London Zoo

In preparation for a trip I am making in a few weeks time, I recently bought a 40-150mm lens for my Olympus Pen.  Equivalent to 80-300mm on an SLR, but a fraction of the size and weight, it will be handy on my travels.  I have had little opportunity to try it out since I got it.  So with this in mind, and armed with a two for one voucher, a friend and I headed to London Zoo on Saturday.

It was an enjoyable day out, but photographically very challenging.  A combination of the tricky lighting  conditions (bright contrasty sunshine outside, mixed artificial light inside), glass and wire meant I didn't get many shots I liked.  Not as thorough a test of the new lens as I was hoping.

Points Of View - Cambridge

Last Saturday was the Cambridge Camera Club's annual 'Points of View' competition.  Five hours to photograph 5 subjects within a set area.  This year it was in the very centre of Cambridge.  The subjects were 'tourist Cambridge', 'corners', 'mood or atmosphere', 'retail therapy' and 'metal'.  As usual, I obsessed about a couple of the topics and didn't spend enough time on the others.

In the end, I did manage to get one half decent image for each subject, before it started raining.  I may post those after the competition has been judged.  In the meantime, here are some of the rejects.  Not all of which are on topic.

Winter walking in British Summer Time

Over Easter I spent the days either side of the clocks going forward walking in the Lakes with Vic.  The Lakeland Fells were still covered from the recent heavy snows, with drifts of a metre in places.  Above 5-600m the temperature hadn't reached above freezing since the snow had fallen, so it was largely unconsolidated powder.  It made for some tough walking but beautiful scenery.

Ghosts of Winter

The March snows, that covered the much of the country last weekend, reached as far as St Neots.  Although nothing compared with the north-west we did have a couple of centimetres worth.  I had intended to get some shots of spring flowers in the snow.  But the all the cold weather has delayed most spring blooms and the few that were out were buried.  A new plan was needed. 

I took inspiration from images that Sue had shown in a recent club talk, featuring intentional camera blur.  The churchyard of St Mary's Church in Eaton Socon made a suitable subject.  The brightness of the snow required a minimum aperture and a polariser to give me workable shutter times of an eighth to a tenth of a second.  Just enough to move the camera a little during exposure.   The technique is very hit and miss, but after a few hundred shots I ended up with some I quite like.  The ghostly feel of these shots conveys to me the mood of the day and location.

Stamford Fair

I haven't done any night photography for a while, so last week's mid-Lent fair in Stamford was a perfect opportunity.  I was able to get there before dark, so managed a couple of shots in the blue hour.  But I mainly wanted to shoot light trails, which is easier against a darker sky and can look more dramatic.

Snowdrops at Benington

On Saturday I took a trip to Benington in Hertfordshire to photograph snowdrops.  Benington Lordship  Gardens boosts a large collection of snowdrops and is one of the best places in the region to view them at this time of year.  But that was not what drew me there.  Next to the the house and gardens is St Peters Church, whose churchyard also has a in impressive display of snowdrops amongst the headstones.  It had been a few years since I had last visited.  Not since I had acquired my Sigma 10-20 wide angle lens.  So I was keen to use this for some shots of the flowers against a background of the old stones.  The original plan was to spend some time in the churchyard and then visit the gardens, but in the end I spent so long in the former, it wasn't worth heading into the latter.

 

Wave Movements - Assynt Beaches

Some coastal shots from my recent trip to Assynt.  As well as the inland delights, the area boasts some beautiful beaches. Secluded little coves with golden sands.  On the right day you could think yourself in the Med (until you put a toe in the water).  Sadly, these weren't the right days.  But at least my previous trip to Sennen taught me how to may the most out of a beach with a poor sky. 

I did a lot of slow shutter speed shots to try and capture the motion of the waves against any handy foreground interest.  The dull conditions meant that a 1 or 2 second exposure could be achieved without resorting to the 'big stopper'.