Pizza 1889

 

 

Going Wide

 

Back in August I changed my RF 16mm fro a new RF 15-30mm zoom lens as I prefer to use the flexibility of  a zoom lens rather than a Prime lens. I took it out for a test run around the village and the local church.

The village green we call the Forty at 15mm

 Same place but zooming in to 30mm

 

The Angel blowing a trumpet which sadly is long gone but I do remember seeing it

 

From over the wall in the new churchyard

 

A couple of crosses in the old churchyard

 

Towards the church across the graves

 

From beside one of the crosses

 

Last one from in front of this cross

I can't complain the results were about what I expected and should be fine the next time I take it into a church to get photos. The reason I went to the churchyard is because I can get close to a cross or headstone and still get a good wide background. In FridaysSkyWatch I will show the ones I took in Wales

Take Care

St Andrew Wanborough

 

This week the Church Explorer visits St Andrew Wanborough an unusual church with bell tower and central spire. Unfortunately for me it was locked

 

Foggy Walk

 

Normally I tend to be a few weeks behind with my SkyWatch photos but this week we are jumping to this week. If you saw my post from Tuesday you might have got a taster for what I am about to show you.

This is what we had to contend with at the start

But as we climbed up the hill we could see clearer sky above

When we reached the quarry it was much clearer

At the place I tend to stop for a photo things looked foggy below

We climbed higher so I took a pano of what was below

 

A bit further along I took a shot of the hillside

Further along about the high point I took this panoramic

At the view point it was like looking over a sea of ice

It looked like you could walk across 

The sun was just peeking over the hill

 

A last look of the fog

The sun was now climbing above the hill and time to get back for breakfast

Next week I'll show how it looked the next day

 

Happy SkyWatch

 

SkyWatch teaser

 

Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022

 

St Swithun Hinton Parva

 

 

This week the Church Explorer visit's St Swithun Hinton Parva a beautiful old church that retains it's old charm.

Ten Years of Sky's

 

As my blog is now ten years old I thought I should show ten years of some of the sky's I have taken photos of. I can't say Ten years of SkyWatch as I have not contributed that long on it but this is SkyWatch so enjoy the sky's

I showed this shot in December 2012 it was taken on  Newborough beach Anglesey in 2005 on my Canon PowerShot S2 IS 

 This has to be the one for 2013 though there are many I could use. This was taken in November 2012 and posted in June 2013 it was also take with a different camera a Canon PowerShot SX200IS  Cthe previous dropped had been dropped. You might also notice that I cropped it and used it as a Header for the Church Explorer Blog

By 2014 I had found SkyWatch and this is the first photo I showed I've no doubt there are others but I felt this more appropriate 

 

I cannot say any of the skys really stood out for me in 2015 though I do like this one at Fforest Fields where I go to stay taken one frosty morning in the previous December

There were a few this year I could pick but funny enough I liked this one of a Dragonfly shown in October 2016

Again 2017 provided a lot of SkyWatch photos I could have used but I rather liked Tap on the Sky which was taken at Garden centre

 

I keep coming back to this one from August 2018 which I think is one of my all time favourites 

This sunset was the last sunrise that Didcot Powerstation would witness it was taken in August 2019 at 05:04, less than two hours later the towers did not exist any more

I don't think any of us will forget 2020 with the Covid epidemic where I learned to take photos from home of the sky but on the occasion when we finally got out for a while I visited Wales and took this panoramic from over the mist of the camp-site I was staying at

 

I'm going with this fiery sunrise from December 2021 when we at least seem to be over the covid epidemic

I think 2022 will be remembered for a couple of things and it is not over yet, the heat we had during July was unbearable and this was the fiery sky I too a week or so before the really hot day we had.

I feel I should add one more photos for 2022taken on the 8th Septermber a day we will all remember.  The announcement that Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II had passed away came at around 6pm and after watching the proceedings most of the day it was a shock for us all. Around 8pm I took this shot of the sky after the sun had gone down, a ray of light seems to be heading towards the heavens

We lost a light today

Bird Splat

 

 

We are Ten

Yes its ten years since I started blogging with Spud's Daily Photo though I admit I have been blogging six months longer with a couple of other blogs I have. I currently write two the Church Explorer and this one. The other two are ones I do anything with less now. I felt it might be a good idea to my ten favourite photos from the blogs I wrote. After looking I noticed that the early ones were just one picture because I started by writing a 365 blog, one for each day of a year. This may well happen again as I am considering doing this for 2023.

 

2012

The first photo I published was to get feel of how blogger worked, tit was  Buscot Weir which was a stitch photo, it was Ok but I f I really remember one from 2012 it was this one the Town Crier 

I took it on my first smartphone it was also the first photo of of my blog proper and it started of a 365 photo 

2013

There are a lot of blank spaces through out the year because back then I used to link some of the photos from Flickr, when they decided to limit the photos I had to loose thousands which I downloaded and saved on another Google account a little while later I deleted my Yahoo account along with Flickr. My photos from back then leave something to be desired I like to think I have improved a little. I also had some hard drive trouble and fear a lot of photos were lost

 

But this one sticks out with the swan stood in the floods by the Thames at Goring lock

2014

There were a lot of photo's I could have used but this year was memorable from the point that it marked the end of Didcot Powerstations Cooling towers

I got up with my two sons to witness this at 1am and by 2am were were stood in the cold on a roadside out by Harwell. At 3:58am the towers started to fall and this was the moment I took the photo. The first one was falling and if you look between the other two you can see an orange glow of the explosives going off. It took less than a second for them all to fall.

2015

 

Looking though the blogs that year I can say I did post some rubbish but one sticks out

 

 This one, the Dinosaur in the atrium at Diamond Light Source 

2016

I've been shying away from showing any skywatch photos as it is another blog I intend to write for ten years but I should show one

A night burn over in Jubilee Field at Cholsey

2017

 

I think the one for this year should be

 

This one of the triangulation pillar on Lowbury Hill which is also the background for this blog

2018

I think the one photo that really sticks out is this one

The sun setting with rays shooting towards the heavens

2019

 

There were a few photos I could have picked but one time sticks out and it was on  an early morning in August

The sun rose on the towers at Didcot Powerstation for the last time, four minuets later they were gone and a dust cloud was all you could see

2020

This was not a good year for any of us as Covid 19 raised it's ugly head and our country went into lockdown

This one sums up the year, Station Road in Cholsey devoid of any cars or people, we were all to frightened to go out or go near each other

2021

I think there were a few I could pick but I liked this one

The Robin sat on the fence opposite our kitchen

2022

 

While writing this blog we heard the news that her Majesty the queen had passed away. I must admit it took any joy I had in writing it away. I have no doubt there are quite a few photos I could use for this year, but I will end it with this one

Its taken a couple of hours after they announced the death or Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

A light went out in our lives.