The big news today was of course the solar eclipse. The first one in X years and all the rest. My wife told me we were in Menorca at the time of the last one. That sort of rings a bell. If nothing else it gave me a reason to go out and a chance to get the camera out locally without people thinking I was a nutter. The product of that is poor. I have not been taking many photographs of late and need to get myself back into photography again. You can barely see the eclipse at all. In actual fact I accidentally had the camera set on video and so had to screen print afterwards. Even at that the photo is poor. Aside from getting out though the other reason for taking it was the kids. They were looking forward to seeing it but were in school when it occurred so they asked if I could take a photo. At least I got something which they were happy with.
Of late I have been taking the kids on my own to school as I posted about before. Its good. I had a spell where that stopped because of illness but glad to say not only am I back at it again but I am taking them different routes too. This one here is through the woodlands to the train station. They love it. We go down there quite and hope to see some wildlife. The checklist includes Squirrel, Deer, Fox, Pine Marten and others.
I dropped the kids off at school promising again to get a photo of the eclipse and then went home. I nearly forgot about the eclipse so it was a rush out the door and although I ensured I had my camera I did not check it. On a side note this is my X10. I haven't been usuing my GX1 since my wife dropped it and the door broke. Last week though with some tinkering I managed to fix it so I hope to start learning photography again using it as it functions pretty much as a DSLR would. It was a pain having to tape the door shut every time I needed to charge the battery or take out the SD Card so I stopped using it. As I didn't check my camera I didn't realise it was on Movie mode. In my head I was heading down the street and under the rail bridge into a clearing in the woodland which would give me privacy and plenty of space to photograph from. That was the idea at least. I got halfway down the street when I noticed two women getting out a parked car and one of them with her camera phone pointed East. It was in front of the council building and I was then aware of all the faces at the windows looking on. I looked up to find cloud and just within a partial eclipse. Shit! I quickly got the camera out and realised I was stuck behind a fence. I had to find a gap and as I went to shoot realised it was taking video rather than photograph. Argh! I could not come out of it. I had no idea how long the eclipse would last and might not get anything so had to go with it. As it turned out it did not last long at all. I nearly missed the whole thing. I had something but was annoyed with myself for being so unprepared.
Afterward I went on a jaunt through the woodlands. It was good. I felt more confident about exploring. This is now my 4th day smoke free and although I don't feel any different it must be doing something positive. I took a path down to the David Livingston centre I had taken a few times but at this time of year with no leaves on the trees I could see down to the water and decided to explore. Now here was another moment of frustration. My camera was in my pocket and I took the descent down to water when I spotted something darting along a path. At first I thought it was a big dog, my eyesight is not great, but then noticed too late it was a deer. What would have really made the kids day. For the second time in those woods I had missed a deer. I am sure the kids think I am making it up. It tired following it but knew I wouldn't keep up. I did though manage some exploring and it turned into a good morning.
