Tasty Games

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After playing with one's new flashgun, it's ideal to be able to consume the tasty subject of the photo!

I bought a Godox TT600 flash and an Xpro transmitter. I'm very impressed. The bang for buck on the TT600 is very hard to argue with. It's got a lot of capability, quality of life features, and included accessories for remarkably little money.
I've also got a set of Godox X1R receivers for my Canon Speedlites on order, so it'll be very nice to have full remote power control of all of my lighting from the camera end rather than having to wander round poking fiddly little adjustment buttons on each flash.

Note to self: when shooting glass in future, make sure to have a polishing cloth on hand to kill the inevitable and ugly fingerprint marks...

Incidentally, that makes it one month since I started this project. I've enjoyed it so far, although I've found it pretty hard to maintain the momentum on one or two days.

Colour and texture

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Screwed up

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Is it bad that I now want to go out and buy several more flashguns?

Levitate (briefly)

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I've been playing with water again. Not entirely happy with this result, but it's a fiddly process, and I've got fed up for the day!
I took a high speed video of the setup in action, so you can see a little behind the scenes after the jump. (Trigger warning: The video clip contains flashing lights)  

Cheese and Whisky

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One of the excellent online cheese tastings from The Courtyard Dairy.
It's really enjoyable to hear from someone as enthusiastic and knowledgeable about their area as Andy is.

Also posting an unrelated rainy window shot from Thursday night, taken after I'd posted a backup picture taken on a previous day! (after the jump) 

Tuning in to sunset.

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Also happy dogs, because... well, dogs 😊 (after the jump)

2

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First daffodil of the year

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Reaching into the backup bucket for the first time this year... I had a very busy day at work, and was out this evening helping a friend with something, so I didn't have time to take a photo today.
Taken 2024/01/06.

Laser, Meet Steel; Steel, Evaporate

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The laser cutter at work making short work of a sheet of steel!
4kW of optical power focused onto a spot 0.2mm across is something to behold. I see this machine working very frequently, but it still impresses me.

Lunar Obscura

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I have to admit to feeling a bit obscura myself right now.
I have to go into the office tomorrow; shared workspaces and the diseases that live in them suck my soul out and mash it into oblivion.

I shall endure this storm

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Storm Isha is winding up to wreak various kinds of havoc.

Bailey

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One more after the jump

Depth Map

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I quite like the layers of depth in this one.
Couldn't decide on my favourite, so there's also a couple of bonus extra photos today, after the jump.

Calm ahead, rush behind

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I think this image feels quite peaceful. It's slightly jarring to remember that there was hectic traffic on the bridge behind me as I took this.
I'm not totally happy with the image, I think I should have taken a few steps to the left to lose the branches in the bottom right, and something about the framing is making my eye twitch in a disconcerting manner - but I think it would have been difficult to get a much better composition from anywhere I was able to access.
I contemplated going much tighter in on the bridge you can see in the distance, with a long exposure to get some light trails, but the bridge I was standing on was vibrating from the traffic, and I think it would have rendered any time exposure a blurry mess!

Splat

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Playing with water photos again...
I used a device that's sadly now no longer made, the µTrigger, to take this photo.
The µTrigger was mounted to a 3D-printed bracket, which aligns a laser and dripper arrangement, such that the falling drops activate the optical sensor of the µTrigger. The µTrigger has a time delay function, so by varying that, I could synchronise the shutter to the moment the drops hit the tray.
I'm planning to do a some more with this setup now that I've got it working.

Pleiades

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My star tracker arrived today. While my polar alignment wasn't perfect, it has already got me an awful lot closer to achieving sharp star photos, and is very promising for the future. 

Blue Sky Thinking

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I spent all day in front of the computer in meetings and writing software today, and I ended up not leaving the house. I did spot this photo opportunity while I was making a coffee this afternoon, so that's today's offering!

A Sky Full of Stars

(and some significant light pollution)

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I ordered a star tracker this evening. I'm hoping it'll help me get better results with stars, although all things considered, I have to say I'm reasonably happy with this one.
I need to find a good dark sky location too.
The second pic is a relatively quick, unplanned shot I got of the moon. Not as sharp as I'd like it to be, mostly because the lightweight tripod I was using, while good for what it is, is not at all suited to supporting a 600mm lens for a relatively slow exposure!

Double dose

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Couldn't decide which one of these to post today, so for the first time ever, two pictures it is.
I liked the tree, but it's so close to monochrome, and after yesterday's mono picture, I thought I'd liven it up with a bit of colour, coincidentally also the first drone shot that I've posted.

Gate to somewhere

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Antidote to a chilly evening

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I know it's not good for air quality, or the environment in general, but it's certainly very cosy to light the fire occasionally.

Stigma

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The stigma of a daffodil.
It seems that I need to clean my sensor rather urgently. Macro at high magnifications with small aperture settings tends to highlight sensor dust very badly, because the light entering the lens acts like a point source, casting sharp shadows, and accentuating the dust on the sensor.
I had to go a bit mad with the healing brush to make this presentable!
This is the same lens setup tht I used for the LED photo a few days ago. After commenting that the lens was possibly older than me, I looked it up, and it turns out that the FD lenses have a simple date code stamped on the back. This lens is from 1991, so quite a bit younger than I thought it was, although I suppose that's still ancient history in the high turnover photo world!

Wish upon a star. There are plenty to choose from if you look behind the clouds.

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The same place as I took "Hints" on the 3rd, about 6 days and 10 minutes later.

Diodes, Light Emitting, Magnified

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LEDs are amazing things. So are macro lenses.
I want to do a bit more extreme macro work again soon, so I'll be revisiting this setup - I used an old Canon FD macro lens, which is probably at least as old as me, mounted on a cobbled together bellows arrangement. I don't think it's done too badly, but I think I can get more out of it with a bit more work, and frankly practise!
It's a long time since I messed about with serious macro work. Somewhere buried in a box, I have a macro focusing rail, which I need to dig out again.
My geared head is also something of a sick puppy, with extremely stiff spots in the movement, so I need to have a proper look at that too.

The LEDs in the photo are 5mm (less than 1/4") across. 

Reflection upheld

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7 Days. Wasn't sure I'd even make it this far.

Staggering incompetence

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Traditionally, when one goes out with the express intention of taking photographs, one would carry, at a minimum, one camera.
I did things differently today. I took eight lenses, two teleconverters, a tripod, spare batteries, spare memory card; and no camera body.
This may, hypothetically, have rendered the photographic expedition somewhat ... limited.
Fortunately, modern phones have excellent cameras, so I present to you what I'm declaring to be victory, extracted from the jaws of defeat.

We need to talk about biscuits

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Gravy Bones specifcally. It really is most urgent.

Click Clack

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I'm a sucker for a science toy.
Depending on which calendar system you use, Isaac Newton was born on this day in 1643, or on 25th December 1642.

I wish I could say I'd planned this shot for today, but it was purely by chance that I picked this Newton's Cradle as my victim for the day. I only spotted Newton's birthday connection when I looked him up!

Hints

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Small things.
I noticed the first hints of the days lengthening again today. The combination of slightly longer days (sunset was 10 minutes later than on the shortest day, and 13 minutes later than the earliest sunset of the year), coupled with clearer skies than we have had for a while meant there was noticeable light left in the sky when I left work.
A small thing, but one that made me feel like things are perhaps a tiny bit better than they were.

After the rain

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The weather has been horrendous here today. The torrential rain eventually settled this evening, and I can even see a few stars tonight. I spotted this on the path, and thought I'd give it the Lensbaby treatment.
I haven't really used the lensbaby in years, and it's interesting to get it out again.

Hello again

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Lots has happened in the more than a decade since I last posted here. In fact, more than a decade has passed since I last even started to write a draft post here, in October 2013. Tempus fugit, et cetera.
Some really good things happened in that time, and some really bad things happened too. I have experienced what are unquestionably the absolute best and worst days of my life so far within the last couple of years. I might come back to that at some point if this exercise survives long enough.
I'm going to try and get back on the photo blog horse, so to speak. I'm also going to try cross-posting on Instagram.
@bensigsworth
Let's see what happens.