Recent Random Ramblings

Lately, I haven't really shot one specific thing, but bits and pieces of anything and everything.
This means that I have not posted in a little while, as I didn't really have a story to go with the images. I do have a few little stories, or anecdotes, though, that I've decided to share in one post, rather than breaking it all down into mini-posts.

So, what have I been doing lately?

Well, feeling inspired by some examples I saw on one of the forums I frequent, and having recently watched "Indescribable", I decided to try my hand at a couple of Milky Way photos.

There are a couple issues with the results, the biggest of which is light pollution, so I'm keen to get out of the city and re-shoot these (and so are a few other forum goers, so there could be a big meet in the next couple of months).

For anyone wanting to try their own, it's not too hard, if you have a base level of understanding of how to use your camera. I'm not going to give a step by step guide, as you can find one here (I'm Statitica on the forums). To find the Milky Way, on a clear night, with little light pollution, is quite simple: just look up, and you can see a band of sky that is slightly different in colour to the rest (I could see it with the naked eye in my backyard, where light pollution is a killer). If you still can't find it, I suggest you use Stellarium, a free piece of software, with up to the minute data on the positions of the stars.

I also picked up an old lens, the Nikon 135mm f/2.8 Ai, which has been providing me with a bit of joy (and some frustration). Because it is such an old lens, it has no electronics in it whatsoever. This means I need to use manual focus, which I'm not real good at (unless it's on bugs). Add to that, the fact that kids don't stay real still, and it can be quite challenging.

So, what have you been up to, lately?