CCC King's Cross Outing 1. The Tunnel

Always a great location for images, many of us started our photography in the underground tunnel. I started playing with shutterspeeds to see the effect on the tunnel lighting. The faster shutterspeeds (above 1/200th) gave patterns in the wall as did slow speeds 1/60th (image 7). The smooth effects as in image 2 were shot at 1/125th - no doubt someone will add an explanation. Also here a couple of in-camera multiexposures

Slow Worm in Spinach Patch

First time I have seen a Slow Worm (a legless Lizard rather than 'worm) in the garden in Toft. Amazing feeling body as it wraps around your hand and the tongue that flicks out is quite fat compared to a snakes. Meredith loved handling it but accepted that it needed to be returned to the wild as soon as we had photographed it. The tongue flicks in and out and is a strong forked structure looking as if it is made of metal..

Art at Botanic Gardens

 On our CCC trip to Cambridge Botanic Gardens, I was distracted from my initial ideas of leaf shapes etc to take images of the plants as they pushed up against the greenhouse windows and by participants on a Botanical Illustration Day. The first image has been processed through Color Effex; all the others are Lightroom-only adjustments. The Olympus 50mm f1.8 legacy lens makes a wonderful portrait lens - very sharp and yet with a softening effect on the skin tones.

Garden Project 11

 The garden has progressed a great deal in the last two and a half weeks so we now have many species in flower in the wildflower areas of the garden. Our cat enjoys sitting in the wild area at the back of the garden amid the Red Campion.

Spring Sounds and Sights at Paxton Pits

Garden Warblers were definitely the stars of a Dawn Birdwatch at Paxton yesterday, far outnumbering Blackcaps, Whitethroats and Chiffchaffs/Willow Warblers. On Saturday, we did the monthly survey of Dragonflies and Butterflies on a very warm sunny day so mass emergence of Damselflies (Variable, shown here and Common Blues) and plenty of butterflies including a Grizzled Skipper