With the recent increase in clear weather the likelihood of a good sunset also increased. Me and my friend Niall decided to try and find a good spot to view and capture it from.  After trying Covesea we decided the sun wasn't fair enough round at this time of year so we headed to Burghead with the sun quickly descending, arriving just in time.  Jumping out of the car I took a few photos from a high viewpoint and could see the boat on the horizon but I wanted to get a better angle and lower viewpoint of the sunset from the beach.  I wasn't sure how to get there so I decided to run and hope I'd find my way, which I did and I was pretty pleased with the results.

 

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Note:  Linked picture takes you to external site containing full review by InvernessGiGs's Chris Lemon - worth checking out.  Clicking the read more will display a gallery of photos.

Saturday past saw my return to Inverness-Ironworks wielding a camera.  This time for a completely different gig than the last.  I walked into an Ironworks hall filled with tables and candles, something I have not anticipated, this change made things trickier than I had expected.  The main act of the show was Rachel Sermanni performing her E.P. 'Black Currents' release tour with support acts Graham Brown and Megan Blyth.  The latter opened the show and I started to try and find the best positions to shoot from whilst not disrupting the audiences view.  Because of the quiet nature of the show it was more difficult for photography as the noise of the shutter was quite loud - to me, anyway - making me wary of firing away.  It was an enjoyable show though, and the lighting combined with the background made for some interesting photos.

Read more: Rachel Sermanni at Inverness-Ironworks

Yesterday saw another trip into town with good weather saw me take the camera and walk the long way.  I decided to use the Nikon D80 with the Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 VR and use manual exposures.  I started by walking down Oldmills Road, a scenic road on the way to the West End part of Elgin.  I then went up to Lady Hill to see what I could shoot from up there.  There's not a lot to actually take photos of from the top of Lady Hill so I concentrated on taking photos of the monument itself.  The deep blue skies and low Winter sun brought out the colours really well!  You may also notice that I've started using my logo as watermark.  Hoping we get more days with this weather in which I can get out to take more photos!

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With Rugby Union's season spanning over the Winter months you expect it to be cold and layer up with clothing.  This weekend, it was worse, with five layers on I stepped out the house in between showers and hoped for it to brighten up!  A couple of minutes later, another shower hit and once again I was left cold and wet, it also began to turn into heavy sleet.

At kick-off the showers continued and I decided a location sheltered by the trees surrounding Morriston playing fields and near the Moray RFC tryline.  Ten minutes in and Moray had scored their first try with conversion.  Soon after Garioch began to dominate and fought back with a try - unconverted - to pull it back to 7-5 but a Moray penalty scored had the game at Moray 10-5 Garioch when half time came.  The second half saw another try from Moray and the game ended 17-5.  Fortunately, during the second half the weather brightened up and the showers decreased but it stayed as cold as ever.

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A few days old now but I haven't had much time to upload the pictures and write a few words so they've had to wait till now.  These are just a set of photos taken on a short walk to and from town, I was only going in for something small and it was a lovely day so I took my time.  Mainly to find more experience and usage with the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D I recently bought as it is a light small lens so its nice to carry about.  I was mainly using low apertures to test out the bokeh and play about.

Read more: A walk with the fifty!