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I decided to take my camera out again last night being as it was a reasonably clear evening in Bristol although there appeared to be a slight mist in the air when you looked closely. As it was a clear night it was also cold so I didn't leave the house until I had two T-shirts, a fleece and a big coat (also with a fleece zipped into it) and a cap. I must of looked pretty comical all bundled up like that but after standing around for a bit you still started to feel cold.

I finally got the nerve to travel out into the sticks on my own to try and shoot some starfields but I stupidly didn't think about the fact that the moon was still rather full and so there was still a lot of light around, even when in the middle of a golf course. Nevertheless, I still took a couple of shots while standing around trying not to get too cold. I admit I didn't take the time that I should have and therefore most of the photos I took are really not very good, at least by my usual standard (I hope the stuff I put up here is OK - I never get any comments so it's difficult to tell) and so I haven't bothered to put them up. Even playing with the RAW files hasn't given me something that I'm happy with yet so I guess they'll sit on my hard drive for a bit until I feel like messing with them again. I have got another picture of the moon though from the 16th which I have made web friendly.

Full Moon - 16 November 2005: Full moon viewed on the 16 November 2005 at 18:29 from Bristol, UK.

I'm always interested in the odd colours and atmosphere that you obtain when shooting in low level light conditions. I find that even seemingly uninteresting subjects can turn into something interesting when you throw in odd lighting conditions. Below is a photo I took while out on the golf course of some pylons on the horizon. The paler section of sky is some billowing smoke/steam-like substance. It was a long exposure so it's been blurred.

Pylons at Night: Two pylons at night with the light behind them. One is an electrical pylon, the other I believe, is a radio mast.

I'm still not entirely sure how you are meant to focus the lens when it is so dark. So far I've just tried to push the focus dial to the end stop in the hope that it's the infinity setting. I'm sure there's instructions somewhere that tells you where that is but I'm more of a 'gut feel' person when it comes to photography. The technical stuff I only learn when I absolutely need to unlike my friend who devours all the techical instructions. Work for me is very much biased to the 'must know technical stuff' side. It's nice to be semi-chaotic outside of work. I'm sure there's some profoundly deep quotation about art being 'something you feel, not manufacture' but to be honest, I just take photos because I enjoy it.