Friday, October 1, 2010

Flowers in the Rain

Just a few wet flowers that attracted my attention when looking round the garden in the rain.









Monday, September 27, 2010

Saturday's Wedding

Angi and Phil's wedding on Saturday was a very happy event - how could it fail to be with 8 small boys and several sets of balloons. It made photography a bit difficult especially when trying a group shot as none of the children wanted to stay still for more than a second.
If you were at the wedding, the photos can be viewed on

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Autograss Racing

We had arranged to take photographs at the Autograss racing at St Neots today and, despite a very cold wind and intermittent rain, we stuck to the plan and spent 6 cold hours on a field watching cars go round and round a dirt track. The Specials gave the most action during the day with some spin-offs and battles with the cones. The Saloons were more 'sedate' but still ended up the wrong way round on occasions.














Friday, September 24, 2010

Horses

We have had two pairs of horses in the field along our lane for many weeks now and, every time there is some lovely evening light, I think 'I must get out and photograph them'. Well last afternoon I did. Here we have mother and daughter on the left and the larger male foal on the right - his mother is quite nervous of the camera so took off at fast rate most times.

I tried two different monochrome conversions on one of the pictures - either with maximum or minimum green channel and adjustments on other colours. I liked the minimum green channel conversion and used this for the other monochromes.





















Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Christmas Comes Early to Toft Wood

After a misty dawn, the dew-covered cobwebs in our local wood gave the appearance of tinsel. The pink Spindle berries looked extra good with a covering of cobweb. The photos were taken with a Sony Cybershot which has a lot of chromatic abberation especially at the edges of the lens, This gave some interesting macro shots of the dew drops.




Saturday, September 18, 2010

Gannets

I needed an image to advertise a talk I am doing entitled Inspired by Nature and found this one from a trip over to Bass Rock. Obviously a composite but it is the feeling you get when the Gannets swoop in to get the fish thrown into the water from the boat.

Friday, September 17, 2010

King's College

I have visited Kings College a great many times taking visitors round the building and yet there are always corners or views that I missed on a previous visit.
I was attracted by the very varied 'furniture' that had been left in one corner of the Chapel.
The old glass on an inner window has beautiful soft colours echoed in the roof on the rather dull day on Tuesday.
Finally an image of quiet contemplation in a side chapel.





Monday, September 13, 2010

Barn Owl Take Off

Two shots of a Barn Owl getting airborn in beautiful evening light.


Sunday, September 12, 2010

Dragon Boat Racing

A few pictures from the Dragon boat racing on the Cam yesterday. The crew featured here are the Viking Queens in case you couldn't guess!

It was a showery and blustery start to the day. This did not deter the participants but did result in a capsize
after one of the races. Visibility was very poor by then with the rain.








Friday, September 10, 2010

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Leaf-cutter ants


Spent some time studying and photographing these leaf-cutter ants. They cut and carry the leaf pieces back to the nest as fodder for the fungi that then feed the young. I was intrigued by the presence on many of the leaf fragments of 'passenger' ants - always smaller than the ant carrying the leaf.
Update from Web
This is a known behaviour - the smaller ants climb on to guard the larger ant carrying the leaf












Sunday, September 5, 2010

Saturday afternoon

Tynemouth Station hosts an indoor market every Saturday and Sunday - a wonderful miscellany of stalls.
A visit to Blyth beach with its Battle emplacement, beach huts and wind turbines was very enjoyable in warm September sunshine.














Saturday, September 4, 2010

Toy Museum

Wonderful collection of Toys in this Museum on Tynemouth front. The owner was there to chat to and has been collecting toys into this museum for 20 years. Gave me a chance for a lot of nostalgia - even found some Bayko - my favourite toy as a kid.