More Squirrel Action!

This little fella made me jump out of my skin today! I'd just entered the park and stopped by a litter bin to scan the area for squirrels (it's very close to the duck pond) when he popped out of the bin. I wasn't quite quick enough to get a shot of him half in/half out of the bin but I crouched down and talked to him a little and he came almost within arms' reach before dashing off to the picnic table.

Another lunch break in the park

Such a lovely early Spring day today so out came the pocket camera and off to the park I went :) I spotted some early blossoms so it was time to try out the macro and super macro modes (always my first love) and I have to say, considering they are handheld and there was a hint of breeze, I'm actually quite pleased with these two.

I also spotted these willow shoots dangling in the river - I can't tell where the tree meets the reflection and I was there - love this in an abstract way!

And, of course, the cheeky squirrels were out in full force! I think I saw about 6 at various points along the path and another 3 or 4 down by the duck pond where some small children were feeding the ducks. They are mighty brave these little fellas but oh so cute too.

Grey Day, Camera at Play :)

So today was one of those grey days where you don't go out without a raincoat or an umbrella but even so, it was quite bright so out came my new little pocket camera and off to the weir I went.

Although the weir was running pretty fast, the river itself was almost mirror-like - reflecting the dark grey clouds looming over us.

I flipped this one over but I think it's quite difficult to tell that it is 100% reflection!

So how many people do you think are standing at the rail? Actually, it was just me. Used the colourise function in photoshop to give it a hint of blue tone - I was getting fed up with all the grey.

My Latest Addiction!

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a news snippet talking about a new website being launched. I noted it down to have a look-see as it is the sort of thing I am curious about and I thought my nephew might like it too. Last Sunday, I finally got around to having a look and was instantly hooked! What is this amazing website, I hear you thinking. It's called GalaxyZoo2 and it's basically an online database of thousands of images of the galaxies out there in our night skies. They are asking for people to help them classify the galaxies as it seems the human eye is a better judge of the subtleties than a computer program.

Here are a couple of beauties I've been asked about this week.

Yes, there are a lot of images of blobs but believe it or not, even they need to be classified because as technology improves, it may be possible to get a closer look at them. The site is huge but interesting. The sign up form has a tick box to say you are over 5 years old (!!) so pretty much anyone can have a go. There was one young man on the newbies forum this week who 'found' this one - how exciting would that be?

Apparently it's a planetary nebula called PN G164.8+31.1 - rather boring name for such a wonderful thing. Anyhoo - go have a look and take your kids with you - it's interesting, educational and pretty much child-safe from what I've seen. Click on the pictures to take you to their info pages - you can zoom in and out and have a look around if you'd like :) Have fun!