Brogborough Bank Holiday Lacuna

Or in plain English – I managed to miss these shots first time around. The reason is simple, the numbering of the images reached 9,999 and so the rest started back at 0001 but in a new folder. Guess who failed to spot this due to too many other distractions such as watching the Monaco Grand Prix? – Guilty as charged m'lud!
Here they are, with less culling so I could get them out in the shortest possible time.

For convenience you can click here, or as before, on the headline text for the missing gallery of further images from the afternoon

No Picture Here! Nor any link, that will follow

I am hiding my head in Shame!

For those who were surprised and disappointed at not seeing their skills immortalised in full glorious colour in these blog galleries from Sunday's outing on the water at Brogborough, please be patient as I am about to put that right – due to the kind intervention of Mr Roy Hill whose son was one of those whose images lay unwittingly unprocessed on a Compact Flash card. I have made my apologies to him, and I shall now set to to rectify the appalling situation – forthwith.

Bank Holiday Sunday, Brogborough

Sunshine and some wind. This brings out a fair crowd on the water, and when I arrived the wind direction meant for a while the windsurfers were heading for the Club’s near shore at an angle with the sun at a reasonable angle; the wind direction did not favour jumpers, but certainly helped for speed.

I set up the camera and took advantage of the sun, moving right up to the foreshore after a while to keep my viewpoint as low as possible, later moving out onto the jetty. It was here that in a lull I spotted a girl taking shots of her boyfriend with a fairly short focal length lens, so I called out what make of camera Canon or Nikon? The reply meant I could offer to remove my camera body and let her take some shots using my lens, she accepted and so I put her body on and helped set it up so she could take a few shots. I hope it inspired her to consider a longer lens in the future. I hope also that I managed to get shots of him that he felt captured the spirit of his day on the water.

Cloud cover increased as the afternoon progressed and water does not sparkle in flat lighting and with no dramatic activity likely to occur my shooting came to the end, but not before being asked by one gentleman, whether I had managed shots of his son, so I made sure there were some. I also got chatting to a windsurfer who worked in Television, and I am fairly sure I had taken shots of him so my blog’s audience figures might also improve!

I returned home to face some time at the computer screen culling and post processing to create a gallery record of the afternoon’s activity, and also to try a second time to repair a puncture to my bike’s front tyre, so that I can cycle to the lake on occasion rather than bring the car, which will keep me active and breathing fresh air as with so much building going on in Marston Moretaine, the house is covered in fine dust which cannot be as healthy as the air around the lake.

Tranquil Brogborough – Flora & Fauna

The idea of the afternoon visit to the woods beyond the Windsurfers’ enclave was to try to get some better shots of the native hoverflies, but this proved a failure, partly because the sun chose to hide behind increasing clouds, and partly because when the single hoverfly I attempted to photograph was only hovering for nanoseconds, and also because I was way too slow trying to focus on it.

But in walking past some hawthorn bushes by the lakeside before I entered the woods I spotted a damselfly that became entangled in the fine filaments spun by an absent spider, it crossed my mind to attempt its rescue, but felt this intervention was not ethical; and I feel the outcome I subsequently witnessed validated my decision, he managed to extricate himself and I witnessed him flying off to a nearby reed, and I rationalised that he now had gained valuable experience which might well serve him well in the future. I have the record of his success and I was pleased for him.

I did attempt to seek out other hoverflies but with no success, but I did capture a large fly searching in amongst the dead leaves from last autumn, and some of the varied colours of lichen on a branch and a minuscule single flower on a dead twig on the sunlit outer reach of the woods. All the shots were taken with the 100mm Canon Macro with a 1.4 Converter on the EOS 7D MkII, some with flash assistance where I changed from Aperture to Shutter Priority to limit the effect of a slow shutter speed blurring the ambient light with the flash exposure.

When looking out over the lake I don’t think I have ever seen the water so calm, and in the distance I did spot a couple lazily enjoying the warmth on a paddle board.

Brogborough Photos – No Windsurfers?

The wind was so light that the Windsurfers at Brogborough would likely be practising their more subtle skills, or if less experienced simply making the most of a quieter lake to gain confidence, but for a change I was not visiting for their activity, but for something at a smaller scale involving skills in the air. When I sped through the woods carrying a heavy tripod with a long lens on my last visit, shafts of sunlight illuminated some of the gloom and the new season of hoverflies had arrived and were exercising their skills.

Most casual observers see them as dark insects occasionally hovering, then darting away at high speed. However, if you tarry awhile longer, you notice that the reason for some of the darting is caused by others of their species invading their space, and then both will spiral as if they were World War fighter pilots in a fierce dogfight. The other thing you might notice is that they are not black, but have the tiger stripes that emulate those of a wasp, however these beautiful insects are no danger to us, and in fact will land on your hand if outstretched beneath them in flight, or as one did on this trip actually landed on the barrel of my lens! They are exquisite flyers, and absolute masters of the hover. They have small un-muscled small winglets beneath their wings which counterbalance the motion of their wings to provide a natural damper (emulated, I believe in 2005 Formula 1 cars till banned, allegedly because Ferrari were never able to master their deployment, so protested their use by those who had mastered the technique namely Renault).

From my personal observations which allowed me to capture them in flight in the past, they will often hover for a while then with a flick move through 90˚, often cycling through the complete 360˚, oft times being rudely interrupted by presumably, others jealous of their skills!

On this occasion, the pilot I first spotted, was performing in front of me when without outside intervention he darted off, and somehow I got the feeling he was playing with me, so I swung through 180˚ and there he was, again at the same height as before, facing me once more! The more I photograph insects and birds, the more I am convinced they know more about us than we credit – kingfishers can often settle closer to us than we can focus with a long lens, tantalising us! Or ensure branches obscure our view. But as I have learned from anglers that have had kingfishers land on their rods, they have not necessarily learned about cameraphones!

I had arrived rather too late as clouds were increasing which resulted in fewer motes for hoverflies to exhibit their prowess, so overall I was not too successful, but I do now have a new venue. I also spotted what I described as the Central Flying School where the majority of the hoverflies were smaller, so possibly younger, and hovered with far less panache, with an occasional visitor larger in size and far more adept, joining the throng. The skilled ones seemed more often to be apart, and occasionally ‘bombed’ by other lone antagonists.

I did capture some in-flight shots, but far more numerous failures due to my inability to focus fast enough, so captured other items that intrigued such as the haunting face or new leaf and seed growth. I shall return, but as can be seen, I need the light to be on side for me to use the 100mm macro with 1.4 converter and ISOs which reached 3200˚K at apertures no smaller than f/7.1.

Brogborough – Sunshine on the Lake

In the morning, it was Choresday and a priority was ensuring I had clean shirts, and as I seem to have a problem of sediment from somewhere, possibly even due to too much soap powder, I tried to split the wash into two to keep the possibility of shirts suffering from the other items, but this added more time, and still the contaminant was present, so I was well behind schedule. I like to think of Sundays as restful, but sorting two washes was not helping. However, after the first wash, the wind seemed to pick up; certainly giving gusts that seemed harder than was forecast, so someone was on my side!

By the time the second set was ready to put out, at least one shirt was dry enough to be taken in, and suddenly I could contemplate a possible short visit to the lake at Brogborough; what I had not foreseen was that many of the regulars were on holiday, and scattered to all points of the compass, so as I arrived there were around a maximum of ten on the water, with actually less wind on arrival than I had left behind in Marston Moretaine, but there were occasional flurries and I decided it was worth a trek through the woods with a tripod, with the gimbal head and the Sigma 150-600mm atop.

Having made it to the far end of the woods and back out into the sunshine, the wind though still somewhat fitful did have some strength, and several of the windsurfers headed towards my location, so I gingerly clambered down the steep bank and into the undergrowth a bit, to give myself a reasonable angle of view clear of most of the trees and bushes. After a while the wind died down seemingly terminally, so I headed back at a brisk pace, with a young grouse zig-zagging across my path ahead of me for half the woods! I also noted that the recent warmth had brought out the hoverflies who as I had noted before would dance and hover in the shafts of sunlight that filtered through the canopy of leaf cover. I made a mental note that I should come back for this photographic challenge on the next warm, and free day.

I did get the opportunity to show some of those there a few recent prints, some of which windsurfers had been the subject.

Marsworth Visit with Andy Fox

Andy and I decided to meet up and visit Marsworth together, and despite mornings being more favourable, since he was tied up in the morning, we settled on meeting at Clophill around one o’clock to head on down.

Arriving at Tringford I parked up and we both set off towards Marsworth lake. There were numerous anglers out on both Startops End and Marsworth, and on the Grand Union Canal there were a few narrowboats going through the locks, one that was moored was unlike any other, so much so that Andy remarked that it was upside down as the superstructure seemed to be very smooth and resembled an upturned hull, made presumably in glass fibre.

We reached our destination and began setting up, and almost immediately Andy spotted a visiting kingfisher behind me, which we probably surprised and headed away from us. It was the last sighting we made for more than an hour, though we were visited by many other birds both on the water, and above us in the trees. The most frequent being blue tits, mallards, and wood pigeons. At one stage we heard a loud call, that sounded as if the caller was shouting “Nits!” which gave us a wry smile on several occasions, it turned out to be coming from what I took to be a lone mallard female, but Andy reckoned it was possibly a mallard/wigeon cross as it was speckled and differently billed.

We were also visited by the resident and beautifully groomed robin, whom I see fairly regularly, once again, in the lulls I attempted to entice to fly to my open hand for seeds, but today he made no effort. A while later we caught sight of a kingfisher doing a flyby who ducked beyond a fallen bush on the far bank. Then later still one landed in the bushes, but he was hidden from me by sunlit leaves, but in perfectly clear view to Andy as was confirmed by some three sequences of shutter firings. After that I saw another on a post beyond him, managing just two quick shots, one static and one as he flew off. Although we stayed on for some time we saw no more kingfishers, and since Andy was due for an evening out, we packed up and returned to the car, but not before I introduced Andy to some of the Tringford Anglers, and its Water Bailliff, Bob Menzies.

My visit was therefore less fruitful than my guest Andy, though enjoyable nonetheless.

Bamville Cricket Club – Home Season Opener

Sunday turned out to be moderately warm in the sun, and I certainly favoured sunshine for a Cricket Match, as the players always look good in their white trousers and sweaters when in sunshine, whereas under cloud they look somewhat drab.The Cricket Match I was due to cover was a team local to Harpenden, Bamville, which is a somewhat smaller club, with a small, but interesting ground, since it's pitch shares the space with part of the local Golf Course, which limits play to Sundays. All very English.

I arrived early to capture some of the setting up preparations, which included the Scorer for the day opening up the scoreboard to oust the resident spider, and using the manual for the new Coffee machine to learn about its as yet unfamiliar operation. After adding this talent to his vast experience as a top Product Designer and Cricket and Snooker Guru, he went on to fill the far less sophisticated Water Boiler — is there no end to this man’s talents? On a more serious note, Peter is one of a number of dedicated volunteers who help this friendly Club to run and provide enjoyment for those who play Cricket and socialise.

The visiting Team on this occasion was The Players and Jesters from Nearby St. Albans, and the opening batsmen were the Home team. I will let the pictures tell the story of the match as I am unfamiliar with the personnel, what I will say is the final result was close. I was disappointed that I missed at least two instances of the bails taking to the air, but I did manage to capture three others, as these are the moments that make a difference for a photographer.

I had arrived in just a shirt and welcomed the opportunity to slip into a pullover after the first innings, but even with this on, by the end I was starting to wish that the Home team put more bails into the air as the wind was by now on the back of my neck and had risen in strength and fallen in temperature!

I had managed to take several sequences that illustrated the shapes bowlers created and batsmen the contortions had gone through to find the ball and project it to the boundary. An afternoon spent in good company and providing me with the exercise of carrying a heavy tripod and camera, keeping my eye in, outside in the fresh air.

Caddington Front Garden – Riot of Colour

I returned to Caddington on my way back as I needed to get a bite to eat. The village is suffering badly due to ongoing diversions that have cut off the normal route north via Chaul End, and to avoid the worst section by the shops I parked a long way back, and as I walked along I spotted a couple of gardens worth grabbing a few photographs in, once I had collected some food. As I came closer to my old house, I spotted a familiar face, and Phil, whose name he mentioned whilst we talked, hailed me with: “I thought you had moved to Eaton Bray!” That brought me into conversation and the lady who had been with him took the opportunity to take her leave telling him she would catch up later. He was correct I had been looking initially in that direction, but I brought him up to date, and we chatted for ten minutes or so before I went for my food.

I put my food in the car, picked up the camera and returned to the two gardens and the majority of the shots were from this one front garden which simply looked as if someone had opened a hundred seed packets and spread them liberally in the front of the house, then taken a hose and sprayed them with liberal amounts of water and possibly fertilisers! I had simply never seen so many brightly coloured flowers in bloom in such a small area – it could only be described as a “Riot of Colour’! It cried out to be photographed,

I obliged.

Mainly Tulips, and a host of others to which I could not put a name, so now that I have managed to get the Stockwood Discovery Centre gallery up, I have put these up as a follow-on. I hope they will give others as much pleasure as I derived from capturing them.

May 4th Gardens Visit – Stockwood Park

I had the chance to go down to the Stockwood Discovery Centre, despite the forecast showing only a slight chance of sun; what I did know was that a lot of growth would have occurred since my last visit, and I was unsure when the next opportunity might arise.

I made good time, though on arrival the gardener I was hoping to catch up with was nowhere to be seen, so I simply set to taking photographs initially with the 24-70mm lens with its macro facility, but after a while I realised that I could do with the 100mm, so I swapped over and carried on till the end wit that lens, using the 5D MkIII body.

I had taken quite a few shots when I heard Jan talking to someone else, and it was Bridey whom I had not seen for a while, I showed both some prints I had of the Grebe and its crayfish meal and the recent Kingfisher and its meal, then some of the shots I had just been taking, Jan kindly offered to unlock the greenhouse for me, and I went back to shooting, it was fully half an hour before I went inside the greenhouse, then started making my way out, Was able to thank Jan and it was not long before I felt it was time to make tracks, but no sooner than I had made that decision than a bush resplendent in white flowers caught my attention due to the amount of interest shown by bees.

I therefore spent some time trying to get up close and personal with these busy pollinators, and on shot which could be the parting shot was a bee who climbed away from a flower and came straight into my focus – shame he was flying away not towards me, but I am not complaining! I took a couple more shots on the way out and made tracks to Caddington hoping to pick up a snack to eat on the way back.

Brogborough Bank Holiday Sunday

My elder daughter whom I see less often sadly, as she is very busy and whose twin daughters are studying hard at Sixth Form College came over to see me, and I wanted to help her understand a bit more about photography and let her see a local venue at which I spend some of my time. For myriad reasons we were very late in arriving at the Windsurfing Lake, and I set up my earlier Tamron telephoto lens with my 5D MkII, so she could take a few shots herself. I set up my Sigma lens with the 7D MkII on a heavier tripod for myself.

The reasoning behind this was she would be capturing similar shots to me and she might even capture something that I missed! A little later in the year I know she would be happier with subjects such as bugs and flowers, and also this day was not the best of lighting nor conditions for the windsurfing sailors either, but we were both out together and we both had cameras.

At one stage a familiar voice spoke to me from behind and it was a windsurfer who had been instrumental in sorting out my pensions; he was promoting a show in Northampton and had been trying to get his posters in numerous and different locations, and had one affixed to his sail, so he wanted some shots of the poster in situ with a bit of activity, so here was a specific image I was to capture. Even an A3 poster is tiny when on a sail and in the distance, so much so, I thought it was a mere A4! 

Even though we were only there a short while, I still took a fair number of shots as several out there were practicing gybing and keeping control with little or no wind, so I was capturing sequences rather than individual moments, however they will be less exciting for others, but the participants themselves will likely find some value in them. The ultimate irony considering how little wind there was, was that the very first three shots are a jump, and I grabbed them without realising I had the compensation set for a two stop increase in exposure from when I had been taking shots of Starlings against the light! Lightroom came to my rescue! The third one heads this piece under the filename of Brogborough Marty McFly!!