Jungle Warfare

The garden is a tough place for a plastic army soldier.  Stranded in enemy territory when his base was demolished, he is surviving on his wits and green camouflage.  Living from one moment to the next, never sure of what is round the next iris leaf.  His bravery knows no limits, but his survival ultimately depends on his unit coming back for him.  He knows they will come though, because good soldiers never leave a man behind!

Casualty of the Weather

This poor bird was probably a victim of the very strong winds we've been having recently.  It was on the path next to the house and I suspect it lost control and hit the wall.  I'm pretty sure it was a baby blackbird.  I sometimes wonder what it is that gives me the urge to take photos.  There are so many cases where I'm pretty sure no one else would be itching to take a photo the way I am, and cases where it's downright weird.  Why would anyone want to photograph a dead bird?  Somehow it felt like the right thing to do.  Marking its passing, mourning it, creating a memorial.

Iris

I love the colour of this iris and the veining on the petals.  It might have been a teeny bit better had it not been an overcast day but I love this photo.
(Click on the photo - it looks better bigger!)

Iridium 7 on the 13th of May

Not perfect, but not bad!  This is Iridium 7 flaring to magnitude -6 at 23:16 on Friday the 13th (ARGH!) of May.  The two brightest stars are Castor and Pollux of Gemini and the moon was about 80% illuminated.  The exposure was 13 seconds at f5.6 and 400 ISO and the white balance was shoved all the way to the bluest end to try and combat sodium street lights.  I'm not actually sure what I should do about white balance - should look into that I guess!

Fidra At Sunset

It had been a pretty stormy day - lots of wind and dark clouds and heavy showers of rain.  But at least the consistent wind made it seem like a good evening for kite flying.  Wrong.  As soon as we got my kite up the wind started dropping.  I got maybe 10 minutes or so before the wind completely died and my poor kite floated to the ground.  My dad never really got his in the air.  On the upside, the sunset was beautiful.  I was winding up my lines and I would get about 5 steps at a time before stopping for a photo, and then eventually ended up right down at the water's edge kneeling in wet sand.  Soggy knee?  Totally worth it :-D
(Psssst!  As with most of my photos, it looks better bigger than blog size - click on it to see the light in the lighthouse!)