Hills Road Cambridge 2001/2020. Shops

Between 2001 and 2004, Members of Cambridge Camera Club took images of many of the building in Cambridge. I had Hills Road as one of my areas and today returned to repeat the shots. Here are changes in the shops - the only one remaining from 2001, Cambridge International Book Centre has recently closed. 

The Community Gardens

I have always enjoyed looking round allotments - I think it is the contrast of the orderliness versus the chaos that you get there with the different owners. I tried many different processing styles (all in Lightroom) and ended up with  this one with split toning and selective colour changes to unify the set.

 

Club Outing toTrumpington Meadows

Trumpington Meadows was invaded by a group of around 20 photographers (plus 3 dogs) yesterday for a socially distanced explore of the area. The river and Byron's Pool itself attracted several Members (including the dogs). I concentrated on landscapes and the remaining wild flowers trying some of the techniques that we covered in last week's workshop on the softer side of photography. There was still some wildlife to photograph including a wasp spider and Southern Hawker. 

 

Autumn Fruitfulness

This year is proving a bumpy one for all types of fruits and Toft wood is no exception with plenty of berries and the apple trees there in full fruit. The plant galls also seem to have flourished in the warmer weather.

Ivy Flower Visitors Close Up

This time of year is always great for insect photography as the ivy flowers attract a large number of visitors. I am still working on close-up shots in the field. I particularly like the monochrome close up of a hoverfly eye and the Black ant (Lasius niger). The minute metallic blue gall wasp also pleased me. It is Ormyrus nitidulus; although these gall wasps are often recorded in association with plant galls, they don't cause the galls but are parasites of the insect larvae that formed the galls. The last image is the Ivy bee - a species first recorded in Toft briefly in 2016 but increasingly common since then having only arrived in the UK in 2001.