Harpenden Development Christmas Break

Bad weather stopped play before Christmas and a visit just before New year shows that not only is all quiet, it is also tidy. The normal hive of activity lies still, ready to burst into life again after the holiday break. Much of the groundfloor concrete is now complete, and hopefully my next visit will show concrete where shuttering was earlier.

Let us hope the weather is kinder, so work can proceed at full speed.

Christmas Birds at Burnham, Buckinghamshire

Inside wood logs burning in the grate provide warmth and a friendly glow, whilst outside the kitchen window it is cold, yet somehow inviting. To humans inside it is a pretty picture, but for birds it is a time of hardship, but fortunately thoughtful humans have provided food for them in the form of nuts and apples. The range of birds was wide, there were great tits, coal tits, blue tits, chaffinches, nuthatches, robins, green parakeets, jays, collar doves, pigeons and wood pigeons, all in the space of less than an hour. Crows flew overhead, but kept their distance.

For the most part I kept very still inside and tried simply to capture them as they fed, but when I went and sat equally still on the window ledge outside it took only a few minutes before most of the birds returned – the need for sustenance overcoming their fear of me. Oddly the pigeons were the most wary, the blue tits were the first to return, even before the robins.

Walking the lanes it was far quieter, so human kindness was definitely having an effect – the birds were very reliant on the food we provided when so much else was covered in a thick blanket of snow.

Aftermath of Freezing Fog, and the Sun Shines

Peter Carr, a Harpenden Product Designer, and were due to meet up with Mike Benjamin at his studio in Watford, where he was going to give three of us an introduction to using Freeway for a day. For that reason we were up early and so was the sun for a change, and the temptation to stop and capture images of the frost-rimed trees was irresistible.

I phoned Peter as I was leaving and from his suggestion not to hurry, I realised that even before meeting him there was time to stop and capture some of the scenery. After we had met up Peter was hoping that I might get some shots of his Bamville Cricket team’s pavillion by the Harpenden Golf Course, so a few more opportunities arose! Fortunately the traffic to Watford was light, so not much time was lost.

After the Frosts, Concrete Pouring in Harpenden

Thursday was scheduled for the pouring of the concrete for the ground floor at the Jarvis Development in Harpenden, after the hiatus caused by recent unseasonably cold and frosty weather. I made myself known to James Blackie the site Manager and the Project Manager for the sub-contractor.
I arrived too late to catch the first mixer arriving, but not so late as to miss the pouring. There were many more trades on the site this time, and Sean Mooney, the Project Manager for Toureen Mangan (currently the main subcontractor on site) took me to see the extra step he was taking to ensure they could pour with impunity, he had sealed the area beneath with frost blankets and installed Calor gas Space heaters!

It was interesting to see a trident-style mini flame thrower being used to clear some of the snow that had accumulated in some parts of the shuttering, as well as some workmen using magnets to collect stray steel wiring from the same recesses.

The crane was also active transporting beams from their storage area to the next section to be shuttered, and all around were small groups intent on sawing timber, creating new shuttering and vibrating or smoothing out the concrete.

When possible Concrete Mixer lorries were exiting the site as the next was arriving to take its place, but there did seem to be some occasions when traffic delayed their arrival, which was a shame with such a tight schedule due to the cold spell returning soon.

Mike Benjamin gives DNA members a Freeway Lesson

Here is an example of how DNA is working together for its members – Mike Benjamin invited three of us; Mark Wilkinson, Peter Carr and I to join him in his studio to give us a run through on how to use Freeway in the creation of websites without getting our hands soiled by HTML code!

We all arrived slightly later than intended due to the super early morning light on frosty trees and hedgerows due to freezing fog from the last couple of days – each one of us had images that we had stopped to capture! We soon began to get down to the business of learning from Mike, and he took us gently up the slope. Peter obsessed about getting us all to sample his mince pies, but we used our own mince-pies (‘eyes’ for those unfamiliar with Cockney rhyming slang) concentrating on what Mike was showing us as we each sampled his tea, coffee and biscuits as we followed his tutoring.

For lunch we all adjourned to a café in the nearby shopping precinct where conversation continued covering a wide range of topics in addition to Freeway. The picture above was taken on our return where Mike and I showed Mark the use of iChat and an AIM name for remote training. That we were all in coats is no reflection on the temperature in Mike’s studio, we did not remove our coats as we felt we had taken enough of Mike’s valuable time and were soon intending to leave.

The atmosphere in DNA, The Design Network Association seems very reminiscent of the early days of DIG, the Digital Imaging Group, whose last vestige is the ProDIG list, a similar self-help group.

Awesome Ausom

Writing a technical book nowadays is beset by the problem that the technology is evolving constantly, such that a statement made today is probably out of date the day after tomorrow!
This was illustrated by a warning I made after a small amount of research and placed it in the side panel of Mac OS X for Photographers. Malcolm Park in Melbourne, Australia dug deeper into the issue of bootability between PowerPC and Intel Macs around October this year; some two years after publication of the book, and closer to five years after I first started writing it.

Here is a link to what he had discovered <http://www.ausom.net.au>. It appears in the December Newsletter. Malcolm was kind enough to draw my attention to his conclusions, and I am happy to acknowledge his findings, I am pleased to note he found the purchase and reading of the book thad survived this error on my part. During our email correspondence he wrote: "I think your book is worth reading & I certainly do not regret acquiring it for my own library."

The Internet and email shows us that we can benefit from the reach it provides, and is a worthy addition to the printed word in books. I for one could not live without it.

TGB Treecare comes to Caddington – despite the Weather!

I know that TGB stands for TG Buxton, but watching from the warmth of my house, I reckon the initials should stand for either ‘Thoroughly Great Bloke’ or ‘Truly Great Bravery’! To start climbing trees in sub-zero temperatures with the snow actually falling can be considered beyond the call of duty, but here is a series of shots of the man at work. There was the obligatory tea-break midway through, but anyone begrudging a man for that should be tried for War Crimes!

The work was carried out with precision and thoughtfulness, fully justifying the terms ‘surgery’ and ‘care’, and without any unnecessary bravado. At the size the images will be viewed the sleetlike snow, falling constantly, is not apparent, but I can bear witness to that – this man earned every penny for his morning’s work.

A Merry Werry Cold Wednesday in Wendover

The Aylesbury Concert Band braved the cold weather once again to perform for the good people of Wendover alongside the High Street Christmas tree. There was a good public attendance, possibly augmented by the nearby skating rink providing an added attraction for the children. I don’t think the audience are fully aware of just how difficult it is for musicians to play when their instruments are largely metal and the air is so cold – this is a wind band, and jaws, lips and fingers all freeze; when you add the layers of clothing to the mix, freedom of movement is further reduced, yet this small band of players of all ages produces wonderful music.

I think Wendover owes the band a warm welcome on a balmy summer evening to repay them all for the discomfort they must have endured to give us such an enjoyable evening. I was humming or singing the verses I knew – repetitively! Thank you.

East Common, Harpenden Roadside Leaves

With sunshine slanting low through the trees, the frost was barely melting on the leaves beside the road, and this enhances the texture and shapes. I swapped lenses from the 300mm I had been using to capture the crane to the 100mm macro and walked slowly along the kerb looking for alignments of leaves and groupings, and how the light fell when it did to capture some of the beauty that was at my feet.

During the minutes I was there, several people passed either walking or cycling or driving past, some spoke to say good day and one woman asked what I found to photograph, she was surprised when I showed her some of the images on the back of the camera, and remarked how beautiful some were when seen close-up. She told me she would now be taking out her camera in future when out walking.

As I left the area to return to Caddington I drove past a cottage in bright sunshine and with its white fence strongly lit, and just had to capture its charm, so parked at the side of the lane for just long enough to walk back and take a shot with the 24-105mm lens on my other camera body.

Sunny Views of Tower Crane, Harpenden

After the first snow of this winter season just the day before, the sun shone out of a crisp blue sky, so despite the cold breeze I set off for Harpenden Common to capture shots of the tower crane hard at work at the far end of the town, glistening bright white against the rich blue, in the foreground gulls and crows would occasionally swoop into view.

The challenge was to have a foreground that showed the viewpoint, but did not dominate the scene. I needed a high enough shutter speed to ensure the crane and birds were reasonably sharp, but the depth of field was narrow enough that the cars were none too sharp, so you were drawn to the crane in the background, at work in the Jarvis and Toureen Mangan development at the north end of the high street.

Having captured the shots from the common, I then took a few more from the far side of the high street at the entrance to the site to accentuate the rich blue sky beyond, and the stark white of the buildings to the front.

Harpenden Site Visit - Shuttering for Ground Floor

On the vague suggestion the sun might come out, I took a chance to visit the Jarvis Development, as the Project Manager had said they were preparing the shuttering for the later pouring of concrete for the first floor.

Sean Mooney was on a break when I arrived, but I met up with him in Esporitos, and he very kindly bought me a cup of tea and we discussed the stage he had reached. He was far less optimistic over sunshine and he was proved right, but I went ahead to capture this stage as this would soon be passed, and once the concrete was in place what is below would be lost.

I covered the whole site on this visit, from every conceivable angle, I think on future visits I will need to go part way up the tower to capture meaningful angles.

Ashridge – Late Autumn Colour

There is still to be found new growth amidst all the yellow and gold of the passing season’s leaves, and I chose to brave the cold wind and mist to capture some of it in a drive from Pitstone Hill to Ashridge Forest.

I also spent some quiet time watching a bird feeder from as close as I could get with the only lens I had at the time, without stopping them from feeding, I managed to just about capture them at a high ISO, and enlarging and lightening them afterwards!

I had set off from Pitstone Hill to Aldbury then into Ashridge Forest where I stood rooted to the spot close to the holly bush as the light became poorer and I got colder, but my stillness won the birds over and they flew in to feed, mainly blue tits but also a nuthatch, the holly leaves and berries in the background gave a seasonal feel.

Afternoon at College Lake

After a long and enjoyable day with Catherine, Lizzy and Tim, I got up somewhat later the following day than usual and despite how late in the season it was, I decided I would pay a visit to College lake, near Bulbourne.

Another change I made was to walk round to the left and go clockwise around. This way round there are numerous hides and several spots offering high viewpoints of the lake, and I took advantage of the second gap I came across. I witnessed the rescue by a male duck who prevented another male from drowning a female, and several not dissimilar situations where gulls seemed to fight over coots  that another was shadowing. The latter situation seemed as if it might be that the coots were more efficient and more accomplished fishers; I think the gulls were either there to steal from the coot, or fish  where the coot was successful.

I also noted that when the cormorant was landing or taking off, it was quite cavalier in its attitude towards the smaller birds that might be in its path, an attitude that seemed to be shared by the gulls. The most serene of the birds were the pochard and swans.

I never expected to be seeing the profusion of birds on the lake so late in the season, and bathed in such warm sunshine. Despite the recent high winds and rain there still a lot of leaves on some of the trees, though sometimes even more on the ground in numerous varied colours, with occasionally a carpet of silver leaves. As the sun sank lower, casting ever longer shadows the golden rays picked out some of the hides or individual bushes or trees, whilst as the sun set a flock of ducks swirled high above the lake, and as I was leaving the low sun drew shadows on the side of a white van.

College lake,teasels, cormorant,gulls, coots,pochard,swans,ducks

Invited Back!

A day after the visit to the new development site in Harpenden, I got a call from the Toureen Project Manager asking would I like to return – another one of those .009 nanosecond hesitation moments before accepting! I gathered the weather was closing in the next day, and as I was all prepared I asked whether I could come over shortly.

This time though the viewpoint was higher, the light was lower, so the shots were less exciting, but they were meaningful as they provided an overview and told me more about what I had shot from outside the day previously. I now understood more of what had been happening at the far side of the site, which had been unclear from my previous viewpoint. These shots completed the story of the previous day. I got to meet two more of the men on site; Bob the Crane Operator and Sean Mooney, Toureen Mangan’s Site Manager, and James Blackie, the Jarvis Site Manager, very kindly took the shot of me part way up the tower crane.

It looks like I’ll be back to tell more of the story of this development. So thanks to all who made this possible.

A Tower Crane Comes to Harpenden

Jarvis are working on a fair-sized site just behind the High Street at the north end of the town.

It is as you enter from Luton that you first glimpse the crane towering above the trees, but it is hard to grasp why it is necessary for such a tall crane. As you come closer the reason becomes apparent, the site is long and thin and to deliver concrete to where it is needed and avoid the concrete mixers from unnecessarily interfering with local traffic these mixer vehicles approach down a tiny alleyway to the edge of the site then feed a hopper which is then hoisted and swung to where it is needed. A lower crane cannot move in these confined spaces, but a taller one can because the angle of the arm is so steep.

The hopper has an elephant’s trunk to pour the concrete where it is needed, and an ingenious tilting skid allowing it to be filled directly in manageable doses directly from the mixer lorry. The mixer is therefore present for the entire time it takes for the hopper to be filled and emptied until the nixer’s entire content is exhausted, so it is a three-man operation: the driver, a signaller to let him know when to pour and when to stop whilst the third man folds the trunk and tips the hopper and swivels the chute. To minimise the amount of concrete spilt on site, there is a skip at the side to deal with the dregs after each delivery to the hopper.

I have tried to capture the elements of the process and to convey just how tall this crane is and what a splendid piece of kit it is with its smart cab, all its cables and counterbalances, and how the operator has a bird’s eye view of both ends of the hopper’s travel from mixer to where it is being poured over the mesh of steel reinforcing cages. It is a non-stop process, except for when the mixer has to drive out when its load is finally exhausted, and another has to take its place.

Work – I could stay and watch it all day! Well, photograph it!