Well.
It seems like my first submission to this blog - which felt great to write and left me excited to write more - has not led to the great outpouring of more and better posts that I hoped it would.
But I have an excuse. I've been away. I know, with everything that's happening this locked-down year, that that seems unlikely, but it's the truth.
I visited my in-laws in Germany, and had a wonderful holiday with them. I took the above photograph of the NEOWISE comet, and while it isn't exactly a great photograph, it felt great to have photographed it. (The comet is the streaky thing in the middle.)
For me, the joy of night-sky photography is definitely more about the process than the results. Setting up the tripod and pointing the camera at the sky makes me feel like a kid again, getting a telescope out, buzzing with hope and wonder.
Soon after that, I went to Ireland to see my own family - in accordance with all the applicable restrictions, of course. I may be a Kilkennyman who lives in Brussels, but I'm no Phil Hogan...
When I got to my parents' house, I discovered that some foxes have moved into their garden. After I took the photo below, there was no more sun, and no more foxes to be seen either. So while I had hoped to get closer, I'm pretty pleased with the atmosphere of this shot, taken in what turned out to be a very short window of opportunity. (The fox is the furry thing in the middle.)
My mother always calls any little animals in the garden "visitors" - and I suppose that's what links these two pictures together: two visitors of a very different kind.
From a photographic viewpoint, I know they're not remarkable images. But this blog is an extension of my notebook, and in that sense these pictures are the photographic equivalent of a scribbled note-to-self. They remind me, as I develop new projects for the coming months, that not everything is planned, and that I should always carry my camera, just in case a visitor - a fox or a comet - happens to pass by.
Now I'm back in Brussels, and I'm looking forward to getting this blog going properly. Some of the posts that are in the works:
My photographic CV
On "snaps" and "photographs"
How I use hand-drawn image templates
On freelancing
Examining and developing my own style
On pictures and words
Book reviews / What I'm reading
That last item might in fact be the next to appear on the blog, because I read a book recently which was about me and I'm dying to write about it.
I don't mean the book reminded me of myself. I mean that I read something like my actual life story, and in some cases even my own memories, in its pages. It was a bizarre and fascinating experience that left me understanding myself a lot better.
That's for next time!