Saffron Walden Churchyard

Yesterday we took part in a photohunt in Saffron Walden - more images to follow of other locations. I had with me my Fuji compact and a pinhole lens. The first image is a composite of a poppy from the compact and a pinhole image of the gravestones. Images 2,3 and 5 are pinhole images - all the rest are from the Fuji compact with a couple monochrome conversions as the sunlit areas just asked for a high contrast conversion. The final two to show the dominance of the church over the town and its tall steeple as depicted in a vertical panorama of 5 shots

 

Insect Eyes from Paxton Pits

Among the 70 or so different species that I photographed yesterday during one of our Wildlife Survey  mornings, I found this set of amazing eyes to share (Red-eyed Damselfly, Common Blue Damselfly, Snail-killing fly, Kite-tailed Robberfly, Median Wasp (at nest), Eristalis pertinax, Roesel's Bush Cricket, Speckled Bush Cricket, Cicadella viridis, and Common Darter female)

Wasp Spiders - Focus Stacking Exercise

I must admit to being somewhat addicted to finding these impressive spiders and then trying to photograph them accurately. So when after 2 hours in the field rain stopped play, I found I had 25 or so photostacks (20 or 30 images per stack) occupying a lot of disk space. Of these 9 stacked OK in Zerene Stacker and here are six different views of three different individuals. It was quite breezy and the spider does tend to vibrate in the web if it senses an intruder so not surprised at low hit rate

Toft 20 years On.

While sorting out my computer drives ready for an upgrade, I found some scans of photos that I took in 2000 as a record of the village at the beginning of a new Millenium. So yesterday in very variable weather, I made a quick tour of the village taking comparison shots.  Even allowing for the fact that the 2000 images were taken in winter, Toft is a lot 'greener' now with many tall trees and hedges that were not there or small 20 years ago. I will repeat this taking more care matching the view points in the winter. 

 

Autumn Macro at Lark Rise Farm

Lark Rise Farm (Cambridgeshire) is definitely looking quite autumnal now with soft brown seed heads and grasses. So beautiful how the Common Darter female blended into its thistle perch, and the pattern created in the seed heads of the Sow Thistle, Carrot and Knapweed. Otherwise plenty of different flies around and a couple of Wasp Spiders now more than 5 cm across including the legs.

 

Architectural Studies, Sidgewick Site Cambridge

On Friday, in the high winds, we spent some time in the Sidgewick site in Cambridge appreciating the modern architecture. It felt strange without the hustle and bustle of students! The Seeley Historical Library in the Faculty of History was built around 1968 by James Stirling architects and, although it has suffered some problems with leakage and overheating, it has stood the passage of time for its design. 

The new Law Faculty building, designed by Lord Foster and Partners, was opened in 1995 and, in 2016, was officially named the David Williams Building, in honour of  Professor Sir David Williams who I remember well for his kindness to my family when my husband died back in 1972.

The last four images all from same RAW were done as tests on what processing techniques (LR and Nik filters only)  I liked best for architectural studies - undecided!