Flowers from Coastal Dunes Northumberland

There are a number of garden escapes growing in the sand dunes but, probably the most attractive, the cerise gladiolus is a native wild flower, along with Goat's Beard, Chives, Field Poppy and Meadow Thistle. The large numbers of Oriental Poppies and Knipofias are garden escapes.

Bamburgh Beach, Northumberland

These images were taken on Saturday when the morning rain cleared to give beautiful afternoon light. For some of the images where there is cloud movement, I was using to graduated filters (.9S and .6H) and a 10-stop neutral density to give 30 sec exposure. The first two image were with the 15mm fisheye (without filters!) and the last image with .9soft graduated only. Unfortunately yesterday was a complete washout with heavy rain and strong winds and today does not look much better so time to catch up on processing images!!

Shags, Puffins and Guillemots on the Farne Islands

As always the Puffins took centre stage on our visit to the Farne Islands but I also tried a few different approaches - wide angle on the Shags and head-on flight for Puffins and Guillemot, I captured a a passing Razorbill which was new for my flight shots and, my favourite of the day, an over-optimistic Guillemot attempting to push over the cliff.

Buttercups, Castle and Boats on Lindisfarne

A dull and at times rainy morning on Lindisfarne, but this helped bring out the colours of the flowers and boats. I intended visiting the Castle interior, the gardens and the Priory but instead spent a lot of time on the beach among the cold-water corals and sponges!

First Evening in Northumberland

Six members of Cambridge Camera Club have braved the A1 and its roadworks for a week in Northumberland. Obligingly there was a colourful sunset looking over towards Bamburgh Castle and Lindisfarne from Seahouses. With all best wishes to Miles, Mike, Jane, Phil and Sue who wanted to join us but are unable for various reasons. 

Mimicry in the Meadow

An hour spent in our local meadow produced some strange insects - a Scorpion fly complete with curled sting on its  tail, a fly that thinks it is a bumble bee, an Ichneumon Wasp and a fly that mimics it, a green bug pretending to be a leaf and a splendid green eyed fly.