Therapeutic Walk Before Sun Sets

Who is Spying on who? Is this a budding fellow photographer?

                                                                           Sorry, it was just too tempting!

          Somewhat late in the day the sun shyly arrives, and I collect my camera, and head out towards the path that skirts the nearby church; the sun brings out the variety of colours that abound at this time of transition. Leaves show both ends of the season’s colours; the russet golds of leaves falling, fallen, and temporarily caught before their final landing, to carpet the grass beneath, and the lush green of shoots that hope to survive the coming frosts.

          I capture also, the lush yellow of lichen and the varied structures of the coming season’s seed forms, and upturned leaves that more clearly define their veined structures that barely show when viewed from above. Beyond the denuded branches, the clouds display their forms, and on the water form a backdrop to branches reflected on the surface of the stream in the deeply cut field boundary to save the fields from flooding. Occasionally, shafts of gold penetrate gaps in the boundary trees to highlight the richness of a nearby tree as the sun gets ever lower, and the clouds themselves are also edged in gold as the sun finally dips below the horizon, and beyond the nearby rooves. 

          I am doing my best to catch up on some of the individual trips I have made in recent days, but other pressures have meant that there are several trips I have made with pictures taken, but have yet to be processed as other pressures have prevailed. However I can take some comfort that despite the dearth of new images reaching the blog, the readers’ viewing figures have remained high, and seemingly visitors have in some instances ventured beyond the present page to view shots taken back in August. I wonder whether that came about by using the Search box and entering subjects of specific interest, or whether some reached the bottom of the initial screen then decided to venture even earlier.

          I have taken some pictures that have yet to be processed, but I am hoping that they will see the light of day soon and I apologise if the subjects feel neglected, it just seemed easier to deal with some later shots that were nearer the surface.

Autumn Woodland Stroll

          The sun beckoned me out from where I had parked my car close by a Vauxhall Car Showroom; a handy spot from where to cross the busy main road, and enter a park. One of the beauties of sunlight when photographing leaves is that when leaves are backlit, the internal structures are revealed, adding interest to even the most mundane of leaves. So it was hardly surprising that seeing sunlight streaming in from the direction my camera was facing, rather than over my left shoulder, it would feature such an image so early in my walk. Nevertheless, strongly textured leaves soon became the focus of my attention in the seasonally natural hues of dark green and red.
          Against such a backdrop, I then sighted a Shield bug, making its lethargic way around the handily, rippled textures of the leaf. The combination of sunlight and the season’s varied and rich colours always appeal, as do the dark gold of dying leaves due to drop from their stem when the wind breaks their grip.
          It is interesting to note that when I am spotted aiming my camera’s lens close to something of interest to me, and almost right on top of my subject, passers-by are often sufficiently puzzled to enquire just what it might be that I am looking at? This breaks down any reticence they might feel normally, about asking me what has caught my interest? I cannot be sure in this instance whether this was the case, but one of the next shots I took was of a couple of well covered, happy people who engaged me in brief conversation. If they spot this image I hope they were pleased with the outcome.
          I continued walking close by the trees to spot further subjects for the camera and was alerted by the loud and obviously happy chirping of an immaculately groomed Robin generously providing me with differing backgrounds for the shots! Up till then, I had not taken much note of the sky and it’s few clouds, but I took a quick shot before going back to closer subjects of tree trunk textures and leaves, and leave you with an ivy-clad tree ‘giving me the bird’!

Marston Moretaine Woods Walk

           Once again, the call from beyond the confines of the house beckons, and the sun has warmed the air and banished any of the possible remnants of frost. In this time of isolation it requires little to tempt me to grab my camera once abluted and breakfasted, and head for the door. Nor is there a need to drive anywhere; I am fortunately blessed with parks and open spaces and I can travel light by selecting the LUMIX camera and my two closeup rings, and head off out..

          Closing my garden gate, I turn left, out towards the main road, and once it is safe to cross it, head off to walk to the edge of the village, where I take the path that skirts the edge of fields with hedgerows either side, and within thirty yards, the camera has found varied colours and shapes of leaves that bear the mixtures of varied Autumn hues from the still remaining greens mixed with elements of the true Season’s bronze and gold. The all important seeds for the coming year are also on show, hanging in anticipation that winds will aid their further dispersal.

          Every so often the sun is momentarily covered by passing clouds, but predominantly the sun is shining and enhancing both the hues and textures that bring joy to artists and photographers. Time passes, and particularly at this time of year the ever-changing angle of the sunlight means our view of the scenes can appear and disappear in instants!

          Luckily for me, there is a bird that shares my joy of these moments and is delighted to let me know and, anyone else within hearing distance, by shrilly sharing these moments by singing its little heart out; an energetic Robin! It even ensured it was able to reach a varied audience by flitting between different vantage points!

Riverside Birds, Bedford

          On this visit to Bedford, I parked very close to the river, and took a gentle stroll back to the bank having already taken the soft case off, and set the zoom and exposure in anticipation of what I might be capturing initially. This turned out to be one of the Greylag geese who looked up towards me in anticipation of my throwing a handful of seed in its general direction. The action of doing so caused others to react more speedily as all were far swifter and more nimble!

          It also attracted the interest of others on the wing, mostly gulls. My interest was in trying to capture some of those in the air, as the LUMIX, my camera on this occasion, is less easy to master in such situations.

          The LUMIX is far less obtrusive than my EOS cameras with the bulky Sigma telephotos, so the Squirrel in the tree felt safe and although it was very much aware of me, it was confident and not threatened, which allowed me to spend quite some time capturing shots of it, both in the tree and on the ground.

Short, Nearby Walk

           Shortly after my walk. begins, an abrupt change in the depth of water has created a miniature waterfall, and beyond, a narrowing causes a fan shaped pattern beyond, and some reeds create bubbles on the surface.

          As I walk further, the banks have clusters of bright contrasting colours of red and golden leaves on fearsome thorned purple stems, set against green leaves pockmarked with smallish brown growths. Clusters of lighter gold thistleheads also share the tops of the raised banks to the stream. The sky in one direction still has some blue beyond the clouds, yet in another now only has shades of grey above the waterlogged fields. This does enhance the lushness of the coming year’s crop.

          In the wooded areas sharing the space amongst the carpet of golden fallen leaves, can be seen what I imagine were once brick based gun emplacements, now sharing the ground with trees intent on reclaiming the space from the relics of a past war. Also a single, taller brick structure on two levels of concrete. As I returned to the main road, leaving a hint of the church tower beyond the tall bushes, I encountered a deep cube cut into the road, and protected by interlocking bright orange plastic barriers  

          This now waterlogged trench with clustered cables presumably awaiting conection to the next pit further along the road.

Sunshine Lake Images

     Recently the sun has been a less common visitor, so the opening image was a pleasant welcome to be captured as my camera and I took a walk, from the almost full Car Park, along the lengthy, tree-lined walk to the open expanses and lakes beyond. As I had noted before with my local wooded area, within these spaces the most frequent grouping were dogs and their owners.
     Other notable visitors flew overhead — small light aircraft with their gentle buzz and beyond, the silent painters of light wispy trails that provide history of their travel with white contrails against the blue of the sky — the high-flying jets of numerous airlines’ passenger jets. As I walked through the expansive green spaces, the afternoon was darkening as the sun lowered and the colour tinted the clouds pale blue against the paler gold of the clouds.
     Against the sky, trees and buildings were silhouetted crisply like Lino cuts. I also selected red berries against a blurred, more diffuse and monochromatic background and verdigris topped vertical poles, as a way to exaggerate the contrast and drama of the season.

            Finally, I have got my act together and got at least the most recent gallery of images up at last! Sorry for the extended delay; hopefully "Normal Service will be resumed as soon as possible!" to steal a quote from the BBC!

Explanation for Current Lack of Activity

      Readers of this blog deserve an explanation for the lack of any recent entry. 

      Firstly, I have had too many external pressures whilst trying to resolve numerous program failures; my main hard drive suffered a disastrous episode where a series of folders that I had created on the drive began whirring almost non-stop for no reason I had been able to discern. 

      Eventually, several hours later, the whirring finally ended. Initially, I did not discern what had occurred, nor had I immediately realised what had happened during this episode of disc-whirring. The observation I did make was that the external disc that I had recently purchased with only a few, newly created folders had been the destination for the files that had exhibited this lengthy disc-whirring activity I had heard.

The most obvious effect I then found was a massive folder that exhibited numerous intermingled fragments from different original folders, all now exhibiting a Creation Date that coincided with the day I had witnessed the lengthy disc activity. The next observation was the original folders I had created were now EMPTY! So, I now realised what had been happening during that disc-whirring activity I had heard. 

      I faced the unenviable task, that I have yet to tackle; trying to identify the intermingled individual, fragmented files, and return the groups to their original parent folders. This task is going to be difficult due to my poor memory and lost original datestamps.

      Since that hiatus in my stories, there are a few more occasions when I have taken more pictures from my brief excursions into local woods, but sadly there is still some time before I can start as I need to sort the original disrupted disc and rebuild the structure on the second new hard drive!

      Whilst I attempt to resolve this mess, can I suggest anyone visiting try entering possible subjects into the 'search this blog' box to find image galleries I have captured; you can put place names, animal, bird, insect, plant, feature, motor race circuit, or location... the one point to mention is the variety and bizarre results that can occur! See what appears, and enjoy... 

Hopefully, `Normal Service will resume as soon as possible'.

Milton Ernest - Autumn Colours Abound

               This Autumn day was warm and bright and found me in a garden close by the River Great Ouse in Milton Ernest, and although the gallery of images only spans a single page, I was rewarded with a fair variety of leaves, berries and flowers. I was also visited by a few birds from time time, though none came close for long enough, or in a suitable spot to warrant my capturing them. However, I was far from disappointed with the images I was able to record, what disappointed me, and was an irritation was the long forced delay in my posting the gallery on the blog! The cause of the delay was my computer suffered a crash that took till today to resolve. I received some generous help from Adobe, and was extremely grateful for the technician’s willing support in resolving the situation, as he patiently waited whilst the computer responded to his careful restoration of several hundreds of images, that had been lost (fortunately — only temporarily) — due to the mishap that had occurred a few days back — To say I was relieved would be a gross misrepresentation of my feelings of Gratitude and Relief! His Patience was exemplary, and I sincerely hope he was aware of my gratitude — I had feared it may have been terminal, as after the mishap, the total within the catalog had been reduced by two or thee orders of magnitude, so to see the extra digits certainly gave me a Very Warm Fuzzy!
               It was a dull day today — outside, but now that I can publish this small gallery, the day in my upstairs room now is way brighter than the lights can ever reach!
               To those souls who visit my blog page, I apologise for the delay, but I am exceedingly grateful that despite this lack of activity from my end, somehow the visitor numbers have held up extremely well indeed, which adds to my relief; so I thank you all very sincerely for your support, and I hope this single page gives visitors as much pleasure as it gave me in their capture.

BrogLake and Aerial Foilers

          A decent wind comes to the lake at Brogborough, and one of my wishes comes true— a couple of the sailors take to the air! I have been longing for the opportunities to capture this action using a mirrorless camera. However, this has some severe limitations, as any sequence the user captures, results in a delay, during which the processing of the captured images removes the view of the scene within the viewfinder. This delay is disorienting when trying to capture live action, especially when the subject is moving, such as is the case of sports and wildlife, and when the scene or subject is dynamic and not especially predictable. Undoubtably, I have had to adjust my methodology to accommodate these limitations and weigh these against the advantages that accrue — I can use my LUMIX FZ10002 handheld all day without a heavy tripod and therefore move around with ease! The zoom range for a camera of this size and weight is impressive. Where the SLR scores, is in having an uninterrupted view of the scene at all times, and this forces a different evaluation of the subjects one is capturing when deciding the camera I chose. Presently, I am using the LUMIX to establish a full understanding of the essential controls I need to master, and here I am sadly impaired by my failing memory, but I am persevering, and I worry that my muscle memory of using the Canon EOS R controls may fade in the interim. 
          This day’s shooting started in sunshine, but clouded over; the wind was good, and to my joy, this allowed some of the kite surfers to rise aloft, and although I did manage to capture some of such action sequences satisfactorily, undoubtedly my Sigma 60-600mm lens on the EOS R6 would have improved my success rate, especially as I would have been on a sturdy tripod with gimbal head! The gusty nature of the wind did hamper my handholding, but overall the higher shutter speed came to my rescue, though I did suffer from some failed shots. I still need to get to grips with the controls of this LUMIX, hence my persistence!
          I do hope I have managed to capture the essence of the afternoon’s activity on the lake, and apologies for the delay, but my hard drive is wilfully putting my files elsewhere than where I designate, but I am hoping that help from my son-in-law has put an end to the hardware's desire to thwart me!

Bromham Afternoon Visit

          I had not visited Bromham Lake for some time, and felt it was likely worth a visit, and it was obviously a good spot for visitors to exercise their canine companions, as only when I came across a couple of ladies did I meet anyone without a dog, and on this visit, not a single man. Perhaps the male population is now returning to work, which seemed to be borne out by the large number of male drivers I encountered on my later return trip home, in dense and painfully slow traffic.
          The day was warm, and the sun for the most part was uninterrupted by clouds, except towards the end of my stay within the park, this therefore gave me the opportunity to capture the detailed textures of some of the leaves, from both backlit or textured but oblique front lighting. There were still signs of lush greens as well as rich reds and golds, and once again an abundance of red berries. I also saw ladybirds. However, although I heard the occasional birdsong and fleeting glimpses of birds, they do not feature in this gallery.
          Autumn is here, but in transition, in that there is still an abundance of lush greens to be seen. The day was warm, and the sky bright with some large clouds. The light was strong and clear, offering me the chance to capture the texture of leaf structures, and give shadows to add further depth. I have this fascination for Teazels, because of the conflict of textures, the complexity, intricacy and uniformity of the pattern, set against the freedom of the surrounding skeletal cage of curves and twirls. Beyond the boundary hedge I captured the gantry stark against the blue sky, and the enigmatic orange square symbol surrounded by twin segmented white plastic rings, whose significance eluded me.
          The recent wind and rain means when I am next out in woods, I will see far fewer leaves, and these will carpet the ground beneath these trees, and much that are presently green will be on the turn, and give way to gold.

Brief Brogborough Lake Visit

          Wind was forecast, and I set off for Brogborough Lake, buoyed by the promise of some action from the windsurfers, although I learned that it was unlikely I would be seeing any jumping from the sailors, who were likely to be visiting.
          I had also anticipated more visitors than I met on arrival, but I was happy to see some activity already on the water, and overall the wind fairly strong, so I collected the LUMIX and felt little need for a tripod on this occasion, and took to the water’s edge, rather than the bank. I also noted that the clouds were building.
          I noted that Wingsails were becoming more popular, but I sensed those users were somewhat tentative for the gusty nature of the wind. But, it was not long before they were aloft. Also, the clouds were definitely darkening, and the distant falling rain began obscuring the distant shore, and cameras like this LUMIX were not as weather sealed as my Canon gear, so I was soon heading for the shelter of my car. Sadly, this cut short my visit on this occasion.

Another Walk Within the Woods

          I headed to the Marston Centre for a walk around the woods, and as I took to walk anti clockwise around the central reserved area, I came across a couple of possibly volunteers, who were hacking back some of the longer branches surrounding the wide, outer grassy avenues encircling the lakes. They were certainly facing a lengthy task ahead if two was the entire task force!
          During the course of the day’s walk, the most striking aspect was the abundance of berries this year, so it is no surprise that they feature extensively in this gallery of images. Is this a portent of a hard winter to come? Another observation was I felt there was a larger preponderance of black-spotted and other leaf damage. Although I do visit these woods with some frequency, it is some time since I had seen any horse riders, which is probably down to Covid.
          I am always attracted to the constantly evolving stages in the lifecycle of plants through the seasons, and this day was no exception. This season’s Teazels is such an example, so it is hardly surprising my eye and thus my camera has featured their heads, one particular image of three heads really caught my eye as it was as if the three were in competition for intricate curling! I award the central one of the trio for special mention! Later, I spotted a brown, wind-blown leaf had become entangled with a lower leaf in an earlier stage of decay, still with rich red colour. To my surprise I spotted a complete cluster of ripe blackberries, and later a couple of funghi, but the strangest shot from the afternoon was a teazel that had completely lost its central core, yet the outer curls were intact!
          Two very large Mistletoe balls also caught my eye, but sadly they were hid from the sun, so their full splendour was not captured, but the second of two attached to the same tree was the largest I have seen — at least twice the diameter of a soccer ball! I was coming to the end of my trip around the woods, but I spotted one last sight of note, where a branch had formed almost a complete circle to host a cluster of its golden-brown seeds with its encircling branch! I left the woods still bathed in sunshine, and high clouds, and buoyed in spirit and spent the day since preparing these words and images with no regrets for a dull day and overnight rain.

Milton Ernest - Riverbank Garden

          I recently spent a restful afternoon in and beyond, a friend’s garden — taking photos of the plants, flowers and other life that caught my eye. It was impossible to miss the most abundant colour after green and, normally after golden brown, is one of the natural features of the Autumn season — red berries — which were cascading in profusion from the branches of several trees.

          The stone wall dividing the gardens from the grassy walk to the river’s edge was draped in ivy whose trailing tendrils were seeking to find moisture further afield than dry stone. My eye was caught by a lone bee patiently ignoring my close proximity, that was single-mindedly intent on searching for nectar from the wild roses within the hedge; spending some time attempting to prise apart, the protective petals to reach its precious cargo.

          Is there some significance in this year’s large number of red berries? Are we destined for a cold, long Winter? Or is this feature a result of simply the preceding seasons’ affect on the soil constituents?

Answers on a postcard… Meantime I will revel in the opportunity given me, to capture fine detail of the lone, patient bee as it spent time on wild rose blooms.

Calm, Warm Afternoon

          Another Autumn Day with promise and warning. There are high clouds, but my untutored eye reading was that these were a view of the present, as their power hinted of a less benign future. I was not considering a distant location, but a walk towards the nearby Forest Centre. Potentially, the distance involved, could take me a not inconsiderable distance to head home should the heavens open!
          Fortune favours the brave — at least on this occasion, for though there was a suggestion of possible rain, it remained within the clouds, and I spent the afternoon capturing a relaxed view of autumn colours and with the aid of the sun, textures of leaves, especially where the wind had turned and sometimes trapped them upturned to reveal their undersides. Not only was I treated to Autumn golds, but also vibrant reds that sometimes only formed a border to the earlier lush green. This season treats us to a grand finale with a curtain closure of as rich, but a different palette of colours to that of Spring.
          Getting out with a camera, and being able to gather the images together to illustrate the narrative of an afternoon’s activity is currently one of the ways in which I can exercise my ‘little grey cells’ and fill the void created by my overall lack of fellow human contact and interaction. I was pleasantly surprised by the overall variety of subjects that filled my time whilst exercising my legs and eyes. I hope others can share and enjoy the results of my efforts.

Autumn 2021-Forest Centre

 

          It is immediately apparent when you look through this latest gallery of images from a walk I took in the Marston Centre Park, which I am lucky to have, almost on my doorstep, the woods do have some greens. But, there is a vast preponderance of reds, russet and gold, and pale yellow. It is therefore no surprise that my eye and camera feature these colours predominantly; I was lucky in that the sky was a rich blue with only wispy, high level clouds. Although the sounds of birds was underwhelming, the insect life did not disappoint, and I was soon alerted to the short darting flight of a Dragonfly; it was very unsettled and would land, then leap into the air within seconds before returning to almost exactly the same spot it had just left! Bees were equally restless as they rarely alighted for long on the abundant orange and pink clusters of flowers in one garden close to the main building. 
          I suspect that this spell of clear skies is due to close as the mornings are beginning to take some time for the mist and overcast to dissipate, and reveal the wispy, high-level clouds. I was therefore making the most of the current colour palette before the golden tones and russet of Autumn take over, the abundant red berries are already beginning to show signs of dying back, so I did my best to capture them before the coming frosts took their toll.

          I was pleased to find the end of my walk passed a cluster of high pale gold reeds and some wonderful roses in good condition and lush red bloom.