Another Sunset

Yesterday we went out early enough in the evening to catch the Sunset over the fields. As usual I took lots of photos. These are about the best of the bunch. I tried a few different setting on the Canon G5X. First a normal single shot:



I didn't realise I had chosen the HDR setting for the next one so it was surprisingly good considering the camera was hand held while it took the three shots which are mixed to make the final HDR photo.



Both photos are cropped to remove some of the less interesting foreground.

Turneresque Sunset

J. M. W. Turner is one of my favourite painters. He recorded many magnificient Sunsets in the 1800s. When we went walkabout yesterday evening the bold reds and oranges of the Sunset brought Turner's works to mind. Looking back to the West as we set off:



About half way down the lane I looked back again:



I was annoyed as I had forgotten to take a camera with me so I had to use the iPhone 6S and the Camera+2 app. Photos are cropped slightly to reduce the amount of dark foreground and the overhead telephone cables were 'inpainted' out using Affinity Photo.

Monday Mystery

Last week I showed



which was a close view of



an LED headlamp - literally a light to wear on your head. Listed as a lamp for fishing or camping. It has a central spotlight with an angled floodlight either side. They can be on individually or all together. For cyclists it can be worn on the back of the head as it also has a flashing red light. As is usual these days the battery is recharged through a USB connector. Listed as lasting 4 to 6 hours on one charge. I bought it for the occasions we go walkabout down our lane on Winter nights. There are a few dimish street lamps but no lighting once past the bridge to the cricket field. The lights are quite powerful and do a great job. (£8.50 on eBay)

Ellen D. it could be useful to keep in the car for emergencies. Kris - not sure whether you were thinking of something like this or a vehicle headlight. Dave - it certainly counts as a torch.

This time can you identify which plant produces these beautiful berries?



Please leave any guesses in the comments. They will be shown, along with the answer, next Monday.

Moon at 800mm

Having read the reviews which were reasonably good I invested all of £102 in a JINTU 420-800mm zoom lens. Obviously at this price it is very basic. Manual focus, fixed apature which varies from F8.3 at 420mm to F16 at 800mm. I wanted it for photographing the Moon or Sun. Here it is fitted to my Canon 70D on its first try out photographing the Moon.



I took severa photos as the manual focus is tricky to get spot on. This is a full frame shot (no cropping)



That wasn't the best focussed shot but the one with the Moon nearest the centre of the shot.

A crop from a slightly sharper photo:



Obviously not as sharp as the Canon £1000+ 800mm lenses but I think it's very good for the price. It has a standard M42 thread and comes with an adapter to match your camera. Needless to say it has to be on a sturdy tripod and the camera operated by a remote of one sort or another. The slightest movement will blur the image.

Intelligent Rook

I was reading The Weaver of Grass' blog entry about watching Rooks and it reminded me of this bit of video I took eight years ago.



Why struggle to get at the suet ball when a little effort makes the job a lot easier in the long run. A few days later I noticed all the feeders in a neighbour's front garden were on the floor. I guess it was putting its new skill to good use.

Monday Mystery

Not too much of a problem identifying this close shot from last Monday:



as being part of:



an old cast iron trivit. Very useful to get air circulation all round things which need cooling down or defrosting slowly. Well done to Ellen D., Adrian, Ragged Robin, Dave, Kris and Kev who were close or spot on.

Another close view for this week:



Whatever can it be? Please leave any guesses in the comments. They will be revealed, along with the answer, next Monday.

Fishy Request

No, Not fishy as in dodgy but a request from John Going Gently for a clearer look at the fish ornament from my More Wrens post. This is a water fountain type ornament of Chinese make I bought some years ago and never got round to connecting up to a water pump. Now I have set up a small raised pond I will experiment a bit to see how well it works.



From the front you can see the inlet at the bottom and the outlet through its mouth.



I think it's cast resin, measures about 13 inches long by 8 inches high and is fairly hefty weighing in at 4lb (1.8Kg).