Hyde Hall on Easter Sunday

21st April 201921st April 2019 By cpadmin

Hyde Hall on Easter Sunday

An early visit to Hyde Hall on Easter Sunday enabled me to capture some super images in the sunshine. Hyde Hall is an RHS Garden in Essex, UK

The attractions included red and white blossom on the Malus trees, this one had no label! The purple Bergenia stood out against the white pebbles in the dry garden at the top of the hill. Magnolia judy is a delicate pink lurking around the far side of the lake overlapping the footpath. The strangely named Rododendron saint tudy (yes “tudy”) has lovely deep purple flowers and is found in a shady path to the right of the house.

The 150-600 lens enable me to frame a long distance image of houses along the B1418 in Woodham Ferrers. The leaves on the tree are bursting forth over the right hand diagonal half of the image. Behind them on the low skyline we see the houses and the undulating yellow field with its tractor tracks.

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Equipment: Sony SLT-A65V, Tamron 16-300mm – setting vary

Jayne Kirkby Guest Photographer

14th April 201914th April 2019 By cpadmin

Jayne Kirkby Guest Photographer. Jayne has placed seven great images on our website as our guest photographer. Each image is of a harvest mouse. The tiny creatures are captured in slightly different ways in each image. You are invited to visit our website and take place in a poll to vote for the images you like best. Originally I had the mice down as field mice. A friend who “knows about these things” emailed to say that they were harvest mice. You learn something every day!

Here is one of the images. This is the link to Jayne’s gallery on our website where you can see all seven images and vote for the one you like best.

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A top view from the Sky Garden

12th April 201912th April 2019 By cpadmin

Image of the week – A top view from the Sky Garden

A top view from the Sky Garden was captured last week from the highest part of London’s “Walkie Talkie”. 20 Fenchurch Street is the official name of the “Walkie Talkie”. The views from up here are truly wonderful. You can walk around all four sides of the Sky Garden and look out on the sights of London. These include the Monument to the Fire of London, the architecture of the wharves and Tower Bridge. A unique complete view of the whole of the Tower of London is available. Canary Wharf is in the distance and the river twists and turns are a delight to see. Aeroplanes turning to go into City Airport seem to turn at the same height as you to make their descent!

This image shows…

This image shows the platform where you can eat and drink whilst enjoying the view. The platform is “inside” The “outside” terrace is in the fresh air, it allows you to look through the glass screens and capture images of the river. The river Thames slowly snakes past and the image shows boats moving up and down the river. The high angle opens up amazing views of the buildings on the south bank. HMS Belfast looks like a toy from this height. The great thing about this building is that it’s free to go up to the top!

My only regret was that the sun stayed in!

Equipment: Sony SLT-A65V

Settings f6.3, 1/100, ISO 100

Red tulips, yellow fields and bright sunlight

10th April 201910th April 2019 By cpadmin

Red tulips

Red tulips, yellow fields in bright sunlight have made today a great day for taking photographs. The red tulips are in a pot in the garden and I first captured them from the side with the straw bale and the raspberries on the wall behind. As the sun moved round a closer shot shows the texture of the petals, which is something we often miss. Finally, I managed to position the camera above the tulips and capture them looking down into their circular pot. The flowers are still not fully open, perhaps that will come in later days.

Yellow fields

Driving north from South Woodham Ferrers up towards Woodham Ferrers the road goes up and down and round curves and bends. In all seasons this undulating journey provides a wonderful view of several trees on the skyline. Today the trees in the image stand out against the blue sky as the white clouds scud by. The oil seed crop in the field leading up to the horizon is currently turning the brightest yellow aided by the bright sunlight. The line of the horizon is a really attractive curve from right to left. Some of the trees are breaking bud but one of them may be dead. All in all it’s a great view and the panoramic image shows it off best. Please resist the temptation to look for too long if you are driving up there though!

Equipment: Sony SLT-A65V, Tamron 16-300mm

Settings vary

Cat’s paw blog-Sunday lunch on the settee

31st March 201931st March 2019 By cpadmin

Sunday lunch on the settee

Here we are at Sunday lunch on the settee. There I am in the picture, the good-looking one. The man with me “does for me”, looks after some of my needs, but he could do better! We are both sitting on the settee at lunchtime today. Ours is a poor household, he had cornflakes for Sunday lunch would you believe! Most people have a roast, but he had cornflakes, but that’s alright with me because I get the bowl with the surplus milk afterwards. That is when he eventually deigns to put it on the side! Some days he hardly leaves any milk at all, but today it was not too bad! It’s a hard life!

Anyway, there we are both looking out of the window. I think he was looking at his garden, whilst I was following my ornithological studies. As you ask, they are progressing quite nicely, I had that fat of pigeon in my sites earlier today. Yesterday, I was inches away from a blackbird, it hadn’t noticed that I was behind the flower pots. What really annoys me is the blue tits, even though I sit under the bird feeder they come and go, cool as a cucumber. And of course the bits they don’t eat drop on me!

Getting back to the picture, you’d think that they would keep the photographs on the wall straight, but they don’t. It’s a nice view from the settee, warm too so perhaps I’ll have a snooze. More another time!

Equipment: Sony SLT A65V, Tamron 16:300mm lens.

Settings: F6.3, 1/25, ISO 100

Sunday lunch on the settee — Ornithological studies

Looking out down river!

29th March 201929th March 2019 By cpadmin

Image of the week – Looking out down river!

Looking out down river is the statue of Lord Nelson. The statue is in Greenwich, outside the Trafalgar pub and well worth a visit. From this position Nelson gets to see all of the boats travelling up and down the Thames. It is as if he is watching over the comings and goings. The traffic on the river is much less than it used to be though. Less traffic does allow you to see the sweeps of the river as it snakes around and back again. In the distance you can see the Millennium Dome. On the left of the image is Canary Wharf.

The statue was erected in 2005 to mark the 200^th anniversary of the battle of Trafalgar. The Nelson statue was created by sculptor Lesley Pover after being commissioned by Trafalgar owner Frank Dowling.

The pub has great views over the river from the bar. Lots of people like to have their photograph taken with Nelson and he usually obliges without a grumble! Find out more about the statue using this link

Equipment: Sony SLT-A65V

Settings f6.3, 1/320, ISO 100

Solitary and desolate at Bradwell

18th March 201918th March 2019 By cpadmin

One October day last year Shru’s ‘Chatty Walkers’ group took a drive to the solitary and desolate Bradwell on Sea. The ladies usually walk for health and this day’s adventure was to seek out St Peters Chapel. The walk was breezy but it was a fine sunny day. The chapel, we concluded was the oldest building that any of us has been in.

In this shot is the lookout building which was quite run down. The shadow of the building draws the eye in to an up the building in this portrait image. Shru particularly likes the criss-crosses of the supporting wood beams that form the lower structure. Setting the image in black and white adds to its starkness, desolate and solitary feel. The open door forms an invitation to climb up, step in and look out of the windows to the sea. The whole place has quiet a solitary and desolate feel to it.

Settings:

Canon EOS 7D Mark II EF-S 18-135mm IS STM

F5.6 1/1250 ISO 100

Solitary and desolate at Bradwell — The lookout at Bradwell on Sea

Curvy Round house

10th March 201910th March 2019 By cpadmin

Image of the week – Curvy Round house in Hastings

Curvy Round house image of the week — Curvy Round house – image of the week

This lovely round corner house is found in the back streets of Hastings, on the South Coast of England. In the TV series Foyles War this house became the home of Detective Christopher Foyle. Michael Kitchen played the detective in the series set mostly in World War 2 and Honeysuckle Weeks played his assistant.

No straight bits

I love the curves of the building and the fact that it is sits on a curve in the street too. The door panel is the only piece of straight wall! It would be lovely to see the inside of the building. Construction work was taking place in adjacent properties on the day I visited. This meant I had to work round a skip and make sure that it and other builder’s materials did not appear in the image! I noticed a lot of small grey stones in the gutters and at the side of the road, some are just visible in the picture. These were probably used to mask the double yellow lines in the television shots. I found Hastings an interesting place to visit, there was lots to see there.

Equipment: Sony SLT-A65V, Tamron 16-300mm

Settings f5.6, 1/640, ISO 100

To Greenwich on the Thames

28th February 201928th February 2019 By cpadmin

Travelled by boat to Greenwich on the Thames this week. Took advantage of the warm weather to sit outside on the boat and soak up the sun. It was just like summer. Travelling under Tower Bridge is always spectacular. Here we are so low that the bridge looks as if it is bending back. HMS Belfast is in the distance.

The second image shows how little river traffic is on the Thames today as we journey to Greenwich. We are at New Crane Wharf in Wapping and have just been passed by a speeding police boat going in the other direction. Hence the wave! Symmetry is a word you might use about the buildings here! It’s also marvellous to look at the detail.

At Greenwich it’s worth walking to the top of the hill and taking in the view from the Royal Observatory. Canary Wharf continues to develop a pace. It is said that the number of tower blocks will make it look like Manhattan! You can just see the river bending round in the distance too.

Equipment: Sony SLT-A65V, Tamron 16-300mm

Settings vary

Curvy Tree Charlecote Park

26th January 201926th January 2019 By cpadmin

Image of the week

Image of the week – Curvy Tree Charlecote Park.

Charlecote Park is grand 16th-century country house, surrounded by its own deer park, on the banks of the River Avon near Wellesbourne, about 4 miles east of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. It has been administered by the National Trust since 1946 and is open to the public.

To the left hand side of the main house is the stable block. The path leads down to a bridge and onwards to the deer park. On the first weekend of the year, this pine tree caught my interest for the curvy way its trunk had grown upwards.

Perhaps the tree had been bent into a stake in earlier years. However, now the trunk turns right then it comes back to vertical at it progresses upwards. This is nature’s way of autocorrecting the mistakes that we humans make!

The house was not open to look round when we were there, Charlecote Park would make a lovely place to go again in the summer.

NB: This is the second go at this post as the original one did not transfer the image to Facebook!

Equipment: Sony SLT A65V, Tamron 16:300mm lens. F4 1/500, ISO 100.

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Category: England

Hyde Hall on Easter Sunday