Thursday 19 November 2009

Sunrise

Normally this time of year I am definitely on auto-pilot when Bobby takes me for my early morning walkies. I just want it over and done with. This morning was an exception. Every so often an exceptionally beautiful sunrise will manifest itself. This morning was one of those occasions. As usual the only camera I had was the mobile phone so I though, "Let's see how it copes with these lighting conditions." Here are a couple of the results:

Looking down the main street.
Sunrise

The view from my front gate.
Sunrise

The first I have cropped and rotated slightly otherwise not processed. The second exactly as taken by the phone. The EXIF data for the second shows   1/20 sec  f2.8  ISO 64  focal length 5.18mm

I managed to photograph the sunrise but have just missed a rare opportunity to grab a close up of a Sparrow Hawk. I had gone to the kitchen and was watching the Goldfinches enjoying their breakfast when they all suddenly flew to hide in the nearby bushes. That was unusual as it is rare that they all fly off at the same time. Almost immediately after that a Sparrow Hawk landed on the roof of the bird table. This time it was too slow for the observant Goldfinches. Of course the cameras were still in the other room and by the time I had grabbed one and returned there was no bird to be seen.

12 comments:

  1. Excellent photos John and a beautiful sunrise. Bad luck about the Sparrowhawk, you can guarantee, on those occasions, the camera will be elsewhere. I suspect you will see it again!

    Incidentally I see your followers are missing, mine have been gone for nearly three days. They show on IE but I prefer Firefox, let's hope it gets sorted out soon.

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  2. John, sorry you missed the raptor, not really! Three good shots in an hour is more than any one deserves.
    The phone is great, the second shot is magical. With interpolation software would print a treat.

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  3. Thank you Jan. It was a really spectacular sunrise for a short while. They never last very long and it is at least 10 years since I saw one to match it. The whole village was glowing an orangey red for a while.

    The 'followers' block seems to be working OK here. I use Firefox as well. Maybe it was a short term glitch. I've just tried yours and it is showing OK.

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  4. Thanks Adrian. I was pleased that the colours came out just as they showed in the sky. Previous small cameras have had problems with sunrises, usually giving a washed out image.The second one needs cropping to get rid of the telephone pole and cables to make a better subject.

    First time I've seen a raptor perched so close. Probably about 10 feet away. I was surprised how small it looked close up, much bigger than the finches of course but smaller than I expected.

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  5. Good pictures John! I very rarely see that time of the morning:-)

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  6. Thank you Lynmiranda. These days I am an early bird and normally retire before 11pm. Just the opposite of the night owl I used to be many years ago. The changeover started when I suddenly ended up with a dog to walk before I went to work and the habit has stuck even in retirement.

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  7. Great photos from your phone. Maybe you should call it the cell phone built in to your camera! BTW, I am using IE7 and cannot see your followers. I usually can.

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  8. Hello Wilma. I think you are right. For me it is a camera first and a phone second.

    There seem to be weird things going on with the followers block. It shows in some browsers and not others. Other people are having the same problem with this on their blogs.

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  9. Thank you Emma. It was beautiful to watch while it lasted. Back to the normal grey cloudy morning now.

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  10. Superb sunrise shots John.

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  11. Thank you Frank. It was a rare opportunity to find such deep colours in a sunrise here.

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Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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