Visit to a Cold War Site, norfolk

A group from CCC visited the previous atomic bomb store near Elveden yesterday on a suitably grey day. It was a great tour and many thanks to the owner Keith Eldred and his wife for their hospitality. 

Here I have produced a few shots in monochrome which seems to suit the sombre subject well. The first is the last shot of the day - a 30 second exposure of one of the four restored watch towers.

From their website 'Construction of the Bomb Store on Thetford Heath, known as RAF Barnham began in 1953 or 1954 and was completed by 1955. it was built specifically to store and maintain atomic weapons, and this is reflected in its layout. the principal storage buildings are divided into two main groups, larger stores designed to hold the bomb casings and high explosive components and smaller stores to hold fissile cores. By the early 1960s this specialized facility was obsolete, as free fall nuclear bombs were superseded (as the principal British nuclear deterrent) by the stand off missile Blue Steel, and the storage and maintenance of nuclear weapons was moved to the V bomber airfields. The last nuclear weapons were probably removed from the site by April 1963. The Site was sold to its present owner in 1965, and since that date it has been used as a light Industrial estate. the plan form of the Bomb Store remains virtually unmodified the majority of the buildings survive intact, the boundary fences and watch towers also remain. RAF Barnham was one of two such sites built in England, the other is at Faldingworth in Lincolnshire which has the same types of building and is almost identical in plan form 

Welney - Best of the Rest

Final images from the trip to Welney last Wednesday. It was perfect light for swan photography - very high light cloud giving diffuse sunlight. My lens was a bit short for the Black-Tailed Godwits but still love the patterns they make in the sky

Tabletop Photography at Toft PG

We had a very enjoyable session at the Toft Photogroup. I spent most of the time on trying to capture images in a droplet and frozen flowers on a lightbox but did get a short session with a decanter and glass. 

Ducks at Welney

A lot of the Mallards were paired up but there were quite a few threesomes and also one female that was constantly pursued by up to a dozen males. Welney host hundreds of male Pochard in the winter but only a few females (the rest spending the winter in Spain).

Welney Dawn Visit

I booked for the Swans Awake at Welney Wildfowl Trust Centre hoping for those evocative images of flocks of swans going overhead in dawn light. I knew the likelihood of a good dawn was slim but we had a beautiful sunrise. Unfortunately the other factor didn't materialise as the swans almost all left their feeding grounds to the west over to Manea. There was compensation in a hunting Barn Owl. A group of 7 from CCC spent the rest of the morning at Welney - more pics later when time to process.

Hardwick Wood Walk

I am still experimenting with my RX100 seeing how to get good macro shots etc - answer take lots of shots and one may be in focus or, better still, use a tripod!. The fields were very wet so the old caterpillar tractor could be put to good use at the moment. 

Cambridge Evening Before the Lights Went On

 A few images from our walk round Cambridge Sunday evening before the illuminations came on.