Trials and a smidge of Fun!

First of all, I'm glad that this year has at least slowed down enough for me to catch my breath back, was really flying past there for a second.

Secondly, I finally found the edit mobile site button. For all those people who had to endure the actually terrible mobile site, I am so sorry, it was pain to my eyes too!

And thirdly, the shop has a set of new images going up as we speak, I still am keeping the pricing the same and I don't forsee changing it anytime soon. My personal bar for content being added there is higher than I would say it is for my site so the content I add there will be limited to those that I would happily see hanging on a wall.

But if you do see an image that you would like to hang on your wall but it isn't there? Just send over an email thats on the form to contact me or fill out the form if you'd like. Either way will work and considering I usually do keep a backup of all the photos I upload, I should be able to sort it fairly quickly too!

The Trials

Well..... when I mentioned creative block last time, I didn't think it would personally come back to haunt me so viciously. The ideas and plans I had freshly set, were mostly ripped up and reset by my own exploration and perhaps a lack of interest that I forsee.

No one really wants another fool walking about with a camera narrating stuff. At least I don't want to be that. I might still visit one or two as a little bit of a historical archive considering the last up to date source is a book that is no longer printed and a website from 2008. Fun fact, the book that I was looking to source, could only be found in america in a second hand store, which is kinda wild since it's about a scottish town.

Lastly to touch on a point I feel at odds with, while I very much enjoy taking photos, I don't want to be posting the same general photos all the time, and while I am trying to diverisfy this with travel to other locations, it's not quite ideal sometimes. Especially for the eye catching ones! Some of my favourites have either come from pure luck with time and place, or at random and I have thought it was pretty funny.

Some of those shoes leave me rather confused at how and why

Now, the Fun!

I've got my eyes on the skies most of the time and sadly due to weather, I missed the planetary parade. This doesn't dissuade me of course, i've got some interesting things lined up and I can't wait to be able to show them, first on the list is likely astrophotography.

I don't have a huge telescope but I can say with certainty that since upgrading to a better tripod ( I used to use some mega cheap one off of amazon) my camera is actually stabilized in the wind. So with the lens I dubbed the "light-drinker" because it's just a huge mirrored face, I have had limited success. Not great enough to pop on here though, it's quite fiddily to get it to work just right. Anyway, I hope to intercept the moon and the stars separately, since the moon will just over expose the image if im trying to see stars.

One thought here is I am still unsure if the Artemis rocket launch will be visible at all here in the Uk. Obviously the rocket will be in flight, but if you have seen any of the images left by SpaceX, it can be spectacular and grace our skies as well!

I've got a number of dates in mind and with the upcoming "pink" moon in the beginning of April, a new 500mm lens and a 2x converter lens adapter, I'm hoping to turn out some spectacular photos of the moon, and a few select locations I've got ideas for!

This was taken with my 70-210mm lens, last year with the Lunar Eclipse visible in Scotland.

This one was taken with my 300mm lens and is a touch clearer considering it's not only bigger in the sky here, but isn't trying to hide behind the clouds and horizons at the same time as being red enough to blend with the sunset behind me hitting the clouds.

If you didn't already pick up on it, I love space and the Moon is basically my second love at this point.

Before I turn this into a geek out about space and the moon etc. i'd like to touch on a few other fun things.

In no particular order, the fun things that I wanna get done;

Get a guest blogger in here, be it for art, another photographer and their styling, or perhaps a movie critic on the rise. Something other than me and my moon photos!

Get my hands on both a regular polarizing lens (for water and colour stuff) and a high grade solar filter (hand made cut out perhaps for the "light-drinker") since August this year, the Uk will mostly experience a near total solar eclipse. Totality is out of reach for me this year but this is a warmup for next year with a 4 and a half minute long totality dubbed the eclipse of the century, cause it really will be insane to witness.

Perhaps another aurora to wow this year, and capture it on a actual dedicated camera, i'm glued to NOAA's SWPC (Space Weather Prediction Centre) since they'll typically forcast any up and coming solar storms.

Last but not least, Social Media interaction! The bit I am arguably bad at, but I am learning, and I hope to be able to show my photos off to more people in the near future.

Just means I might actually commit to my back catalouge and hit the upload button for you all to enjoy more often!

If you made it this far and perhaps you also came from my Instagram, stick around, it can only get better from here I promise.

This little guy is sticking around (not just waiting on his bus I promise)

-Your local Fool of a T̶o̶o̶k̶ Photographer