For regular visitors you might notice a few differences in site navigation from today. I've been working on some changes to get rid of the long lists of drop down menus that previously appeared under the main headings, I've also grouped the galleries and 52 project under the new 'photography' heading and added some new photo topics on that tab, I've also separated the 'hiking' onto it's own tab. The overall look is the same and I feel the interface is now a bit cleaner and definitely has fewer of those annoying drop down menus. My least dramatic site change so far but I am seriously thinking of a major overhaul next winter to keep things fresh.
For now please continue enjoying all areas of the site including the new 'photography' section and the posts within.
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I thought I'd post a shot of the hoar frost this morning just to add to our memory stockpile. The returning cold air had the birds zipping to and from the feeder early, and the squirrels lining up in the trees by the fence. It feels a bit like springtime........if only it was.
The winter solstice is now almost 2 months behind us and the days are getting longer. The setting sun is (thankfully) moving back across the horizon and in the evening we can once again, see the sunset. I make no apology for posting them repeatedly as they are always such a wonderful sight, always different and always mesmerizing. The mix of colours from the distant horizon to the cobolt blue sky directly above us makes for an unmissable exposure. How could anyone ever tire of such a thing.
I was enjoying an online discussion about photographing the stars with a friend in West Virginia tonight when it triggered an idea I had been mulling since a fluke shot I made over a year ago. I was shooting the aurora and noticed the Orion Nebula was visible in one of the shots, albeit very small in the frame, from that moment I wanted to capture it but didn't want to be buying a telescope and moving mount to track the shot so I put the thought on the back burner.
Tonight I decided I might as well try with my Canon 70 - 200mm f2.8, the wide aperture means it pulls in lots of light and the 200mm focal length would get me much closer than my previous (unintended) shot. I needed an ISO of 6400 as the long focal length only gave me a maximum 2.5 second exposure to avoid star trails. So I made 10 exposures of 2.5 seconds each and stacked them in photoshop to bring out as much detail as I could. Though the result is a less than impressive splodge of colour in the night sky I am really pleased with it, using a 200mm lens to grab an image of an object 1344 light years away is pretty cool, gotta love modern technology. When the clouds killed any chance of making further nebula images I turned around and noticed a weak aurora over the city so grabbed a few shots of that too. All in all it was a great couple of hours on the balcony tonight. It's rare in winter for us to get a sunset that's visible from the balcony because the winter sun has drifted south west for the season, it's even more rare to have an owl share the view. I stepped out to shoot the sunset this evening when this guy came along and sat in the treetops for a moment before taking off again. There was no time to grab a longer lens so I made the most of the silhouette with the setting sun and mountains beyond and I really like the outcome. I've included a few shots of the sunset that made me get the camera out initially but the main image with that perfectly perched owl steals the show I think.
Overcast skies were welcome today as the Northern Flicker returned to the garden feeder, the closed in cloud meant a lovely diffused light and no shadows. The result was some nice shots of him jumping around the feeder. He stayed quite a while too and though still camera shy he made a nice topic for a few images this afternoon. The usual downy woodpeckers and chickadees also put in an appearance but the Flicker was the highlight of the day.
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AuthorWe arrived in Calgary, Canada on 29th December 2011 to continue our journey. This blog is intended to keep our family and friends informed whilst we explore Canada.You can use the RSS feed below to stay updated. Categories
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January 2024
The Shaman, West Texas
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