Clophill – Old St. Mary’s Church – Fundraising Photographic Day

Morning Session Gallery

Afternoon Session Gallery

Andy Fox, whom I met a few years back whilst out with my camera close by a lake where he was an angler has been heavily involved in voluntary work to conserve the old church and now the fund-raising to add eco lodges to the venue to preserve the work done at the church. The Old St. Mary’s Church lies approximately at the midpoint of the Greensand Ridge Trail and is itself composed of this local sandstone.

Andy it was who asked whether I would like to make my contribution to his pet project by joining a group of hopefully at least six photographers and join a Day photographing a series of raptors that he would be providing as subjects. This was an opportunity not to be missed and I sincerely hoped he would get the required number for the venture to go ahead. I had thoroughly enjoyed a similar day at Old Warden, so it was not a difficult decision; ahead of the day, I was hoping England’s notoriously fickle weather would be kind to us, and although I set off in rain, it had all but stopped by my arrival at Clophill.

I met up with other participants, both at Andy’s house and later at the eco lodges where we assembled ourselves and our assorted camera gear; as one of only two Canon users I was joshed for my choice, but it was all lighthearted banter that I might have meted out were the boot on the other foot – there was certainly no malice, simply a typical way of breaking the ice amongst a small group. After a short talk about the aims of the Trust for the church and the eco lodges site, Andy explained the plans for the day; it was to be static birds in the morning session and hopefully the birds in flight at some time in the afternoon, with a break for refreshments before the afternoon session.

We were introduced to Emily who was looking after and providing our models for the day before setting off for the ruins of the church where, amidst the first signs of Spring; small clumps of snowdrops amongst last season’s autumn leaves, we were to find backdrops for the subjects of our images. I chose to use the 5D MkIII and the Canon 100-400mm for the morning and in the afternoon I used the 7D MkII and Tamron 150-600mm.

Due to earlier commitments I already knew it would be some time before I would be able to do any of the post processing of the files and so it will be nearly a week before these are up in a gallery on my blog. I hope that despite the number of images there is sufficient variety to enjoy the experience of looking at what I shot.

The birds featured are  a tawny owl, a barn owl, an eagle owl and a kestrel.

An Afternoon Walk around Clophill

It is not every day that you get invited to tour around an area with such a knowledgeable guide as I had this afternoon, in Andy Fox. Andy knew the names of the birds we came across, the history of the places we visited and the types of aircraft that flew over. He is both a keen fisherman and a skilled photographer, and we had a great day with interesting conversation and a good deal of exercise,  punctuated by a fair amount of laughter.

The weather surprised us both because when I arrived, it was dull and overcast, with a warm wind blowing, but as it turned out this gave us great lighting, often fleeting, which sometimes meant one or both of us darting up or down hill to be in the the right position for a particular shot, which despite the vast open space often meant we crashed into each other. We met only one other person at Cainhoe Castle, and a family group at old St. Mary’s Church, during our three hours in the country.

Pirton Pond Life, and beyond

Saturday seems a long way away now, especially since the day was so warm and sunny, and we are now back to the more traditional English grey. I went for a drive to amongst other places, Shillington, Pirton and Clophill, and the majority of the time was spent at the vibrant Pirton Blacksmith’s Pond.

I was truly amazed by the amount of wildlife present in such a small area, the water was clear, or should I say transparent, as the amount of small leaves and branches was high. It was so clear that it was easy to see just how abundant was the fish life. Not being an expert I cannot be sure whether the orange fish were carp or goldfish, but as you can see from one shot there were brown fish as well.

There were several different types of bees, at least two types of hoverfly and more than one type of damsel fly, as well as both sexes, some mating, as could sometimes be seen by pairs in flight. There were lacewings and midges and common flies, one such had failed to realise its weight and was slowly drowning as it was unable to walk on water as the water boatmen were. There were also some caterpillars with striking colours and structures. It was so hot that I had to keep removing my glasses to clear the condensation to be able to keep shooting. I was trying very hard to try to capture damsel flies in flight, but they knew exactly how long I would take to focus, and would change direction just before I managed to succeed. If I then decided to capture them on a reed or iris, again only rarely was I swift enough!

From Pirton I went towards Clophill where I found a stream and whilst there met a fisherman and photographer who later very kindly took me into his fishing area pointing out a field favoured by lapwings and before the weather closed in, I only managed to get some quick shots of some greylag over-flying.