Yelephone Call For You

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A truly terrible pun, sorry!
[is absolutely not sorry]

A backup photo today, but somewhat relevant as I've spent rather a lot of time building up to a railway related meeting today. It went better than it might have done.

I(II)

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Memories Sparkle On.

Affixed

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First day back at work today.
[Redacted], lest toes be trodden upon...

Weedy Winner

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This spiky character has neatly evaded the combine harvester's blades...

Jetsam, Intentional or Otherwise

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This one's probably going to be my submission for this week's 52 Frames "Abandoned" challenge.

Reflect A While

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I'm quite enjoying my new toy.
It's quite different to use than my usual EOS kit, much more like shooting a traditional film camera, which I had expected from the layout of the controls.
It's a pleasingly retro tactile experience without sacrificing modern capabilities.

The RAW file had quite a lot to give in the apparently clipped highlight here, which was quite a pleasing discovery.

Half-Cut First Cut!

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I've been making my first pass at editing the video for my sister's wedding ceremony, so haven't been out this afternoon, but thought this might make for a vaguely interesting shot nonetheless.

I had expected this to be quite a difficult time, but it's actually brought back more happy memories than anything else so far.

Lego Bricks?

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A backup photo today, shot last weekend.

Sneak Peek

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Late posting this one, shot at my sister's wedding venue in between setting up.

To Thine Own Self Be True

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I went to the camera shop today to upgrade my wireless mic system to something from this side of the millennium.
A semi-unintended side effect of this is that a new (second hand) camera followed me home too...

Please welcome the Fuji X100V to the fold...

Elderberries

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This one's my submission for this week's 52Fframes "Macro" challenge.
It's a 2x macro shot, and is a focus stack of 60 frames.

2025-08-09

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Emerge

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This one felt a bit emblematic of my mood today. I have survived the mad time at work, and I am now officially on holiday for a week.
It's perhaps not entirely ideal to start your week off by doing another four hours of overtime, but at least I have the satisfaction of calling some part of the job done (at least for certain values of done-ness!)

This shot wasn't planned at all, I decided I needed to drag myself out for a walk this evening, and just happened to notice the moon coming up over the ridge as I turned round to head home.
It was a rather nice moment.

2025-08-07: General Malaise

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I'm a day late posting this backup photo, taken last month.
I've really had to dig back into the archives over the last few weeks, which is quite disappointing when the aim is to shoot something new every day.
On top of being knackered with work, I didn't feel at all well, particularly in the afternoon and evening.

Glowing Small Stuff

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This abstract frame is a 5x macro of a 3D printed thing.
Might be a submission for 52Frames "Macro", but we shall see later.

2025-08-05

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Yet another backup, posted late.
I was helping my sister and her fiancé with some wedding prep, so didn't shoot anything.

Fragrant Orchid (And Friend)

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A backup photo again today, taken a few weeks ago.
Never got round to sharing this one, and I was slow sharing it with the wildlife group leader who organised the walk, so it didn't get shared there either.

Love Locks

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This one' my 52Frames submission for this week's "color temperature" challenge.

Tree/Frog

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I spent 13 hours at work today. I am rather tired, but on the upside, the widget is now at least broadly widgeting...

Special Screws, And Quickly!

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At work today we found ourselves rather urgently requiring some special M3 screws with a specific length of plain shank before the threaded portion. We had nothing even remotely suitable, so I found some larger screws and spent some time on my lathe this evening turning them down and re-threading them to the correct size.
After all this effort, this project better be a success...

Flippin' Nuisance

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More correctly that would be flipped nuisance, I suppose!
Backups, backups, every day. Late ones, too.
Work is even more mental than usual this week.

2025-07-30

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I've spent most of the evening fiddling with 3D prints for work, so I didn't get out, therefore it's another backup photo today. EOS R5, EF35mm f/2 IS

Urban Heron

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A backup photo from a few days ago.
Not the sharpest of photos, but in my defence, it was quite dark, so I had the lens wide open, a slowish shutter speed for the focal length, and the heron was moving.

Tooled Up

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A backup photo today, shot last night.
It's been another busy one.
You find some odd things along the river. I'm assuming this toolbox was left here by a boat owner to reserve the mooring space.

Quiet / Unquiet

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Where I'd like my mind to be, versus where it is quite a lot of the time!

Faithful Shadow

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I took Bailey out for a walk this evening. He's an excellent little companion!

Hard (Toed) Workers

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My work boots have just about had it...
This one's probably going to be my submission for this week's 52 Frames "unusual crop" challenge.
I'll take the EC on this one too, as I used my 35mm prime lens.

The Hut

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Yet another backup photo, shot a couple of days ago.

Keep Me Posted

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A backup photo today.

This Way

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A rather pleasant evening walk with my friend and Bailey after a very busy day.
There are loads of evening primroses at this park, I'll have to try and go back to catch them in action soon.
I just missed capturing one opening on video tonight.

The Prowling Policeman's Pirouetting P68

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I heard a plane circling overhead this evening and it piqued my curiosity.
A bit of digging on ADSBexchange revealed it was a fairly unusual fixed-wing police aircraft.
Turns out NPAS have four of them, based at my local airport. Who knew?!

On Track

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This one's my submission for this week's 52Frames challenge, "Something New".
I recently bought this GPS unit to help with geotagging my photos, because I'd got very used to my old camera having an internal GPS receiver, and my current camera only supports geotagging via a phone connection, which is a faff. I often forget to connect and babysit the slightly unreliable connection.
This challenge was a good opportunity for me to revisit product photography, which I've not done for ages.
I thought it was fun to sneak the week number in as the compass bearing, even if it was awkward to line up!
I contemplated shooting this out in the field, but I eventually went for shooting it indoors under a big softbox because of the weather.
I should have cleaned the screen more thoroughly before shooting, as I had to erase rather a lot of fluff and dust in post!

Flagging, Pending Restorative Coffee

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Taken from Ashbourne's delightfully cheekily named f'coffee while waiting for our drinks to arrive, after a video test session for my sister's upcoming wedding.

Watch Your Gnatitude

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Another backup photo today, shot back on the 3rd. I quite liked the way these gnats caught the light.

Evening Light

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It's a backup photo again today, shot last night.
I got home after work tonight and crashed out for several hours. I think that's the third time this week.
This doesn't feel very sustainable.

Canis Obstinatus

I took Bailey out for a walk this evening, so his mum could get some work done. I think he was confused as to why he was only with me when we'd left from his house - he was in a very obstinate mood, which is unusual - he's usually very good and stays close as soon as I let him off his lead.
One more after the jump.

Expand

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Amber

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This one's a backup, shot last night.
This was my submission for last week's 52Frames "In the style of" challenge.
I took Andreea Badiu as my inspiration this time, as I enjoy her work, and it's quite a different style to what I usually shoot myself.
She often uses a muted, warm palette, and a lamp quite often features in her work.

Purple Evening

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Robin's Pincushion

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AKA the Bedeguar Gall. This oddity is home to the larvae of a gall wasp.
I spotted this one on a guided walk with Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust this morning.
I find these types of hijackers quite fascinating. They are so highly evolved to target just one specific type of plant, and make it produce the most bizarre growths.
One more after the jump.

Phase Change

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A backup photo, shot yesterday.
I couldn't decide whether I liked the B&W or colour variant best, so I'm posting both.
I'm slightly leaning to the B&W though.
The colour version is after the jump.

Melt Your Own Metal!

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This has been my view at work for quite a lot of this week.
The chap that usually looks after our laser cutting work has been off on a cruise, and we are under a massive time crunch to demonstrate a prototype at the beginning of next month, so I've been doing my own laser cutting for a change, and lots of it, too.
I have no idea where the week has gone, it's been really full on, but still somehow feels like we haven't moved on very far. I think it's something of an illusion, but I can't shake the feeling.

2025-07-09: Not A Dandelion.

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Apparently it's Meadow Goatsbeard, which revels in the rather splendid Latin name of "Tragopogon pratensis L.". Sounds like a good insult to me.
In any case, it caught my eye, and I was able to contort myself into a position to get the low sun behind it through a gap in the hedge.

2025-07-08

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Late and a backup again.
This one was my submission for last week's 52Frames "Frame Within A Frame" challenge.
Not as good as I wanted, but it was all I was able to come up with in the time I had.

Hang In There

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A backup photo again today, after a busy day in work, and a fairly long evening running sound for the band's rehearsal.
This was taken a few days ago.
I was reading a post from an old school friend today, describing their recent tough experiences with a chronic health condition. While we all have things in life that are perhaps less than ideal, or even actively bad, it put things in perspective a little.
This one's for the tough cookies out there - I'm thinking of you.

What's Left Of The Poppies

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A backup photo today.
I really like the way this lens behaves when you shoot into the evening sun.

Expert Assessment / Chomp

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I've got Bailey for the weekend, and I took him to visit some friends and family.
Here he is carefully analysing a tricky treat-based problem before applying a calibrated chomp to the end of it.
One more after the jump.

Evening Perambulation

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I've run out of questionably witty verbiage this evening.
Normal service will (hopefully) resume shortly.

Tomorrow's Pizza

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This title popped into my head in the moment I was framing it up. It feels fitting.
Which reminds me, I need to order more dough, I'm almost out...

50% at 50%

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Near enough, anyway. We are at the halfway point of the year, and the moon's illumination is at 51% tonight. An interesting confluence, I thought.