Apparently, I now only take photos in the fog.
The riverside park in St Neots is a flood plain and spends, at least, a few days underwater in an average year. But the recent floods have been the worst I can remember since the Easter of '98. Even so, I have photographed the park in flood before. I have also photographed the park in fog. But never before both at once. The combination turned a very familiar place into something ethereal.
Three more images of the fields local to me, taken earlier on the same day as the Cambridge shots. There is one specific tree of which I was hoping to get a misty/foggy shot, from a specific viewpoint. On the previous trip over the fields, the mist had cleared by the time I reached it. This time the fog just got thicker and I couldn't even see the damn tree. Oh well, at least it's local, so I can keep trying for that Goldilocks level of fog.
A recent extended foggy spell coincided with a weekend, which meant I could head to Cambridge for some night pictures. For years I have wanted a moody monochrome foggy picture of the tree-lined path across Jesus Green. This was my chance. But since the fog didn't seem to be going anywhere, I tried a few other locations on my way to the green. Once there, I spent about an hour, taking multiple shots, waiting for just the right person to walk by and getting very cold.
Eventually, I got a shot approaching what I wanted. But, it's not my favourite of the night. That was taken in just a couple of minutes at my first stop of the evening, outside Fitzbillies. The bus came around the corner at just the perfect time and I love the way the steam from the vent is back-lit.
Lockdown is back, so it's more images from a walk around the nearby fields. This time on one of the recent misty mornings.
By about 10am, the light had become quite harsh, the deer had started to settle down, more people were arriving and my Olympus batteries were just about dead. So it was time to do something else. Rather than head home, I chose to dig out the infred converted 40D. I only had my 28mm and 50mm primes with me, so IR shots of the deer were sadly not an option (maybe next year). But there were plenty of trees and people to offer good subjects.
These images were taken at the start of the month, before the increase in Covid restrictions for London. I was in the park for dawn, along with a couple of dozen other photographers. Maybe it was becasue it was a Sunday, but there did seem to be many more 'togs than on my last visit a couple of years ago. The morning started quite cloudy, but eventually the sun broke through and, for a while, there was some lovely light. I saw one proper fight between a dominat male and a callenger (my first one after many such mornings), but it was too far away for decent shots. I had to make do with some practice fencing between younger males, a huge amount of bellowing and, another first for me, one stag getting the reward for his hard work.
A quick post (whilst I continue to sort through a large number of red deer photos taken at the start of the month). The images below were all taken with my iPhone, using the Hipstamatic app, whilst walking around St Neots on a rather grey day. They were all taken using one of my favourite 'lens' and 'film' combos. For anyone interested, the 'lens' is Salvador 84, which gives the distorted double exposure look, and the 'film' is Kodot XGrizzled, which gives the slightly distressed look.
I was keen for one last use of the IR camera before the green leaves began to turn. So I took it to the botanic gardens on a sunny afternoon.
