Further EOS R Testing

 

I keep taking every opportunity to test how best to set up the EOS R for the various scenarios I encounter, and on this afternoon, it was general handling, and using my go to general lens, the 24-70mm with its macro facility.

The main road that my house borders on one side in Marston Moretaine provides numerous front gardens with at this time of year in bright sunshine provides full use of this lens. The first was a hedge of Heather, that the local bees love, and there were opportunities a-plenty to get attractive compositions of flowers, that could one day become backgrounds for shots that I can use to carry greetings messages to family and friends.

The bees on this occasion were not very compliant, staying only brief nanoseconds on any one flower, making grabbing a meaningful image composition almost impossible, and surprisingly on this visit numbers were down compared to an afternoon earlier in the week when the numbers were far higher. This time I spotted possibly half a dozen individuals, earlier there had been literally scores, which was what had prompted me to find time to take a camera out to capture this lavender bonanza.

I did visit a few more gardens bordering the main road, but ended by shooting a beautifully renovated house front which in the sunshine cried out to be recorded.

This coming weekend will provide the opportunity to check out fast moving subjects, and for this, I also checked out a lighter long lens, the Tamron 160-600mm, which I am hoping to use in earnest when coupled to the EOS R.

Stockwood Discovery – Autumn

The gardens are being prepared for the next season, but this afternoon did not seem like autumn, it was like a warm summer’s day, and I felt hot rather than cool, in part due to the relatively high humidity, but also due to carrying a fairly weighty camera bag then running back and forth while trying to check out further use of the CamRanger. I am still facing re-registration issues, but I am now directly in contact with the ever-helpful developer, Dave Pawlowski, as he has invited me to beta test the product, and somehow I will endeavour to help him cure this irritating recurrence, he also says he is working hard to help me overcome a related missing component related to WiFi. This is already a very polished combination of a hardware device and app that allows both the capture of images remotely from the iPad, or in the Client mode allows the iPad to show the shots on its screen as they are taken remotely.

It was in this mode I was trying to gain further experience by allowing others to see what I was shooting as I went around with just the camera and CamRanger, moments after I had taken them. I want to be able to use both the Remote Control facility where the camera is on a tripod and aimed at either a landscape or wildlife, or close-up on some insect, so I do not represent a distraction, or I am simply trying not to cause camera shake yet able to focus accurately and appropriately for a landscape. In other situations similar to a recent networking event, where it was handy to leave the iPad in view as I took photos of the attendees, I use the Client mode. I was asked at that event whether it were possible to send the images to the large screen they were using, to which I responded: “Not presently; but that I was hopeful”. A further use is to facilitate post processing by reviewing the small Jpegs on the iPad alongside the Mac and doing the culling that much quicker.

Going around the gardens at first there seemed little on display to create a worthy gallery of images, but on closer inspection, both literally and metaphorically I was pleasantly surprised. There were no less than three specimens of the striped red, gold and green beetle resembling a bejewelled ladybird on the last of the lavender being cut back by Jan and her apprentice gardener, Sam. Seemingly it was not an insect they had come across before whereas I had seen some before, though I cannot recall precisely where. It turns out it is chrysolina americana. It seemed a shame to be evicting some of the established insects and losing the wonderful aroma that pervaded the air where they were working. I did later spot a lone clump in isolation.

I also spied a lone and careworn butterfly, some funghi, some still lush ferns, some sunflowers and bright red, and bright white berries of differing species in the gardens, before insanely visiting the greenhouse sauna to see grapes and the voluptuous leaf shapes and cacti. When I came out I was as if I had been caught in a monsoon – I was sodden!

Early September, Stockwood Discovery Centre

If a Wednesday afternoon proves to be light on paying work, I grab the opportunity and my cameras and set off on my personal PR for some of Luton’s under-noticed gems. The Stockwood Discovery Centre falls into this category, although it is becoming ever more popular amongst young mothers and their children who do flock to the play area and in bright and warm weather to the grassy park space, but not too many stray into the gardens and wander among the flowers and the scents from some of the roses and the lavender.

Today, the good sign was the car park was full, and attendance was high. The shrill cries of young children could be heard from all around and the sun shone from a cloudless sky, I soon came across two of the gardeners who felt that the sun was causing the the flowers to look somewhat jaded. I hasten to add these were their words, so I set out to prove them wrong. Yes I was aware the flowers were not at their best, but there was still beauty to be found. As hopefully my gallery of images shows. Certainly the bees felt there was something to get out of hive for!

Stockwood Saturday – Warm and Windy

I had managed to clear everything in preparation for the family trip to Goodwood for the Festival of Speed meeting, so having used the Wednesday afternoon to cover Luton Hoo’s Walled Garden, I decided I would pay the Stockwood Discovery Centre a visit, as I was sure the flowers and insect life would not disappoint.

I was right, there was an incredible panoply of colour on display, and the Centre was crowded with young families enjoying the afternoon sun. I had found some interesting and unusual flowers with beautifully textured leaves in the bed at the entrance, so I took out the camera even before going in! I headed for the lavender once within the walled enclave, which I was certain would be attractive to the bees, I was not expecting to see just how hard it was for them to do their pollinating! The sensible ones didi not fly off when the breezes blew, they simply clambered from one flowerhead to any that were nearby, which at least meant there was more time they spent static than had there been less wind.

Once again the long greenhouse was locked, and on this visit I was too late for anyone to let me in there, and anyway there was plenty for me to shoot in the limited time I had left before they closed for the day. I only saw one hoverfly on this visit which I found surprising bearing in mind the moisture from recent rains.

Even though several days have passed since I took these shots, I have already used some of the images in a birthday card for my sister-in-law, and I have yet to load all the Goodwood shots from the following day, but the delay was all worthwhile as I was busy doing a ‘real’ job for a designer pitching for a Royal Mail project involving a hand colouring from an original black and white image; now completed and happily approved.