I wish

Not to be dead, but restful would be nice

Well I learnt a valuable lesson tonight. When trying to take a photo on your new tripod for the first time, do not do it in a dark muddy field. :(

Spent 5 minutes trying to get the camera attached (it has a secondary clip to hold the mounting bracket open for some reason), and a lot of faffing around, to find that I couldn't get it steady.

It was only when I got home I realised the entire ball socket was about 3 or 4 entire revolutions short of being tight.

So, all my attempted star shots are crap.

Instead here's a grave instead, shot at 10pm. YIKES!!

To cheer myself up for this cock-up, I've decided my cheap Sigma 70-300mm is not as good as the Nikon / Nikkor lenses due to their stabilisation; so have just ordered this from Amazon.

A second birthday present to myself having bought the D7100 several months ago.

Still a few weeks to go to the birthday; but life's too short.