New Years Eve in Prague pt 2

Its New Years Eve, and it will be a long day.    We are off out to go for breakfast at our favourite place, Café Arcadi which is just below the castle.   A 15 minute walk along the cobbled streets

                                         The buildings really are beautiful in this city.

                              Time for Hot chocolate and caramel covered waffles .  Yay

                                                                     Yummy !!!!!!!!!!!

    Now to walk up to the castle and around  towards the monastery .  sharp right turn at the top here to climb steeply up to the castle square .  The granite stone setts look fabulous , wet or dry .

                                                       The view looking back down .

                           Looking across the city from near the castle entrance, a superb view.

Walking across the square heading up towards the monastery area, there is a miniatures museum that looks interesting near there.

We have arrived at the Monastery  , the miniatures museum is just around the corner tucked away out of the way.

We have found the entrance to the museum,  it costs 130 czk each to go in, that's about £4 each . inside there are microscopes all around the rooms , each with a description of what is viewable.   I managed a phone shot through the eyepiece,  two gold cars on the leg of a flea!!!!    wow!
  Inside another, a needle eye had about 5 camels in a row placed inside .  amazing!

Now we are walking up to Petrin Hill and the Tower.     This is the viewpoint through the trees to St Vitus Cathedral.   Just a phone picture as I have shot this view before .

Petrin Tower,  I have shot this in the snow, fog, blue skies and hoar frost before ,so it appears a bit dull today in comparison.

                      Looking down from the gardens on the hillside of  Petrin Hill across the city.

                                                                The Funicular railway

        Finally we are down at the bottom of the hill at the "Memorial for victims of Communism"

Now back to the apartment for a rest before going out for the New Years Eve celebrations.

Its now 8 pm, and walking along the river towards Charles bridge,  using the 100-400mm lens on the 5dsr I have shot the Castle/Cathedral

                                            3.2 seconds f8    what a stunning building!

                                                                    Petrin Tower

            A full panorama view.   we will be back in this area by about 11 pm to wait for midnight.

 A walk into Old Town square,  there are bands playing on the stage, but not to my taste!    its absolutely packed with people.  a really good atmosphere as usual.  we spend about an hour here before walking back to the river to get a good spot to set up the tripod for the fireworks.

10 oclock and the fireworks have started being set off,  everywhere!   huge rockets are being set of from a balcony a hundred yards behind us. and smaller ones just over the road from us.

It appears we are in the wrong position for  taking photographs , the main fireworks are being set off from the barge as normal, but it is moored against the bank behind the building in front of us, last time the barge was in the middle of the river near the bridge    Dam!  

               I have managed to get a few images, but not what I expected,  the main group of fireworks are only visible above the bridge tower unfortunately.      There are huge numbers of people all around lining the river bank and Charles bridge looks the same.

The fireworks are being randomly set of all over the city  now   ,  great to be here on what is now New Years Day .            It does appear to be busier than when we were last here 2 years ago .

Its manic now, rockets going off Everywhere all around us , people setting them off in empty beer bottles in the middle of the road, smashed glass all over the place .  its now about 1 am, and time to escape the madness as its getting a bit dangerous    lol


              Tonight there is an official New Years day firework display at Letna park at 6 pm.

Prague New Year 2019 pt1

Jan and I are going back to Prague for the New Year again, we last went two years ago when it was really foggy , but a fabulous atmosphere.  We have arrived at our apartment which is near the "Memorial to victims of communism" below Petrin hill  at 7.30 pm, so after a quick unpack we are going out for a walk and to find something to eat.
We are going over the Strelecky ostrov bridge and then along the river towards Charles bridge.

Having made our way along to Charles Bridge, we turn off and head through the streets to get to Old Town Square.  that is where the Christmas markets and Tree are situated.
Here is the world famous Astronomical clock, which has recently been restored. the colours looks fabulous now .

                                         Old Town Square, busy with all the market stalls.

The huge Christmas tree is different from previous years in that it hasn't got the dripping lights all over it .  But it turns out the lights are computer controlled in a pattern sequence to music .

Dinner time now, I remember a small place not far from here ,  I marked it in google maps for future reference.   having found the street there is another restaurant almost next door, so we are trying this one , since I hate food its difficult finding something I will eat!

                                                       Look at the size of this sausage!

                                    We are about 2 floors underground here, looks like a cave.

Back through to the square now and along to Charles bridge to cross the river to go back to our apartment.

                                    I remember these light globes from last time we where here.

                                        Onto Charles bridge, its always busy on here.

The castle and St Vitus Cathedral  looking splendid overlooking the river.  not great picture with the phone though.

The end tower of the bridge,  we turn off left just up the road from here to head along to Petrin park.

The end of our first evening in Prague, tomorrow is New Years Eve, which is going to be a very long day!

Autumn in Snowdonia Nov 18 th

This morning I am heading into Snowdonia in search of Autumn colour, starting  in the forests near to Trefriw.  Having driven down to Llanwrst and turned over the bridge towards Trefriw and then the road through the forest .     I have stopped at the Hafna mine , the old building ruins might make for a good image or two from above.

                                                                  8 frame Vertorama

                                                            2 frames merge Topdown

                                                                     Single frame f5.6

Time to move on , this road eventually comes out by the "Ugly house"   but half way along there is a turn off towards Cors Bodgynydd nature reserve , a location I have previously been shooting Dragonflies and Damselflies.  Further on are a couple of large mountain lakes, I will try one of those I think.    Eventually I have come to Llyn Geirionydd , this will be a great location to shoot from high up .

I have set up near the car park on the edge of the lake, and will fly the drone down to the far end to have a look around at the maximum height allowed of 400ft

                                                A simple 2 frame image to start with .

                                                                    9 frame Vertorama

                 This one is a cropped 21 frame 180 dgree panorama, with the left hand end cut off.

The battery is almost down to the warning , so a quick topdown image of the trees on the opposite side of the lake from where I am standing.

Time to head off again , I think a drive down into Betws-y-Coed and have a look around see what I can find.     I have stopped of over the road from Fairy Glen, just by the river. since I only have half a battery left it will be a quick 10 minute flight.

             Looking down the valley, Betws -y is just around the corner to the left out of sight.

           Lovely colours still being lit up by the sun directly in front of me high up on the hill side.

                       I have shot a couple of closer images , love the light on the trees in these.

The end of another great day shooting.

            all images shot with Dji Phantom 4 pro drone .

Autumn Colours The Dream and Delamere Nov 12th

Its early November , the Autumn colours are now looking great, so I have decided to drive up to Roddlesworth woods near Blackburn and then come back home via "the Dream" statue and then either Marbury country park or Delamere.

Arriving at Roddlesworth I immediately know I'm too late, all the leaves have already dropped.   It is also very windy so cant even get the drone up,  but I have gone for a walk anyhow just in case I see anything worth a shot.

                                   My favourite waterfall, trees completely devoid of leaves!

                             I will just go back to the car now, pointless staying here any longer.

I have driven back down the m6 , all the matrix signs are saying severe delays at junction 20, luckily I get off before there.        By the time I arrive the sky is all blue but still very windy.
The phone app is showing 22mph wind speed and gusts 48-52 mph at 200ft     this is the highest wind speed I have attempted to fly in.

               The drone is up, no problem with the high winds so far, but I will not go too high .
                                            The cloud is really nice at the moment.

                                                                A Topdown image .

                   The trees are looking great, a good mix of tree species have been planted here .

                                                      Finally a Vertorama.  7 frames merged.
Its actually been a lovely morning , the colours are fabulous and the high wind has not caused any problems.   Now I think due to the delays on the m6 head head to Delamere on the way home.

                                       A phone shot of this strange statue, great sky behind .

Now I have arrived in Delamere, a quick walk down to the large beech trees to find a decent amount of colour but most have already dropped there leaves unfortunately.

Finding a small clearing I quickly take the drone up for a few shots,  keeping it mainly straight up above me.

Now to go for a walk to see what I can find ,  one of many small pools I have come across , but the tree trunks are being lit up by the low setting sun,  so maybe this will be a good location to have a last drone shoot.

Straight up over the lake, a multi frame Vertorama cropped to a square.  the dead tree stumps standing out against the dark water.

              Flying low across the pool to get a clear shot of the sunlit trees, a 9 frame panorama.

                                                   Topdown over the top of the pool edge.

That's it,  all the batteries are used and the sun is getting low, so time to walk back to the car and head home after a really good day shooting.