Woodland stroll

Early last month I went for my daily brisk walk in the countryside around our village, and decided to include a jaunt through Alsa Woods before the paths get too wet and boggy for an enjoyable experience. I took my camera along, armed with just one small prime lens and used it to capture anything that caught my eye as I walked. While none of the resulting photos are ground breaking, I do enjoy the process of limiting my options with a single focal length lens and it was a joy to spend some time looking for interesting light, patterns and textures.

Photos taken 2 September 2024

Inside the walled garden

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During my recent course at Cannington Court, near Bridgwater, I had the luxury of a couple of hours off, so I took the opportunity to go and explore the walled gardens in the site. I was in the mood for focusing on smaller subjects, so I spent some time chasing the bees and insects, fortuitously discovering that the zoom lens I’d brought to Somerset with me is remarkably good at focusing on small subjects like this!

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Lots of interesting shapes and textures among the foliage too.

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I found this colourful insect beetling around the flowers. I’ve no idea what species it is, but I was pleased to catch it in the sunlight to show off its wonderful iridescent shell.

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A small splash of colour in the arid glasshouse.

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Someone’s cast-off feather, captured on the branch of a bush.

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Photos taken 22 May 2024

A Welsh idyll

I’ve been coming to Llanerchindda Farm for twelve years now, but have never really ventured very far off the beaten track with my camera - largely because my free time has been limited by the work that’s brought me here. This morning I wanted to get out for a stroll before the rain arrived but, after a busy weekend’s conducting, I wasn’t in the mood for anything too energetic. I donned my walking boots and headed off along one of the farm tracks, in search of the pond - a little uphill and down dale, but nothing too taxing.

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When I arrived at the lake I found the resident Canada Goose waiting to greet me with a solitary gosling. Sadly his or her partner (I’m not sure how you sex Canada geese!) was killed, probably by a fox, a while back so this was a single parent family. No wonder my presence elicited some hissing - I was undoubtedly deemed a threat.

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As the first drops of rain began to fall I took that as a sign to head back, enjoying the swathes of bluebells across the hillside as I carefully picked my way down the steep, rocky incline which was more like a stream than a path in places,

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Photos taken 13 May

A walk in the park

When I arrived in Maidenhead for my monthly visit for work last weekend, the sky was clear and the sun was shining to I dropped off my bag and went for a stroll around Ray Mill Island, which stands in the middle of the River Thames. Everything was looking very verdant, enhanced by the sunshine and even the ducks seemed more chilled out than normal.

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Spring blossom everywhere…

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I know grey squirrels are foreign interlopers, who pushed out our native red variety, but this chap was so trusting I couldn’t help but be won over by his inquisitive nature. He came within a couple of feet of me, no doubt hoping for food, but had to settle for posing for a portrait when I proved to be empty handed.

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Photos taken 13 April 2024

Small scenes

I often stop off at Nymans on my way down to Sussex - it’s about half way there and the coffee is better than most motorway services. This time I gave myself a mini project as I walked around the grounds, looking for small scenes which would suit a square format. This gave me a more focused way to look at the world around me and these five images are the result.

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Photos taken 15 March 2024

Walking through history

The Kingley Vale nature reserve is a place I’ve wanted to revisit for many years and Christmas Eve finally brought me an opportunity - about a quarter of a century since my last walk here. The yew trees here are simply astonishing - many of them over 500 years old and contorted in the most amazing shapes.

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My intention was to take pinhole photos of these wonderful trees, but I snapped some digital images along the way too. I’m not very good at multitasking with two different cameras simultaneously as the process of pinhole photography is so immersive. Although I had a digital camera in my backpack I ended up taking some snaps on my iPhone as it was easier to wrangle, alongside my tripod, and I’m pleasantly surprised how well these came out in such gloomy conditions. I’ll share the pinhole images here in a day or two.

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Click on any image to see it enlarged.

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A behind the scenes image as I photographed a beautiful fern

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An iPhone panorama - the only way I could get close to photographing the whole of this astonishing yew tree! Click to see it larger.

Photos taken 24 December 2022

Shades of autumn

After my multiple exposure experiment yesterday I played some more today at the Markshall Estate. I’d never visited the arboretum here before but had heard good things and I wasn’t disappointed.

Using my Fuji X100V I shot some in camera multiple exposures. That gave me a chance to see which combinations of frames worked well together, but the camera also saves all the RAW files in case they’re useful on their own.

Ultimately I ended up creating my own composites in Photoshop, which gave me a little more flexibility than the in camera ones. Sometimes this involved combining focused and defocused frames of the same scene, and for another one I simply layered in a coloured layer to add to the richness.

Round and round

During a very quiet day at Hatfield Forest I had some time to admire the ancient hornbeam tree which sits opposite the kiosk where I work. The autumn colours have lasted a particularly long time this year and it seemed a shame not to take a photo before the leaves are all blown away. Instead of using a single frame I took a different approach, shooting a series of images from different angles and then combined them in Photoshop. The end result won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but it was good fun experimenting!

All in a garden green

After yesterday’s torrential downpours we made the most of today’s improved weather and headed for the Botanic Gardens in Cambridge. As we move into autumn the vivid shades of summer are beginning to fade but there was still plenty of interest around the gardens. I found myself looking for patterns and textures to photograph and ended up with this series which feature a wide variety of leaf shapes but all in a remarkably consistent green hue.

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15 September 2021