Visit to London

There had been a brief snowstorm overnight and this was enough to coat the roads and cause several accidents on the M11, which had not been gritted. Consequently our coach was more than an hour late arriving in London but the light was still great. Several of the 'More London' Buildings are now finished and make an impressive skyline around City Hall or when looked upwards with the wide-angle lens.

The sunset was not as interesting as we hoped but gave nice colouring to the sky as we returned to Tower Hill

Looking Forward to Tomorrow's Trip

I spent a bit of time looking at 2009's visit to London at this time of year - we had some wonderful dark skies and sunny intervals. Fingers crossed for some interesting light tomorrow.

Black-Headed Gulls Crash Landing and Taking Off

Some pictures taken at ISO 1000 1/640 sec using a borrowed Canon 7D to investigate how much noise there is at higher ISOs.
The images were fairly noisy but Neat image has done a pretty good job removing the noise.

Cambridge 800th Anniversary

As promised here are some of the projections onto the Senate House, King's Chapel and the Gibbs Building.

End of Cambridge University 800th Anniversary Year

To celebrate the end of Cambridge University's 800th Anniversary Year, they put on a spectacular light display, projecting onto the buildings (images to follow) and also using lasers along the river and in King's Court.

Still on Trees

I have been sorting through more of my infrared pictures of trees. These were taken with the 15mm fish eye in Epping Forest. They are 1/125 sec

so I don't think it is movement on the right of the first frame. I must check out whether images are in focus with this lens to the edge of the frames. I like the effect almost of a pinhole camera.

The second photo was of an amazing clump of trees where they had all anastamosed together to create these curious shapes.

That sunset at Wimpole

Here is another view taken at Wimpole when there was a heavy snowstorm just as the sun was setting.

Epping Trees

Still looking at some IR images - this one converted to monochrome gives a feel very reminiscent of IR film

Further IR Experiments

This is one of the overexposed Infrared pictures that I took at Wimpole, corrected white balance with camera profile and the exposure as far as possible in Lightroom. Then, in Photoshop, I changed the Hue and Saturation and was amazed at the result. Below is a colour image taken at the same time on the 5D

Infrared at Wimpole

I took some images at Wimpole in the snow last week and have just started looking at them and experimenting with different workflows for converting to Monochrome.

The first pair show the original RAW image and its equivalent conversion to monochrome, adjusting the colour mix in Lightroom to produce the best contrast image.

The second pair use a profile made for the Infrared camera and then converting to monochrome in Lightroom (http://khromagery.com.au/ir_raw.html). I prefer the second conversion with the DNG profile

Snowstorm at Wimpole

Just as we were leaving after a walk round the grounds at Wimpole Hall a heavy snowstorm started. The sun was still out giving an amazing golden light.

Unfortunately there wasn't time to get the uncluttered view of this clump of trees that I had taken earlier.

Welney

I visited Welney Wildfowl Trust on Tuesday - the water level is very high and much of the water is frozen. Because of the deep water, there were very few swans feeding on the reserve but plenty of ducks - mallard, pochard,widgeon,gadwall,tufted and pintail were all present.
The Mute swan posed beautifully in front of the notice that reads Winter Wonderland.



One of the Mute Swans spent a lot of time showing off his exquisite feathers. I thought the pair with ice worked well as a monochrome. It almost looks as if the swan has broken off from the ice shelf as the wing sculpturing matches the edge of the ice.
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The Mallards looked puzzled by the ice while the Whooper swans just felt at home as it must be very like their breeding grounds in Spring in Iceland

Moonset

The moon was extra bright this morning so decided to go out and try some photos. The first photo was taken before dawn and the sky was wonderful pastel shades. The second was taken after the sun had risen and was shedding orange light on the fields.

Amber on Ice

A rather surprised labrador having stepped on the ice and broken through.

Garden Birds in the Snow

A couple of images from the recent cold spell when the garden seed heads proved very popular with goldfinches and blue tits. The images were taken in poor light and through the double glazing but I like the muted colours and backgrounds.

Madingley War Cemetery in the Snow

I decided to take a break from the decorating this morning and review some of the images I took after the recent snow. Here are four from the American War Cemetery.

I had to take the trees first as I love their curvy branches. It had snowed and there had also been freezing fog overnight so all the branches were covered in snow and ice.The frozen water was an almost pure cyan colour. The sky at this stage was grey as there was still high level fog. A little later the fog lifted and there were glimpses of the sun. I changed to the 15mm fish eye as I kn ow it will shoot direct into the sun with no appreciable flare.

The sky cleared for a time but the light was a pastel orange. This is my favourite (well so far!)

98th Christmas

For those who know her, I am posting this picture of Edith enjoying the sunlight in her room at Home Meadow.

?Reject

I realised I had taken this with too slow shutterspeed and was about to throw the file away; however, when I reviewed the image, I decided I like it better than some of the intentional images

Another Day and Different Light

Today was the most magical day so far in this cold spell with the trees coated in ice and sparkling all day. Here are two pictures from neighbouring Hardwick Church taken as the sun was setting and one view across the fields as I returned home.

Windy Sky

Impressive skies again this morning - lots of high level cirrus in a huge arch across the whole sky with smaller cumulus at lower levels.