Shimmer and bokeh

Macro - the saviour of blippers in winter.

Once again (as will be the norm for the next few months) it was dark when I got home.

Yesterday a student was carrying around a bunch of peacock feathers. Amongst them were a type I'd never seen before - just as long and with all the peacock colours but of a very different shape. Apparently they are the 'sword' feathers from the outside of the tail.

I admired them and H offered me one. I didn't want to take something so beautiful from her but said I'd like to keep it for a while to photograph and then give it back.

It may be a while before she gets it back - I suspect I can get a lot more blips out of this yet. Here I was trying to capture the light on the outside curved edge - which I guess I did - but the bokeh on the very fine shafts was an extra surprise.