Paxton Pits

 Very hot and humid day for a visit to Paxton Pits. There was very little activity on the lakes except for a pair Great Crested Grebes that flew after each other across the water, attempting to escape from their vociferous offspring. Gatekeeper and Brimstone butterflies and Banded Demoiselles kept us happy until the heat got too much (33 degrees on car thermometer).

Silver Efex Comparisons

Some examples of processing with Silver Efex Pro (on left) and the equivalent file adjusted in Lightroom to be as close as possible to that achieved with SE. The differences show the reasons for choosing Silver Efex as my main monochrome tool. The last two have the same amount of highlight priority vignette applied after other adjustments in Lightroom showing the more natural effect with the SEP file.

Red Hat Society Visit Cambridge

While running a one-to-one photocourse in Cambridge yesterday, we came across these ladies brightening up the town in every way. Thanks Chris for enlightening about the Red Hat Society. There are more than 40,000 chapters in American  but also 100 chapters in UK (http://britishredhatters2.weebly.com/). They follow the  opening lines of a popular poem by Jenny Joseph to dress 'disgracefully' and to have fun. They welcome new members so if you fancy dressing up, visiting lots of places and celebrating birthdays etc in style then visit their website (http://redhatsociety.com/).

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple

 With a red hat that doesn't go and doesn't suit me.

Monochrome at Wicken

 The very contrasty light and the predominance of orange insects against green backgrounds produce very striking monochromes. All except the butterfly are done just with Raw converter but will perfect in Silver Efex at some stage and repost some.

Wicken Fen

 For once the weather was just right for the RPS Nature Group outing that I was running at Wicken Fen. It started cool and misty giving us time to get our eye in and adjust the cameras. These Giant Water Beetles put on quite a show including nipping my finger when I tried to move a distraction in the pool. It then cleared to a very warm, sunny and windless afternoon. There were lots of Ruddy Darters around - some mating pairs which gave the usual depth of field problems - at F16 they are well in focus throughout but the background is intrusive; at F9 parts of the wing are out of focus but a good background. I spent a lot of time trying to capture my favourite dragonfly, the Brown Hawker, in flight.

On Hunstanton Pier

When the wind got too much yesterday, I took refuge in the Pier amusements at Hunstanton. I was amazed how much the machines had changed since I last visited an arcade - all of them now have small toys and tickets for prizes rather than just the coin drop.  

Contrasting Sports in Hunstanton

It was very windy in Hunstanton this morning (stayed overnight after lecturing to Brancaster CC - thanks for your welcome). This presented difficulties for the Bowls but provided excellent condition for the wind surfers.

Thames Barge Race

After all the hot dry weather of the last 2 weeks, it was inevitable that it would change on the day I had booked to follow the Thames Barge Race from Pin Mill. It was raining hard and very windy when we left Ipswich at 6.30am and continued for most of the day with just a short dry spell in the middle of the day. The rain helped to add atmosphere to the pictures but the wind meant that we couldn't go out to the open sea as Kitty, the barge we were on, is smaller and lighter than those competing.I did get a few distant shots of the larger classes sailing out from the harbour. Anyway I enjoyed the day though may have to try again for the images I had in mind for today.