Ainsdale beach

I am staying in Ainsdale near Southport with Dianne and Bernard. Thanks for great hospitality. We had a morning walk on the beach with collie Canon and found some frozen oil pools and shells.

Tilt and shift lens

I decided to give the Tilt and shift an outing in Blackpool. They are redoing all of the South Promenade so the area in front of the Tower was a large building site. I am sure it will be worth it when done but meant a lot of extra walking to visit the sands.






















These two show the effect of the tilt lens - the first unshifted and the second with the lens lifted.

Fost at Lytham

Some photos from a lovely frosty morning yesterday on the shore at Lytham St Annes. As usual the amazing selection of dogs attracted my camera including this very happy Springer spaniel

Starlings at Blackpool

We cancelled a trip to Otmoor to see the starling roost on Saturday as they had left the reserve during the week. I was therefore delighted to watch a large display of roosting starlings at Blackpool. They rested temporarily on the big wheel on the South Pier before leaving this and wheeling around before finally roosting under the North Pier.

Water Rail

A visit to Wicken Fen this morning was rewarded with great views of a Water Rail - normally a very shy bird.

Audley End

Four pictures taken of the frost at Audley end on Tuesday morning. The soft colours in the panorama shot gives it the look of a painting

.

Epping Forest

I was staying in Iford overnight on Monday so came back via Epping Forest. There had been freezing fog overnight at higher levels and the trees in those areas were covered in hoar frost. Even when the sun broke through mid morning the frost remained.

Frosty Morning

After a couple of milder days, last night was very cold again and the birds quickly came to the apples that are on the ground this morning. Lots of Fieldfares, Blackbirds and Starlings. A single Redwing came but was a lot less bold than the other species.

Art at the Varsity

If anyone is in Cambridge on Tuesday 7th December between 6 and 9 pm, do come and meet me at the new Hotel on Thompsons Lane in Cambridge where myself and four other artists have their work displayed.

Snow in November

Not had much time for photography recently but wanted to record the November snow on my blog. This is partly for Brian and Sally out there in Thailand basking in the heat. Also because I make a diary book of the blog each year and like to have any unusual weather patterns to look back on. The diary is very easy to make using Blurb books. There is an option Blog to Book and this downloads all the blog entries into a 7 by 7 in book. I do quite a lot of moving of pictures to adjust the page layouts as it comes in with one post per page.
So far our part of Cambridgeshire has only had a light cover of snow but more is forecast so watch this space.

Night Photography in Cambridge

This was taken when it was completely dark so the trees are lit just by light from the buildings opposite. 30 sec exposure, f4 and ISO800. It was then colour corretced taking the cloud as neutral grey.

Other shots taken on the same night but using smaller aperture to give starburst effect to lights

Ultra Macro

Three images from a trip to the Botanic Gardens using the 50mm macro with life-size converter and a 25mm extension tube.

Birthday Party

Fun at a first birthday party for Isla. If you were at the party and wish to view the photos they are at http://www.photoboxgallery.com/4214. The password is Isla's brother's name.

Edith's Embroidery

Here is the display of my mother's embroideries in the Church, which we photographed before we took them down after the Funeral on Thursday. They encompass nearly 70 of her 98 years and show many changing styles and interests. The beautiful fire screen sampler is probably the earliest piece depicting a different flower for nine months in very fine needlework. The 'zoological' ones were inspired by my drawings while I was doing Natural Sciences at Cambridge. Later pieces show visits to Kew, bluebell woods, New Zealand rain forests and an East Anglian carved angel roof.