Red Sky at Night ...

... sailor's delight. Red sky in morning, sailor's warning.
Is there any truth in a weather saying which has been around for hundreds of years? There is an interesting explanation on Everyday Mysteries.

Last night gave one of the most gorgeous Sunsets I have seen for a long time. As always it only lasted maybe fifteen minutes while I stood and gawked and took lots of photos.

Just a few:







The Nikon wasn't able to pick out all the subtleties I could see as there were patches of fine cloud formations with subtle changes in colour.

When is a Butterfly not a Butterfly .....

.... when it is pretty and looks like a butterfly to me but .....

As we were trolling* home down the lane this flutter landed on the path. I knew I had seen one like it only once before so took a few photos. After looking on several butterfly identification sites it was nowhere to be seen. Then the penny dropped. Not a butterfly - a moth.

In this case a Magpie Moth: (Abraxas grossulariata)





Unfortunately I have no new videos for this Friday.

* troll, from the Middle English trollen, to stroll.

When Green Becomes Grey

Yesterday was a day for another experiment with the Fujifilm IS-1. This time fitted with a green filter and the shots saved as greyscale in the camera:











All the above were auto adjusted using Irfanview which gave better results than trying the same thing in Elements.

The final one was given a different treatment, this time using Paint.NET and choosing a Metallize effect filter:



It ended up looking as though it was taken in bright Moonlight instead of bright Sunlight, a dramatic effect I quite like.

Every Step Could Destroy a Habitat

It felt like the start of the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness this morning. Woke up to be greeted by thick fog. On our early morning walkabout visibility was a lot less than 200 yards.

After the Sun had finally broken through I could see what initially looked like small grey patches all over the lawn. There were dozens of them. On closer inspection I could see they were spiders' webs covered in water droplets, each not more than 2 inches (5cm) across. Time to grab the 50D with 70-200mm zoom plus Raynox close up lens for a few hand held macro shots:









Once the heat of the Sun had dried them out all became invisible once again so the chances of my foot steps destroying several of these tiny spider homes became a real possibility.


I keep forgetting to mention that we still have at least one regular Hedgehog visitor. Penny always makes it her first priority every night to have a look round for spiky visitors. She is now used to their presence and just has several investigations but doesn't try to harm them.

Not a Bank Holiday for Everyone

Last week one of the nearby fields was harvested. Yesterday, August Bank Holiday, it was being ploughed in preparation for the next crop:




As far as I can tell this is a chisel plough used for deep ploughing on compacted soil. It breaks up the soil letting air in but it doesn't turn the soil so as to retain moisture. Also it leaves the stubble on top to rot down slowly which acts as a mulch to help retain moisture.




Today it was still a hive of activity, the plough being swapped for a disc harrow.
As usual the work had attracted the attention of a few gulls:.
Unfortunately the activity was on the far side of the field on a hazy morning.





Meanwhile in a quieter part of the field something else was seeing what it could glean from the freshly ploughed land:



Not much escapes the attention of a carrion crow.

Macro on Monday - Guess What

Nearly a full house last week. Congratulations and the virtual gold star to Sue Garrett, Ragged Robin, Glo and Adrian who all correctly identified the coconut:



 

 



Back to a scrambled photo for this week's mystery picture.
Guess What:


Clue: A paper house.

Any guesses left in the comments will be revealed, along with the answer, next Monday.

No prizes, just for fun.

IR Timelapse Clouds

A first experiment in making an IR timelapse video:




Fujifilm IS-1 with 950nm IR filter. One shot every 8 seconds.
IR JPGs converted to greyscale using Irfanview batch facility.
Final JPGs bulk loaded in trakAxPC with each frame shown for 1/10 second.
Result saved as mp4.

Small moving circle is the Moon
Light coloured streak - aircraft con trail.
Large pale circle - lens hot spot.


Macro on Monday will follow later today.

ROYGBIV

What?

Red. Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.
The colours of the rainbow - the visible spectrum.
I decided to take the Fujifilm IS-1 out without any filters fitted. This would let visible colours plus IR be used for photos. One thing it does do is make it far more sensitive as most shots were taken at 1/2000 sec.. It certainly can make for some interesting results depending on the subject.

Most have been processed to increase colour intensity and contrast:





Greens tend to come out dull red / brown:



Should have straightened this one up a bit:
 

One for TexWisGirl:
 

A Walk on the Red Side

Another batch of Infra Red photos taken with the Fujifilm IS-1. This time fitted with a 720nm IR filter. This lets a wider range of light through including visible red. This is what the photos look like as taken by the camera:



A few of the photos from Sunday afternoon's walkies, processed as greyscale and adjusted for contrast, etc..

Walking through the small estate behind my property gave a first glimpse of the church:



Taking a public footpath we went through the churchyard and out through the lych gate:



Across the main street we continued on down a country lane....



.... until we reach our turning point at the large Ash tree:



Returning along the lane we once again entered the churchyard through the lych gate:



Taking a slight detour we wandered through the old part of the graveyard:



Had a look at the only side of the village church which can be seen unobstructed:



Then back along the public footpath homeward bound:



Not too long a walk as Penny was getting hot in the blazing Sunshine.

Macro on Monday - Guess What

Once again a full house for last week's scrambled photo. Congratulations and a virtual gold star to Adrian, Sue Garrett, Keith, TexWisGirl and ImaBurdie for identifying the farrier / blacksmith. The photo was taken years ago at one of the local craft fairs where local craftsmen / women demonstrated their skills and sold their wares.


   

This particular blacksmith has won many competitions and seemed to specialise in ornamental iron work including some magnificent large gates for country houses.

 


For this week's mystery photo we are back to nature.
Guess What:


Clue: It's lost its hair as well as its milk.

Answers left in the comments will be revealed next Monday along with the answer.

No prizes. Just for fun.

Seeing Red

This must be from the very bottom of the Round Tuit pile. For many, many years I have wanted to be able to experiment with Infra Red photography. Long ago I actually bought a roll of 35mm IR film but never got round to using it for several reasons. More difficult to focus. Old lenses had two focus scales, one usually a red line for focussing IR. Unable to see the results until after processing. Few places where IR film could be processed.

At least 35mm, and other film sizes, could take IR. The vast majority of digital cameras have a filter built in to cut out the IR part of the spectrum. It is a case of stripping down the camera and replacing the filter or sending the body away to have it done professionally - at a price!

I say the vast majority as a few digital cameras have been made which were specially designed to be able to respond to the infra red part of the spectrum. One such was the Fujifilm IS-1 which was originally made for use by police forces and such like to photograph evidence. Their availability, only second hand, is scarce so when one became available a few days ago I jumped at the chance to get my sticky fingers on it.



The camera has a 28-300mm (35mm equivalent) f2.8-4.9 zoom lens. It came complete with a set of filters, three to let through various wavelengths of IR, one to block UV and IR so normal colour photos can be taken, and a couple of others. The following were taken with the middle range IR filter which looks completely black to the human eye and can be seen on the above photo.

The following are paired photos. First as taken by the Fuji followed by a greyscale version:













As a quick trial these were only given a minimal seeing to in Irfanview.
The only problem is it uses AA batteries and as with many of its age these don't last anywhere near as long as modern Lithium Ion cells

Angry Dragon?

Not exactly. 

Not angry. 

Not a dragon. 

Just a humble flower - the snapdragon - antirrhinum. 

1/15 sec f18

This was from a self seeded plant growing in the front garden. I get all sorts of plants growing there but where they come from is anybody's guess.

The background is just a sheet of green paper pinned up about two feet behind the subject so it out of focus making it look smooth.