Spring Bluebells

I won’t make any excuses, I’ve just not posted in too long 🙂

But, with hints of Spring finally hitting the UK I went out to my local woods last weekend in the hope the Bluebells would be in full bloom, and I wasn’t disappointed!

Probably my favourite shot, taken using a 50mm fixed lens, ISO-100 f/2.5 1/500sec exposure

Everywhere was a sea of blue, this one taken at 55mm ISO-400 f/5.6 and 1/125sec exposure

I really like the depth of field the fixed 50mm lens provides. This was taken at ISO-200 f/5.6 and 1/180sec exposure

I like the natural framing provided by the trees, another 50mm shot at ISO-400 f5.6 and 1/350sec exposure

ISO-100 f2.5 at 1/500sec exposure

And I spotted this rather pleasant pheasant when heading home, snapped from across the field with a 250mm zoom lens

I really am hoping to get out and about a lot more over the coming months, and regularly post my favourite shots from the hundreds of photos I seem to take 🙂

This is the first time I’ve tried the mosiac gallery option and I quite like the results, so hopefully anyone who may stumble across my humble blog in future will find many more of my snaps appearing over the coming months.

Both here and on sky-watching.co.uk 🙂

I hope you like them!

Dear oh dear, is it really September already!?

Oops! One minute you’re all eager and into your blogging, the next minute life happens and suddenly it’s September.  I almost can’t believe my last post here was in December!

So I’m back, with what is possibly my most favourite photo taken so far 🙂  I’ll pinch it from my post on Sky-Watching.co.uk so you can see it here.

On the morning of 12th of August I packed up my gear and went out Perseid meteor hunting, and after several hours out on the Wye Downs I’d caught a few in images and seen over 30 in total. It was a great night!

Looking roughly north east, this Perseid meteor flashed overhead, right in a break in the clouds! (click to enlarge) – Credit: A.Welbourn

In the image above you can see a Perseid meteor, the Pleiades star cluster, and the planet Jupiter which is just rising at the bottom of the fence post directly below the meteor 🙂

Last year I tried for ages and got virtually nothing, but this year I was much more successful as you can see in my posts on Sky-Watching here and here!

I’ve got a few other interesting shots with my Canon Eos recently, so I’m hoping to start posting images I like here again.

See you soon 😉

 

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 🙂

 

Star swirls and plane trails

I stumbled across a cool bit of free software yesterday, and I’m ashamed to admit (as a bit of an astro nut) I’d never heard of it before!

Startrails is a free program that will combine a sequence of images into one, and because I’ve spent many an evening with the camera set up to do star time-lapse shorts I realised I already had some sequences to play around with 🙂

Created using around 350 images taken just over an hour and a half (click to enlarge) - Credit: A.Welbourn

The image above was from the evening of 6th October, doesn’t look like I live under a flightpath much eh!? A bit of cloud crossed the bottom right of the frame during the sequence which has been captured, but otherwise I’m pleased with the clear difference in star line colours.

Fewer shots but a clearer night on 9th October (click to enlarge) - Credit: A.Welbourn

I have many sequences I’ve saved for experimenting with time-lapse, and now I know how to create these star trail images I’m compiling a list of locations/landmarks I’d love to have in the foreground of shots like this.

Better dust off the ol’ Thermos flask in preparation for the next clear night. I’ll get one sooner or later right?? 🙂