Bouncing rain!

31st August 202131st August 2021 By cpadmin

In August 2021 we had some bouncing rain. It rained stair rods and it rained cats and dogs! The Weather forecasters have been saying how many, meaning how few hours of sunshine we have had in August 2021! It rained so hard that the drops were bouncing from the table on our patio. Not wanting to miss an opportunity I opened the patio doors, set up the tripod and started experimenting.

This post has two images from a collection images of rain drop “bounces” from more than one shower on more than one day.

On the image above with the plant pot, the “bounce” here is about half an inch across, we also see its reflection. The plant pot saucer is about 1 foot diameter. There is also a bubble and its reflection in the foreground. We can also see some stair rods coming down, one straight into the bounce.

And the rain came down — A single area of impact and its volcano like bounce

The bouncing rain above hits the table and then projects upwards like a volcano or a firework pretending to be a volcano.

See more images of the bouncing rain on the Compass Photography Website

Summer Garden delights

13th June 202113th June 2021 By cpadmin

Summer Garden delights shows two images of startling flowers captured in the garden today. The first image shows an an Osteospermum, possibly the Sunshine Beauty variety. This flower is also known as African daisy and I believe it originates from South Africa. I love the shades of the flower petals as they turn from white to yellow to brown in the summer sun

The second image shows eight of the eleven large red poppies in the back border. Three are yet to burst bud. The sun shines through the petals in this mid day capture. It gives the feel of having a light bulb behind them. These poppies have large bright red bowls formed by their flower petals and they have large black centres. A close up of these centres can appear as if they are large spiders!. The RHS website has more information on poppies.

It really is a joy to sit out in the garden in this lovely warm weather and see the summer garden delights. The Compass Photography website has a page of eight images of the startling flowers, all captured today. Follow the link

Arundel Castle’s tulips

15th May 202115th May 2021 By cpadmin

BBC Breakfast TV featured Arundel Castle’s tulips. Carol the BBC weather forecaster gave us a tour one morning and definitely showed the nation how nice it was. Last weekend we drove down there to look for ourselves. While some of the tulips had started to ‘go over’ and the daffodils were well past their best it was a truly magnificent display.

Pots and pots had been filled with bulbs in addition to those planted in the grass. One group of pots surrounded a tree that was just coming into leaf. Orange, different pinks and yellow tulips clustered around the otherwise uninteresting tree in a blaze of colour. Subsequently, we came across a gazebo around which were many more colourful pots.

By now Arundel Castle’s tulips will have ‘gone over’ however you can see more images of the time we spent there by using this link or visiting the website of Arundel Castle itself.

Arundel Castle’s website has the following text. “There are nearly 1,000 years of history at this great castle, situated in magnificent grounds overlooking the River Arun in West Sussex and built at the end of the 11th century by Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Arundel.

Bright colours at Hyde Hall

16th April 202116th April 2021 By cpadmin

On todays visit there were bright colours at Hyde Hall. I visited on a sunny morning in mid April 2021 and wandered around the grounds. I came away with 95 images. Of these I saved 34 and discarded the rest. This post has three of the images. Firstly, and without doubt my favourite image of the day is image of Bergenia Schneekoenigin. This lovely chain of small pink flowers goes up and down across the image. It was not until I subsequently looked over the images that I was aware of the chain effect!

April at RHS Hyde Hall — Bergenia Schneekoenigin

The next image is a close up of the bright yellow Mahonia Aquifolium is next in the sequence. Bergenia cordifolia Purpurea has strong pink and purple flowers. I am sure it would stand out in the dark!

The Magnolias are out or alternatively coming out at this time of year. The pinky white raspberry ripple flowers are strongly in bud, whereas the white Magnolia cylindrica flowers are out. These last ones have undoubtedly suffered from the frost, as the brown petals show!

A new page on the website shows ten of the images I captured during this visit to Hyde Hall. Click here to go to that page

There are lots of bright colours at Hyde Hall. Its well worth a wander round. Check out their website

Frozen pond on a freezing day

8th February 20218th February 2021 By cpadmin

Frozen pond freezing day — Frozen pond on a freezing day

Frozen pond on a freezing day is the third image of the same pond I have published. Captured at 0900 on a very cold morning this image offers little comfort. Two previous images of the same pond have been published, however this one is darker and more foreboding. The sky is overcast and it is snowing. There is more snow on the ground in this image. Snow lies on the arms of the large tree.

There is a distinct wintery image to this picture of the pond. The tree does reflect in the ice, however they are much less striking and dull. Bare branches of the bushes frame this image as they reach out to the pond. Moving around the pond to capture the image was a treacherous venture. I have been asked where this photogenic pond is. It is at the rear of Blackwood Chine in South Woodham Ferrers in Essex CM3 5FZ. Top Barn Lane is what this stretch was called originally.

Snow is on the ground and the forecast leads us to expect more later. The plan is to make the most of the snow. We get it so rarely these days, however there is always the concern of safety. More snowy images will be published on the Compass Photography Website Latest Images – Compass Photography Group

Wimpole Estate in Autumn

29th October 202029th October 2020 By cpadmin

It’s great to visit Wimpole Estate in autumn, even though It may be wet and windy. A day in half term looking round the gardens provided some wonderful autumn colours. There was a one way system to the farm where the animals could be seen. See more about Wimpole Estate in Autumn by using this link.

Many of the trees were losing their leaves. On occasion we were able to walk over a carpet of leaves. The leaves on some trees had fallen. In other cases they were changing colour. Two small trees had retained their bright orange leaves. In both cases these small trees made a really bright feature against the darker green trees in the background.

Green scene

One of the images I have called “green scene”. This shows a really green lawn, with a path sweeping across the image and round the corner into the trees. Golden leaves on some of the trees support this image by adding their colour.

These is a page on our website with more images from Wimpole Estate. Use this link to go to it

Use this link to view more of our garden galleries

Lens ball images in the garden

21st September 202021st September 2020 By cpadmin

Lens ball images in the garden. To me, sunflowers are an obvious target for the lens ball. The gallery below shows two images of sunflowers in the back garden. I found that I could capture the sunflower directly in the image as well as in the refraction. Trays and planters of petunias at the front of the house also made a target and one of them appears in the gallery below. To get the lens ball to the correct height I had to erect apparatus! This included the black and decker workmate, a plant pot and a towel. I also played with different focal lengths. All very worthwhile and enjoyable!

Small pastel colours — Smaller lens ball image of pastel colours

Closer up sunflowers lensball — Smaller lens ball image of pastel colours

The Compass Photography Website contains more lens ball images. Click here

Images through a Lens Ball

18th September 202021st September 2020 By cpadmin

On a visit to RHS Hyde Hall I captured some images through a lens ball. Simply put a lens ball is a crystal ball. Refraction means that images shot through the lens appear upside down. Refraction occurs when light passes through an object of denser mass, such as water or in this case glass. The resulting image has two characteristics. Most of the image is the right way up. In contrast the element of the image within the lens ball is upside down.

The whole point of using a lens ball for me is that Photoshop allows you to isolate the circle of the lens ball within the image. You can then spin the image round so that both the main image and the contents of the lens ball are the “right” way round! You then see a microcosm of the image through the lens ball.

The images from Hyde Hall

lens ball photography — Before. Looking over the lake at Hyde Hall (Before being spun round)

The first image shows the lake at Hyde Hall as the image came from the camera and the second image shows the refraction “spun” 180 degrees. The third image shows the upper pond at Hyde Hall

More lens ball images captured at Hyde Hall and on the River Crouch appear on our website https://www.compassphotography.co.uk/latest-images/

Alternative sunflowers

11th August 202011th August 2020 By cpadmin

Alternative sunflowers. 2020 has been a good year for sunflowers in my garden. Most of the ones I have grown have dwarf varieties, Little Leo and Teddy Bear. I could not get out to buy packets of tall sunflower seeds due to lockdown. Both varieties grow approximately three feet high. Little Leo is a classic sunflower with long yellow petals, just like the sun’s rays. Teddy bear has a pompom head. It works by starting the flowers as a fringe on the outside and working towards the centre to complete the pompom.

The weather also brought some great opportunities for photographing the sunflowers. one of my birthday presents was a lens ball. I decided to experiment with it and the sunflowers were the first subject. A lens ball is a glass sphere which can be used to capture images. The process of refraction turns the image upside down. You have to use software to correct that afterwards. Two images are attached. One showing the “Teddy bear” variety. The lens ball captures the second image. I hope you like the images of alternative sunflowers. This web page has more images of my sunflowers.

I do have some tall sunflowers, these are self-set ones!

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

Compass Photography Group

Passionate about Photography

Category: Garden