Ubiquitous London

Nothing groundbreaking here but some shots I've wanted to take in London for a while. Nice that the moon was full in this one. Looking over to the London Eye and County Hall form the North Bank. Sony DSC RX100III, f11, 30Sec, ISO80

Houses of Parliament with an annoying lack of lighting on the corner of the building. Sony DSC RX100III, f11, 13.0Sec, ISO80

Sony DSC RX100III, f11, 13.0Sec, ISO80

New Brighton Lighthouse

Couple of shots of New Brighton lighthouse in the Wirral, taken whilst out for a spin on the bike. Both shots taken with my Sony DSC-RX100 111. Great having a camera small enough to fit in my cycle top's pocket and still produce a 20mp image. The clarity straight from the camera knocks my ageing 7D for 6. This shot 1/125 f6.3 ISO125

1/50 f6.6 ISO125

Silhouettes

Sony DSC RX-100 111 1/200 f1.8 ISO125

Recently purchased a new Sony compact camera. The RX-100 is my new favourite travel buddy. Fast 1.8 lens and 20mp sensor make for great detail and superb low light shooting. The above shot was taken at the Lady Lever museum in Port Sunlight. Somewhere I'd never been before despite being in the area a thousand times.

 Sony DSC RX-100 111 1/200 f5.6 ISO125

Another silhouette taken on the outskirts of Meols whilst out for a ride. The sun through the windows was more spectacular in real life and didn't quite come out on camera.

Aurora on the Isle of Lewis

After a long hiatus I thought I would get back to the blog with a few shots of last night's spectacular aurora. Shots were taken on the Isle of Lewis at Vatisker beach looking towards Tolsta.

Bliadhna Mhath Ùr

Bliadhna Mhath Ùr if you're not familiar with Scottish Gaelic means Happy New Year. Here's wishing everyone out there a Happy New Year and all the best for 2013.

I thought I'd post a nice summery picture of a rainbow I took from my Dad's house in Eagleton on the Isle of Lewis with my iPhone using the new panorama function in iOS6. 

Seasons Greetings from somewhere warm!

Canon 7D, 10mm, ISO100, f22, 6.0Sec

As the sun sets on another year (in which I haven't posted a single thing on my blog!!) I thought it would be appropriate to stick a few nice sunset snaps up. These were taken this week at an island called Halaveli in the Maldives. Very nice spot indeed, just a shame to have to get back to work. I hope you have a great festive period wherever you may be.

Canon 7D, 10mm, ISO100, f22, 8Sec

Canon 7D, 10mm, ISO200, f4.5, 1/30 - no tripod for this one so happy it came out.

Canon 7D, 10mm, ISO200, f4.5, 1/40

Hong Kong Nights

 

Hong Kong skyline from The Mount. Canon 7D, EF-S 10-22 @ 17mm, ISO100, f4, 3sec

Well, after a month on holiday we're back in Glasgow. The wallet's empty but my hard drive is certainly full. It's just about grinding to a halt with all the pictures on it. Now the task of sorting the wheat from the chaff. Should keep me busy for many an hour. In the mean time here are some night pictures of the Hong Kong skyline. It's a hard place to get amazing shots as the sky is rarely clear from haze as you can see from the above picture.

The daily light show "Symphony of Lights" where over 40 buildings light up in time to music.
Canon 7D, EF-S 10-22 @ 10mm, ISO100, f6.3, 8sec

Canon 7D, TS-E24mm, ISO100, f16, 20sec

Canon 7D, EF 24-70 @58mm, ISO100, f2.8, 1.3sec

Hong Kong Island

Canon 7D, Canon TS-E24mm f/3.5L II, f16, 20sec

Well, yet again the weekly blog has taken a slow turn. However goodbye wet and windy Scotland, hello Hong Kong and hello to cheap (ish) camera equipment, hello to a new 24mm Canon tilt and shift lens and hello no more converging verticals and to 50 megapixel panoramic shots like this one. The shift function is amazing. 3 shots taken at various horizontal shifts and stitched together in Photoshop. Because the lens keeps the same plane the whole time there is none of the bending of perspective that comes with wide angle lenses and therefore no information is lost. This is definitely my new favourite toy!!

Kotor, Montenegro

Well I've finally managed to get my camera out again after many months of studying followed by a period of life's bane, work. It has however, taken me to Montenegro for the first time and it turns out it's quite beautiful. The town of Kotor (a UNESCO world heritage site) lies in a bay surrounded on all sides by mountains. The picture above was taken from a fort on the hill above the town. The old city walls run from sea level all the way up to this point.

A view of the old town with the ubiquitous cruise ship in the bay.

Sun setting as we started up the walls.

The old city walls running up into the mountain.

Badelona

Canon 7D, Canon 10-22@14mm, F22, 0.3S, ISO100

The beach at Badelona, a few kilometers along the coast from Barcelona. Not too sure what these pyramids are for but they've done a nice job of turning them into art. Was quite disappointing after getting up at 6am to have such a dull sunrise but you can't have it all.

 Canon 7D, Canon 10-22mm@12mm, f16, 1/4s, ISO100

I think this is an old power station but I've not managed to find any info about it. It can't be that long since it was in service as on google maps there's steam coming out of one of the chimneys. Some of the graffiti around the perimeter wall is quite stunning.

 Canon 7D, Canon 10-22mm@12mm, f10, 1/60s, ISO100

A view from the road side.