I've not been up to much recently. Had an operation at the end of January and am still getting back to normal. But I have been playing with cameras. The thing about having two cameras is you sometimes end up forgetting that you took photos with either of them and then have 300 or so to sort through. Oops. So this will be a photographic post.
I got to see some snowy views on my way to Glasgow:
The day I flew over was so still and sunny the flight was wonderful. No bumpiness at all. Think the flight back was pretty good too, seeing as I fell asleep!
Random outcrop on the way to Mull:
We even had snow here! Admittedly it didn't lay, but it was quite surprising to see:
After all the rough weather we've had over the past few weeks it's nice that calm is returned, the sea has gone from huge waves to smooth:
Makes nighttime photography easier too, you don't have to worry about the wind wobbling things.
I've been on a huge learning curve about astrophotography. I now know I need a small mm and a small f value but those lenses are currently prohibitively priced so I am experimenting with what I have. The Canon came with an 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens that is a great starter and has done the star photos you've seen so far. Tonight it was clear-ish and I managed to get The Shot of Orion:
This is using a borrowed 50mm f/1.8 lens. The problem with this lens is that for working out exposure before star trails will form you divide 600 by the lens mm, but even at 7s I get trails:
So the smaller mm means longer exposure and more light captured. The f value is how "fast" the lens is apparently and 1.8 is Good.
I couldn't get more earlier on in the evening because the airport was lit up and it produces quite a bit of light for such a small (relatively) set up:
The thing about staying up for the stars is that you then have a habit of staying up longer to see if the cloud clears. I've gone nocturnal. It did mean I got to play with both cameras on Friday morning during a gorgeous sunrise.
I started out using the Canon and playing with settings and manual focus. I'm starting to get the hang of actually focusing. It's harder than the camera makes it seem, just a tiny twist either way will unfocus.
But the battery pack died and while I do have three, only one seems to keep its charge, so I switched cameras and let the Nikon do its automatic thing:
Good morning Mull.
A little play with the dewdrops:
Teeny tiny bug:
Finally, "our" Robin:
I've been trying to photo this chap for ages, but he's very very easily spooked.
As a little three year celebration to myself I contracted Celestine and the Hare again.
Today an envelope arrived. I had to cut the tissue paper back on this one, my new arrival was too scared to peek. I also found the wrong end first!
Oops.
Once I carefully cut off the other end my little weesus tried talking our new resident out of their hidey-hole:
Hellooooo?
I had been previously informed that "smalls" like biccits and speak their own language while also being able to communicate with others. Alas, I didn't have a small to tempt out this one so I used food to tempt out the hungry traveler:
Thursday I had baked shortbread and one batch had been coated with dark choc. But even this took longer than tempting out a weesus. Still, lots of rustling later...
Finally Medium (he's quite a large small) made an appearance (not before weesus ate her piece of choccy!)
So now I have a weesus and a medium :)
Speaking of, weesus might have been eyeing up my cakey stuff while I was recuperating last month:
That's it really. I'm thinking I will be back to the museum next week and get to start on births soon. The next post will either be on stars again or possibly my musings on deaths on Tiree from 1855 to 1920.
TTFN
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