Two Visits – Pure Serendipity

  On this trip out, I spotted the entrance to woodland with a short lay-by handily situated immediately opposite. This seemed like a welcome invitation, since I had never visited it previously, and if it warranted a display board to announce itself, it seemed like bad manners not to accept the invitation to visit and explore.

I parked up and decided on what I would take with me and soon I found myself walking along a wide well-kept path bordered with lush grass, and young bluebells with trees displaying fresh young leaves soon to be opening to welcome Spring. The sun had little difficulty in providing its rays to hasten this growth which would be lost to the full glare within a very short time as the wood lost its present sparse look to provide shade for those who would walk their dogs along these avenues.

My walk through these avenues encountered just a few people exercising their dogs, a small young family group and one couple who stopped to chat, and mention that as they had been walking along the parallel path, the man suggested I might well find an interesting shot of a small clump of flowers growing in the cleft of a tree. He was indeed correct!

Later, I spotted a sign to a derelict church, so followed the lane and took a few shots there before returning to the main road and continuing my return trip home. The afternoon proved to be very rewarding by relieving any stress caused by my current isolation from my family.

Two Riverside visits — Oakley and Milton Ernest

I drove to the village of Oakley, which has several areas with easy access to the banks of the river Great Ouse, at this time of year, this is an area with a wealth of different indications of different stages of fresh young growth. This was especially noticeable on the trees alongside the road heading towards the church at Oakley, close by a small park and the river Great Ouse. I had parked up in a small area opposite to the gate to the river bank park that has a gate leading to a path across a green field and also an entrance to the riverside path on the other side of the road bridge across the river.

I was fortunate to have some sunshine in the early stages of this trip, but it was not destined to last. One very noticeable observation I made was just how many large tree branches were caught in the various barrages at the bridges and weirs. From my walks in the nearby woodland paths, I was pleased that it was far less muddy than it had been a few weeks earlier, and that some of the clearings had small stacks of collected fallen branches. The barrages on the river were well-filled and the buttresses of the bridge were holding back some very large tree trunks. Also in the small park that stretches from the bridge to the church there were several cut down trees.

I spent much of my time capturing the different stages of growth of leaves and seeds as I walked along the margins, and also noted that one of the walls at the end of the road bridge had very bad cracks, yet also reasonably recent new pointing. My stay at this stretch of the river concluded by my capture of the fresh new season’s various growth stages, before driving to Milton Ernest where I captured a pair of swans on this stretch of the same river, and more young flowers.

I try to make a point of photographing the information panels as it comes in handy when choosing locations at future times.

A Single Afternoon – Two Locations

Early on on this particular day, I had made a destination decision to visit a stretch of the River Great Ouse, north of Bedford but, as on many such occasions, just short of the planned point, I had somehow taken a wrong turn, and found myself in a familiar village, and surrendered to Serendipity! I had no desire to waste even more of my day trying to find my way elsewhere, as I felt perhaps that Destiny had intervened because I could certainly find satisfying images here.

I had parked my car briefly, opposite the splendid building with a central Clocktower, to take a couple of shots that would anchor the subsequent gallery of images from this village location. It was but a short distance to drive and to where I intended to take further shots — Mill Lane, where I took advantage of the the wide neck of the lane’s junction — with ample space for other vehicles to pass with ease, and put the EOS R6 which had the Sigma 150-600mm already attached onto my lightweight Giottos tripod, locked up and took a stroll down the lane. There were several clusters of various plants and flowers alongside the lane, so progress down the lane was at a very slow and leisurely pace.

I covered the distance to the swing gate that opened to a wider grassy swarm, but on this occasion, I saw no purpose in venturing further and having to encounter the mud within the gate. I have noted in the past that though the return trip is faster, there are still pictures to be found from the altered viewpoint. I encountered no other people until I reached the bottom of the road uphill, when I spoke to a lady by her private drive.

On the return trip, I was close to Milton Ernest, so I called into River Road, where I met up with a man who was hard at work digging the stream deeper to improve the flow into the river and thereby, the road from flooding before reaching the river. I felt his valiant efforts deserved recording within the gallery, as well as the geese calling out presumably in praise of his stalwart work.

A Climb to Millbrook Church

As many who know me will realise, I rarely travel without a camera, and on those occasions, I will have made a conscious decision not to be taking photos, or my family will have made that decision for me! Yes, I do have a phone  that Sports a camera, but for me that is not a serious option. For several years my choice has been a single lens reflex, and although I started as a Nikon devotee, there came a point where I opted to jump from film to digital, and at that juncture Canon offered a better quality than Nikon, so I jumped ship. 

Both camera makers spent the early digital years, swapping the lead in terms of quality or ease of use, but as I simply had to wait a short while when Canon was behind before the next model made a jump, I stayed loyal. This was as much due to my investment and the prohibitive financial cost of making such a jump. Both systems are very equal, and there are subtle handling differences which would mean at critical moments I could fail to capture a shot.

Recently, as I made the switch to a mirrorless body, I fell into just such a situation. I had my recently acquired EOS R and Sigma Sports 60-600mm crash to the ground, and whilst both were being repaired, I went back to my DSLRs, only to find I had lost the fluidity in the handling, that used to be second nature! The differences are only slight, but my brain is less agile than it was when I made the jump to digital all those years back!

I made a trip to my accountant today, and on the return trip, I parked the car in the village of Millbrook, and grabbing the camera I took a steep path up to the top to see what the views might be, and whatever else might be of interest. It was only when I reached the summit and saw the view, that I realised I had actually been to this same spot before, but on that occasion, I had started from the opposite side of the same hill! It had not been a wasted journey, but it was one of those forehead-slapping moments!

The end result is a single page gallery of what caught my eye, and certainly gave me a quality that justified my purchase, and its flip screen made all the difference to the ease with which I was able to get the low angles of some of the shots, and also the landscapes, due to the lack of shutter vibration, coupled with the larger pixel count inherent in the file size increase over my 5D MkIII, had I taken the same shots with the latter.

It was a useful opportunity to become more familiar with the EOS R for when I need to work swiftly and intuitively in the future.

Foggy Stockwood Discovery Centre

Ex-Stockwood gardener Jan and I met up to take photos in the gardens. She brought along her newly acquired macro lens and I had got a call earlier whilst it was still raining and I was about to set off, and I thought: Despite her desire to get more experience with the lens, she might be calling to say that the meeting was off due to the weather. I had misjudged her – the call was to see whether I might be calling it off due to the conditions. Both of us were willing to take the chance on it improving as it happened, so I started the car, and headed South, but I did choose to to use the country roads! By the time I entered the car Park at the Centre, the rain had stopped leaving just a foggy day, and one small benefit – there would be lots of raindrops on the leaves and flowers, and a soft light retaining more colour. The downside being that invariably we would need higher ISOs and steadier hands as shutter speeds would be marginal. Jan had arrived only minutes before and was just stepping out of her car as I initially came alongside, though realising the cars either side were perilously close, I took another slot with more space.

We both then headed for the entrance where Jan was greeted warmly by the staff, before we then headed into the gardens. At first we simply chatted as we walked around to see what was there that warranted photographing, I took out my camera and Jan then took the opportunity to catch up with a few of her erstwhile colleagues before returning and pointing out some plants of particular interest. That would often mean that we would get engrossed in one area and the other would wander further afield, time would pass and then we would find each other, share our captured images, then Jan would point out something I had not spotted. Members of the public who recognised her would chat and learn she had retired, or other staff members would involve her in conversation, it was obvious she was very fondly remembered and they were happy to see her back as a visitor. Every so often I would help her with some of the settings on the camera, or offer suggestions for framing. It is always a delight in offering guidance to those keen to learn more about improving their picture-taking and Jan has really enjoyed gaining a greater understanding of how to improve upon the pictures she takes, which I find particularly heartwarming.

Jan was very handy from my angle as she knew where to expect the new signs of growth, and headed for those, so I would look to see where she went next and head on over to see what she had found. This meant we found ourselves covering different corners, some I have rarely visited, like the chickens, where she recounted some of their history; we also visited the historical area where she explained how some of the horse paraphernalia on display were not all hung in the same orientation, an error which I found particularly poor on behalf of the Museum Staff, as this area is important educationally and should be displayed without ambiguity as this is a really vital resource which needs to be interpreted accurately, I learned that despite her making the point, no one had corrected these errors; that actually angered me as it devalued the display and history has to be reported accurately for it to be of value. Visual History is more powerful often than verbal or written history, so it is vital that it be seen to be correct. This section of the grounds was too dark to consider the taking of photos handheld, but I did make an attempt in the case of one small animal.

We returned to the gardens and by the exit took advantage of some of the items displayed for sale, before moving to have hot chocolate and Caramel shortcakes and a relaxing chat with my swapping out her card to my camera, so she could view her work on a larger review screen, and also for her to view some of my shots, before we both headed in different directions, having enjoyed our time together capturing the ongoing season in the gardens, one of Luton’s gems. On this occasion it was school holiday time, so was very much alive to the sounds of young children enjoying what discoveries they find; which in some cases was simply to run around in a safe environment!

Hertfordshire Spring Wildlife

Setting an agenda when when it comes to photographing wildlife can often be frustrating, especially when your subject lives a life based on happenstance as is definitely the case when trying to photograph a bird that searches for carrion. If it is relying on roadkill, the demise of its prey is unpredictable, and I am certainly not going to drive around trying to oblige raptors by chasing foxes and rabbits with my car!

So in making a plan to specifically look for red kite within a short drive from home is always more in hope than anything else. I did have a location in mind, but on arrival with blue sky edge to edge, there was no sign of any birdlife or even birdsong – the only birds aloft, rose beyond the hill from Luton Airport! I hung around for thirty minutes, and took some shots of cyclists riding uphill towards me, and the lead man asked did I get a shot, to which I replied yes, but I was hoping for Red Kite, he shouted back head for Whitwell. I took his advice and drove downhill and just beyond Stagenhoe Bottom spotted to men chatting outside some cottages and was about to stop and ask them when beyond and above them I spotted a pair of Kites, so I found a narrow lane and parked up, only to see them head off higher and into the far distance.

I found that below where I had stopped was a ford and to the right extensive wetlands; it turns out it was some newly dredged ponds diverted from the river Mimram. A short while later, a man approached and he mentioned that there was a better parking spot just up the road, and he was one of those I had spotted chatting. It turned out that he lived in one of the cottages and he said I was welcome to come into his garden which ran down to the water’s edge. He was very amiable and chatty and was an ex-teacher, and he was able to tell me quite a bit about the local wildlife, suggesting other likely locations; one of which after leaving him I visited, and it was a pond I had visited before.

When I had parked, I quietly approached so as not to frighten any of the birds I saw both on the banks and in the water. The strangest bird was largely black and white with a red nobbly bit above its beak (there is probably a technical term for that!) I characterised it as a duck, yet it did not have an obvious duck’s bill. When I first saw it it was swimming low in the water, but it soon came ashore to give itself a grooming, and I therefore tried to get shots that captured its behaviour. Behind me on telegraph wires I spotted a swallow, and it spent a good deal of time singing, so I also took shots that allowed me to see its eyes. I was under the impression that swallows never landed, and I had never been this close to one before. I learned later that the strange ducklike bird was a Muscovy Duck, and what from one of my books seemed like a red-rumped swallow was in fact a bog-standard, vanilla, common swallow!

Later I was to see some longhorn cattle, flowers, a peacock, some black sheep and their lambs and a lone Pied Wagtail, before returning home.

Spring at the Stockwood Discovery Centre

I know I like a challenge, but arriving so soon after the first signs of warmer weather after this prolonged cold spell was certainly ambitious if I had hope to find much to photograph in the gardens. I was certainly not going to walk away without at least giving it a try. From the several visitors who enquired what I was doing, or what I was photographing, it became obvious that I was seeing more than most! Two young boys were particularly inquisitive, and I learned a while later the possible reason; one of them had an uncle who was a photographer, so presumably he can pride himself that he has inspired at least one of the next generation.

I kept my eyes wide open and persevered trying to capture the first green shoots of recovery, and pressed my nose hard against my eyepiece and moved in close, often lying on the ground to give scale to what I saw; it was good to see that the bees had ended their winter holidays and were reasonably active. By the time I walked out of the centre, I felt I could metaphorically hold my head up high; I think that despite the gusty wind, and very variable sunlight I captured at least something of the burgeoning growth of new life in the gardens. And I did not ignore the lowly daffodil.