Monday Mystery

Last Monday I showed:



All those cheerful looking berries are on a self seeded plant which has been allowed to grow on.



I am pretty sure it is a catoneaster. They seem to seed all over the place. My thanks to all who had a guess.

I am absolutely sure what this infra red photograph of the new mystery object is.



If you would like to make a guess please leave it in the comments. They will be revealed, along with the answer, next Monday.

Rook

It has been some time since I last saw a Rook visit the bird feeders. This morning one was trying to look innocent when he saw me watching as it attempted to get near the suet ball feeder.

Stymied by the Weather

One of those non photographic days. While out for our morning walk the Sun was clear of cloud. Great I thought. I wanted to photo the latest large Sunspot. The new Solar cycle seems to be gathering pace as there are three new Sunspots facing the Earth at the moment. By the time we reached home the Sun was nowhere to be seen, sulking behind thick clouds. Teatime I kept an eye on the West for any sign of a colourful Sunset. Nope, none, zilch. Just grey sky. On our final walkabout, just as the gloom of night was decending, I could see a clear Moon. That will have to do I thought. I think you can guess what happened next. Yes. By the time we reached home the Moon had decided to go all shy and hid behind thick cloud.

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.