Jubilee Scarecrow Trail in Toft

As usual, Toft stepped up to the challenge of the Jubilee with a Scareecrow trail as part of the Celebrations. Many thanks, Marion, for organising and for your Rock Royalty. Many have political and social allusion with Prince Andrew and Boris featuring prominently. The trail is open all four days though rain is forecast for Sunday 

Replacement Phone in Cambridge

I managed to lose my phone at the weekend so a replacement was purchased - s refurbished HuaweiY6 from 2019 rather than 2017. I tested the camera just to know its capabilities - fairly limited but certainly good enough to record important memories and data on the move. 

Yesterday this included recording the demolition of Mill Lane having been purchased by Pembroke College. The Mill Lane development will enlarge the footprint of the College by a third, to enable many more to live on the Pembroke campus, and to transform the educational and social spaces. The development will create almost a hundred new high-quality rooms, set around a beautiful courtyard.  It will also include an exhibition gallery open to the public,  a 220-seat auditorium (created out of the former United Reform Church) for lectures, talks, and concerts  and a new entrance into the site, with a Porters’ Lodge, diagonally across Trumpington Street from the present gateway. The cost is quoted as £75 million; Ray Dolby (former student and sound system innovator) and his family bequest of £35 million to Pembroke is being recognised by naming a court after them.

Madingley Hall Infrared

I have the use of a set of screw-on infrared filters for my X100V and yesterday experimented with the 850nm one having found the 680nm one didn't give a very strong effect (Ann Miles Blog: Experimenting with 'Infrared' Filters (pin-sharp.blogspot.com). The 850nm meant long exposures (up to 6 seconds) but does give a true infrared look on a light cloud/sunny interval day like yesterday. Images 3 and 4 shows the raw file from the camera and its monochrome conversion.

Rutland Water Insects

A rather chilly day at Rutland Water yesterday for the RPS Nature Group outing but brief sunny intervals gave opportunities for insect photography. I was mainly using my X100V with close-up filter giving insect plus habitat information and very sharp subjects. In comparison, image 3 was taken with a 560mm equivalent telephoto - shallower depth of field and narrower field of view.

Pocket Camera in Cambridge

I tested a very small Sony camera that a neighbour passed on to me as it is somewhat faulty after getting very dusty so the zoom mechanism is unreliable. It has a 20X optical and 40X with digital zoom. Only takes jpegs but the quality is amazingly good even zoomed in as far as the 'dust' will allow (images 3/4 and 5/6 are zoomed out and in respectively).