Milton Ernest River Walk

An afternoon walk in the mild sunshine alongside the River Great Ouse from Milton Ernest with my  Sigma 60-600mm lens on the Canon EOS R6 mounted on a monopod. This combination is really a highly effective tool for capturing nature and wildlife without over burdening one self with weighty kit. Granted, it is not as stable as a tripod, but I am able to carry this all day without fatigue, and in bright sunlight, as it was on this visit to the River Great Ouse, I was able to use a fairly low ISO speed setting for much of the time. I had a rucksack on my back with another lens should the need arise; the Canon 24-60mm lens with its handy macro facility — when encountering a steep slope or pushing nettles out of the way, a monopod is a handy tool!

On this occasion, my outward trip was to just beyond the overhead bridge arches for the railway where I was able to get a few shots of some cattle on the farther shore, before I turned and made the return trip. Since it was a weekday, and Lockdown is easing, it was unsurprising to find fewer people either out on their own or with family members, but considering the weather I had expected to find more people than I encountered. I enjoyed the exercise, and once again I made an observation that despite returning along the same route, I still found subjects to photograph as I retraced my steps to my start point. Springtime offers colour to the trees with blossom, and has an a effect upon the animal kingdom too, as the birds on the water were in pairs, but surprisingly on this stretch I only saw two pairs of birds, and a week back when in woodland, there was less birdsong, and not as much generally in terms of wildlife. Perhaps the majority of birds were on the nest. It was a workday afternoon, which certainly had a bearing on the paucity of humans, for which I am not complaining.

One of my pleasures when out taking pictures in the great outdoors is playing about with the juxtaposition of subjects and their backgrounds or environment, and the observation of patterns whether natural or manmade, or differing colours or textures in the same image. Likewise contrasts between colours or tones or textures, and this gallery has more than its share of such pairings, and be defined as the characteristics of this one afternoon’s output, yet was not specifically intentional. I wonder how many readers of the blog will make that connection.