Harold-Odell Lake Visit

        I pay a visit to the park at Harold-Odell for the first time in a long while; I parked outside the centre, as I wanted to first take a walk down the path that led down to the river as I had not noticed this in the past. I was under-whelmed, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, but I did take a couple of shots for the record.
        It seemed pointless wasting petrol to drive into the car park, so I took my camera with the Sigma 60-600mm mounted on the monopod and walked into the park which was reasonably busy, certainly by the lakeside, with young children with their mothers, excitedly chattering and enjoying the freedom, and the excitement amongst the ducks scrabbling for the bread being provided by one of the dads. One might imagine that the birds fighting for these morsels were starving, but I reckon this is simply a cunning ploy by these birds putting on a show, to ensure a constant supply, and provide enjoyment of the spectacle to these gullible humans; they certainly do not look under-nourished! And certainly, it had the desired effect of ensuring the children were enjoying themselves.
        Just beyond the water’s edge a gull looked on from the vantage of a tall pole close to the shore, perhaps waiting to see some unattended morsels.
        As I walked around the lake, I noticed several new carvings gracing the paths, which I hope inspires others to produce similar works of art. I enjoyed the time I spent roaming the gardens, it inspired me to come again, as there were still several areas I never covered, and I think that some of my family will find a visit rewarding. I hope that some of what I captured will entice others to pay the gardens a visit. I enjoyed capturing some of the swirling shapes created by the everyday activities of the birds on the water.

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.

Caddington – Non-stop Fine Snow

Snow is wonderful when the sun is shining, it covers much of the ugliness and angularity of a village scene, but without the sunshine, no delineation between sky and horizon, brown, slush-laden main roads and constantly-falling fine damp sleet-like snow, it is somewhat dismal and the devil to capture any detail. This was what somewhat dampens the spirit of the weekend. Had the snowfall abated and the sun shone milkily, the sounds would have been more shrill as families made the most of the days. It would have lightened the gloom and raised spirits and more than made up for the lost working and classroom time, and made the coming of Monday more bearable.

I did find that the few who did venture forth were generally cheerful, and acknowledged my presence in the main, but certainly to several of the men I encountered I was invisible, they never so much as lifted their heads as they passed me by, alone in their own unsmiling worlds trudging begrudgingly by with no care for others’ company. I am sure the sight of the sun would have lifted their heads and their spirits.

So the pictures from that afternoon stroll are to capture some of the brighter signs and some of the shapes and colours to be found when you look around.