The Author – Bart Busschots
Creative Commons
Unless otherwise stated, the content on this site is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works 3.0 License
Dec
29
Photo of the Week 45 – ‘de Vesten’ in Winter
Filed Under Photography on December 29, 2008 | 1 Comment
When I think of Winter one of my shots stands out above all others, this one in fact. It was also taken at the very end of December, all-be-it back in 2001, so it seemed appropriate for this week’s photo of the week. Unfortunately the photo quality is very poor, which is the main reason I haven’t used it as a photo of the week before. It was shot on a second hand and fairly early digital camera, and the memory card I had for it was far too small, so I used it at a very low quality setting. Because of this the image is small, and has a lot of JPEG artifacting, but I absolutely love it all-the-same.
This shot was taken in the town of Lier, in the province of Antwerp in Belgium. Lier is a very unusual place, it’s absolutely brimming with canals and waterways, a lot like Brugge in fact, but much less well know. Historically it was also an enclosed town, and the remains of that enclosure are what are referred to as ‘de Vesten van Lier’ in Flemish, and it’s on the south eastern region of this enclosure that this photo was taken. The ‘Vesten’ were once the city walls, but they were knocked a few centuries ago and became a long thin park completely surrounding the town.
Lier sits at the point where two important Flemish rivers, the Kleine Nete and the Grote Nete, merge into a single even more important river, the Nete. The two rivers meet at the north of the town, and the joint river snakes around the eastern side of the town. In order to protect the town from flooding, a canal was dug around the western side of the town connecting the Kleine Nete to the Nete, this means the town is completely enclosed by water. On top of this the entire interior of the town is criss-crossed by canals so there is water just about everywhere you look in Lier.
Unfortunately the EXIF data has gotten lost from this file so all I can say is that I shot it with a FujiFilm MX-2700 point-and-shoot.
Dec
21
Photo of the Week 44 – Amphibious Bistort
Filed Under Photography on December 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I’m not even sure this is a good photo technically, I think the depth of field is actually too shallow, but I’ve always liked the composition and the green of the bokeh, so I’m counting it as one of my best regardless.
The flower is a somewhat strange one that grows on both land and water, hence it’s name, Amphibious Bistort (Persicaria amphibia). I really like it’s spikes of pinky-white flowers, and it’s very common in Cavan where we have no shortage of either wet soil or water for it to thrive in!
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1/500 sec
- Focal Length: 55mm
- Focal Ratio: F8
- ISO: 200
- Camera Mode: Auto
Dec
17
Photo of the Week 43 – The Royal Canal
Filed Under Photography on December 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Apologies for the later than normal Photo of the Week, but I got distracted over the weekend preparing the talk I gave yesterday. Anyhow, with all this nasty damp and cold weather we’ve been having of-late here in Ireland I thought it might be nice to choose a brighter, sunnier, and warmer Photo of the Week.
This shot of the Royal Canal was taken from Jackson’s Bridge looking east towards Maynooth and Dublin. Jackson’s Bridge is the only crossing point over the canal between Maynooth and Kilcock and the bridge gives a great view to the east in the afternoons with the sun behind your back for good lighting. This shot was taken at about 4pm on the 30th of May this year.
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1/250 sec
- Focal Length: 18mm
- Focal Ratio: F13
- ISO: 400
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
- Exposure Compensation: 0.0
Dec
17
The Christmas Star & Apollo
Filed Under Science & Astronomy on | 2 Comments
It’s become sort of a tradition that each year I give the Christmas lecture for Astro2 (The Astronomy & Physics Society of NUI Maynooth). Each year I give a talk on the Christmas Star and each year I change it up a bit and focus more on different aspects. I really changed the talk up quite a bit this year and got quite a bit deeper in the biblical end of things than I had before. I enjoyed giving the talk this evening, and the audience seemed to enjoy it too which is always nice!
Dec
7
Photo of the Week 42 – Jupiter, Venus & the Moon
Filed Under Photography on December 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Last Monday (1 December 2008), the Moon, Jupiter & Venus were in a very close conjunction in the sky. For the non-astronomers amongst you that just means they were very closely placed in the sky. In fact, they were so close that Venus actually passed behind the Moon! This week’s photo of the week if my favourite shot of the event, you can see the rest of my shots in this Flickr Set.
This week’s photo of the week was taken not long after Venus re-appeared from behind the Moon. You can see it just off to the right of the think crescent Moon. Jupiter is the bright point of light above and to the right of the Moon.
For those of you interested in such things, here are the technical details of this shot:
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 55-200mm
- Exposure: 1.5 sec
- Focal Length: 70mm
- Focal Ratio: F4.5
- ISO: 400
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
- Exposure Compensation: -1.0