Another walk through the forest and I found, aside from a random pumpkin, a few animals.

Another trip through the forest let me find a few more animals. Some elusive, some quite common.

For the first time in two years, I was back in the UK. It was also my first time using my brand new Canon R5 camera.

Much like my wander on Christmas Eve, I took an hours break from obsessively scheduled cooking to get some air and sunlight in the nearby Slottskogen Park. Winter sun is a tricky thing, it can be very bright, but its so low in the sky that you get long shadows or it is easily hidden behind low hills or high buildings, plunging your photos into the gloom.

With Covid restrictions keeping me from my usual Christmas back in the UK, or my more adventurous winter breaks in places like Jordan, I spent my first Christmas in Sweden since starting to work here in December 2015. Perhaps it is appropriate that five years later, a month or two before I become a Citizen of Sweden and through it rejoin the European Union that I am here for the winter solstice and Jul celebrations.

Recently, the Elk (or Moose if you are American as the North American Elk is a different species) in Slottskogen park have given birth to two calves (or Mooselings). These babies have caused much excitement and many visitors.

Another chance to see how the bargain basement Flash Ring works out when I saw a large spider in its web near my flat. One thing that was very obvious is that a shallow depth of field, whilst good for some things, can be difficult when hand holding a macro lens, as the focus point moves minutely.

I recently picked up a ring flash from Deal Extreme a discount Chinese website, and decided to give it a go creating some lego scenes that amused me.

I have just picked up the Canon 5D Mark III to replace, (or operate in conjunction with) my 1D Mark III. I love the 1D, it is a brilliant camera, but it is about six years old now, and there are some nice improvements available in the new bodies and the 1DX is out of my price range!

I've recently been playing the new Google Augmented Reality game, Ingress. It is basically a high-tech version of geo-caching. There are invisible portals everywhere, only visible on your Ingress Scanner (an android app). You chose a faction and attack enemy portals to convert them to your own. You then try and link your own portals together to for fields, getting you additional points.

A spur of the moment decision took me down to the Thames at sunset to try and take a couple of images of the sunset over the river.

A few quick images I did today with a manual cable release, tripod and single studio light with soft-box