*** This Week Through Your Eyes 2025.12.20 ***

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SteveMonks
Members 469 posts

Dec. 21, 2025, 8:23 p.m. Dec. 21, 2025, 8:23 p.m.
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@Woodsider79 has written:

@SteveMonks has written:

Returning To The Moors

Backlit Tree

As sunset loomed, I decided to head back down into the gardens, to see if I could catch some nice sunset tones on my way back through. As I rounded the Pigeon Tower, I spotted this tree nicely catching the backlight.

Golden Pigeon Tower

This is my favourite angle looking back up at The Pigeon Tower. The setting sun was lighting everything with pleasing golden tones by this point. Usually those stone bricks are a neutral grey colour.

This is an angled view taken part way down the steps. The setting sun is to my left from this angle.

Sunset Tones

Realising I was going to miss sunset due to being surrounded by trees, I rushed to this more open spot to try and catch the tail end of the colour.

There are some lovely shots here, beautiful winter light.
Sorry to hear about the redundancy. Do you think you will look for something else, or maybe freelance? It's moments like this when we take stock and maybe branch onto an unexpected path. The opportunity to address fitness is probably a godsend. Hope all goes well for you.

I'm seriously considering setting up as an Indie developer / software consultant again, although from what I can tell, setting up and running your own business over here is a lot more hassle than when I was last doing it more than a decade ago. I need to try and get on top of my health first, so I'm in no rush.
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SteveMonks
Members 469 posts

Dec. 21, 2025, 8:35 p.m. Dec. 21, 2025, 8:35 p.m.
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@NCV has written:

@SteveMonks has written:

Returning To The Moors

It's been a weird few weeks. I was made redundant about a month ago and to be honest, I was kind of relieved. As I've noted previously on here, my fitness levels have been in freefall for the last year or so, not helped by a number of medical conditions that I've been suffering from for a while now, so against that backdrop, the daily grind was becoming a real struggle.

So, with plenty of free time on my hands I've been attempting to build my fitness back up with daily walks (hence the increased number of wildlife photography encounters over the past few weeks). This was going well until the FluVID hit and knocked me out of commission for the best part of two weeks (a week with symptoms, followed by a week of feeling weak).

Peaceful Pike

A lone hiker sits enjoying the peace at the top of Rivington Pike. It actually wasn't as peaceful as it appears. There are people milling around just out of shot and several hidden by the structure itself. It was pretty cold and windy too. But ignoring all of that, it was nice and the light was getting really soft and golden with sunset due in about half an hour.

When I composed this shot, I intended to leave the building and hiker as silhouettes and I think this works out well. It also hides the abandoned bike that's been dumped in front of the structure deep in the shadows.

A really good set this week. This is the winner for me.

Getting made redundant is pretty moral sapping, but sometimes a blessing. When it happened to me 10 years ago, I set up my own Engineering studio and was amazed that after the first year I had doubled my earnings, by the end of the second. I had seen redundancy coming and had been doing some freelance things on the side, but was amazed how I was able to build a small business on my own.

Like you I am out of practice and climbing steep hills is becoming a bit difficult.

I'm hopeful this will be a good thing in the long run. I'm probably going to look at starting up my own game dev / software consultancy business again. I was doing quite well as an independent developer over a decade ago before getting drawn back into working for someone else and to be honest, I've never really been that happy working for someone else since. I think once you've had a taste of the freedom being self employed brings it's hard to give it up.

My current focus though is on taking a very long break and trying to get myself back into good shape, at least as much as my heart medication will allow.

NCV likes this.

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SteveMonks
Members 469 posts

Dec. 21, 2025, 8:45 p.m. Dec. 21, 2025, 8:45 p.m.
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@Wormsmeat has written:

@SteveMonks has written:

Returning To The Moors

It's been a weird few weeks. I was made redundant about a month ago and to be honest, I was kind of relieved. As I've noted previously on here, my fitness levels have been in freefall for the last year or so, not helped by a number of medical conditions that I've been suffering from for a while now, so against that backdrop, the daily grind was becoming a real struggle.

So, with plenty of free time on my hands I've been attempting to build my fitness back up with daily walks (hence the increased number of wildlife photography encounters over the past few weeks). This was going well until the FluVID hit and knocked me out of commission for the best part of two weeks (a week with symptoms, followed by a week of feeling weak).

This is an angled view taken part way down the steps. The setting sun is to my left from this angle.

Sunset Tones

Realising I was going to miss sunset due to being surrounded by trees, I rushed to this more open spot to try and catch the tail end of the colour.

These two have such beautiful colours. lot of gorgeous light in this series.
I'm sorry to hear about the job. You say you're relieved but I can't help thinking you've probably got a few other emotions too.

Seriously, for now it's all good, a bit of anxiety about it at first, but now I'm a few weeks into it I'm a lot more relaxed. I will eventually have to get back to making some sort of income and, as I've said in other replies, I may look into returning to self employment as an indie dev / software consultant which is something I did quite successfully in the past, but for now, I'm taking a very, very long break and just trying to get my health and fitness back to an acceptable level before I even start to think about that.
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SteveMonks
Members 469 posts

Dec. 21, 2025, 8:53 p.m. Dec. 21, 2025, 8:53 p.m.
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@Daneland has written:

@SteveMonks has written:

Returning To The Moors

Dark silhouettes and the Italian lake reflection shot are my favourites. I probably had FluVID a couple of months ago, or maybe even earlier. I think it started much earlier than usual this year. I don’t know what to say about your job situation; I wish you all the best.

Thanks, I'm fine with the (lack of a) job situation for the time being, I really need a very long break. The (games) industry is in a bit of state right now, so stepping out of it for a bit feels like the right thing to do while it all settles down, plus I can take some time to work on my health and fitness.
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davidwien
Team 1974 posts

Dec. 21, 2025, 8:55 p.m. Dec. 21, 2025, 8:55 p.m.
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The last (eighth) day of Channukah began this evening.

Happy Holidays!

David

L1010246_b.jpg
JPG, 1.0 MB, uploaded by davidwien on Dec. 21, 2025.
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NCV
Members 2418 posts

Dec. 21, 2025, 9:34 p.m. Dec. 21, 2025, 9:34 p.m.
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@davidwien has written:

The last (eighth) day of Channukah began this evening.

Happy Holidays!

David

Auguri, and let's hope 2026 is a happier year than 2025.
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ChrisOly
Members 2078 posts

Dec. 22, 2025, 1:49 a.m. Dec. 22, 2025, 1:49 a.m.
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@Woodsider79 has written:

A ...

Absolutely wonderful!
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ChrisOly
Members 2078 posts

Dec. 22, 2025, 1:49 a.m. Dec. 22, 2025, 1:49 a.m.
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@Daneland has written:

The British Museum, it is seen from the post building roof garden.

Love that panorama.
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ChrisOly
Members 2078 posts

Dec. 22, 2025, 1:52 a.m. Dec. 22, 2025, 1:52 a.m.
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@davidwien has written:

The last (eighth) day of Channukah began this evening.

Happy Holidays!

David

Just fabulous. Flames are bending...
And reflections. Brilliant.