Madingley Hall and American Cemetery

A very enjoyable meet up with other CCC Members on Saturday at Madingley Hall. As there were wonderful clouds, contrasty monochrome worked well. Some of us then visited the American Cemetery where I decided to experiment with exposure blending to simulate long exposure technique (30 images with 1 second exposures were stacked together to give the equivalent of a 30-sec exposure)

Star Trail Project

Last night was very clear so I had another go at star trails - this time in the back garden. This is 100 exposures 30seconds each. The first image is a composite of the night sky (image 2) plus the processed star trail (second image with Plough constellation marked). 

Spring Arrives at Anglesey Abbey

The Snowdrops are at their peak at Anglesey Abbey along with Aconites, Spring cyclamen and Witch Hazel, all looking great in the sunshine. Second photo shows how close the side angle attachment allows me to get with my X100V compact. 

Night Sky Project

We are in the process of planning a Star Trails evening for CCC. Last night was the first clear night since the moon waned enough, so I ventured out at around 21.30 to see what my nearest sky-view point gave me. There was quite a bit of low cloud especially to the north so not ideal. The first five images are pointing South to South East, so towards Comberton and Cambridge. The star trail image is from a stack of 20 images (30 seconds each, F4, 16 mm equivalent focal length). The last image looks North - the Plough constellation is in the image but not the Pole star. Lessons learned - probably need c80-100 images, a clear sky and a wider lens if possible.

Tate Britain - The Other Staircase

There seems to be very little written about Tate Britain's colorful staircase other than it is the work of David Tremlett who, in 2011, was asked to create a work for the entrance of the Manton Hall at Tate Britain titled 'Drawing for Free Thinking'. I greatly enjoyed photographing it both in wide view from various positions and some double exposures of the details.

 

UV Fluorescence in Lichens

I collected some different lichens during a conservation morning at Paxton Pits and photographed them with a macro lens using a UV torch. The UV light is absorbed into the subject and visible light is re-emitted at different wavelengths giving beautiful colours for with Xanthoria parietina (white light images on the right to compare) . The last two lichens (Usnea species and ?genus) did not fluoresce

 

Misty Trees

Here is a series of misty tree images taken last week near my home in Cambridgeshire converted to monochrome. They are a mixture of Ash and Willows. I tried some double exposures but I think these work bet with simpler tree shapes.