Whoopers at Welney

Always a delight to watch the Whoopers on their return to their winter HQ and yesterday had the added bonus of very varied lighting conditions from the very soft lighting when there was cloud cover to the brilliant side lighting in the sunshine. The Whoopers must feel very much at home as, at the moment, the area between the two Bedford rivers is flooded. Images of the landscape and the other inhabitants to follow

 

Cambridge Autumn Colours Fungi and Kings Chapel

A few images from a cold cloudy day in Cambridge with Debbie trying to work out all the controls on her camera.It was very dull light so very difficult to keep the shutterspeed high enough inside King's College at an acceptable ISO. There was a very impressive clump of Pholiota squarrosa.

Thorpe Bay Sunrise

I spent last night at Thorpe Bay after speaking to Hadleigh Camera Club - thanks for your warm welcome. It was an ideal morning with low tide and full moon, though the latter was behind the town. Wonderful to see and hear Brent Geese and a Curlew. Once the sun was up the beach huts took my attention.

 

Autumn Fox Covert Royston

The beech trees are just about at their best now so we planned a visit to Fox Covert at Royston - the sun decided to disappear as we arrived but the colours still shone and there were sufficient fungi to keep the lenses (80mm macro and 10-24mm) happy. I did a bit of handheld focus stacking but really needed a tripod.

 

Details from the Cambridge Mosque

I took fewer pictures than  I might have done on Wednesday if I hadn't got intrigued by geometric art, much of it, as with other features of the mosque, based on 4. Sometimes this was 'simple' as with the third and fourth images with two squares, one inverted to form a star. The door decoration was more complex with an 8-star in the first and a 12-star in the second, each multiples of 4. These complex geometric designs create the impression of unending repetition, demonstrating that, in the small, you can find the infinite, reminding Muslims that Allah is infinite. Circles have no end and so are also present. Calligraphy is a major art form in Islam and the Mosque walls in many places, including the exterior, are decorated with calligraphy portrayed with bricks.

This ancient use of geometry and repeating patterns as the language of the universe is reflected in scientific studies on the crystalline structure of matter.