I like this shot. Thought provoking.
Some people will believe in anything :-(

I don’t know much about saturation biopsy, but I had it done with only local anesthesia (I think they took 24 cores), and it really hurt. I believe some form of sedation is necessary. I have a very high pain threshold, but it caused me significant pain. Cost wise, I didn’t have to pay for mine thanks to the NHS. Unfortunately, my diagnosis came back as cancerous, but we decided to opt for active surveillance.

When I told my doctor about the cost with my plan he offered to do it in his office instead. After reading your post, I'm very glad I spent the money on it instead. I don't like to spend money needlessly, but being retired, when it comes to these kinds of expenses, I feel like I'm spending my heir's money, not mine.

Maybe consider lens replacement surgery. (Refractive lens exchange). I had it done a couple of years back and have thrown my glasses away. I have 20/20 at my ripe old age.

Rock show :D Interesting to see these layers and imagine what it took to create these..

I prefer second shot, this nightscape is more interesting.

yes, i have good quality earplugs. After couple of painful experiences about 15 years ago I do not go near stage without them...

Diogenes? Great moment captured, the look makes this photo.

I like it, took moment to realize what i'm looking at. Though I'd put the edge in center...

Sunset On The Moors

A day off earlier in the week (to attend a funeral, sadly) gave me the opportunity to nip up onto the moors for a short walk at sunset (which is currently hovering around 16:09 here in the North of England).

The conditions were perfect for moorland walking. No wind, clear skies and temperatures cold enough to keep the midges at bay, but not so cold that I needed gloves.

I'd initially planned to head up to Round Loaf, so I could watch the sun go down from there, but by the time I reached Pikestones, it was obvious there wouldn't be enough time to cross Anglezarke moor, so instead I set off through the long grass towards the summit of Hurst Hill, which was quite a bit closer.

The moors were still and silent, lit by the warm glow of sunset, followed by the gentle afterglow as I reached the summit of Hurst Hill and lingered a while at the cairn. After the sad events of the day, the peace and tranquility of the moors was much appreciated.

All images taken handheld with the Nikon Z8 + 24-70 f/2.8S. Processed from individual raw files with Capture One Pro 23.

Lower Rivington Reservoir

This scene caught my eye as I was leaving Jepson's Gate. Unfortunately, having only brought the 24-70 it only filled a tiny portion of the frame, so this has also been upscaled via Topaz to about 58 megapixels, which did a surprisingly good job when viewed a the pixel level. Of course, ironically, it's been scaled back down to about 2.8 megapixels for sharing on here.

The Wider View

A different shot and framing of Lower Rivington Reservoir from closer to Pikestones, showing the wider view.

A Passing Stranger

I think I saw just two other people while out on this walk, this guy was one of them coming back from the moors before it got dark. This was a quick opportunistic shot after he passed me, so I didn't have time to bracket, leaving the sky around the setting sun blown out, which looked pretty terrible in colour, but okay in black and white.

Sunset At Pikestones

Although it just looks like a bunch of rocks in a field, Pikestones is the remains of a bronze age burial barrow. I believe these stones once formed part of a tunnel entrance into an earthen barrow, that's long gone and the collapsed stones are all that visibly remain.

Moonrise Over Winter Hill

Across The Moors

It was at this point I decided that I wasn't going to be making it across the moors to Round Loaf (seen here in the form of the black lump near the centre of the image) unless I fancied coming back in pitch dark, which I didn't (although I had a full complement of torches on me, so I could have). So instead, I headed off towards the cairn atop Hurst Hill, which looked a lot closer from where I was stood.

Moonrise Over The Anglezark Moor Tiny Tarn™

This little tarn isn't shown on any maps, but it's a year round feature on Anglezarke Moor that I seem to have become quite adept at finding (I also found a second one a few months ago). The sun was just about setting at this point, so the moors and distant hills were lit with a rosy glow and looked glorious. The moors here are no epic landscape such as you might find a little further North in The Lakes, but they have their own beauty and charm to them, at least to my eyes.

The Nab From Hurst Hill

This was taken shortly after setting off back down from the summit. In the middle distance you can see the cairn that marks the route up to Hurst Hill from Stronstrey Bank. This appeared in my Youtube video where I walked from White Coppice to Round Loaf (link here for anyone interested who hasn't seen it), but it's grown enormously since that was filmed, making it a lot more prominent than it was back then.

The Open Gate

This gate separates the field leading to Jepson's Gate farm from the moors, but it appears to have been in this shoddy and stuck open state for quite some time, but as the field isn't used for grazing I guess that doesn't really matter.

I initially frame this with much more sky in the shot, but there's practically a hard line in the clouds that runs just about where the top of this frame is above which there's just blue sky, so I've cropped that out here, hence the uncomfortable framing. The actual band of clouds on the horizon really didn't stretch very high into the sky, limiting the compositional possibilities a bit, which was unfortunate as it had some nice tones and textures in it.

It's also worth mentioning that this shot was the darkest in the bracket sequence I took and just barely avoided the sky clipping. The gate and field was pretty much practically black on black in the unedited file, but the Z8 has held onto a remarkable amount of shadow detail and tone here allowing me to pull it back up without even introducing much noise. This arguably better than my Z7 would have managed, as extreme shadow lifts such as this tended to introduce stripey noise artefacts.

As I bracketed this shot, I did also try a HDR merge, but in the end, I much preferred the look of the single edited image.

I actually have a winter one, but from a slightly different angle...

The colour palette in these is just gorgeous.
Yes, sometimes less dramatic landscapes can be very satisfying.

I didn't even know that was possible! Very intriguing! Does insurance cover that at all? How much does it cost? How painful is the procedure and recovery?

Over here it cost about £7000 but I paid for it. Went to Harley St, London, which is where the top private doctors tend to be. Didn't want to take any risks with my eyesight. I have varifocal lenses too so can see at all distances apart from very close up. It's the same concept as cataract surgery.
Took about 20 mins per eye and I was awake during the procedure. No pain. Lasts forever, although obviously other things can deteriorate in the eye.

A slightly different view but close by and with that white snow it fits in nicely to make a good set of contrasting colours in a "different seasons" series.
...How about a Spring shot too, to complete the series :-)