Wicken Fen RPS Visit

I kept my 100% record of interesting weather at Wicken Fen for RPS Nature Group visits with high winds, magnificent clouds and even a rainbow. In between this we managed some interesting birds. Some of the group got some great shots of the Hen Harrier female and Little Owl - mine come in the 'record' category! There were also fighting Coots, Kingfisher, Heron etc but all these at a 'distance'

 

Refractions and Iridescence in Raindroplets

I was using my telephoto lens (equivalent of 800 mm on full frame camera) to photograph birds but became distracted by the water droplets - their colours and refractions of the backgrounds - twigs or, in one case, barbed wire. Some also show spectral refractions of the low sunlight. Images 3-5 show the effects of moving the focus points closer. 

End of Storm Lorenzo

The weather was much better than the original forecast today with a dry sunny afternoon, finishing with a dramatic sunset in the west and double rainbow in the east.

Playing With Colour Interference and Transmission

1. The colours seen in a soap bubble arise from interference of light reflecting off the front and back surfaces of the thin soap film. Depending on the thickness of the film of soap, different colours interfere constructively and destructively.

2. Dichroic cubes have several surfaces that transmit light of a certain waveband and reflect its complement. They have dielectric coatings that result in a steep transition between the region of transmission and reflection, which is sensitive to the angle of view - hence these clear cubes appear multicolour viewed with a white light source

3. A CD is made up of thousands of pits arranged in the form of spiral tracks. When visible light is incident on the pits, each pit diffracts light in all directions. They act as a diffraction grating separating a light into its constituents forming rainbow colours.  The colours that overlap are seen brighter than the colours that cancel each other.

Old Harwich - Rain Stopped Play

Having seen Old Harwich from a distance when out on Thames barges etc, I was keen to visit it Certainly it deserves longer to explore with its colour-coordinated toilets - pink for the girls!, numerous old building including the Electric  Palace, two lighthouses and views of the docks. Unfortunately my visit was cut short as I got very wet in one of the squally showers and I decided that the cameras (and me) had better dry off in the warm car on the way home.

 

Interesting Weather at Dovercourt 1. Beach Huts

Appropriate that, after lecturing on photographing in all weathers the evening before, yesterday should have produced a lot of the wet and windy kind. Several rainbows during the morning with bright sunshine and great cloud formations, interspersed with rain and sleet. First the beach huts with that iconic lighthouse to follow!

 

Rainbow at the End of the Day; A Visit to Schwarzsee, Austria

A very enjoyable day walking to and around the Schwarzsee concluded with a spectacular rainbow over Kitzbuhel town and valley. The lake is a dark colour from the underlying peat soil; this contributes to its warm water - 24 degrees when Peter swam in it yesterday It was a cooler day with showers so we found lots of insects in the grass too cold to move fast including Damselflies and this beautiful Dragonfly (IDs to follow).