Aylesbury Parklife Summer Concert

  

 

          Aylesbury Concert Band brave the drizzle, and are rewarded with an excellent concert that pleased the crowd that attended regardless of the conditions, and a wider audience on this occasion, as it was also streamed via Facebook. Headlining were the now married couple who have performed with the Band in previous years; Alison Langer and Lawrence Thackeray. 
          The Star for me, having earlier heard her perform at the rehearsal, was the highly accomplished fifteen year old on the violin playing the Tsardas by Monti, Shona Beacham. As can be seen from my picture of her whilst she played at rehearsal that I put in the headline image for that gallery, the two people in the background are obviously listening intently to her performance, in admiration.
          The violin is a notoriously difficult instrument to play, and she justly received a rapturous applause,  but to play that piece with such panâche, and at so a young an age is stunning. Keep an eye out for that name in the future. 
          I was really pleased that the rain which had drizzled throughout the entire rehearsal, began to stop soon after the concert itself started. The programme was packed with numerous pieces both enjoyable and familiar, which is always a challenge when my feet want to dance, and I am trying to hold my camera and often longish lens steady. The light level even before the light dimmed towards evening, meant that when the concert proper began, I was already shooting at ISO 2000° and at f/4! When the lights were really low I was at ISO 12,800° which is what I describe as ‘Unavailable Light Photography’ which is challenging when shooting handheld with hands as unsteady as mine! The Hit rate falls significantly, hence why I favour 32GB cards, and that can become an embarrassment when I do not have a spare empty card in my pocket. 
          In the Interval, I moved Stage left and took shots of the Drummers, which when their leader took to the grass to dance with another of their number, that was seriously tough to keep sharp!!
          I must apologise to anyone in the Band who has waited for these images to arrive on the blog, but life can sometimes supervene as I do have to do other mundane tasks, such as in this case, take my car for its MOT and wait four hours in the car showroom till it is complete, then shop for the mundanities of life such as food that was delayed due to filling the time taking the photos in the first place!
          However, here the images are, and I hope they give others as much pleasure as I enjoyed whilst listening and watching the show.

Another Visit to the Reservoirs

Getting up early for a change, because of the confident forecast of a bright and frosty start to the day, gave me the chance to visit both Tringford and Marsworth lakes, and being there early gave me a chance to capture swans both taking off and landing. I also got a couple of shots of a grebe’s successful catch whilst on Marsworth.

Back on Tringford the herons were also taking to the air and one in particular caught my eye as it seemed young and also bright white, not grey like most of the others. There were already two hardy fishermen out on the lake, and Bob, the bailiff was busy tidying and cleaning the frost-encrusted boats. I soon spotted Rob’s line was curved under tension, so watched and waited for him to reel in a trout, he later reckoned it to be around three pounds, and he worked hard for it!

To Bob’s dismay the cormorants were on and around the lake in abundance, and he is likely due for a very sore throat as he bellows like a rutting stag to scare them off, but several landed on the water at the far side from the landing stage despite his displeasure. There a few tern flying leisurely but consistently around a small inlet, so I can only presume there was food around.

Bob rowed me out on the lake for a spell as he inspected the banks and the far end of the lake by the pumping station, and for a while the wind dropped somewhat and the sun began to warm us, but that soon changed as the wind direction veered and got up in strength just as we returned to shore and by that time having just drunk a cold coke I began shivering so I called it a day, and it was only half-past one!

I have split the shots into three galleries: Fisherman Rob’s catch with herons and a grebe, A swan taking off, doing a circuit and landing, and another taking off and flying past.