St Ives in Infrared

We visited St Ives on Saturday for the Interprint Competition and also to spend the afternoon photographing around the town. For those who wanted a bit of direction, we had a phototrail with 6 tasks to complete. I had a go but certainly didn't get a satisfactory image for each of the categories. I was using infrared camera which gives pleasing clarity to the shots.

  (1) A picture of or from Chapel Bridge suitable for a Tourist Guide to St Ives

(2) People enjoying their Saturday on Town Quay or in the town

(3) Oliver Cromwell and/or his view of St Ives

(4) All Saints’ Parish Church or Churchyard in Church Street

(5) The Great Ouse

(6) Shopping in St Ives

Paxton Pits Birdlife

 windy day at Paxton but the birds were not put off coming to the feeders - nice variety including male and female Reed Buntings.

Our Broadband is Back

 We have just got our broadband and phone back after 10 days having to visit friends or wifi hotspots to access the web. A squirrel had got trapped in the pole and chewed through the wiring!
Three images form last Saturday taken with a 100mm macro lens as we were expecting to photograph the Orchid Festival in the botanic gardens but they show the quality of this lens.

Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge

 On Saturday morning, I had arranged a visit to the Botanic Gardens for the Orchid Festival and spring flowers. Unfortunately, due to the night's gales and damage to the trees and glasshouses, they were closed. We therefore went to the Fitzwilliam Museum for coffee and found that photography was allowed and large lockers provided for all our extra gear. I had brought my 15mm fish eye with me to lend to Barry but borrowed it back to photograph the wonderful interiors in the museum.

Tour of Cambridge Chapels at Night

 As part of the Cambridge e-luminate Festival, we booked two places on a tour of the Chapels. I had expected a candlelit experience rather than lurid led lights that we were given. We started in Gonville and Caius Chapel with a rather boring Choral offering. More interesting was the two organ recital in Jesus Chapel preceded by a history of the organs. The older wooden panelled instrument is tuned prior to temperate scales and concert pitch so sounded very different.

Clear Night at Elveden

Thursday night was very clear so had a second go at the stars - this time lower ISO -400; 30 secs and f5.6. Caught what I think was a shooting star in second image - Peter reported seeing one in Caambridge that evening I saw on facebook later.

Images of Other Birds at Elveden

 Chaffinches are the easiest birds to capture in flight as they hover frequently in front of the feeders. A very agile blackbird kept getting in on the act and the Siskins were their usual aggressive selves.

Continuing Quest for Flight Images - Tit Species

Center Parcs has the best feeding station I have found for attempting to capture bird flight images as the background is a very long way from the feeders. However, being surrounded by forest the light levels are not great. These images were taken at 800 ISO, 1/1250 sec f2.8 to f5.0 on 200mm lens. Shutterspeed not high enough for the fastest movers and shallow depth of field makes capturing all the bird difficult.