Autumn Lady's Tresses

Although very small, the white flowers of the Autumn Lady's Tresses are miniature versions of the showy cultivated orchids that are sold in garden centres everywhere. The flowers spiral round the stem, hence its Latin name Spiranthes spiralis. First image with 280mm lens length 5.6 aperture and focus bracketed with 10 shots, stacked with Zerene. Next two show the extremes of the stack - not quite enough depth as info for next attempt! The camera was flat on the ground shooting through the foliage to give the soft foreground. The rest are with the 50mm macro.  The first a stack of 15 images 2.8 aperture, then single images at F16 and F8. Thanks Richard for showing us these very small orchids on a hillside in Bedfordshire. 

Bat Safari in Cambridge

Fortunately, our Bat Safari  was booked for Saturday night, the only dry evening in the last three. We were lucky with a soft sunset giving great light on the water, rising mist on the river and then an orange full moon rose over Grantchester Meadows. We saw and/or heard with the detectors lots of bats of several species.

Fuji X-T2 Now Has Focus Bracketing

It has taken a while to arrive, but now the latest models come with Focus Bracketing and it is available as a Firmware update for the X-T2. Here are a few shots from yesterday. The first two are comparison shots with the 50mm macro, handheld. The first is 6 shots at F2.8  stacked with Zerene software . The second is a single-shot comparison image at F8. The next five images are with the 50-140 mm lens (plus X 2 converter, F5.6) using  5, 10 or 15 shots and stacked with Zerene software. I need to experiment with the number of shots, interval etc and preferably using a tripod as I don't keep the long lens exactly on target. The last shot is with the 50mm macro and is at F16 as the background here was sufficiently far away not to require stacking.

 

Lunch at Wetherspoons

Sadie enjoyed taking these photos (other than her portrait) and shows quite an artistic eye.

 

Late Swallow Brood at Welney Wildfowl Trust Centre

While many Swallows are getting ready for their migration to Africa, this pair have a quite young brood in one of the hides. Not grat photos as very cark, but good to get the feeding action and the ejection of a faecal pellet. Very smart bee (ID to follow) and  a Hobby with a mouse(140mm lens!) - I thought it was a Kestrel.

Preseason Matches at CRUFC v Sheffield Tigers

Cambridge Rugby Union Football Club won both of the two warm-up matches on Saturday against Sheffield Tigers convincingly (59-0 and 38-5) playing in Red for one match and Black in the other. They certainly have some strong new players in their squad including Sam Yawayawa, a previous England U16 and a Scotland U20 international. Here a mixture of the two games with humour, tries and ball-passing action.

 

The Blue Bridge

Although we have passed under the footbridge over the A428 at Hardwick many times, we had never previously walked across it. Yesterday I set off over the bridge to walk the footpath and record the insect life but the path is absolutely bare with no flowers remaining so photographed the bridge and road instead!

Lackford Lakes Up Close

A small party of CCC Members scoured Lackford on Wednesday - some hunting the birds while others got their heads down in the foliage to see what stirred. For those at Ian's talk last night, these are processed with Capture One rather than Lightroom and certainly the software has done a good job on the Fuji Files. I exported these via Lightroom and forgot to reduce the Export xharpening so some look a bit over-sharpened!