Watch this interesting episode where a bumblebee drops by into Honeysuckle house and see how Babs see him off! It was a tense watch.
You can follow the journey on YouTube @honeysucklebirdhouse
Author: Simon Reeve
Bird Box “Honeysuckle House”
This is a live feed from our birdbox, nestled in a honeysuckle bush. We set it up back in 2021 and to our amazement, blue tits moved in, laid eggs and fledged in 2021 and 2022. Sadly no one moved in permanently during 2023, something spooked them during nest building.
We have created a Facebook page to make it easy to share and follow their journey https://www.facebook.com/HoneySuckleBirdHouse.
Here are the latest posts
Some sad news to report. We woke this morning to see all chicks had died overnight. Looking at the footage, 5 chicks went to bed fidgeting as usual, until around 3:30 when 1 of them passed, with the others all passed by 4am.![]()
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Scanning the footage shows no intruders, so can only assume they ate something poisonous. Maybe the wrong insect or insects who had eaten insecticide. ![]()
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Mum and dad are still about. We’ve just cleaned out the nest, hoping they might give it another go
Bob and Babs update. lost 1 chick, 7 doing well.
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8 eggs hatched. Bob and Babs are feeding them and cleaning up after them 🤣
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Bob and Babs working hard to feed and cleanup after the chicks.
What’s going on here? 😀
What’s going on here? We’ll leave it to you decide 😉
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Whilst you can’t see all the eggs, we believe she’s laid 5 so far…. Maybe Bob’s trying to make sure there’s more!
Bought myself an Insta360 X3 360 Degree Camera
Having seen some 360 degree camera footage, i felt compelled to buy one, hoping it would give me something new to photographically explore. I bought an Insta360 X3 It didn’t disappoint!
The best thing about playing with a 360º is how the rules of composition using traditional cameras does not apply. In fact, it’s really strange at first, not knowing where to point it, since you don’t. Instead you place it in the middle of what ever view/ final image you are after. That’s the hard bit, to get used to knowing exactly where to place the camera to get the shot you want.
The bonus of a big learning curve, is every now and then you get complete surprises when you inadvertently get a shot you didn’t expect, and one that makes you go wow! The hard part is then trying to recall how you captured it, to recreate the same effect elswhere.
The cameras connect to your phone and there’s a very powerful app that controls all settings, provides live preview, and best of all, allows you to edit photos or videos with amazing tools and options, including set piece video effects, which are really amazing.
Much of my early experiments were just that, experiments. On a walk through local woodland, I accidently discovered I could photograph trees in a way unachievable with a standard camera. The tree could really be the centre stage and, using homemade spike, I could support the camera and hid behind the tree (the main subject) with no sight of me in shot! Using the mobile to connect to the camera, I hide out of view and remotely take the shot. I love these…..
I soon found myself homing in on trees and with a focus on the surroundings. Spring came and so did the bluebells, which are glorious to photograph. I managed to find a majestic tree in woodland surrounded by bluebells and after some experimenting with the camera position, I captured this!
I’ve got more 360 to come!
2022 – Blue Tits are back, and we think we may have spotted something about their behaviour
We believe we might have accidentally stumbled on unknown blue tit behaviour. It would seem that, ‘sometimes’, the female really does start to build the nest, only to empty it all out and start again.
How do we know? Here’s the story….
In March 2021, we had our first blue tit couple start nesting in our new nest box which has a camera in it. Excited, we watched the footage and the outside of the box through the window.
All was going well, until the female started to empty it out. Now we couldn’t be sure if it was the same bird who built it, or another bird emptying it out and stealing the nest box.
Time passed and the nest was rebuilt, eggs were laid and 3 of the six fledged.
This year, March 2022, we were excited to see blue tits nesting again! The nest building was progressing well. Then the same thing happened, a blue tit started clearing it out, just like last year.
However!! This year, the female building the nest has a very large and easily recognizable distinguishing mark on her left cheek. We watched her empty the nest, only to start building it again. The same as last year, the pair were in and out, built the nest, then emptied and started again.
We have searched everywhere for an explanation. There are many stories on the internet of nests being cleared out, but the conclusion is always: “it’s a different pair”.
The fact our female has a very obvious unique distinguishable mark, leads us to believe it might prove it’s a perhaps part of the ritual, even a common behaviour. We have considered, maybe there’s a change in the male, and whilst he is typical in form, we are able to disguise him from other locals, by his shape/ size. He has a very raised bouffant haircut.
They blue tits are back. You can follow
We’ve named them Mandy and Max. Mandy laid six eggs, but sadly Max was taken by a local cat :-(. Mandy soldiered on and 3 baby blue tits fledged :-).
Lockdown Ukulele Group – Bad Moon Rising
I have had a certain video project on my photo/ video bucket list for quite some time; the creating a grid of my fellow ukulele group players all playing the same song at home or wherever.
Lockdown here in the UK spurred me on, as we are all locked down at home, unable to meet up at our usual pub (The George, Tunbridge Wells) for a jam 😞
The group, of which I am the current leader, is The Tunbridge Wells Ukulele Night Thing (TWUNT for short) We always start our jams with a rendition of Bad Moon Rising, and so it seemed logical to use that as our first virtual strum along, even if (with hindsight) the tone of the song might seem inappropriate.
It took longer to create this than I thought it would though! Firstly recording the audio track for them all to play to. I chose to add a drum track to play along to, to help everyone keep to time. I don’t play along with drums typically, so that was a learner 😁
I posted the audio with the simple instruction, “film yourselves playing along to the track in your headphones, making sure we can see and hear you”. I said they could use whatever device or app they like, and upload to a Google Drive folder. A bit of a gamble, but didn’t want to restrict folks to any specific device or format. Finding a method for people to upload from all the different devices proved tricky, but we got there with footage arriving to me on all the channels.
Once I had the footage, it was a simple case of aligning the clips, using the audio waveforms. I did notice that some videos seemed to play out of synch. Turned out it was variable frame/ bit rates, solved by transcoding to fixed.
Next step – arranging the different shaped videos into some sort of Grid. I cropped as best I could, but couldn’t simply go with a square, so had to manually create the tiled layout you see above. This took a while, as no matter where I moved them around, I always ended up with a gap. Then BOOM – I had the idea of filling the gap with the group’s logo and video title 🙂
I would do it again, but mabe specify they film themselves centrally on screen so I can crop to a square. Plus find a universal means of sharing the footage with me.
Thanks for reading… Time for you to watch the video 😁
Street Photography Workshop – Marc Newton and an Olympus
Friday 13th March, I attended a ‘Street Photography’ workshop. The event was hosted by Marc Newton of The School of Photography, in association with Olympus UK.
A dozen or so of us arrived at the Project Space Gallery in Bermondsey Street, London SE1, where Marc was exhibiting a recent project “The British Boot Fair”. Marc took us through a class in what Street Photography is, or I should say Documentary Photography, as he reminded us that Street Photography referred to those who took you photo in the street for a fee, back in the early 1900’s, before being used to describe to the current form of what is still document photography.
Marc walked us through methods, examples, technical and practical tips, before viewing his British Boot Fair project with lunch.
Next up, the Olympus kit. We got to choose our shooter of choice. I went for an Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II, with the 12-40mm f/2.8 M.ZUIKO PRO lens. Out on the streets, it took me a while to unlearn how I dive my Canon to drive the Oly, but got going.
We wandered towards and around Borough Market and started shooting. Street photography isn’t as easy as you’d think. The hardest part is getting going, especially at shooting others in public. It can be quite intimidating, and it was for me that day. Need to try harder next time. At least there was plenty of other interesting scenes to point the camera at.
I quite liked the Oly, it was certainly a little more discrete, and with that pro lens, took some lovely sharp images.
Of my shots, these are my favourites. The one of my boots, at the top of the show, because of the “what are the chances” type of shot – I love those lucky situations that leap out at me.
Next up is this chap leaning against the wall of a bridge arch. It took me while. I thought I’d try Marc’s suggestion of finding the stage and waiting for the action to take place and shoot. This was more about waiting for people to disappear than take part 🙂
Next up is this chap leaning against the wall of a bridge arch. It took me while. I thought I’d try Marc’s suggestion of finding the stage and waiting for the action to take place and shoot. This was more about waiting for people to disappear than take part 🙂
Not the first time I’ve captured this type of shot, but what I didn’t realise till afterwards, it looks like mum and daughter.
I really enjoyed the day out and can highly recommend keeping an eye out for similar camera manufacturer events.
Here’s the rest of the best of the rest.
Having a chat 
I like the clarity of the brick wall 
Obligatory Red Phonebox 
Keeping in touch 
Fish – didn’t object to me photographing him 
Beady Eyes 
Hygiene is good for you? 
Eye Eye Captain 
Smile please 
Mushroom City 
Mobiles Everywhere 
Face Timing? 
Sun and Ice Scream 
No people 
Chocolate Strawberries 
Green E-Bike 
Matrix? 
Shard 
Shard Top
Pixelstick – First Attempt
Got my hands on any Light Painter’s bucket list, the PixelStick.
Put simply, it allows you to paint bitmap images, from and SD card, in thin air!
Since I’m borrowing this thing, my first outing was a simple cut to the chase, using some pre-prepared images from ThePixelstick.com.
I’d already had the image in my head, of characters and maybe a Tardis beneath the Millenium Clock in the centre of my home town, Tunbridge Wells.
Not as easy as I thought it would be though. It’s not just about the image on the card, it’s about timing, pace, brightness settings.
My son and I set up the camera and tripod and set about wafting the stick, left to right, in front of the camera. When photographing the Storm Trooper, go too slow and he was too wide, too fast, and too thin.
Then it was Tardis time. However, I didn’t realise the converter tool on the thepixelstick.com site converts PNG file transparency to white! So lesson learned is ensure transparent areas of your image, must be black, as obviously, black = no light!
Here’s the result of the Millenium Clock outing.
Following the first outing, I thought I’d see if I could PixelStick an Aston Martin DB5 on the road.
The challenge here is how to paint the image at the right scale and at the right angle! Kept me busy for a while, over the Christmas break. Here’s the result..
I’ll be back with more images and tips, once I’ve got the hang of it 🙂
Photo-walk around Grosvenor & Hilbert Park Tunbridge Wells
Last weekend my son and I took part in a photo-walk around the Grosvenor & Hilbert Park, located in Tunbridge Wells, at 10:30 Sunday the 7 of May.
We are familiar with the park, but there’s nothing like tagging on to an organised walk to get you to look around from a different angles.
It was a misty grey morning, which you’d think wasn’t ideal photography weather, but I enjoyed the challenge, and found “Dehaze” in Adobe Lightroom, most helpful.
Thanks to the Friends of Grosvenor & Hilbert Park for organising the event, encouraging my son and I to start Sunday early.
Below are the rest of my shots, which went head to head in competition with my son’s shots. My wife judged and this time I won! Not always the case.
The story behind my Favourite Light Painting image
By chance I saw an advert on Facebook for a light painting work shop in Chislehurst Caves. An Olympus UK event promoting the OM-D E-M1 Mk2 and the chance to play around with its unique “Live Composite” feature.
I got me thinking, what would I paint down in the caves. A while back, I ran a small workshop with friends and came up with a line of stick men walking bay a dome.
Except now I have some Electro Luminescent wire and reckon thought that could add a new dimension! So…… I had a practise on the driveway and came up with this.
Nice. The green wire worked really well. But I couldn’t help thinking it needed something more, so I thought “can I paint a poppy?”.
Had a go…
Put it all together and I ended up with this, which I was rather pleased with.
Next stop Chislehurst Caves
After playing around with the Olympus, which was great fun (see some samples in Light Painting With an Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mk2), I came up with this…
It’s still not right, but that’s part of the journey. I’m sure I’ll revisit this again, but for now (today at least) this is it 🙂
How’s it done? This was using a Canon 70 with Multiple Exposures enabled. This shot is 4 images which the camera lays on top of each other. First the green misty grass, then the poppy, then the soldiers, then the cave walls. This is nothing new, you used to be able to do this in the old 35mm film days. However, the bonus of digital, is you get to see each layer, and if you screw one up, you go back one layer and redo it, which I had to with the poppy!
Hope you like it.
Lightpainting with an Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mk2
I had the pleasure of attending an Olympus UK Events workshop at Chislehurst Caves, on the 19th October 2010.
We wandered into the Caves and were each given an Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II with M.Zuiko Digital 12-40mm PRO Lens, and were shown how to drive the “Live Composite” feature.
As someone who light paints in one shot or by multiple exposures, this was really different for me. In short, you set you camera up, focus, then hit the shutter. The camera takes a 2 second “noise reduction” frame, and it’s then primed to start… Hit the shutter again, start painting, and you can see the image appearing on the screen in real time, bit by bit. It took me a while to get my head round this, as I’m so accustomed to painting, then running round back to the camera to see what I’ve got.
Thanks OlympusUK Events for putting on this workshop, as it not only provided the opportunity to try a new camera, but also meant I had the chance to recreate an image I had in mind “Soldier Ghosts Marching Home“. Though I had to resort to using my own Canon 70D, as I’m familiar with it. Read this post “The story behind my Favourite Light Painting image” to see the image and how it evolved
Some of these shots are me simply driving the camera, and other’s me painting.
First Photo Montage to an ambient Soundscape
My first photo montage – Mountain Rooms
I was recently asked if a friend of mine could use photos from my Driving Lights collection. I was delighted and said yes.
A few days pass, and he asked if I could provide another set of photos to accompany a live performance of a Soundscape, by Diane Dunn, during the same gig.
Having never done such a thing before, I naturally said yes! I was sent a wav file of the piece, no title or story behind it, and was left to my own devices. The only remit was it should be black and white, which made life a lot easier, not having to worry about colour matching, etc. I’m not sure it would have worked well in colour anyway. 
At first, it did seem a bit weird, but as I browsed my photos, inspiration slowly grew and I began to piece together a to timeline using Premiere Pro.
It took a few passes; and at 12 minutes long, it took longer than I thought, but it grew on me, both the piece and the process. It’s rather satisfying when you find an image that really fits in with the sound, like a ‘bingo!’ moment.
The gig went very well, and Diane was pleased with my montage, a huge relief, especially as I was unsure if my photos fitted with her vision, let alone the name of the piece. Funny how sometimes, things come together.
This experience has been inspired to give this genre a go myself, and so i have begun experimenting recording out and about with my Tascam DR40. (though I need to get a wind shield for it!).
Have you got any photo montages to share? What do you think? Let me know below.
My 365 Project Completed
I finally got to the end of My 365 Challenge for 2017. Last year (2016), I saw a post on Facebook of a friends last photo of his 365 Project. I thought – yep – I’ll give it a go; how hard can it be?
Well it’s a lot harder than I thought!
At the beginning, I had loads of ideas, enthusiasm, and there’s loads of stuff around me to snap away at. The inspiration was flowing in bucketfuls. I even had ideas of for weekly themes, such as using old cameras. I started off with much excitement, and the notion “I’m going learn a lot from this”.
To be honest, there were times when I did learn a lot from it. Notably using it as a means of encouragement to take those photos I’ve been meaning to take for some time. One such photo was a shot of the Pantiles in Royal Tunbridge Wells, specifically after it had rained, for that shiny pavement effect.
One of my favourite forms of photography is light-painting, and My365 spurred me on to experiment with a stencil. I made a stencil of a stick man, and using a strobe, was able to create the illusion of a line of stick men. One around a dome, and another a wee bush in the woods.
For one of the weekly challenges, I dug out my very first digital camera, a Sanyo XPC350.
As time rolled on, I must be honest, the enthusiasm began to wane. Then there we times, when I was simply snapping away at anything for that day, and that made the whole thing seem a bit of a chore.
Another photo bucket list shot – I also managed a 6 AM trip to the local park to catch the sunrise.
From the begging, I chose to post each entry to Instagram, to see how that might work. I did miss some days, but still had to post something, so decided upon uploading a “Whoopsie”, a black image with text, numbering the Whoopsie. Yes, I know it’s spelt wrong, but I think it looks better this way.
I did learn some new techniques. But the biggest lesson of all was: “not every day is a photo day”, least not for me. There are days, when I just don’t feel like taking photos – hence the 50+ Whoopsies
Have you done your 365? If so, comment below and post a link to it – maybe It might inspire me to try again in a few years time 😊
Gig Photos – The Orange Circus Band
Took the camera with me to Horsmonden’s Summer Festival, as I was playing there with TWUNT, and The Orange Circus Band were headlining, and I like them!
The nifty 50, did catch some nice shots, in very low light, so was pleased with the results. The biggest problem, was the lighting. The red lights were so strong to the right of the stage, they washed out the fiddler and bass, making them look radioactive! That’s why their shots are black and white, which fortunately look even better!
Don’t you just love it when you have a spot of fortune whilst processing in Lightroom 🙂 They liked them so much, they’re on their website too!
Follow my 365 project on Instagram
At the start of 2017, I thought I take on the 365 project. Since life is busy and my phone is always at hand, most of my processing (and rush shots!) I do/ take using my phone. I decided I’d use Instagram to post my 365 photos, as part of the experiment, to see how that goes. So here you go – my 365 Instagram feed, with a few others I sneak in.
My365 Project (2017)
Just before Christmas, I decided I would attempt the photographer’s bucket list challenge – the 365!
Labelled ‘My365’, I hoping it will ensure I think photography everyday, forcing me to venture beyond what I normally do. Having a day job and a commute, will make it a bit harder, so I’m going to have be even more creative.
I suspect I’m going to learn more about other stuff too, not just photography. There’s the ‘getting it out there’ social media stuff to improve on; hash tags and all that jazz. Then there’s presentation. I’ve seen people with borders, logos, and watermarks of all varieties. The one thing I have decided, is to experiment, rather than fret, on day 1, about my watermark. I might not even stick to anyone style, instead choose to tweak as I go along.
I am sharing on Instagram, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and here of course 🙂
It’s day 3, and so far I have the following.
Fireworks 2016 with EFs 10-18mm
Took my newly acquired canon EFs 10-18mm lens to a fireworks display. I think I like it, being able to get nearer to the crowd, whilst still getting everything in shot.
Shots taken with Canon 70D, on a tripod, of course, ISO250, 2 to 2.5 secs @ f 9.0 and tweaked a wee bit in Lightroom. It’s so easy – give it a go, if you haven’t already 🙂
Fast Flash Capture of Stuff Falling into a Fish Tank
At a recent meeting of a camera club, to which I belong, we thought we would have fun with a fish tank of water, two flashguns (speed-lights), a black backdrop and some small objects to drop into the water.
Needless to say it was great fun and another one of those photographic exercises that generates the excitement of the anticipation of what you’re going to get.
We’ve all seen these types of photographs, which can look very impressive, but look beyond the reach of the amateur. Not so! It’s surprisingly easy. However – the caveat is, you have to take loads of shots, and there’s an element of ‘lucky timing’ required.
The setup is simple, but will require at least 2 flash guns and a remote flash trigger to trigger both simultaneously. You could do it with 1 flashgun, but it will be harder to illuminate more than one angle.
Next you need a tank of water with some black card or cloth behind it.
The room needs to be in near total darkness when you take the shots, then you use your flash guns to light the objects as they fall in the water.
Get your camera on a tripod, then focus it at the distance at which your objects will fall into the tank. Get an assistant to hold an item in the tank, then focus manually. Set the camera to F11 ‘ish’ and your lowest ISO. Yep – You’re going to use ‘M’ manual mode.
The key to what freezes the shot is not your shutter speed, it’s the duration of the flash! Set you flash output (in manual mode) to 1/32 or 1/64.
You can try to capture the shot buy using fancy infra-red beam, that triggers the flash as the object passes through it, whilst your camera is on a very long exposure.
OR, as we did, set a shutter speed to 125th and set shutter to continuous shooting. The fact your flash is set to a low power output, means it should keep up with the burst firing of your camera. Again, remember, it’s the flash that freezes the action, not your shutter.
Get your assistant to hold the object above the water, then countdown out loud 3,2,1…GO. Hold down your shutter button from GO. Then enjoy the excitement of seeing what you’ve caught.
We experimented with dropping fruit, miniature Star Wars figures, Lego figures and finally bursting a balloon under water.
The shot and, coincidentally the last shot, of the day was this, the balloon pop. The timing was such, that we could still see the shape of the balloon as air bubbles, before they started to race to the top of the water.
There is some post processing to be done to get what you see here, but nothing complicated. You are likely to see light reflects around the tank, such that you can see reflections on the walls of the tank. The solution is to reduce highlights, darken shadows and blacks, in Lightroom/ Photoshop or your favourite editing program, to make the background as dark as possible.
I use Lightroom, and found darkening blacks, shadows and upping clarity did the trick – with cropping too to remove your assistants arms!
So give it a try – it’s fun. Enjoy photography!
Here’s a gallery of the other shots.
Photo shoot with a Mobile? Is it possible?
Last week I attended a ‘photo shoot’ at our monthly camera club meeting. The shoot was all about using continuous lighting, with a very patient model present.
One problem! I forgot to bring my camera with me! How could that happen? Well, it just did.
Much to the bemusement of the rest of the group and the model, I pulled out my mobile phone, a Samsung Galaxy S5. I must admit, to thinking this is pointless, but took one shot, and it got me thinking.
I thought I’d take this fateful opportunity to do a shoot using just my mobile phone and that includes post processing!
Taking portrait shots with a mobile phone camera meant I had to get in real close, closer than normal. But we soon got the hang of it, the model, myself, and the other photographers, whose view I obscured 🙂
I didn’t play around with the settings, just turned off flash and let the phone to do the rest.
Next step – processing. For some time, I have had Adobe LightRoom Mobile on my phone, though never really used it much. Again, this fateful camera club meeting, meant I had the perfect opportunity to test it our, importing, processing and exporting (in this case to Facebook).
I took me longer than usual, but I’m not as familiar with LightRoom Mobile as on the PC. I did find it easy to do all the typical things I do on the PC version, and soon had my selection to upload.
Now I’m not saying it’s time to ditch the DSLR, but it does show just how far mobile phone cameras and software have come. It also made me think differently, not using a view-finder, for one thing.
Maybe challenge yourself to just use the mobile, next time.
Tunnel Gallery Preview in virtual 360
Here is a 360 view of the front of the Tunnel Gallery. A virtual sneak preview 🙂
My work is the collection of photos on the left, whilst the large abstract paintings are by my friend Scott Heasmer.
Tiz Bell-Richards, features in the rear of the gallery (out of view)
Come and see them in real life at The Tunnel Gallery, Tonbridge School, Tonbridge, Kent from Monday 21st March to Monday 28th March 11am – 6pm (event night Wed 23rd March 7pm-9pm)
Event Night at the Gallery
Update for our Gallery Exhibition
We will be having an event night on the 23rd March form 7pm to 9pm.
You will get to hear myself, Tiz Bell-Richards and Scott Heamser talk about our artwork, over a glass of wine.
Plus, time and space permitting, I will put on a light painting demo, with a little
audience participation.
Event Info:
The gallery is open from the 21st to the 28 March, 11am – 6pm
Event Night – 23rd March 7pm – 9pm
How to get there http://www.tonbridge-school.co.uk/contact-us/maps/
The ‘School Grounds’ link on the page highlights the Tunnel Gallery location.
School visitor parking is in The Quad
Driving Lights – Photo Gallery taster for Tunnel Gallery 2016
Here’s a taste of a theme I’m planning on showing at The Tunnel Gallery, Tonbridge School, from the 22nd March to the 28th March.
Finally going public in a Gallery, Photographically!
Before Christmas, two artist friends asked, if I would like to join them, hiring a gallery to show my work.
Well…. I had to take on the challenge, having never shown any of my work before. My photography has always been a hobby and private, focusing mostly on friends and family, with the arty creative stuff, always taking the back seat.
The Tunnel Gallery, at the Tonbridge School has been booked and the race is on!
We (Tiz Bell-Richards, Scott Heasmer and I) shall be showing the week of the beginning the 21st of March 2016 through Easter to the the 28th March, Easter Monday.
Tiz specialises in very detailed illustrative artwork – http://tizbellrichards.com
Scott’s speciality is larger abstract work that captures the imagination.
My speciality is “the new to me”, i.e. I like to experiment, rather than try to reproduce photos already produced, and that’s no mean feat, now everyone’s got a camera!
One theme I shall be displaying is “Driving Light” – a slight twist on light painting, in that the camera is moving, as are some of the lights, whilst driving. I love this form of photography, as, whilst digital, it still gives you the “what will that look like” moment.
Fireworks at St John’s 2015
Took the camera to take a few shots of this years Fireworks display at St John’s School Tunbridge Wells.
This is the 3rd year of them running the show, and it’s great. Thankfully the rain faded away in time and the display provided some lovely shots.
I was planning to experiment with taking shots whilst moving out of focus to get some images of firework trails moving from crisp focus to lovely blotchy soft edges, but for whatever reason, I couldn’t get it right! Will have to try next year.
Here’s my favourites from the evening, taken with a Canon 70D and the 18-135mm zoom (and a tripod, of course 🙂 )
