May Bumps Cambridge

The weather forecast was fairly pessimistic for Thursday evening but I decided to visit the Bumps on the Cam anyway. In fact the light was fantastic with dark clouds and sunny intervals.
The first picture shows one of the women's crews rowing pass Fen Ditton Church up to the start point at Bate Bite's Lock. It is an event peculiar to Cambridge - first of all, the May Bumps, like May Balls occur in June. The boats go off at regular intervals and the aim is to 'bump' the boat in front. This normally takes place on the corners. In the second photo a 'Bump' is about to occur.

If this happens, the front Cox raises a hand and both boats retire to the bank. The victorious crew decorate themselves with greenery from the trees along the river while the losing team can find the long journey back very tiring. The two boats will swap positions in the next line up.

Norfolk Poppies

It is odd why just one field of rape seed should produce such a wonderful display of poppies while similar fields around have just a few red patches.

This one near Swaffham is one of the best I have seen and was just at its peak yesterday.






Although the hairs show up best on a sunny day, yesterday's dull conditions worked OK with backlighting and there weren't the usual bright shiny areas to detract.

Brancaster Beach

Arrived a bit early for giving talk to Brancaster Camera Club and went down to the beach. It was a great moment to arrive with rain clouds gathering and the tide just filling the pools around the posts. I am looking forward to trying a monochrome print to accentuate the lighting and texture.

Thanks to Brancaster CC and, particularly Jill and Jim for their hospitality.

Shades of Green

It is amazing how quickly the fields change colour at this time of the year. The wheat already has large ears of corn although the plants are less than a foot high. The rape fields have turned a silver colour.

Great to see a lot of bees around this year.

Poppy Time Again

Noticed some very red fields around Cambridge already - these are from last year but will have to get shooting the poppies again.

Hunstanton Cliffs

A reminder when it is a typical grey summer day just how beautiful the light can be in England.

Facing west on the East coast

An image from Hunstanton at six o'clock on Friday evening as the sun was going down and most of the people had left the beach. It always seems wrong that an East coast resort can face West but here is proof that it does.

Feeble Attempts at Flying Dragonflies

Using Servo autofocus, it was probably a full hour till I managed to get one in the frame and press the shutter. This first attempt is as one of the numerous four-spotted chasers took off from a perch with its legs dangling. Persevered for further hour and managed the second image of chaser against grass. I then decided to switch to manual focus and just press whenever a chaser came into the frame - most often pursued by another. I was using 1250th second but there is still movement in body and wings. Plenty of scope for hours more experimentation!!

Mayflies at Granchester

A walk in the meadows at Granchester yesterday evening was a delight with warm evening sunshine and hardly any wind. The hot weather after a couple of cold days was ideal conditions for Mayflies to hatch and swarm. I was surprised to have caught them so clearly in this image looking towards the setting sun (shielded by the tall hedge). Will have another attempt - next time choosing manual focus at various distances.
















Adult of Ephemera danica is about 20 mm long excluding the three tail filaments.The adults do not feed and generally live for less than a day. During this brief existence they must mate and lay eggs. The nymphs of Ephemera live and burrow in gravel, sandy or muddy areas of rivers and lakes. Nymphal development may take up to two years, but most mayflies complete their life cycle in one year.
This one has been caught in a spider's web over the water.

Shield Bugs

For those who came to the CCC Nature Group and tried to identify the beautiful small eggs that Stephen had photographed, they have now hatched and revealed themselves as Shield Bugs.

Photo by Stephen Brown

Reflection

Travelodge at Cheltenham reflected in one of the derelict buildings on the Film Studio site. We were there for a weekend called the 'Brilliance of Photography' hosted by the RPS Contemporary Group and it certainly was brilliant with a wide range of excellent speakers.

Head adornments

Having been the photographer for several weddings lately, I was immediately drawn to this Crested Pigeon's amazing head gear - would put many a wedding hat into the shade.

Experiments in Green

Having recently set 'Green' as a category in a club competition because I often don't like it in my images, I thought I would try some all green abstracts.

I particularly like the 'bottom' in the top right image - perhaps a portfolio of human forms in foliage is on the horizon.

Tawny Frogmouth

Some wide angle views of a very confiding Tawny Frogmouth. They are often called Frogmouth owl but are actually related to Nightjars. They are usually nocturnal and have excellent camouflage. The Tawny Frogmouth feeds on rats, mice, cicadas, beetles, frogs and other small prey. They catch their prey with their beaks rather than with their talons, another way in which they are different from owls. The gape is amazing and eyelashes and facial hairs presumably help them to be silent at night. The Frogmouth could see itself in my Fisheye lens and its own eye appeared also to be very convex and may well have 180 degree vision also

Wedding Transport

What Bride doesn't dream of a shining white Rolls for their wedding car complete with ribbons and

sparkling chrome

Sometimes reality is a little different.

Inevitable with all the recent rain that today's posting features very wet flowers. When I looked out of the window this morning, I thought the oriental poppies with Nigella foliage looked wonderful covered in rain drops so I went outside to take a few more shots.
It was not easy as there was not much light and quite a breeze.

I hope it clears up for the wedding that I am photographing later today. Otherwise it will be more umbrella shots.

One of My Favourite Flowers

Classed as a weed in the garden, I love Cow Parsley where it occurs en masse at this time of year. Its local name of Queen Anne's Lace describes how it appears under the chestnut trees here in Toft.

More from Bletchley

Two images of the old huts - it will be a great shame if it all gets tidied up when the site is developed further. However, Health and Safety will probably prevail as there is a high asbestos content in the materials used in the hut construction.

Signs of bewilderment and then the need for a prayer seemed to sum up the early attempts at code breaking.

Windy Sky

Wonderful cloud formations this morning.

Evening in the Bluebells

One more from the Ashridge bluebells - I loved the shadows thrown by the low sun.

Ashridge Bluebells

As expected the bluebells were a little past their best but still a wonderful sight. Lots of children were there after school and several of the uniforms were purple, although there were also some splashes of red. The light was very changeable and fairly low level which was quite a challenge.

Bletchley Park Visit

A guided tour round Bletchley Park was very enjoyable thanks to our informative and amusing Guide. I got very interested in the doorways and staircases on the huts. Here are a couple of the wrought iron staircases.

Strange Light

Very weird light early this morning when I looked out of study window

. Looks as if the world had been converted to monochrome and then split toned!

Oil-seed rape fields

Three more images of the oilseed-rape fields around Toft in Cambridgeshire

Dandelion heads

Taken on my morning walk with my Lumix digital camera and processed from raw using just Lightroom. Very pleased with the result as the Panasonic is great to carry in a pocket but I hadn't previously tested the macro mode. The image on the left is the unadjusted file.