A Short Walk With a Camera

  To stay healthy at any time for a man in his mid-seventies, he needs to keep both body and mind fit, and in the straitened times we now find ourselves, the key to being able to survive, if one unfortunately contracts the Covid-19 Virus is ensuring the body's health at the time.

I am fortunate in having open spaces close at hand, so I am making the most of the fine weather by taking long walks, and a camera; the former to exercise the body, the latter to keep the eyes and brain active, by taking a keen interest in all that surrounds me, and when observing others, being aware of keeping a good distance between them and myself for the safety of both parties.
Either one of us may well be hosting the virus, so maintaining this separation is both selfless and selfish, apart from being a strict discipline that has to be observed. From both personal observation and similar anecdotal evidence from others, it would seem that where say a month ago if someone was walking along either the same path as yourself or on the other side of the road, most would avoid any conversation or even glances; of late on each occasion I have been pleasantly surprised at how almost every person of either sex or any age, now will catch one's eye and offer a greeting, many times with a smile, and often a brief conversation. I wonder – am I being overly optimistic that when the peak of this crisis is behind us, we will still retain this behaviour?
On this trip I once again took along the lightweight, but very versatile Lumix FZ10002 zoom, mirrorless bodied camera, and started recording images of flowers, initially in my own garden, then the nearby flower boxes and front gardens belonging to my neighbours. I spotted a small unusual bee that on this occasion was unable to capture as it was was way too speedy! It is unusual in that unlike other bees it has a pronounced pointy nose (note the highly technical description! – Not!)
I had no fixed plan for the subjects I was intending to capture, but fresh blossom was certainly an early feature, as were Tulip heads as yet not fully open, likewise very young and fresh leaves, beginning to unfurl. Later in my walk it was other buds, a cat and a lone Ladybird, that soon disappeared beneath a leaf.
The walk lasted far longer than it will take anyone viewing the gallery, but I am trying hard to master the different behaviour of a mirrorless camera, and I am certainly not yet as effective with this, but I am certainly impressed with the quality it can achieve when I consider its cost and versatility, coupled to its portability.

Stockwood Discovery Centre, National Wildlife Photography Exhibition

The Wildlife Exhibition offered an ideal opportunity to visit both the Gardens and the Gallery, so I arranged with John Sentinella, and Jan Tysoe to meet up there. It provided the chance to view the stunning work of others in the exhibition area, and the opportunity to take our own photographs of the bounty of new life within the garden at the beginning of Spring this year.

I arrived first, and John who had parked elsewhere joined soon after, with Jan coming in after a spell doing Pilates. I had taken a brief stroll around before their arrival.

We all took a look at the fine work of others, and John later left us after the wander around the Exhibition, Jan and I stayed longer before going around the gardens in the search of subjects that caught our eye. It will be interesting later to see Jan’s images, to see what I might have missed, because she has the advantage of knowing what is likely at this early time of the season. I must also find out what differences she found between a lens I lent her to compare with the one she uses.

On the whole we were lucky with the light and the weather, and later we adjourned to the cafeteria for a hot chocolate to catch up. We parted and I made a call to a fellow photographer, Colin Bowles to see whether I might visit him and his wife, to catch up on their news before heading back up to Marston Moretaine, and it was a good move because from there it proved a really good trip back, rather than up the crowded M1. Altogether, a very productive and enjoyable day.

Bank Holiday Monday – Brogborough Lake Bright, and Busy

           I decided that I’d like a relaxing day just seeing what I could capture around the lake at Brogborough. I knew that without even the slightest zephyr, there would certainly not be any windsurfing activity on this bright and ultimately hot Bank Holiday Monday. I reckoned there might well be those who would take to the water on Paddle Boards, and on this I was correct; I was surprised how many would be taking to the water, and certainly I did meet a couple of people whom I would normally associate with windsurfing, but in the main the visitors today were young families.

          I decided that I would take a panorama, but as My bracket which would have allowed me to use a tripod, was carefully stowed back at the house, so I would have to take the shots hand-held as to get any height to the final image the camera has be in a vertical format. So this was my first set of images, and only when I was at the computer would I know how successful the composite image might be – it was certainly not perfect, but definitely it was usable. It was was assembled from twenty single images in RAW format in Lightroom. Later I might well put it into Zoomify, so it can be seen greater detail, but for now that is not the case.

          I had used the 5D MkIII with the 24-70mm lens for those shots, but swapped to the 100mm Macro thereafter to photograph anything I felt was interesting; in the main I was looking for insects, and found an unusual bee-like one that I had only rarely spotted before it tapers from an oval body to what would appear to be a fixed proboscis, and unlike normal bees it is able to hover, and it seemed to favour a clump of white flowers, but it was often very nippy, so I would lose it frequently.

          There were a few hoverflies, flies, ladybirds, and one such looked as if it were heading for a feast of Aphids, but then headed off in another direction, but in the background a hoverfly was considering an ambush! There were a couple of swans, so not a vast array of exciting images, but a challenge to capture, with a lot of watching and waiting! Altogether a very relaxing way to spend time with a camera in the great outdoors.

Insects that caught my attention…

I have spent time using Google to try to find out what the weird insect (in positions 30 and 31 in the gallery) was that looked so fearsome with this tall antenna with the red stripes, and wondered just what its purpose was. So far I have been unable to find anything close, but since many of the times  I have put up galleries of images from this macro world that I find so interesting seem to have appealed to the readers of this blog judging by the visitor numbers when they have appeared, I am genuinely interested to know just what its name is and why it has this ‘mast’ aloft? It seems at once ungainly, and threatening.

 The two very flat butterflies/moths were flying around in the shadows of the thicket then landing and lying absolutely flat on the leaves. I did catch sight of other butterflies but they were far to restless and unpredictable for me to get any shots, and I was lucky to catch the cricket/grasshopper at all as he was bounding for cover and only stopped for a second or two. At least the ladybird was decent enough to keep out in the open, and though he momentarily took to the air, it was only to another nearby thistle.

For all the abundance of insect life, what was surprising was the lack of birdsong; I rarely saw any birds, and in the two or three instances they were fleeting trips across the pathway and at a good distance, I did however hear the call of the woodpigeon just the once – “My toe hurts Betty”, but no reassuring return call from Betty.

A light aircraft was in an oval loop presumably doing occasional ‘circuit and bumps’ and every so often cutting his engine to be able to understand how to restart should any emergency occur in the future. When I hear an engine die, it always grabs my attention, as my heart misses a beat!

During the entire ride and when I stopped, I never saw another human, though there were frequent reminders of the passage of horses. I wish they would at least have the courtesy to move to the edges when the call of nature beckoned, as to avoid these hazards I invariably had to navigate potholes or loose gravel. My human fellow travellers might also have taken their cans and bottles back with them as it makes it harder for authorities to fund these paths when also having to pay for, or find volunteers to carry out the task later.

I did wonder whether there might be a lack of variety, or a poor choice of vegetation in this landscape that accounted for the distinct lack of birds – I have more birds and greater variety in my pocket handkerchief back garden. Starlings in abundance, Jackdaws, Magpies, Sparrows, Pigeons, Bluetits on occasion, Blackbirds, surely this is down to what has been seeded in this obviously reclaimed land?

Latest Visit to Stockwood Discovery Centre

I started taking photos before even setting foot inside the centre, of what is considered to be a precursor to Morning Glory – Bindweed! The bright white trumpets are rather beautiful and really confirm that a weed is simply a flower growing in the wrong place, or where it is not wanted! Also there is an inviting bed of flowers outside the entrance offering a promise of what can be seen within.

After several minutes spent outside and having strolled towards the back of the open area and beyond the greenhouses taking a handful of images I came across one of the gardeners, Jan, who has been extremely helpful in telling me where the best blooms were – she was chatting to a couple of visitors, I spoke to her once they had left, and learned the answer to a puzzle that had been intriguing for some weeks; I learned that she was one of my secret ‘followers’ of my blog!

Harrowden House had puzzled me for a while, especially since as a family we had a saying that defined someone’s circuitous route when offering an excuse for arriving late to our house or the Station’s choir when we lived at Shortstown, and that was: “Did you come via Harrowden Road Post Office?” I cannot now remember exactly how this came about except that when we were younger, we lived in Officers’ Married Quarters that were part of RAF Cardington; the aforementioned Post Office was at the bottom of the hill from Cardington and Shortstown, and was just one of our cycling routes.

Many of the flowers were past their best this afternoon, and many had suffered from a lack of rain, especially the Sunday before, so I was amused by the ingenious use of a fork to support the hose nozzle to provide the beds with some welcome nourishment. I was not always blessed with sunshine, but sometimes this offers dark skies and partially lit areas that then seem to glow. I spotted on ladybird with no spots at all, so presumably either they were burnt off or the downpour that followed the heatwave washed them off! Bees were fairly active, but in lesser numbers than I had expected, likewise hoverflies.