Tis the season…

Just over a week away to the big day…  A day spent over-eating, over-drinking and dozing in front of films on TV

Presents are all bought (and wrapped!), decorations are up and cards are sent. Now it’s just waiting.

How very seasonal! Almost like a world trapped within a bauble! (click to enlarge) - Credit: A.Welbourn

I have a feeling this last week at work is going to drag…  Everyone is gearing up for Christmas now so there’s very few people around to do business with, I might have to re-live my school days and take a couple of movies in to pass the time.

One of the advantages of having my own office

Happy Christmas to all!

I’m still here, despite blog burnout!

Blimey it’s been a while hasn’t it? After a good go at regular posting the burnout set in…

Yes it’s a relatively weak excuse, it takes a few minutes to knock a post up doesn’t it, but I don’t only post here and most of my time has gone into sky-watching and running that blog’s twitter account (which is fun, come see us, we’re friendly!).

But I can neglect “blogging hell” no longer, so here are some of my favourite shots from a rather damp bonfire night evening with the family (albeit a month late).

Anyone else see the "Fire Dog" in the flames here?! (click to enlarge) - Credit: A.Welbourn

A slightly longer exposure shot of my brother in law and nephew admiring the fire (click to enlarge) - Credit: A.Welbourn

Children's Sparklers can make great shots when taken on a longer exposure (click to enlarge) - Credit: A.Welbourn

But after using two I couldn't really justify taking them off the kids! (click to enlarge) - Credit: A.Welbourn

This gave me some great ideas for next year (or when I can next buy sparklers, will look online!). I did take some firework shots too, but garden fireworks rarely have the same “Ooooh!” factor as the display type, and with rain on the lens they weren’t great.

But I’ll be looking to get to an organised display next year, so I can try get some of the shots I get jealous of online!

The meteor shower I didn’t miss

Finally a break While last night started cloudy they cleared away soon after midnight, and as it was the peak of the Orionids meteor shower I set my camera up. With so much sky to cover I had to pick a spot and stick with it, but I started the intervalometer snapping images and sat back (in the freezing cold and dark) to see what happened.

I wasn’t disappointed. 15 meteors in just over an hour, and a couple even in the part of the sky I’d directed the Canon towards

Orionid meteor flashes across the bottom of the frame from 03:33am 22nd October (click to enlarge) - Credit: A.Welbourn

I got a couple of shots with meteors in, but the above if probably the clearest. What was even better though was the show I got to see, this meteor spotting can certainly become addictive!

Little fluffy clouds and contrails

My favourite photo from today was snapped at lunchtime, on my break away from work. It’s been a day for strong aircraft contrails with many hanging in the air, slowly becoming clouds refusing to move on.

Further evidence I live under a flightpath perhaps?! Credit: A.Welbourn

There were more displays throughout the afternoon, but as usual my day job got in the way…

Maybe I’ll take breaks more often

I beat the computer

Disaster yesterday morning when I booted up the PC, complete boot failure. No start up, no internet access, and most importantly no photographs. What happened!? It was fine when I turned it off!?

I’ve taken thousands of photos this year, and to be honest I hadn’t backed up quite as regularly as I should, but how many months might I have lost? Long story short, a new hard drive, fresh windows installation, and hours and hours of updates later, I’m back. And I recovered all my photos too. Phew.  There’s a lesson there somewhere about regular backups I think…

More macro cheating, this time the 50mm lens reversed (click to enlarge) - Credit: A.Welbourn

Able to download the photos I took yesterday from the camera, here are my two favourites. I love the soft fluffy quality of the dandelion above.

This vine creeper grows through our garden hedge, but it gave good depth of field (click to enlarge) - Credit: A.Welbourn

I’ve already backed up today’s images. That was a scare I’d rather avoid in future

Normal service resumed then

A light through the clouds

Weather forecasters are suggesting we may have some clear evenings over the weekend, and it’s about time! Stuck at work during the day the Sun was out with wispy clouds floating by on the breeze, but again this evening they came marching in.

Last night wasn’t completely a washout as I did manage to get a few shots of the Moon, enough to do a quick HDR process on them, and I rather like the result

The clouds parted briefly to show the Moon was still there (click to enlarge) - Credit: A.Welbourn

I’m hoping to get out and about over the weekend for more photos, in daylight

Otherwise this blog will slowly turn into sky-watching… lol!

Here come the clouds

This seems to be the norm of late, a sunny end to the day has heralded the arrival of cloud, blocking out the night sky.  Yeah it’s made for some great sunsets, but I’m more interested in what’s visible after the sun goes down Here’s the now familiar scene (to me anyway) from a couple of days ago (but pretty much applies any night this week)…

The Moon makes the most of a clear patch of sky as the clouds move in (click to enlarge) - Credit: A.Welbourn

The Moon did make a brief appearance this evening but it was short lived. I’m out again now waiting for another break in the cloud to get a pic or two.

It can’t be cloudy all the time