Ely Abstracts

During our walk round Ely on Sunday, I photographed quite a few patterns and textures - here is a selection.

Playing with Lighting Fungi at Wandlebury

Despite all the rain, fungi were in pretty short supply at Wandlebury but I found a few to practise different lighting set ups (flash, gels and continuous LED). The minute spider was obviously attracted  (or disturbed) by the underneath lighting and got in on the act. The gills of a large bracket on a beech tree reminded me of the fan vaulting in King's college Chapel but so much more intricate.

Cambridge Botanic Gardens - Glasshouse Windows

The second topic that I tackled on Sunday was the condensation and algae etc on the windows in the hothouses plus glimspes of what is beyond. Such a variety of colours and shapes it was difficult to know where to stop but here are a few.

Details from the Cambridge Mosque

I took fewer pictures than  I might have done on Wednesday if I hadn't got intrigued by geometric art, much of it, as with other features of the mosque, based on 4. Sometimes this was 'simple' as with the third and fourth images with two squares, one inverted to form a star. The door decoration was more complex with an 8-star in the first and a 12-star in the second, each multiples of 4. These complex geometric designs create the impression of unending repetition, demonstrating that, in the small, you can find the infinite, reminding Muslims that Allah is infinite. Circles have no end and so are also present. Calligraphy is a major art form in Islam and the Mosque walls in many places, including the exterior, are decorated with calligraphy portrayed with bricks.

This ancient use of geometry and repeating patterns as the language of the universe is reflected in scientific studies on the crystalline structure of matter.

 

Still Waters etc

 I went to photograph the meadows in Grantchester in the fog but found it had cleared so looked for other subjects. The snow was starting to thaw off the branches overhanging the river creating interesting ripples among the reflected trees.

Botanic Reflections

A visit to the Botanic Gardens today in very flat lighting produced some interesting patterns in the leaf shapes and the reflected trees in the lake. I could see all manner of faces in the first image - especially for Tricia (I hope the ankle is less painful in the airboot).

Texture Time

I was leaving a house today after doing a framing job in Cambridge and noticed these wonderful suckers from a Virginia Creeper that had been stripped off the wall. I then took a couple more textures - first a small fungus growing through a hoarding on East Road and a brick wall alongside the road that has been eaten into by traffic pollution.