Private Garden Life

I set off in sunshine, with the distinct possibility my hope for uninterrupted sunshine might well be doomed, however, the Gods appeared to have been benevolent on this occasion, as the dark clouds were slow-moving, and seemed to pass by without dropping their ominous load.

In order to keep my distance from the avian visitors to this garden, I opted for my trusty long zoom, Sigma 60-600mm lens on the EOS R6, as I could operate easily to get both close-up detail, and more general views, with minimal moving around, so as to avoid disturbing the myriad birds which visit the garden.

The variety of colours on show was a delight, and I was lucky enough to get a series of shots of one brave bird, who came to bathe in the water, and be generous in moving to different locations to keep my attention! I also ventured to the riverside nearby, but of the three ducks originally close to the bank two beat a hasty and vigorous flapping retreat, the other simply headed off determinedly, keeping its head away from me, but no energy exerted to leave the water!

I will let the images captured tell their own story of an ultimately very relaxing afternoon close by the river.

Stewartby Lake Nature Trail

Stewartby — The Season is Still Progressing

As Lockdown eases, the weather makes it easier to keep the crowds from yearning to be in the Great Outdoors, which imposes a limited restriction to the numbers of people going out, although it is less enticing for photography. Summer is fast approaching, and then the desire to be outside and involved more intimately with our families becomes irresistible – but we must be patient. Over the last months, taking photographs has been a blessing for my wellbeing; in fact, I do not think It is an exaggeration to say it has been a ‘blessing’ because were it not for the opportunities offered by the taking of photographs to be outside, I would not have been as calm about the enforced separation from all the members of my family.

As I have mentioned in the narrative of my blog, the taking of photographs is still as important as ever, and still very much a challenge. The camera most in my hands of late has been the LUMIX FZ10002, and I still feel there is more to be learned about how to handle it to best advantage; it is very capable, but has its quirks; what I need to do is configure some of the various controls very specifically for my personal needs, but so far I am wary to set these up, in case I manage to screw things up, so I am hoping that with isolation relaxing, I will be able to contact someone to guide me through setting up some speedy access to specific controls for my way of working.

I am eternally grateful for going to this year’s only major Photo Show and meeting up with Steve Scrase. Fortuitously he awaited my arrival at the stand he was at — the Panasonic stand. When we met up, he told me that a colleague of his had bought a LUMIX camera, with which he was most impressed, so much so that Steve convinced me that I should take a look. It was not long before I had the Mark II version of the model his friend had praised so highly. It did not take long handling the MkII version for me to be convinced that this camera which could not be described as ‘Professional’, since it was not weather-sealed in any way, definitely lived up to the praise of its image quality. I had a play and also had put a card of my own in, so that I could look in even greater detail later. Looking closely at the images, it took only a matter of moments to check out its price and decide it was worth a punt. After the Show and a day’s use, I then ordered a charger and a second battery, and it has become the camera of choice during this time when using my fully professional kit would likely be frowned-upon.

This camera is very capable and versatile and lives up to its early promise, but has its quirks, and is still challenging; there always seems to be one parameter missing when you need to finesse something swiftly, and that is a needed conversation with someone at Panasonic. The shots in these two pages were all taken using this camera, some with the addition of a closeup ring — I needed the exercise for body and soul, I hope they give someone some pleasure. It is difficult to believe, but every shot in this gallery has been captured with this camera, sometimes assisted by a single 1-dioptre close-up ring for a few shots. As a result of my experience with its results, it now is kept within the soft neoprene cover for when it might come in handy. A note to Panasonic; please provide more metadata from the camera to be embedded, in particular, orientation if that is possible.

Station Road, Marston Moretaine—Flowers

A Walk with a Camera Along Station Road proves worthwhile. The bees were active, especially along an entire front garden wall of Heather, and this was true on both sides of the main road, it also tends to attract the owners’ attention, and when that occurs, I often find I am shown their back gardens, or at least allowed to step into the front garden to get closer, or better angles.

Most of the time the sun was out, but on a few occasions, the clouds passed across the sun. When that happened, and the ideal viewpoint really needed the sunlight, either to highlight my particular subject, or put shadow beyond, I would have to be patient, and stop and wait awhile. Fortunately, on this afternoon trip, I was fairly lucky. On occasion some compositions needed for the breeze to die down, so I could take a shot with a flower without others  partially obscuring the main flower, or grouping.

Capturing bees either in flight, or bees on a particular flower can sometimes be difficult, especially when they alight, for mere fractions of a second. Sometimes, I found myself poised on a particular flower, and waiting for a bee to land, only to have the breeze to pick up, and dislodge the bee, or blow a leave across the bee just as I am ready to take the shot! However overall, on this short trip, I was reasonably fortunate.

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!

Tentative Spring

After our short spell with snow on the ground, a few brighter days have arrived, and with them the first stirrings of Spring. I took the opportunity to see what my camera and I could find, and was pleasantly surprised.

Before coming across nature rising to the call, I noticed that human activity was evident – hedge-laying, so took some record shots of this ancient activity, and subsequently have noticed several other instances of this procedure, and have learnt that techniques vary across the country and are often regionally specific and named after their counties of origin.

I soon came across catkins, buds, crocuses and snowdrops – enough to show a small gallery to mark the awakening of the countryside from Winter.