Cambridge Architecture

Here are the results of a short photographic session in Cambridge last week looking for more creative architectural shots - combination of seen reflections, interesting angles and photographic composites. We walked back through King's and couldn't resist a shot of the haymaking which also served as a companion for the Faculty of history building.

Habitats at Paxton Pits

As part of the ongoing water survey at Paxton Pits, I thought a record of all the survey points (their appearance and vegetation) in different seasons could be useful appendices so made a start and realised just how difficult habitat and flower photography are!! Here is a start - the Small Copper arrived when I returned to Rudd Boardwalk in the afternoon and was by far the easiest shot!! Panoramas would be useful for several sites so included the Hayling South shot just to remind me to do it properly next time with all images in same lighting and enough overlap etc to make a full depth image.

Upper Cloudy

Upper Rudd

Upper Rudd

Rudd Boardwalk

Hayling West

Small Copper 

Hayling South

Cloudy Beach

The Gully (Dried Out)

EEC Pomd

Purple Loosestrife

Insect Life in Garden (August 3-6th)

Rather a backlog of insects from the garden, some of them new for the list like this Ophion Ichneumon, a genus that lays eggs in Noctuid moth caterpillars.

CCC Evening Visit to Cambridge

Our group of photographers kept the very crowded Mill Lane Bridge visitors entertained as we explored slow shutterspeed photography. I was given a very accurate lesson from a young boy from India who knew all about shutterspeeds and how to get the best result on his iphone - the new generation of photographers. There is more experimentation to do on applying the techniques to punting but enjoyed the session. We then transferred to the completely deserted Sidgwick site for some architectural work. 

New Wasp Species for the Garden

Although  there are a lot of black and yellow wasp species, I am pretty sure this is Ancistrocerus gazella, commonest species in our part of England but new to the garden list. Lots of nymphal Shieldbugs - here the Woundwort Shieldbug and dozens of Flower spiders around the garden - they seem to like the pink flowers or, perhaps, they are more visible there. The Yellow Rod takes over from Knapweed as the most visited flowers in the garden.