First proper astrophoto with the Nikon D800E. After a stormy day, the skies cleared – and I was waiting on the other side of the island… camera ready in hand (or rather, on a tripod)! The noise performance of the D800E’s sensor is just incredible. This was shot using my trusty Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 lens @ 14mm.
How many experiences this place has brought to me! How many challenges, opportunities, hurdles, and fun. The last three years in Oxford have quite simply been some of the best of my life – and scribbling these few words conjure up the warmest of memories – and I haven’t even left yet! It is a strange place, Oxford. You arrive full of preconceptions and presuppositions about what the place should look and feel like – well, in that sense not quite unlike the feeling one would get prior to moving anywhere
This afternoon a splendid rainbow appeared in the sky as the sun set in the West and shone through a break in the clouds whilst it was raining. Not only was it a fine rainbow, but a double one at that! (Hopefully I will find some time to upload more pictures showing the second order soon.) I could have missed this one completely, but by sheer luck I happened to have just arrived in college while it was at its best. Enjoy!
I was on my way back home when a friend of mine texted me to let me know that the moon looked particularly interesting this evening. And indeed, right behind me the moon was peeping from behind some splendid Altocumulus floccus clouds. I spent the next half an hour or so waiting for cars to pass by so that I could hop right to the middle of the street as soon as it cleared momentarily. (I am sure passers by must have found this odd behaviour quite amusing.) Anyway, I wanted
That is no ordinary telephone box. I’m telling you, that’s a teleportation device. You pick the handset, speak the desired destination, and that’s it. As simple as that!
A picture from a while back which I’ve just realized I hadn’t uploaded. This one was taken in Port Meadow at sunset.
This picture was made from the Christ Church study room, during a break from thesis writing. The sun emerged for a while from behind the clouds and the street and its buildings briefly assumed a surreal character, one which I thought would lend itself quite nicely to a high-dynamic-range (HDR) image. Five frames (two bracketed either side of the average exposure) went into the creation of this HDR image, allowing for the whole range of tones to be included in the final picture. I hadn’t employed this technique in quite a
A snapshot of a street encounter.
All in all, today was a good day – except for the fact that this afternoon I accidentally locked myself out of the office and had to cross town twice to get the key from an office mate who luckily was still around. (Perhaps these days’ stress is taking its toll after all.) As I walked (ran, actually) into town to fetch the key from my friend I couldn’t stop cursing my luck; here was such perfect weather, and my camera was locked inside whilst the sun’s last rays started retreating.
In between thesis writing and data analysis, I’m trying to make a little bit of time for photography when the weather is nice… you know, to keep my mental faculties sane, if for nothing else. So this afternoon, upon leaving the department and noticing that there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky (you’ve got to be an Oxford local to understand the importance of such a rare event!), I decided to go for a walk to Port Meadow, this time round trying my best to avoid all temptation of choosing
So… how do I even begin to tell the story behind this picture? Well, I think I’ll take the short route. It was a nice afternoon, so I went out to Port meadow for a walk, camera in hand. The locals were around, happily mooing and chewing away. But then one of them strayed from the herd and went to drink from the pond. I ran as quickly as I could to approach the animal before it moved away. There was only one problem: I soon realized that between me and
I took this picture, which you are encouraged to share, with the sole purpose of creating awareness about the problem of light pollution. The solution is not to switch off all lights, but rather to turn off what is not required and use properly designed lighting fixtures whenever illumination is needed. Properly designed (full cutoff) lighting sends the light where it is wanted, namely the ground, instead of wasting it up in our skies. Not only is poorly-designed lighting a waste of energy, it also blots out pristine starlight which has
“Do not be in a hurry to do something you can’t undo.” ~ Kelly Atkins
A view of our college from St Aldates. I have been trying to get this street shot on a nice day and without too many cars, bicycles and pedestrians for the past three years. This week I was finally lucky.
This is a quick snapshot of the very centre of our Galaxy, the Milky Way, taken from Malta. Since we ourselves lie in the Galaxy, we cannot see its grand spiral design from our point of view, just as we cannot perceive the Earth’s spherical shape whilst being bound to its surface. So in essence, this picture shows the point of view of a citizen of the Milky Way. Enjoy!
Rarely does it happen that everything falls into place right at the moment when a photographer clicks the shutter. But when it does, the photographer instantly knows it. Right then, time seems like it has been suspended – and the feeling is one of incredible joy at having preserved a memory of a fleeting moment that will never come to be again. A moment etched for ever by the simple click of a shutter. It happened to me a few hours ago, when, camera in hand, I was casually looking around
I presume that last Saturday, at about 3am local (Maltese) time, most people were fast asleep, unaware of a magnificent spectacle going on above their heads. Jupiter and its moons slowly disappeared from the skies, as our own moon glided steadily in front of them, thus occulting the Jovian system, starting with icy Europa and and volcanic Io, then Jupiter itself, and finally large, rocky Ganymede and heavily cratered Callisto. Of course, the surface features of these moons are not visible with small ground-based telescopes; instead they appear as tiny dots
I’m back home for a week… here’s a picture. Title says it all 🙂
Here are a few pictures from a workshop held last week in Oxford, which saw some of the leading scientists working on the next generation of instruments and telescopes converging in one place to discuss the latest developments. The workshop was made possible by the generous support of Philip Wetton. The inaugural Philip Wetton lecture, associated with the workshop, was delivered this year by the Wetton Professor Roger Davies.
Here is a series of pictures of the transit of Venus, snapped from Port Meadow in Oxford early this morning. There was a huge patch of cloud right where the sun was rising – and I was sure that I was not going to see a thing. But then, luckily the clouds cleared for a brief moment, a bird decided to grace the sky, and here is the picture. I am happy to say that I’ve managed to observe both Venus transits of the century!
I’m convinced that I could stay in this place forever and still be exhilarated by new sights every day. Here’s the latest snapshot of our college; one that I had in mind ever since I came to Oxford, but which for some reason or other never quite had the opportunity to capture as I wished – until last Saturday, that is. I hope you enjoy the picture and I wish you all a good start to the week!
Sunshine! Light, light, light! Oh glorious light! Here is a quick snapshot from this afternoon, showing Christ Church staircase bathed in light, after many days of bleak, gloomy weather.
This evening I attended a conversation between Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett held at the Examination Schools in Oxford. The discussion between the two ranged fairly freely, but highlights from the evening included a brief discussion of language (arguably, the defining feature of humankind), the application of the meme concept to religious belief, and The Clergy Project. If I were asked to pick one enduring idea from the discussion, I think it would have to be Dennett’s suggestion for atheists to stay cool, as in his view religion is bound to
Yesterday evening, we had another of those rare and lucky moments of weird lighting. Here goes the result. I fully understand if you find it hard to believe that this scene actually occurred for real. It’s no wonder that everyone who happened to be in college at the time could not help but pause and take in the moment – and perhaps even attempt to snap a picture for posterity. Enjoy and have a nice start to the week!
Recently, the weather has been acting quite strangely, with instances of heavy rain followed by brief spells of sunshine, in turn occasionally leading to the fairly surreal experience of simultaneous rain and sunshine (although mostly, it has been just raining). This picture was snapped right at the time when one such swift change in weather conditions occurred. Initially, it looked very bleak and the sky was uniformly dark. Then, for a very brief moment the sun started breaking, albeit weakly, through some clouds, in so doing shedding some light upon the
Since I’m short on time, I’ll leave you with the title, which says it all really.
Anyone who looks up at the evening sky over the coming days will see a bright gem shining brilliantly in the West. But this is no star. It’s actually the planet Venus (aptly known as the “Evening Star” or the “Star of the West”) which is currently dazzling us every evening as its dense atmosphere reflects back light from the sun. But this evening was even more special as Venus moved across the open star cluster commonly known as the Pleiades. It was an event that reminded me of the brilliant
I think that when one returns to a place which they have left for some time, the views which were previously seen as ordinary suddenly stand out and seem special. This scene from my own village is definitely one such view.
Sea, sea, sea… and more sea!
This picture is a quick snap taken this afternoon during a short walk around the island of Gozo.
A traditional Maltese balcony at sunset.
Another quick snapshot from home.
A quick snap from home.
So yesterday very late afternoon, I went out for a walk by the river with the intention to mull over a math problem in my head. But I took my camera with me just in case. And I’m really glad I did so. After lingering by the river bank for a while, this splendid swan swooshed by, wings spread out as its feet touched down and created a splashy rift in the water, gleaming as the sparkling droplets caught the last rays of the setting sun. I snapped this photo with
A late afternoon picture taken in Christ Church meadow on a cold but very nice day.
This is a recently captured street candid photo. Happy weekend to all!
Yes, you got it. It seems like I’m currently addicted to this kind of scenery. The thing is that this sort of imagery evokes in me such serenity that it’s hard to resist posting. Enjoy the explosion of colours!
This picture was taken on the same day as the previous two. It shows the Meadow Building of Christ Church at nightfall, after the grounds emptied of people and it all became very quiet. Those little orange lights seemed to be the only apparent signs of life in an otherwise silent setting completely devoid of any activity. This picture comes with thoughts about a person whose light still flickers in the hearts of all those who happened to cross paths at some point. An inspiring person who encouraged and cheered up
Those words by Ralph Waldo Emerson never rang so true to me than after capturing this frame. By now, I guess you must have guessed that the scene of silhouetted bare trees is one which I particularly like. To me, such a sight tends to instill a sense of peace and tranquility, which I hope that this picture conveys.
Well, yesterday the late afternoon light was beckoning and the scene slowly turned into this. Have a good start to the week!
It has certainly been a week of discussions, although admittedly, in Oxford it always is. On Monday, Richard Dawkins spoke at the Oxford Town Hall about secularism in the UK. Thursday afternoon, on the other hand, saw a much anticipated debate between Richard Dawkins and Rowan Williams, chaired by Sir Anthony Kenny. The Sheldonian was packed, the physics department’s live screening tickets sold out and many colleges ended up streaming the event live as well. In a way it felt as if Oxford slowed down for an hour and a half
A photo taken on Monday during the conversation with Richard Dawkins about Secularism in the UK.
Ah well, simply looking at a mere picture of this place makes me want to go there and spend a couple of hours flipping through the pages of whatever book grabs my attention, which is precisely what I’ve done uncountably many times over the past couple of years.
So, this week I shall aim to upload a picture every day – all snapped in Oxford. Here goes the first one; I had not been up to any candid street photography in ages, so it felt good to give it a shot after so long. I hope you enjoy the picture. Have a good start to the week!
This evening I attended a fascinating symposium with the title “Theatre and Politics”, with actress and visiting Humanitas professor in Drama Vanessa Redgrave, actor Ralph Fiennes, Guardian theatre critic Michael Billington and playwright Simon Stephens. Here are a few pictures from the event.
And there you have it… it’s snowing again!
I guess the picture says it all. It’s snowing!
I can hardly believe that a whole year has passed since I created this photography blog. Well here we are, 89 posts and over 300 pictures later. (You can view my first ever blog post here.) I had little idea then how many thousands of people from all walks of life would visit this blog over the ensuing weeks & months, many taking the time to kindly write to me to share their thoughts about the pictures and to express their support. Well, let me take this opportunity to thank one
On Saturday, 21st January, Oxford Astrophysics held the event “Stargazing Oxford” as part of the BBC’s Stargazing LIVE string of events across the country. It was an occasion that brought together the whole of Astrophysics at Oxford (and many people from the Physics department at large) to bring astronomy to the general public. The hugely successful event saw about 1,200 people attending, which makes you think that the particle physicists were quite right when they said that astronomers have it easy when it comes to public outreach! But joking aside, I
Well, tomorrow is a big day for us all at the Oxford Astrophysics department, as we expect hundreds of people to visit us and learn more about the universe. So here’s a fresh aptly-themed picture from my camera, which I snapped late last night, whilst a good friend of mine (you know who you are!) waited very patiently for me to finish the exposure. Enjoy!
Very cold, yes. But also sunny, with deep blue skies. Not for long, but it will be like this again, sometime. So we all hope.
Well, we’ve just marked the start of another revolution around the sun, which in my mind I associate with the inescapable reality of our constant aging. And as I stared at this photograph, taking in the fleeting moment which was captured, I was reminded of C.S. Lewis’ wise words, to which I need add nothing else.
