Lunar-Jovian-Venusian Alignment

Was out looking at the stars at the weekend, taking a look at the alignment of the three brightest objects in the night sky - Venus, Jupiter and the Moon. Couldn't resist fitting the x1.4 teleconvertor to my 100-400mm and seeing what I could see. No moons around Jupiter unfortunately, but easily visible as a planet, especially with the Live-View screen set to 10x zoom.

It's not a blog without a photo, so here's a photo of the crescent Moon..

ISO200, 560mm, f/8, 1/13s, cropped, corrected chromatic aberation

Venus. Not quite the Hubble ST, but about $1.5 billion cheaper..

Interesting red and blue light, caused by prismatic aberation of the light coming through the Earths atmosphere. Also note that Venus has no moons, so the blobby bits must either be a UFO or dust/dirt in my camera setup.

Bristol Classic Bike Show

Four images taken last weekend at Shepton Mallet and styled in Photoshop to give them the tone and feel I was looking for. Saved in a slightly different size than usual in an attempt to see if it avoids the distortion that Blogger image viewer seems to be cursing us with of late ...

ISO1600, 105mm, 1/100s, f/2.8, -1ev

ISO1600, 16mm, 1/6s, f/4, -1.6ev

ISO1600, 30mm, 1/25s, f/2.8, -2ev

ISO320, 23mm, 1/30s, f/3.2, -1.6ev

Robins in the snow

ISO1600, 400mm, 1/400s, f/5.6, noise reduction

Taken on a wander at the weekend, since all the robins around home seem to have taken to the recent trend of singing and interacting at night, even though it's not exactly a noisy metropolis.

ISO200, 350mm, 1/500s, f/5.6, +0.3ev, cropped

Another taken in a passing patch of Sun, it's near side eye was in the shade, but as it turned it's head just before leaving, I capturing the catch light in its eye and a more interesting pose.

It's nice to at finally have something to blog, after getting out for a Sunrise that turned out to be un-inspiring and setting up for a steam locomotive panoramic, only for the train not to show, has led to a bit of a gap in the photographic flow here. Especially frustrating at this time of year when there's a fantastic sunrise burning the sky, I even have my camera with me, but I'm going in the door to work. I think of all the places I could have made the most of the moment - photographers curse.

Happy Valentines Day to all!

I will post again soon...

Arty birds

Okay, as usual lets get the excuses out of the way to start with! I've had a bad foot for about two weeks, crutches, painkillers, sleepless nights and all that, so not done much running around with the camera. Bit of a shame as I quite fancied blatting up to Scotland to see the Northern lights this week!

ISO320, 400mm, 1/500s, f/5.6

Starlings surveying their surroundings from a TV aerial, with a textured and coloured background. I liked the shot with the oil-slick rainbow colours of the birds, poses and composition, but felt it was a much better image with some toning and texture to give it a bit of an artistic, contemporary feel.

Review of 2011

Well 2011 certainly slipped by in a hurry, with the main event for me being the big tour in september and october, it almost felt like eight months of saving and waiting, followed by six weeks of craziness, followed by two months of "where did summer go? - blimey its Christmas already!".

Between the budgeting and lack of spare holiday I'm not sure that my photography didn't suffer a little overall, especially as when the tour did arrive I un-expectedly felt the desire to bask in the adventure of it all, rather than let my photography have much influence on events (which it usually does). I'm pleased with the photos I brought back, but I know they were not the product of any concerted effort.

I guess the same can be said of my to-do list that I set myself, failing on almost all counts! I definitely got closer to some half decent Kingfisher photos, but the chase continues for another year. So with a self administered, "must try harder", slap on the wrist, most have made their way onto the 2012 to-do list.

The one area I have been really pleased with is the four weddings we've photographed in 2011. I've learnt a lot, had lots of fun and got some great feedback from the couples brave enough to let us be their photographers. With some luck and a concerted effort I hope to build on the experience we've gained and drive this on to be the start of something we can get going properly in 2012.

And with all that waffle out of the way, time for some more tour photos...

Berbers take photos too! - Merzouga

Hands of carpet weaver women in Fez - worked hard for little money

One of the many Mosque doors in Fez medina - almost all exquisitely carved

Cats in the blue alleyways of Chefchaouen - deemed clean animals by Islam they roam most of Morocco

Crescent moon setting behind the Koutoubia Mosque, Jemaa El Fna - Marrakesh

Priests preparing for a large televised service in Santander cathedral, Spain

Board-walk Sunset on the south coast of Portugal

Only donkeys and handcarts are allowed to make deliveries in the Medina - Tetouan, Morocco

Walls made of leg bones and skulls at the Chapel of Bones, Faro, Portugal

Sunset in the Algarve, Portugal

The heavily photographed tannery district of Fez

Wedding #6

A selection of images from the wedding we photographed just before Christmas.

Despite the venue's dimly lit, mood-lighting, which proved to be double edged, the very handsome and beautiful couple were fantastic and we had another fun day.

M and P Photography

Lisbon

Some photos from a stop off in Lisbon, Portugal on the way back up from Morocco..

One of the many colourful trams, looking colour-popped amongst the grey buildings and cobblestones

A stack of flats adorned with the trappings of everyday Portuguese life in the setting Sun.

Grand architecture and moody lighting, always a bonus.

A Sunset Moonrise

(Selective levels & colour balance in PS)

Morocco

A few of my favourite shots from the Morocco tour..

Sunrise over the Sahara

Lantern stall, Moroccan style

Berber preparing camels pre-dawn

"Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Khansas anymore!"

Medina alleyway filled with colour

A student meditates in an Islamic university

Hunter - Hunted

Two snapshots from a walk at the weekend taken within a few meters of each other, hunter (possibly a Harrier of some kind?) and it's prey, a European Brown Hare which ran right up to us (downwind on a windy day). Luckily for the Hare it ran the opposite direction to the bird when it finally spotted me and demonstrated its 40mph speed across a field.

Useless fact of the day: Hares are the only mammal to have kinetic skulls, where the bones of the skull move relative to each other.

Merry New Year!

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and here's to a great 2012, I wish you all the best for a brilliant year.

Been a bit quiet on here, but photographed another successful wedding just before Christmas which kept me busy. A great day, beautiful bride and handsome groom, some challenging venue mood lighting, but we had fun again, got some great fun & festive shots and hopefully all will be happy with the results when they come back from honeymoon.

ISO 100, 105mm, 0.6s, f/10, -1ev, composite

First effort of the new year - flower ball - a set piece photoshop effort with a subtle twist.

I always enjoy doing these once I've finally drummed up the motivation to put the effort in.

Hint: There are no flowers inside the ball!

Tour Blog - Spain

A selection of photos from the downward leg of the journey...

ISO100, 310mm, f/9, 1/2000s, -1.6ev

We wild camped on the shore of a reservoir in northern Spain, with a village on the horizon silhouetted by the rising Sun. Taken on the 100-400mm, exposed for the sky and dialled down to minimise burnout as the Sun crested the ridge.

ISO800, 16mm, f/3.5, 1/25s, -1.3ev, noise reduction

Segovia Cathedral at night

ISO640, 30mm, f/6.3, 1/40s, -1ev, curves, desaturated, dodge & burn

Artisan workman's bench, Toledo

ISO100, 16mm, f/8, 1/60s, -2ev, tripod, cable release

Spanish windmill at Consuegra.

There was a film crew recording the final scenes of a movie the night we stayed at Consuegra which limited angles a bit, but happy with this one and the previously posted panoramic moon rise.

ISO125, 400mm, f/6.3, 1/640s, -1ev, cropped

Spanish dragonfly.

I didn't take my macro lens (only so much room on a motorcycle!), but still managed to get a few wildlife shots using my telephoto lens.

ISO100, 16mm, f/10, 1/80s, -2ev, selective blurred layer

A dreamy sunset in Andalucia

ISO100, 16mm, f/13, 1/60s, -0.6ev

Snow warning signs at the side of a roasting desert canyon road. It was high thirties (Celsius) and was always strange to ride past ice warnings, snow ploughs and ski lifts in the sunny mountains.

Tour Blog - Panoramics

Without realising it at the time I appear to have become partial to sweeping panoramic images on my motorcycle tour to Morocco in sept/oct. Before leaving I had set quite high expectations of the photos I would try and take while I was away, but very early on I seemed to loose all track of any plans and immersed myself in the absolute luxury of timeless freedom.

I love photography so much it usually impacts on holidays a lot, but to my surprise, I was so caught up in the adventure that I was content to let the adventure dictate the photography and not the other way around. I think the only photography induced stress was seeing so many shots in Morocco and just not having the time and patience to stop, take helmet & gloves off, get camera out and take the photo on my DSLR.

As for security - the dodgiest place was probably the UK! Morocco certainly felt very safe. I did get some sand in the focussing rings of my lenses etc, but nothing too concerning or unexpected.

The volcanoes of the Auvergne, France

Misty valleys in the Pyrenees

Windmills at Consuegra, Spain

I'd like to be able to say we carefully planned our visit to coincide with the full-moon rise and sunset, but it was just pure luck. Not only did we get to live for a while measuring time and direction from the Sun, we got to see a complete cycle of the moon, which was full when we rode south through Spain and was back full again on the way back up northwards.

The Spanish side of the Pyrenees

Roman aqueduct at Segovia, Spain

Andalucian sunset

Terraced fields in southern Spain

Sunset at Azrou, Morocco

Moroccan streets come alive at night with children, families and food, while Egrets fly in to their roosts as a call to prayer echoes out from the mosque.

The entrance to Todra Gorge, green strips of vegetation and farmland cling to the rivers

The top end of Todra Gorge, women work the fields in a beautiful landscape that I struggled to capture. If there was one place I'd have loved to stay for a sunrise it was here.

My motorcycle parked up for lunch on the Tiz n Tichka pass through the Atlas mountains

The barren land between the Atlas mountains and the Sahara desert

The ancient kasbah of Ait Ben Haddou

Essouira harbour under a sea fog, large sardine boats left and blue shark fishing boats right

Zambujeira Do Mar, Portugal on the way back north

25 de Avril bridge at sunset, Lisbon

The incredible Vasco de Gama bridge, Lisbon

Have a good weekend everyone. Will start posting some more tour photos next week!