28th, October 2021
'Night Walk'
Daisy and I went for a photography night walk around Blackball.
Click on the image across to see the pics.
Jim.
the international shed
28th, October 2021
6th, October 2021
'Jupiter'
Another shot of Jupiter and a couple of moons too.
Click on the image across to enlarge.
Jim.
6th, October 2021
'Moon'
Quite happy with this moon photo. I believe I can get a better one.
Click on the image across to enlarge.
Jim.
5th, October 2021
'Daisy's 1st DLSR'
Daisy inherited a DLSR camera and has been busy taking photos.
Click on the image across to see a few of her photos.
I really hope she gets the photography bug.
Jim.
29th, September 2021
'Andromeda'
My best photo of Andromeda so far.
Click on the image across to enlarge.
Jim.
18th, September 2021
'Light Painting'
The kids and I tried our hands at light painting. Not bad for our first attempt.
Click on the image to see more.
Jim.
27th, August 2021
'Andromeda'
I've now figured out how to stack astro photos, so basically taking lots of long exposures and stitching them together to make one big, data intense, photo.
The image across is an hours worth of exposures. The sky wasn't very clear, very hazy, so the image isn't the best. Can't wait to try this system out on a crisp clear night.
Jim.
16th, August 2021
'Jupiter'
The gas giants are rising in the east this winter. 1st up is Jupiter.
Jim.
1st, August 2021
'Vega'
It's getting a bit darker out, so had an astro-photog sesh in the back garden last night. Didn't get much, broken clouds rolled in and wrecked the view. Managed to get Vega and a satellite though.
Jim.
14th, July 2021
'Roulotte Retreat'
Carols booked into the Roulotte Retreat in the borders for a few nights. It's a bunch of gypsy caravans in a meadow. It's quite idilic, but not that great for kids, saying that, Daisy loved the chickens wondering around.
I popped down for a night as I was having to work. Click on the image to see some pics.
Jim.
8th, July 2021
'East Links Family Fun Park'
A visit to East Links Family Fun Park always cheers me up, mixing with the general public reminds me that we are doing really really really really well.
Click on the image to see some pics of the trip.
Jim.
1st, July 2021
'St Andrews'
During our camping trip, I said to Carol that it was some sort of game theory she was playing with me, as the camping was precursor to our St Andrews trip, and knowing that I don't like holidays, the camping trip would make me want to go St Andrews, guess what, it worked.
Carol and I last stayed in St Andrews in 2008. So I was looking forward to going back. We visited the Secret Bunker as we did in 2008, though not the best idea given we were in an enclosed space with other people during a respiratory pandemic. The weather was good too, so walk around, spent a fortune on food and got sun burnt, visited the aquarium, went to the beach, chilled out...usual holiday stuff.
Click on the image to see some pics of the trip.
Jim.
20th, June 2021
'Camping'
I couldn't stand camping as a child. Still don't like it now.
We camped by Loch Lomond, in a tent and got eaten by midges.
Click on the image to see some pics of the trip.
Jim.
10th, June 2021
'Eclipse'
During the summer, especially in Scotland, astronomy is almost impossible, unless you don't like sleep. So it's a rare treat to get an eclipse. Todays was very partial, about 30%, but still very cool.
Click on the image across to see a bigger version of the photo.
Jim.
4th, May 2021
'Henry Brazil'
Each year I've been taking a photo of Henry in his Brazil shirt. Crazy to see how he's changed.
Click on the image across to see a bigger version of the pic
Jim.
12th, April 2021
'Carol's Big Birthday'
Carol hit the big FIVE OH! Yup, she's 50. Even though stupid lockdown got in the way, she had a lovely day and was over the moon with all her birthday video greetings. I was expecting she would cry, but as Scotty said in Star Trek 6 'she never shed a bloody tear'.
Click on the image across to see pics of the day.
Jim.
8th, April 2021
'The Whirlpool Galaxy'
I'm finding astrophotography amazing and extremely frustrating at the same time. The image across is the Whirlpool galaxy, you can find it near the top of the plough handle. I was pretty happy with this image I captured with my cheapo kids telescope, but trying to photograph it the next night with the same conditions and same gear, no chance, eveything went wrong, couldn't focus, gear didn't work and I couldn't for the life of me find the galaxy!
When the 'vibe' is good, things go well and you get good images, when things go wrong, everything goes wrong and you get nothing. There's definately a massive amount of luck involved.
Jim.
6th, April 2021
'Henry's Birthday'
Henry turned 9 today. He got lots of cool stuff. In fact what was interesting was that the stuff he got was very sciencey, so maybe he's gearing up for being a scientist, which is pretty cool. He's into geodes and stones, so I'm advising him to get into finding diamonds and make us rich!
Click on the image to see photos from his last birthday of being a single number.
Jim.
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