Friday's Wedding

The rain kindly stayed away right till the evening for Jon and Liz's wedding. The title for the first image is 'On Parade' - would have liked all the flowers held as the centre bridesmaid.

It is always difficult to get all the guests in a single shot - not quite everyone can be seen but gives a memory of the occasion.

The Bride and Groom travelled between Wilburton Church and the Orchard at Aldreth in a beautifully turned out and decorated horse and cart.

The reception was held in a working orchard - a wonderful setting.

IR in Cambridge

Some infrared images from a trip into Cambridge. The two ladies on the bridge were both wearing black - one must reflect or radiate a lot more infrared than the other.

I have done water lilies before with infrared - it makes the leaves translucent. I tried a flower as well this time.

Croome Park

Visited Croome Park near Worcester today. We had some strange wet stuff falling from the sky - I wished I could send it over to Cambridgeshire.
Sun came out later and then the dragonflies and other insects got active.
The Emperor dragonflies were easier to photograph than the Brown Hawker as their flight path was more predictable but still very difficult.
The Common Blue butterfly and Hoverfly on Convolvulus showed up well in dull lighting

Burwash Manor Farm

A couple of images from our trip to Burwash - taken 1/400th f14 with 100-400 plus 25mm ext tube - unsharpened etc

Summer at Paxton Pits

We visited Paxton Pits after about a month's absence and were amazed how the foliage has grown. There was very little evidence of the presence of all the birds that we know are breeding there. I did get this glimpse of a young robin as it hopped out of cover.

The Mallard duck was looking after eighteen ducklings - a huge family if they are all hers. Do Mallard run creches?

There was a Brown Hawker patrolling its territory - I managed a quick shot of the head before it shot off again.

The Arrowhead was in full bloom in the river but I liked the upright leaves best.

Closeup on Moths

I have been trying various combinations of 50 mm macro lens with 25 mm tube and/or Life-size converter. I haven't completed the tests yet but thought I would post these rather splendid moth heads - Elephant Hawkmoth, Satin Moth and Peppered Moth

Like Mother Like Son

A few images of the mare and foal in the field opposite our bungalow. The foal has grown very quickly and is looking less like a rocking horse model now.

Stormy Sunset

Did anyone else have a wonderful stormy sky sunset yesterday? This was the view out of the front of our bungalow so I took a short walk up onto the fields and used the fish-eye to capture the whole of the sky.

Amazing effect when looking directly up as if the convex surface of a
planet rather than into a receding sky.

Underground

Four images from a journey across London yesterday on the Underground including a couple more takes on Mind the Gap.

The fourth picture is taken when the Underground is overground which helps with the lighting. I think I enjoy photographing in the Underground because of the very cleans lines and limited colour palette.

For Alice to choose

10 photos taken for possible cover of Cambridgeshire Journal

Porter's Way Cambridgeshire

Two traditional monchrome conversions from my Digital Infra red camera of the cloud formations yesterday morning near our home in Cambridgeshire.

The third picture is a conversion from the original colour infrared (magenta) giving an old-fashioned colour print look to the image.

Edith at 98

Not much time for photography this week but thought those who know her would like this photo of my mother on her birthday on Friday.

Wimpole and the Amazing Dragonfly

A couple of images from a trip to Wimpole Hall - there had been a scything workshop the weekend before so there were a couple of hay waggons in front of the Hall creating great timeless images. The sky was incredible on Saturday when I took these images.

This Emperor dragonfly was laying eggs in one of the ponds at Barton - a drop of water on its eye is acting as a magnifying glass so you can see all the individual ocelli of the enormous compound eye.