Second year of blogging

Well, Its been two years of blogging.
I hope all those who have visited this site have enjoyed the photos I have uploaded... I have plans for many more to come.
I am working at getting some photos soon of the Whale migration ( on at the moment), as well as some good snake pics.

Spiders have been out and about for the last few weeks, with a variety of orb weavers including a very colourful Snt Andrews Cross.
This little spider was thoughtful enough to allow me to test my skills with a rather tricky shot....



As I have been celebrating my second year, I thought a pic of my bourbon and cola, with appropriate ice cube, would be apt. :)



Thanks to Jill for the ice cube tray ;)
Thanks to all for taking the time to visit my site.

Back online (kind of)

Well its been a long break from the life of a regular blogger...posting pics at will, with Internet at a safe distance from a good coffee though, with a little persistence, I managed today to align the satellite dish and so am able to send these few pics to you the viewer of my humble site.

Having returned from Germany, I have settled in in a new area with a whole new set of flora and fauna to post.
The following shots are, firstly, of a glorious sunset I was able to capture the other day...followed by some local fauna.




These avians are regular visitors to my area and are, I believe, a hawk and a sea eagle.
The hawk was hunting in my backyard for mice, and the sea eagle has a nest not far away and does regular patrols on the trip to the ocean and back.
I hope for more pictures of these two, and will post what I get.



This last shot was taken by Petra when we were at the beach the other day.
I am not sure what type of whale it was, though a group of three passed by and I look forward to a little whale watching over the next few months as well.


I have many pictures of Germany yet to post, and will do so as I go through the many Gigs that I have taken.
You, the viewer, may look forward to many interesting shots over the following months.

Latest full moon

The latest full moon was showing itself through scattered cloud.

This presents an interesting photographic challenge...how to get details on the moon, and still show the cloud forms.

Each has a different exposure, and to get the correct one for each requires one of two methods.

You can go all modern and create a HDR, though matching the photos can be a problem due to the relatively fast motion of the moon...or you can use a little photoshop magic...I opted for the second option with the following results...

The top photo looking the most natural, with a little cloud over the top of the moons disk.

The photo below being the correct exposure for the moon alone...giving no evidence of the cloud surrounding it.

Eclipse gets good turnout

The Luna eclipse got a good turnout tonight, with a fair crowd taking advantage of the event to have a look in a telescope and be part of the proceedings.

A few of the local crowd were there and the night was clear of mist ( will wonders never cease) giving all a great view.

The pictures shown her are of some of the attendants, the full moon, the moon half eclipsed, A fully eclipsed moon, and a nice distance shot showing a star or two...only possible at this time. Otherwise the reflected light is too bright to make stars that close visible.

Astronomy Robbo Style

The latest full moon was spectacular, as were the last few.

Crisp clean air giving clarity and definition to formations.

Although I was disappointed in the shot, I have included it as an object lesson in preparedness. Always carry a tripod.

The shot was taken, hand held, at 420mm optical zoom with 4x digital assistance.

The crescent shot illustrates the difference a tripod can make.

The distant shot, while hand held, retains definition due to the moderate zoom used.

On clear nights in Robbo you can find Chris out with his 300mm refracting telescope.

Always willing to give people a peek at the cosmos, he trained the scope on the moon the other night with great result. Jupiter and four of its moons were also visible though, as Chris would agree, finer detail in the sky can only be achieved on a moonless night.