About Me

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This blog is a window into my creative business and lifestyle. I love the outdoors and going on adventures. Photography and videography are a way of life and this allows me to capture the people and adventures along the way. I also enjoy any form of creativity and I am always keen to try new things.

Friday 31 January 2014

THE PLANTED TANK

I recently discovered the art of aquascaping. This is basically a tank in which to keep aquatic plants and fish. Unlike general fish keeping having a plastic toy diver or dinosaur is a big no no! Aquascaping is a mixture of art and science, the idea is to create a beautiful and natural environment using natural hardscape and growing species of plants into an underwater world, it's very creative and the final results can be incredible. On the other side is the science, to establish an amazing scape involves the ability to grow strong healthy plants and this involves the balance of life within the tank. I won't go into details but the idea is to balance water parameters, light, C02, heat and fertilisation. If you can hit the correct balance then you can create your art. Aquascaping is serious business and competitions are held throughout the world each year to see who can create the best underwater worlds. Before I invest too heavily I have decided to take a small tank and see how well I can grow several species of plants, if all goes well I hope to upgrade in the future. Below are some starter pics and a short video. I will do a before and after comparison in a later post.

Video: copy & paste the link below -

https://vimeo.com/85567183




This is called pearling, a good sign of the plant getting the conditions it needs and releasing oxygen.



Friday 10 January 2014

NORTHERN LIGHTS (FAIL)


It was announced that a large coronal mass ejection from the sun could create the possibility of viewing the Northern lights across the UK as far south as the Cotswolds. With this being too good an opportunity to miss I ventured into the Peak's and searched around to find a good spot. I decided on the area at the top of Winnats Pass overlooking Mam Tor. It was a beautiful evening with mostly clear skies and amazing views of the stars, but with the moon being in its first quarter this did add to some unwanted light. I waited patiently (along with many others! I have never seen so many people around at 1.30am in the Peak District) but according to the space weather reports, the solar storm was not as strong as expected and the solar winds were not blowing in a favourable direction. Although disappointing that they never showed up it was satisfying to know that if they did, I was waiting to capture them with my camera. Some reports state they may be visible tonight but I wont hold my breath, even though I do hope they will. Fingers crossed.




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