Beechwood Hanger in the Rain

Although raining fairly heavily, Jane and I decided on a walk in the Beechwoods off Wort's Causeway to try a bit of creative camera movement and double exposures. The woods are incredibly green with moss and lichen after all the rain and the mild winter. Unfortunately the afternoon ended with the discovery that my car had been broken into and the my Canon camera gear (taken just the Fuji), laptop etc had all been stolen from the boot. As I was on my way back from a lecturing 'tour' I had more with me than usual though everything of value was stowed in the boot. However, there is always access via the back seats. A reason to have a saloon not hatchback next time! To add to the problems of sorting it out, my passport, marriage certificate and various other official documents were in the boot as I had been to the bank to help sort out a locked Camera Club account on Tuesday before leaving for Yorkshire.

RSPB Reserve,Fairburn Ings, Yorkshire

I visited Fairburn Ings reserve this week when travelling to and from giving a talk at Bishopthorpe Club - thanks for your welcome and to Chris for his hospitality. The Kingfisher stayed for a long time on the brook bank but in the shade so an unerexposed 1600 iso image is very noisy. The morning visit had better light but no Kingfisher. Interesting to see a White-tailed Bumblebee - alive but a bit torpid in the cold air.

CCC Table-Top Session

Last week, Wednesday Workshop ran a Table-Top photography session. There were a wide range of subjects available from flowers (Alstroemeria) on a lightbox, to light tent set ups with models, bottles, vases and watches. Great fun - thanks everyone who supplied set ups.!

Second Visit to Shortgrove Estate

We made a return visit  to Shortgrove Estate for a CCC Start to Finish Day on Sunday;  a day of taking and processing photographs (see previous visit). This time the weather was wet and windy so a bit more of a challenge. I decided to use my Pinhole adapter for the Canon to give an old feel to the swimming pool and greenhouses. Still amazes me what a good image you get with just a hole and no lens. Watering can is shot with a lens and IR filter. Many thanks Sylvie for arranging this and putting up with all the wet boots etc.

Short-Eared Owls Hertfordshire

We decided to try a different location for Short-Eared Owls and drove over to Heartwood Forest near Welwyn, where we joined lots of other owl watchers including Ray. My favourites were the first two images, which are the last I took yesterday when the sun finally came through just before we headed home. The light at 3pm when we spied the first owls was not good and I really missed my 300mm 2.8 lens as working on the 7D and 100-400 mm resulted in very noisy images. However, I enjoyed the visit very much with lighter equipment and the photos are certainly good enough to remind me of the experience. Will take tripod next time!! Last image is of Rudolph the Red-nosed Owl!!

Windy Skies and Early Snowdrops

Yesterday was very windy all over the country due to Gertrude - in Cambridgeshire the rain cleared in the afternoon so went out with big stopper filter to take some long exposures - one and three are 30 second exposure while two is one second.

Last week, we visited Anglesey Abbey where the snowdrops were in full bloom.

Cambridge Sunrise

 I had a couple of hours between an early drop at the station and the shops opening so took the opportunity of some early morning photography in Cambridge. It was a beautiful clear sunrise with some frost on the grass (and a very cold wind!!)