Grantchester through a Pinhole

I constructed a pinhole lens a few months ago but wasn't happy with the smoothness of the pinprick hole, so here a second attempt. It comprises a body cap with 4 mm hole drilled through and then a piece of foil with a pin-prick hole taped to a circle of black card and this taped onto the body cap (see last image). We visited Grantchester in very changeable weather - here a few of the results. It produced very vibrant colours and the characteristic soft 'focus'. There was considerable flare if I turned at all towards the light. The worst feature is that it focuses on every speck of dust on the sensor so cleaning up the images is very time consuming. Now for some more creative subjects!!

 

 

Some Abstract Images Combining Brick, Glass, Wood etc

Decided to have a walk round Eddington, a new development on the outskirts of Cambridge, and took some double exposure images of the various building materials used. Processed to bring out and intensify the natural colours in the images they become very abstract. 

 

 

 

Good Year for Bee Orchids

We visited a local site to see how the Man Orchids were doing this year and the answer was not well. With the very dry conditions, all the flowers appeared to be suffering and we only found a couple of very small specimens in the main site and a single Tway Blade. However, we did find a better group in a moister area under a hedge. In contrast, there were numerous Bee Orchids in good condition and plenty of Common Spotted Orchids.

Progress Report 3 on Wildlife Garden

The wild roses are coming to an end in the garden - a good month ahead of most years and the Yellow Irises have also just about finished. Elsewhere the garden is showing an abundance of summer flowers from Corn Cockles to large areas of Ox-Eye Daisies to Foxgloves and Hogweed in the shadier areas. I grew a couple of new plants this year from seed in the old vegetable plot area -Phacelia and Echium - both very attractive to bees.

Further Ultramacro Experiments - Extension Ring

I have been trying different setups for extreme macro and this is the simplest - using an extension ring on a 50mm macro lens. Images here taken from  f2.8 to F16.