Category: flickr

Day 290 – More Star Stuff

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After yesterday’s astonishing star size facts, here are some more astonishing stars from the chilly Isle of Man, courtesy of FOTB Chris Wormwell (you may remember him from such posts as CJ Wormwell still making lovely photographs and Chris’ PoA sky & lighthouse p0rn).

This one is a timelapse of the Milky Way, taken from The Phurt, down in the North of the Isle of Man.

Lovely stuff, and almost difficult to remember (because of the tholtan and the bush remaining static), that’s it’s actually us that is spinning and the galaxy that’s standing still.

You can see the rest of Chris’ Youtube channel here (he recently got a drone) and his Flickr is here.

Day 275 – Boxing Day QP

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As ever, I’m writing a few posts in advance over the holiday period (such as it is) so that I can have a little bit of break as well. And because I don’t want to be using up all my words in one go, here’s a quota photo that I took on our recent trip to the Cederberg.

Star trails for dayz (or… er… nightz).

This was the result of 2 hours (and one second, because why not?) of exposure, then an automatic noise clean up on the camera (I won’t be using that feature again – took another 2 hours!) and a bit of tweaking in Lightroom. Bigger and darker here.

I quite like it.
It was almost worth fumbling around in the pitch darkness of the bush in the early hours.

Almost.

Day 260 – Cederberg pics

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Our trip to the Kagga Kamma Nature Reserve would have benefitted from being one day longer.
We didn’t have time to get everything in and relax. But we managed to have a great time anyway.

There was hiking, stargazing, rock art, wildlife, drinking, swimming, nature drives.
The food was excellent. The views were incredible. Miles and miles of complete desolation.

Peace and quiet. Very few humans. Blissful stuff.

Here are the other photos.

Day 243 – Continuing the positivity

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After yesterday’s minor – but important – successes, I had a quick gander over at Brian Micklethwait’s New Blog, as I do several (or more) times each week.

Says Brian:

I’ve been feeling down in the dumps lately, and I came to realise that the permanent photo on my computer wasn’t helping. It was of a boarded up house in Brittany, and it was there because that seemed appropriate for the times we are all trying to live past. But, because it was so appropriate it was also deeply depressing, just like the times we are all trying to live past, and it was making those times, for me, even worse.

I’m with you, Brian. I think we all are. 2020 has been an absolute slog.
We shouldn’t underestimate the toll that it has taken on us: we all deserve some recognition for making it through the last few months.

Brian has taken steps to cheer up his background and bring some additional inspiration into his daily life by selecting this photo of the Tate Modern from his archives and setting it as his desktop background:

There is no hidden meaning here. That’s a full-on promise in neon lights (or, given the colour, more likely Xenon or an Argon/Mercury mix, but those technicalities shouldn’t distract from the clear mantra). Yes:

EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT

Brian’s post made me look at my desktop background too. And yes, I had – subconsciously, I think – done exactly the same thing as he had, taking this photo of a typical scene in the Tankwa Karoo and then desaturating it to give me this far more sombre image, which seemed somehow more appropriate and which has been sitting as my backdrop for the past few months.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. But it doesn’t promote happiness, and having read Brian’s post, I decided to find an image that would. I would want a landscapey photo for my desktop background, nothing too busy.
Trouble is, I seem to have a lot of landscapey, not too busy photos that don’t quite fit that bill:

 

I especially like that third one, but it’s not very happy happy joy joy, is it?

Yeah, I have a lot of photos, but very few of them are suitable for a (positively) inspiring desktop.

I’ve ended up going with this one:

OK, I see the rough seas and the dark clouds, but I also see the sunshine and I see hope.

And I see Suiderstrand, which always makes me happier.

And I remember that EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT.

Right? Right.

Day 228 – Concert memories, number update

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Browsing some photos earlier.

This seems a long time ago now.

Do things from 9 months ago (because that’s when this was) seem to be further back to you guys as well? Is that one of the effects of lockdown and all that 2020 has thrown at us?

You’d think that with so few events this year, your mind would be able to remember the ones you did go to with astonishing ease and as if they were just yesterday. After all, what else has there been to fill up that bit of your memory? And yet no: I can hardly even remember last year at all and it was only last year.

Love Karl Oluf Wennerberg’s ethereal cameo here, by the way. Spooky.

And a quick update on the number project thing I told you about 11 days ago: I have so far taken precisely zero photos for it. Well, that’s a number, isn’t it? But all is not lost. I have scouted some lovely numbers and so once I do start, I will be into my first ten with no issue whatsoever.