Just a quick post with a couple of images I made on my way home the other night. The M6 was in a state of traffic chaos, so I decided to pull off and try and head home via the back roads. It took me a while, but as the temperature plummeted to -12˚C I found that my tripod legs began to seize up and the zoom on my Olympus EP-1 (my carry around camera) began to get quite stiff.

The first image of the tractor was a rather fortuitous find - I'd pulled up a track to turn around and head back the way I'd come when I stumbled across a dilapidated barn on a farm. The farm was clearly in use, and I was concerned that I was probably on private property. The light was fading fast, and not keen to come across an irate farmer I cranked up the ISO to 1600 and made sure that the Image Stabilisation was enabled. Leaning against a post and breathing calmly, I managed to get a sharp shot at 1/5 sec. Hooray for IS!

The second shot of the farmhouse wasn't quite the image I'd intended to shoot. I'd pulled over as the moon was full and low and large in the sky. I spotted a silhouette of a farm with the moon over it, but with the 14-42mm lens I just didn't have the reach. Turning around I saw this scene with yet more snow clouds approaching from the South. Using my tripod I made this 40 second exposure to try and soften the clouds in the sky, get some car light trails and to try to capture the plume of smoke that was coming out of the chimney of the farmhouse.