Maulden Afternoon Visit – Somewhat Random Images

Some days do not turn out as expected, but in the present situation I find myself, it seemed not unreasonable to go with the flow when I found it difficult to find the spot where the map seemed to indicate a lake. The young lady who was engaged in dropping leaflets through letter boxes, seemed the ideal person to ask for help, as I was assuming her local knowledge would provide the answer. She very kindly took a look on her phone, whose screen was far larger than mine, and gave me some directions, for which I thanked her, and headed in that direction.

Sadly, I must have slipped up along the way, for I found no indication of the proposed destination, however, I did spot something that caught my eye — I often see trees that have been the site of an abundance of balls of mistletoe, but never so many as seven different sizes on a single tree. I pulled up and parked on a widened area of verge, and attached my EOS R6 to the 24—70mm lens. I was assisted for part of the time by sunshine bringing some detail to the spherical growth of this parasite.

As a direct result of this distraction, I eventually came to the village of Maulden, where I parked near the green close by where a fellow photographer I used to know once lived. I made a quick call to mention where I happened to be, and surprisingly, he greeted me by name, so he must have recognised my number! We had quite a chat, even though it has to be at least seven years since we last spoke! After the call, I continued shooting occasionally walking to different spots to capture both human and bird activity and various plants I came across that appealed to my eye. Since I had got a shot of a girl walking her horse, and was within hailing distance, I asked whether she minded my photographing her, to which she had no complaint. Although I took a shot of a light aircraft with the short focal length lens, it was a testament to how good both the camera and lens performs as its number and propeller blade are visible. The pigeon on the distant roof ridge were on the 60-600mm, which would not have fared as well on the shorter zoom lens.

Altogether, an enjoyable excursion with pleasing results, and both lenses justifying my choice to have to hand. Obviously, the longer lens had it been attached at the time would have made a considerable difference to the light aircraft shot, but that it resolved the propeller blade was still a testament to both camera and lens.

For the observant among you, I apologise for not correcting the text to the blog gallery text which repeats itself at the end (dittographic error!) but sadly may I just apologise, as altering it at present will give grief to my son in law, who is kindly helping me out… Put it down to falling dominoes in 'anno domini' ! Try not reading the titles, and look at the pictures instead. Note to teacher:  I must try harder, Sir!

 

A Different Destination, Still Interesting

It is often interesting to set off for a prescribed destination, and minor disappointment when that becomes not possible, but often that can still prove to be worthwhile, and that was the case in this instance, for the result was I met some interesting people. Yes, we kept our distance, but this did not prove to be a hindrance, I learned something from those I met, and we all seemed to enjoy our chance meeting, and I was allowed to take photographs up close in some of the front gardens.

The original plan was to find access to a group of lakes, but they appeared to be entirely inaccessible to the public, and so, undeterred, I move on elsewhere, and soon find subjects for my camera — the subject soon presented itself to me — as I drove away from my initial disappointment, ahead a field of Gold was revealed; the first fields of rapeseed I had so far seen this season, so I pulled the car over to a convenient spot to park. I noted that I had been to this spot before, around three or more years back, and captured an evening sky. On this trip, I had parked in the spot as before, and taken a stroll along the nearby road towards the field where I captured a few landscapes of rapeseed, before returning along the lane for shots of a distant horse, a chat with a couple who had been passing me after traversing the path through the field of rape. The man turned out to be an angler who was able to suggest a good spot to see kingfishers.

On the journey back to the car, I met two more of the residents of these cottages, allowing me to record some shots in their respective gardens, and to stop long enough to chat, whilst maintaining at a respective distance. I also crossed across a small planking bridge to get a couple of shots through the trees to an open grass area that was a right of way to distant fields. I managed a glimpse of a robin just before leaving this spot, and heading for home after a brief chat with a man mowing his large lawn between his current cottage home and his erstwhile large home, now his son’s family abode. I hope that his break to chat to me did not delay his completion of mowing, since this was no small lawn! A church bathed in sunshine later attracted my attention as that was also having its lawns mown, I was offered a chance to view the interior, but on this occasion I declined, but perhaps I will take up the offer at a later date.

I stopped once more, on a bend with a view of the large former Country House at Ampthill, that is now divided into flats that I had earlier photographed from Stewartby with my long Sigma lens a while back. The reason for this brief stop was the abundance of trees sporting mistletoe balls of varying sizes, but I took advantage of a shot of the big house as well.