Grey Heron Antics

I paid a quick visit to St Albans on way back from Richmond and delighted to see baby Heron triplets in one of the nests. This seems very early for almost full grown chicks but, apparently, they can lay eggs in early February. Further down, a pair were exchanging a twig very lovingly. There was a brood of 10 tiny ducklings on the lake. Unfortunately one got separated from its mother and was swimming around frantically trying to locate her.

Kew 2. Flowers

A lovely time to visit Kew Gardens with the trees just coming into leaf and lots of spring bedding to admire. I concentrated on the wildflower area where the bluebells are almost at their best (another week or so). I also practised a bit of focus stacking ready for Sunday's workshop. These were done handholding the camera and moving myself forward during a fast burst of image capture. Unstacked on left, stacked on the right (50mm lens f2.8)

Birds at Kew Gardens

I took advantage of a sunny afternoon when I arrived in Richmond to give a  talk toRichmond and Twickenham club in the evening and visited Kew Gardens. First some birds around the Lake. Coots as always were the dominant bird chasing off all other species including the Canada Geese. The reflection of the sky and trees on the water added to the fun for the afternoon. Flowers and general scenes to follow.

Hardwick Wood Spring Flowers

This year all the woodland flowers are out at the same time rather than the usual succession. I used my lightweight Fuji Macro kit of 50mm Zeiss macro and the 10-24mm wide angle. Need more practice getting the focus right but happy with some. It was a bright sunny morning and therefore lots of light and shade which the contrasty Zeiss lens accentuates while the 10-24mm lens works well with a wider contrast range, Here more and less contrasty images displayed as pairs. The Oxlips (image 5,6) are only just coming out and appear very thin stemmed so far.

Maldon Essex 2.Boats

The afternoon was spent on Thames Barge Kitty - a percentage of it attempting to get away from the Quay at Maldon as the incoming tide and strong wind took us back to the Quay many times before we eventually got away. The other boats including Hydrogen had similar problems. It was a very High tide as shown by the beach huts! Lots to photograph for participants, up, forward and down