I went to Paxton Pits (fairly) early on Saturday morning, in search of dragonflies. I didn't find any of the big ones, but I did find a few darters. Both the Common Darter and the Ruddy Darter. I also found the last of the damselflies, the Willow Emerald.
Chiltern Open Air Museum consists of a farm and a series of other buildings. They range from a reconstructed iron-age roundhouse to a relocated 1940s prefab. It's an eclectic mix. One cottage is dressed out to be mid-Victorian in every room, except one. A small bedroom is furnished straight out of the 1970s, and gave me a very Enfield Poltergeist vibe.
After seeing it advertised on the camera club website, I recently visited the Chiltern Open Air Museum for a 'Ragged Victorians' event. This promised costumed re-enactors around the Museum site. 'Shady characters including the rat catcher and his rats; street urchins, rogues and vagabonds'. Re-enactors are always great value. They are more than happy to pose and tremendously knowledgeable about their chosen period. This group were very specific to their time-frame. 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition and the first national census. 1851 also saw the first publication of 'London Labour and the London Poor' by Henry Mayhew. This was a 3 volume collection of articles, originally published in the 1840s for the Morning Chronicle, in which Mayhew observed, documented and described the state of working people in London. Mayhew went into great detail about the trades, habits, religion and domestic arrangements of the thousands of people working the streets of the city. One of the re-enactors told me that when people join the group they are encouraged to find a person described by Mayhew, who resonates with them, and to research and develop that character.
While re-enactors are happy to pose, they do tend to have their 'pose'. A particular one that they have adopted over the years and it is difficult to break them out of. But in the case, I wanted the final images to have the look of an old Daguerreotype, so the stiff poses worked. I did all of the conversions in Nik Analog Efex Pro 3. The later images were getting closer to what I wanted, but I may well have another go sometime. I have included the colour versions, as I thought it was a shame not to show the costumes in all their glory.
Because posed images can be a little stiff, I always look for candid shots as well. In this case there were some kids who, with a little patience and perseverance, made for some great shots. (Side note: Re-enactments are the only time I am comfortable photographing children. I have never met an re-enactor yet who wasn't happy to let me take shots of their dressed up kids.) These shots were too naturalistic for the Daguerreotype treatment. But I do think the first looks better in mono. It is probably my favourite shot of the day.
A couple of Sundays ago, I joined Ann for a stroll around the West Cambridge Site. It was my first time visiting this university site. The sky was mostly grey, so I decided to concentrate on abstract images of the various buildings.
It seems that every time I have wanted to do macro photography, this summer, it has been too windy. On a recent Saturday, in the hope of finding a little shelter, I headed to the walled garden at Wimpole. It was not as still in there as I had hoped, but I managed a few shots.
After much waiting, I recently got hold of the new Olympus 90mm F3.5 macro lens. I have been testing out its capabilities on the butterflies at Sharpenhoe Clappers. So far this month there have been a lot of windy days' and first trip turned out to be one of those. I struggled to keep things in the frame, let alone in focus. The second trip was much better. There were plenty on marbled whites on show.
I also found a few other species. A nice little Green Veined White, and rather scruffy looking examples of a Gatekeeper and a Dark Green Fritillary.
It was only when I started reviewing the pictures that I noticed a red spot on the back of one Marbled White. This turned out to be a parasitic mite, Trombidium breei. Apparently these are quite common on Marbled Whites, and some other species, and mostly harmless to the host.
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A few colour images from my recent trip to Lyveden. Ox-eye daisies seem to have done particularly well this year. They accounted for virtually all of the flowers in the meadows. Other than that it was mainly grasses. I also saw plenty of dragon and damselflies.
