Starry Skies at Elveden

A third starlit night at Center Parcs so some long exposure shots of the lake, the pines and the stars (30sec, F8 or F4, iso 800 or 1600)

Star Trails at Elveden Again

 Another attempt at mastering star trails and this time pointing towards the north. The first composite has 20 images, the second 11 images at 60 sec intervals (30 sec, f4, iso 500 plus 30 sec processing). Obviously a slightly longer recording series is required to get a good spin. Interesting to confirm that the earth revolves around the north star and to see how the big dipper can be used to locate it!! The last two images show Jupiter rising in the east - a very bright planet. I lit the duck in the final image with a torch.
(NB. Need 75 mins of recording to get good trails, turn off long exposure noise reduction to reduce the processing time)

Star Trails at Center Parcs

I am still trying to master using the interval timer on my Fuji to take multiple images for star trail composites. The first picture here is from 60 images (30secs f4 500iso) taken at 80 sec intervals - clearly too long as the trail shows gaps even when gap-filling software employed. I had set a 20 sec interval between exposures but clearly an extra 30 secs has been added presumably because it is taking more than 30 secs to process the image (even with a very fast card). Trial suggests minimum interval (1 sec) will give the shortest interval. Would like to find a north facing view for next trial - watch this space.

Bird Portraits at Elveden Forest

 We are spending the weekend at Elveden Center Parcs, hoping to concentrate on bird photogrpahy though the weather doesn't look that good with overcast skies. Today there were large numbers of Coal Tits and Blue Tits on the Feeders along with Blackbird, Jay and Wood Pigeon. We spotted the Sparrowhawk in a tree after all the birds had disappeared suddenly. A very tatty looking individual but the yellow eye is unmistakeable.

Preparing for an Exhibition at Addenbrookes Hospital

 I have been busy printing and framing 15 pictures for an exhibition in the corridors of Addenbrookes Hospital for 2 months from next Thursday. The Art Project director there requested Cambridge scenes, always a good selling topic to raise money for the hospital. I have tried to include a few unusual ones to go with misty snow scenes and monochromes

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Paris Lamps

Sorting through the images we took on our trip to Paris over the new year, I find I often used lamps in my compositions.

Cambridge Beat Shelford in the Local Derby

Windy but sunny afternoon for the local Rugby derby - always a 'hard' match with lots of aggressive expressions and surprisingly open play for such a needle match. Cambridge (in red) won 29-8. 

Avoncroft Interiors from 1950s

There is a furnished prefab from the 1950s at Avoncroft, which I enjoyed as many items were familiar from my London childhood.  Prefabricated buildings were put up in England at the end of the war to replace houses destroyed in the bombing. I particularly liked the sitting room with an old TV as a very early memory is Muffin the Mule on a small flickering screen

The Tollhouse brought back memories of a great aunt's house in Woolwich, South London, that I visited as a child regularly. There was no electricity and the water supply and toilet were in the outside yard. All cooking and heating was via an iron range in the kitchen; the metal teapot would stay on the stove all day producing incredibly strong brew. Lighting was with oil lamps and the house was always damp so they were continually wallpapering. I used to enjoy making the rag rugs from cut-up textiles. The two sisters remained in the house until demolition in the mid 1960s.