Flies etc at National Botanic Gardens of Wales

 A variety of Hoverflies and one Bee (on the pink flower) taken at National Botanic Garden of Wales last Friday using 300mm f4 lens with 12.5 or 25mm extension tube. I was testing what aperture would give sufficient depth of field. At the largest magnification (25mm ring), it required f22 to get sufficient depth. Shooting with the 12.5 ring or without rings and then cropping in much tighter in Lightroom resulted in more depth of field so some here are shot at f11.

Cardiff Bay Barrage and Penarth

I wasn't aware that there was a concrete society award - I presume the award applies to the concrete rather than society!. The pink elephant looks down on the extensive concrete jetty and the metal louvre structures over the sluice gates of the Cardiff Bay barrage. Even early in the morning when I took the shots, the bridges were constantly lifting to let boats through the locks. Penarth esplanade and pier have undergone a lot of modernisation in recent years enjoyed on Saturday by fisherman and the occasional tourist.

Light and Shade in Bath

A few images taken in beautiful evening light in Bath.

'Super moon'

Taken as the moon rose on Tuesday evening around 7.30pm. By 7.45pm it was too bright to get all the detail easily.

Up and Down in Greenwich

This image looking down to the Thames from the steps of the Naval college had the feel of an old oil painting due to the architecture and the old ships.When you look more closely at the clothing and the distance and it brings it back to the 21st century. If I had thought it would have been good to get the ships from the north bank as then the scene would have differed little from Canaletto's famous 1750's image 

The following images look up and down and also in the first 6 images compare a fisheye 15mm with a 24mm lens. The last two are also fisheye images.

 

Tall Ships at Greenwich

We made the journey down to Woolwich and Greenwich to view the Tall Ships Festival. We were disappointed by the number of Tallships moored at these two sites and the lack of a parade on the Sunday but enjoyed the general atmosphere and the Greenwich  venues as usual. Here are the ship images from the day -  the first one of the Grayhound Lugger is my favourite as there was still mist around looking towards the sun.

Cambridge Rugby Union football club

First match of the season and Cambridge RUFC were narrowly defeated by Taunton (22/27). Sparse crowd resulted in some rather sterile backgrounds but good lighting helped make up for this. CCC's sponsored player is injured at the moment.

Addenbrookes Charitable Trust Garden Party

I helped photograph Addenbrookes' Charitable Trust's Garden Party and Hog Roast for the general staff at the hospital to promote their work in raising money for equipment etc. The next big event will be the Rudolph Run on the 7th December, an event that we enjoyed photographing last year.