beautiful weather despite what the locals may say.
    Ducks chilling out beside Luktvannet
    I accidentally stumbled across this small lake called Skraperudtjem during my travels. There are beautiful little lakes like this hidden all over the area.
    A view from above Skraperudtjem

  • Samsung Galaxy S3

    It seems that when you go walking in a torrential downpour, you should not use Google Maps extensively. I tried that recently and promptly destroyed my trusty Huawei IDEOS X5 phone. Out with the old and in with the new though! I now have a Samsung Galaxy S3 and decided to do a quick photo quality comparison by taking the following photos with my phone, then with my Canon G12 compact camera whilst out cycling on a sunny day in Oslo. The G12 should give a much better quality photo in theory. You be the judge on the final product though …

    Maridalsvannet from Samsung Galaxy S3
    Maridalsvannet from Canon G12
    River from Samsung Galaxy S3
    River from Canon G12

    I used the “P” setting on the G12 and left the Samsung Galaxy S3 to do it’s thing. I didn’t manage to get the zoom levels and level accurately aligned between the two, so there has been a little cropping to make the images match up.

  • Edinburgh cemetery

    Continuing my apparent obsession with photos of cemeteries, here are some snaps I took at/near a picturesque cemetery in Edinburgh, Scotland. I got horridly lost whilst attempting to find Princes St and somehow ended up going totally the wrong direction, up a hill and figuring I may as well make the most of it and wound up with these photos as a result 🙂

  • Edinburgh Castle

    Some photos of the Edinburgh Castle I took recently during a trip to WordCamp Edinburgh in Scotland.

  • WordCamp Edinburgh

    In case anyone wasn’t already aware, I’m somewhat obsessed with a piece of software called “WordPress”. My occupation now revolves around WordPress and I voluntarily let it suck up an inordinate amount of my time. I attended a conference called “WordCamp Edinburgh”, which is by far the biggest WordPress conference I’ve ever attended.

    I met in person many people who I had only known in the online world for many years. It was amusing asking people what differences they perceived between the “real me” and the “virtual me”. Apparently I am much taller in person than they expected. Having the only video footage of you online be of you standing beside a giant does not help with such perceptions it seems 😉

    It was particularly great to finally meet the co-founder of WordPress Mike Little, who it turns out is one of the most modest down to earth people I have ever met.

    WordPress founder Mike Little and yours truly outside the conference venue
    BuddyPress guru Paul Gibbs and design guru Tammie Lister
    Me presenting our talk
    Nadia, Simen, Arnstein, Zozela and Magdalini
    Admin panel extraordinaire Noel Tock giving his presentation
    Core security dude Jon Cave, myself and self-professed screaming code monkey Jeff Ghazally
    WordPress founder Mike Little and domain master Donnacha Mac Gloinn outside the conference venue
    Fellow Metronite Simen Thorsrud

  • Greeks invade Edinburgh

    I made two very awesome new friends whilst in Edinburgh recently, Zozela and Magdalini from Greece. Here are some photos from our travels about Edinburgh including to the Edinburgh Castle.

  • Mantjernet and Nedre Blanksjø

    And … more trips from my cycling trip to Harestua, this time the lakes are Mantjernet and Nedre Blanksjø.

    Mantjernet

    Nedre Blanksjø

  • Bjørnsjøen

    Some more photos from my recent cycling trip to Harestua. This time the lake is Bjørnsjøen.

    Bjørnsjøen

    Bjørnsjøen

    Bjørnsjøen

    Road leading to Bjørnsjøen

  • Skjærsjøen

    Some photos of Skjærsjøen I took during a cycling trip to Harestua recently.

    Skjærsjøen

    Skjærsjøen panorama

    Skjærsjøen

  • Svartkulp

    Here’s a photo I took of Svartkulp, a small lake I visited by bike, not far from the Oslo city center.