Big Cats at Colchester

26th July 202026th July 2020 By cpadmin

Big cats at Colchester

Big cats at Colchester. This week we had a day at Colchester Zoo. We booked tickets on line and turn up for our time slot. This post shows three images from the many that were captured on the day at Colchester Zoo. A page on our website has a slide show of twelve images

The male lion sat lion sat majestically, surveying his domain. What else would you do if you were him? The lionesses were stretched out asleep. The tiger stretched on the roof of a hide in an aloof way. People wandering past seemed of no interest! He yawned as if we bored him!

Our penultimate visit was to the cheetahs. The expression on this cats face seemed to say “what a fine specimen I am”. And he was a fine specimen too

Big cats at Colchester — What a fine specimen I am!

The flamingos were difficult to photograph, they kept moving. In the image of them shown in the slide show they are nosing an egg around. Sometimes one of them would sit on it. You could title this image “bottoms up”. Have a look for it on our website page.

The website page is https://www.compassphotography.co.uk/a-day-at-colchester-zoo/

Looking straight down

23rd July 202023rd July 2020 By cpadmin

Looking straight down from the top of the Moot Hall. The roof of the Moot Hall is open to the elements. From the roof you can see the Blackwater Estuary as far as Bradwell and the Promenade Park in the east. To the south you can pick up tower blocks on Southend seafront. From the other sides fascinating images of the town itself can be captured. You can see where building really are. Not where you think they are!

Maldon High Street as you have never seen it before is the image looking straight down over the front retaining wall here. Perspective is added by the brick which appear to be horizontal.

The bricks are actually on the vertical wall and lead the eye down to the clock, which is seen from a strange angle. Moving further down we see the balcony and its flower boxes which are on the first floor, level with the Court Room.

At the top of the image is street level and people crossing the road!

The back of the viewing platform offers a nice view towards Heybridge. Looking right over the edge is a view all the way down to the prison yard and its primitive sanitation. The high walls are visible and the green floor of the yard shows that the sun doesn’t get there often.

The Moot Hall will soon be open for visitors again, check out their website. Click this link to see our gallery of images from the top of the Moot Hall. See more of our images by visiting our website www.compassphotography.co.uk

Photoshoot at Moot Hall

15th July 202015th July 2020 By cpadmin

I did a photoshoot at Moot Hall in Maldon recently. The Trustees and the manager of the Moot Hall in Maldon monument wanted to update their website and publicity material, therefore they needed some new photographs. Three of the images from the day are shown below.

The ground floor of the building opens into the Committee room. Sales and local events are held here. Off the committee room is a beautiful red brick spiral staircase. This staircase has been blocked at the first floor level at some time in past centuries. It is still very photogenic!

On the first floor we find the Court Room. The court room tried people and even had them transported to Australia for stealing a handkerchief! There are more stairs to climb to reach the court room is the council chamber. For the photoshoot the Mayor and her mace bearer came. For the photoshoot both people put on their formal robes and processed in with the mace.

More of the images captured from the photoshoot at the Moot Hall can be seen on our website

Have a look at the Moot Hall Website here

Moot Hall photoshoot — The committee room

Success in photography competitions

9th July 20209th July 2020 By cpadmin

Crantock Poppies

Sucess in photography competitions — National Trust Poppies at Crantock

We have had success in photography competitions with two images recently. The poppy field captured at Crantock near Newquay was one of the images that did well. We were there in June last year and the whole hillside was covered with poppies. Most were red, some were yellow. The National Trust field sloped down towards the sea and the hills on the other side of the valley. The sun was out that day and it was summer at its best. This image was entered in a competition called wildflower landscapes, it came 11^th out of 1374 entries, in the top 1%! Use this link to visit the National Trust website for Crantock Beach

White Statue

The second images is more of a strange one. It has had success in photography competitions entitled “strange but true”, “off the wall” and objects on grass. The image shows a sculpture at Marks Hall Gardens last autumn. The white sculpture shows the top half of man supposedly climbing out of something. His arms are levering himself up and he is concentrating on what he is doing. It makes quite an impression. This image came 9^th out of 1004 in its best position. Use this link to visit the website of Marks Hall

To look at more of the images go to www.compassphotography.co.uk

Virtual exhibition continues

11th June 202011th June 2020 By cpadmin

The virtual exhibition continues at Rayleigh Windmill. Four more of Mike’s images have been posted on the Facebook page of the windmill. They are images that have been created during lockdown. The lockdown made me take more images in the garden, probably ones I would not have sought out if we had been free to roam Click on this link to see the images. Here is one of the images

All creatures macro and small — Unfurled tulip with added greenfly

Visit our website to see more images

Poppies after the rain

8th June 20208th June 2020 By cpadmin

Poppies after the rain

Poppies after the rain shows three images of a group of ten large deep red poppies has broken bud in the garden. The poppies flowered a few days ago. Yesterday was showery and between the showers I nipped out to collect images of the poppies. Just after a rain shower water droplets are still visible on the petals. The black veins are visible on some of the petals.

Poppies in the rain — Seven flowers after the rain shower

Poppy after the rain — Seven flowers after the rain shower

Our website includes nine image of the clump of ten poppies. These include close ups, images with the sun shining through the petals and a macro of the spider like centre of the largest poppy. View more of the poppy images captured recently by visiting the page “Poppies and poppies” on our website.

Virtual Exhibition at Rayleigh Windmill

3rd June 20203rd June 2020 By cpadmin

Virtual exhibition at Rayleigh Windmill. A number of my images associated with the re-erection of the sails on Rayleigh Windmill have been posted on the Rayleigh Windmill Facebook page as part of the 2020 virtual exhibition being held this year. Go to the links below to have a look and the images

The windmill website

Copies of the images displayed

More images of the re-erection of the sails can be found on our web page

Rayleigh Windmill — The sails arrive “on the back of a lorry”

Hyde Hall Open again

1st June 20201st June 2020 By cpadmin

RHS Hyde Hall is open again. There is a great display of yellows and purples amongst the flowers. Today was the first day of opening after the lock down. Three of the images captured today are shown above, there are another six on our website under the heading “latest images”

The Purple Alliums are mostly past their best, however the one shown here was in the shade and had more colour. Moving up and round to the pond in the Hill Harden there were some bright yellow water lilies. Foxgloves (digitalis) were present in abundance. One of my images shows the patterns inside the foxglove petal.

To gain entry to Hyde Hall you need to go on line and book a time slot for entry at the website. Remember to take water with you. The one thing I missed after my walk round was the cup of tea!

To look at more of the images from Hyde Hall open again click here

Todays Floral display

21st May 202021st May 2020 By cpadmin

Todays floral display shows three of the six images on our website page “Six of the best”. All of these images were captured in the garden over the last 24 hours. Fortunately the lockdown has been accompanied by good weather. It has been possible to capture images of the flowers that are daily coming into bloom.

Three red roses growing at head height on the trellis. They form a nice pattern and have been cut into a square image to make the most of the natural positioning of the roses.

The white rose has grown out from below the graft of the red trailing rose. It’s growing amongst the red rose on the trellis and makes a nice contrast. Additionally, I like the clarity of the yellow stamen in this image. and the random fly in this image.

The rock rose (cistus) was pruned earlier this year and the flowers seem to be a much deeper purple. The image shown has a red mason bee working on the flower.

Click here to go to the website page and see all of the images included in the “six of the best” of todays floral display

Not for hay fever sufferers

12th May 202012th May 2020 By cpadmin

This post is not for hay fever sufferers. The white May blossom is lovely to look at from a distance as the trees and bushes become covered in delicate white and creamy coloured flowers. It’s even better to get close up and see the shape of the flowers that make up the blossom. If you suffer from hay fever you will disagree with me. Some flowers, particularly the hawthorn have a strong smell. The smell also gets through to the back of your throat and makes you want to sneeze and cough!

Blossom from three different plants, trees and bushes are shown below. Firstly the Hawthorn Bush which produces some very delicate clusters of white flowers. The flowers will eventually turn into red berries.

Hawthorn blossom — Delicate flowers of the Hawthorn

prunus padus watereri AGM Bird Cherry Tree — Delicate flowers of the Hawthorn

Secondly there are images of the cylinder shaped blossom of a cherry tree with a very long name. It’s called “prunus padus watereri AGM Bird Cherry Tree”. These flowers are creamy rather than pure white.

Lastly there is the “common as muck” Cow Parsley, Latin name Anthriscus sylvestris. The umbrella like clusters appear all over our fields in May and June. They are summer itself, but not for hay fever sufferers! They can’t wait for the early summer to pass.

See more of these images on our May Blossom page

Just to confirm all of these images were captured on my daily walks during lockdown!

Compass Photography Group

Passionate about Photography

Author: cpadmin

Big Cats at Colchester