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.

Brogborough Lake Path Walk

Since the Lake is not open for Windsurfing or Angling currently, I parked to one side of the gate to avoid blocking access, and entered the path that encircles the lake along with my currently ever-present LUMIX camera, ironically in the hope of capturing this year’s Dragonflies, but although they were around, they rarely settled, or hovered awhile, and also rarely came close, whereas the damselflies were numerous and were even to be found In the field margins.

There were spiders either hanging around or very busy linking up several different branches or leaf groups. I also noted a strange winged insect with long tails, but my first interesting bird was a distant Wagtail which, as I quietly manoeuvred closer would loop past me to hop around the same distance from me, but on the other side of me! I moved closer to it, but even more slowly, and have relied on cropping the images to use at a fair size. It kept me busy for a while, as it was rarely still for long, and they are interesting birds. I did get some shots of one Dragonfly, but at one stage the reed he was on fell into the water, and wet its wings, so when I spotted that it had become partially submerged, I got a small branch, and lifted the reed out of the water, so that it’s wings could dry out, and after five minutes, was relieved to witness him dry enough to flap his wings, and moments later take to the air. I was mightily relieved, and it lifted my spirits in realising I had likely saved its life.

Two Geese families soon appeared slowly from the right of me as the respective parents carefully watched me to see if I represented a danger, the appraisal lasted a couple of minutes, then both the Greylag and Canada Geese families slowly brought their charges gingerly past. They had judged that I was not a danger, and both sets of parents kept their young close as they passed by; so they were still taking no chances.

I had thought that the Dog Roses would soon have finished flowering since I had seen the first of them quite some time back, but they were still making a good showing as I continued walking further around the lake. The still waters on this trip meant that it the bottom of the lake clearly showed the origins of their past life as the numerous bricks were evidence of where they had been unceremoniously dumped if they were damaged or otherwise sub-standard. At least now the large planting of trees and expanse of water coloured by the reflection of extensive blue sky and high thin clouds made a most attractive sight, which once the current Lock Down becomes a distant memory will return to, become the background to joyous human activity for Windsurfers, Hydrofoilers, Paddle-boarders and Swimmers, not forgetting the Swans, Ducks and Geese that call this expanse of water their home too.

On this trip, I spotted later a gap in the bushes where a small makeshift bridge had been built over the stream, and decided to risk crossing over, and found myself on a raised bank, with a path bathed in shafts of light from gaps in the cover of leaves which attracted the flying of hoverflies. I decided here was an interesting challenge for this camera, to try to capture then in flight, or possibly static on the back of my hand, but this is one activity that is hard to master using a mirrorless camera, but I do like a challenge, and I spent fully half an hour in attempting to capture at least one, in flight. It was not going to be a great shot, but that was no reason not to make the attempt! They do not match the quality of the rest of the images, but it occupied my brain hand and arms, and I hoped the hoverflies might take a leaf out of the lone fly’s book, by realising I meant no harm.

My last two shots were of the shadows cast by shafts of sunlight through the trees that silhouetted some of the taller weeds in the wide verge.

Marston Moretaine — Life in the Hedges

Every day people stroll, run or cycle along roads with rarely a glance to the right or left, often in worlds of their own, with scant regard for the small creatures that abound in the hedges, along the low walls, or in the grass alongside the pavements. Yes, many will admire some of the brightly coloured flowers, or the neatly trimmed lawns, but when cars or bikes are passing, there are often sounds to be heard; obviously birdsong, but at lower levels there can be the gentle hum of bees. Even without those sounds, there is activity a-plenty.

I had spotted the bees, as I walked to the Post Office and back, so I broke off from what I had planned and took out a camera and over two short sorties with two different lenses set out to capture what was there in just a short stretch of the main road.

There were bees, tiny moths, a ladybird, spiders, one minuscule pale insect I had never seen, hoverflies — some were too agile and shy for me to capture.   We rely on many yet give them barely a passing thought but, when you look closer at some, you would see that many of these creatures have bodies of incredible complexity, and possess skills we can only dream of possessing. I can highly recommend stopping by a hedgerow in the early evening of a warm summer day when you see a hoverfly, and just watch their flying skills, as they lift off from a leaf perform darting swoops, the stop, hover a moment, often swing through ninety degrees at the same spot, then climb vertically, and stop again. I have found that in areas of mixed light and shade, they will often hover in the sunlit spot, then get mobbed by other hoverflies who then take over the same point in space.

On this occasion it was too early for that behaviour, and one hoverfly simply relaxed, preened itself with its long legs, then poohed! The tiny moth I spotted was barely two millimetres in diameter, and way too energetic for me to capture. And the ladybird simply burrowed deeper in the hedge, and never reappeared. Gerald Durrell, author of ‘My Family and Other Animals’ had far more exotic ‘mini-beasts’ on Corfu, but English hedgerows are far from bereft of tiny insects that are interesting to study. I would highly recommend some words from WH Davies — ‘What is this Life, if full of Care, we ne’er have Time to Stop and Stare’. A day or so back I took some shots of water boatmen — these are tiny creatures that can be found on streams and lakes, who can walk on water, and they skip along the surface with incredible agility.

When I photograph flowers, I very often try to capture insects that either pollinate those flowers or search for smaller prey who feed therein. There is a world of life within a hedge, and I gain much personal satisfaction in taking photos of this world; it is endlessly fascinating, and highly therapeutic.

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.

Brogborough Becalmed, But Full of Life…

Brogborough Lake is alive with insect and plant life, so on a warm afternoon with barely a zephyr to ripple the waters of the lake, there seems little chance of a windsurfer, which is disappointing for Sam Barnes who eagerly awaits the second chance to take to the water with his Hydrofoil Windsurfer. In case that might be the case, I chose to be around should the wind appear, though I was  there to capture whatever I could of the ‘little beasties’ and the leaves and flowers that formed their habitat.

There were a few dragonflies, and there were bees, damselflies and hoverflies, a golden Shield bug, and one or two insects for whom I had no name, or were species I had not seen before, so armed with the 100mm and 1.4 Converter on the EOS7D MkII and the 24-70mm with Macro on the EOS5D MkIII, I set about recording what I found. I spotted others, but failed to be quick enough to capture them, but nevertheless, it was still a very worthwhile haul for a gallery of eighty images, so not a waste.

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?

Brogborough – the Lake Hosts More than Windsurfers

I had some free afternoon time, and had had tantalising glimpses of Dragonflies at the lake at Brogborough and I genuinely went there with the intention of getting some shots of them, and here are a couple of dozen shots mainly of their more abundant and smaller cousins the damselflies, and finally a dragonfly, but and it's a big one – I was distracted by the Windsurfers!

A camera with a long lens attached is a magnet when visible on this lake and the polar opposite to a stationary photographer is a very mobile windsurfing sailor!

It will take more time to process the later shots, but in case the blog is visited meantime, here is a teaser –

Brogborough Visit – August Bank Holiday

Not for the first time I have visited Brogborough with a specific aim in mind and ended up taking photos of a completely different subject. On Bank holiday Sunday I had every intention of trying to meet up with a fisherman I had met at Harpenden on the Jarvis Development site. The intention was to go clockwise around the lake, but on my arrival I was told that the wood had been cleared considerably to create a mountain bike course, and that I could approach anticlockwise from the Windsurfing beach.

It was to prove not possible and it also resulted in my getting a good soaking, but deepite not having the right lens for taking shots of the windsurfers as I moved through the woods some of the viewpoints seemed too good to miss, so despite my best intentions I have returned with shots of windsurfers, and a few shots of the insect life to be found thereabouts.

My trek through the undergrowth meant that I learned that beyond the woods was in fact private land controlled for shooting, so I shall not be using the route again. When I set off the weather looked reasonably settled, but as the breeze got up in blew clouds that brought a shower, and you do not get much cover beneath hawthorn bushes, so I got a dowsing.

Lizzy had earlier that morning got a text from Tim who had been sheltering from a shower with my grandson, which briefly said ‘under a tree’ – well, I resisted the temptation to call her to mention where I was at the time, especially since I was less lucky.