Fort Dunlop Travelodge

I have passed this building by the side of the M6 so many times and wondered what it would be like to stay in the Travelodge so we gave it a go on Saturday night. Our room was on the 5th floor so our port hole was the top row of this view. There were ten floors in all giving great views over the car park and Jaguar factory.

On Sunday morning we decided to try photographing the very colourful car park markings.

We managed a few shots before being interrupted by the Security staff who said we needed permission but that the manager who gives permission was not there on Sundays.

I don't think we can have photographed any great secrets -why decorate the ground in such a colourful way if they didn't expect people to photograph it.

Cambridge Willows

A couple of Infrared images from a dull day in Cambridge

The willows are still in leaf - this one reminded me of 'Dougal' from the Magic Roundabout

Chain Maker at Black Country Museum

First photo taken at 1/400th f4.0 so hand and hammer are still - shows the speed that the sparks shoot out.

The second and third photos were taken a bit later in the day when the light levels had dropped so shutterspeed was 1/80th f 4.0 - movement on the hand and hammer and longer spark trails.

Leaning In

Looking back through some summer pictures, found this one that I took in an orchard in Norfolk with my infrared camera.

Dancers

Three girls from a local dance studio visited our Camera Club practical evening on Tuesday. The venue was a school hall so the background was not very inspiring. A bit of Photoshop work and I produced this image of two of the girls that I quite like.

Rumbling Bridge Gorge

Slow shutterspeed image of the water tumbling down a gorge in Scotland. It was a dull day but the colours from the peaty water have come out well

Verdigris toadstool

Found this beautiful jade green toadstool complete with snail on our front lawn this afternoon - it is a Verdigris toadstool (Stropharia aeruginosa) and is as inedible as it looks

Bristol Clifton Bridge

Spent a rather chilly hour waiting for the light levels to be balanced - there was just about 15 minutes when the

sky was just dark enough to balance the bridge lighting.

At one point an ambulance went across the bridge with its blue light flashing.

Two other views of the bridge - it was getting a bit too dark for a balanced exposrue but woth a go.

Caterpillar-eating Spider

Photographed this small spider that had killed and was consuming an Atlas Moth caterpillar. The caterpillar is about 5 cm long so it was a very small spider. It was taken at the Stratford-upon-Avon Butterfly house.

Can anyone identify it for me?

Warwickshire Wood

Monday morning was pretty foggy in Alcester where I am staying at present, so I visited a local wood but it didn't have the simple stands of trees that I was hoping for. However, I do like this image of the oak canopy. The mist thinned quite quickly so I concentrated on the fungi - there were lots in the very damp wood.

I took the Birch Polypores (left) and the Jews Ear (right) with the 70-200 mm  lens which has given soft backgrounds

Derwent Water Woods in Rain

The rain really set in before lunch on Saturday but a brief dry spell tempted us to a walk in these magical woods.

The top image was taken with a 16-35 mm rectilinear lens and the lower one with the 15mm fisheye.

The contrast, colour rendition (both images brought to 6500) and detail are better with the 15mm lens as I suppose is to be expected with a prime lens.

Castlerigg

Four of us decided to go and photograph Castlerigg at dawn on Saturday and, after a rather grey start and rain showers, we were rewarded with shafts of sunlight on the hills followed by a rainbow. I took images from various positions but the closer view was the one that seemed to work best.

Trip to Blencathra Centre

It had rained most of the drive up from Cambridge but then driving along the A66 just approaching Keswick, the weather suddenly improved and for a few moments the scene was bathed in orange light.














We had a go before supper at multiflash technique with some varied result - this is one of best.

Insomnia

My Sony has a night setting so I thought I would see what it does when visiting the Guildhall backstage facilities - the result is a very strange vignetted monochrome and very noisy
image. It made me think of sleepless nights when a student at college - don't know why other than that the facilities in the Guildhall in Cambridge probably haven't been rennovated since the 1960s

Bengal Tiger

Pensive look from Blizzard the white Bengal tiger at Hamerton Wildlife Park.

Taken with 400mm lens so cage wires have been thrown out of focus but does gives a softness to the images that I like.

Wedding in Leicestershire

Beautiful day and venue for Cheryl and Neil's wedding at St James the Greater , Oaks in Charnwood and reception at Beaumanor Hall on Friday.
Photos are now ready for viewing - go to my website (link at top right) and sign in to the Client Area

Sexuality in Flowers

Some favourite images from our trip to the Cambridge Botanic Gardens. I was experimenting with very shallow depth of field using 50 macro lens with life size converter. This was forced on me as I went without the plate for the tripod so couldn't risk higher aperture settings. I particularly like the first image which is a member of the ginger plant family.

Bath city

Took short stroll up the hill to the park. Bath looked great in the evening light. Enlarged part of the scene to show test how sharp the photo was and am pleased with result.

Autumn at Westonbirt

There were more visitors than trees at Westonbirt this afternoon. The Acers are probably just about at their best with a combination of greens, yellows and reds.

The image below was done by placing the camera on the ground with the fish-eye looking upward at the canopy. I used the timer facility but I had to move quite quickly to get out of the picture.

Fungi in Epping

The recent rain has resulted in a 'bloom' of toadstools in Epping Forest. The Fly Agarics and the Porcelain Fungi are two of my favourite species so I was happy to spend a long while photographing them today. I even tried the Porcelain in infrared!

Sunset

Very impressive sunset this evening - impressed by the change in colour temperature within only 10 minutes as the sun went further below the horizon.

I then turned to photograph the full moon and did not realise that I had two birds flying across the face of the moon till I downloaded the image .

Common Blue Butterfly

Returned home today and was greeted in the garden by this beautiful and very obliging Common Blue butterfly on a matching Gallardia.