Essex Landscapes Calendar 2019. The Compass Photography Calendar displays the Essex countryside in all its glory, month by month. The front cover is bluebells at Hanningfield reservoir
Monthly images of the Old Rochford Reservoir, Fenn creek at South Woodham Ferrers, Hawkwell, Thorpe Bay, Papermill Lock, RHS Hyde Hall, All Saints Church Rettendon, Paglesham, Marks Hall, Ashingdon and Compass Gardens – South Woodham Ferrers
Its flying past! This night-time image shows the 1849 train from Wickford to Southminster arriving at the empty South Woodham Ferrers station.
The strong yellow diagonal line represents the word “Southminster” flying past at speed on the destination board. You can just see this by magnifying the image. The white and blue lines represent forward lights on the electric multiple unit as it whizzes past. These lines start on the right of the image and show where the 13 second exposure started. Through the body of the coaches it is possible to see track and lineside equipment on the other side of the tracks.
t’s a dark and cold night in March 2018. The sodium lights of the station gave the picture an overall “orange” feel. White balance on the camera is set to “tungsten” to compensate for the orange glow created by the sodium lights. To get a shot I was happy with, I went back and forwards to home to check what each one looked like.
Poised for Nectar. The Moorish gardens in the palace grounds of the Alhambra is our location here.
The gardens were full of sweet-smelling orange blossom when this shot was captured. It seemed as if every colour rose you can think of was carpeting the ground. Honey bees are feasting on these Heirloom Poppies in the image. The bee is caught hovering in mid-air approaching the nectar in the centre of the flower.
The fine lines of the flower act as leading lines drawing the eyes into the centre of the shot. The cupped shape of this flower holds the attention of the viewer within. The vibrant colour of the flower and the action shot of wild life further captivates the interest. Look carefully and you’ll see the nectar on the petals
A boat trip up the creek at Mersea Island in Essex
Glorious sunset at Mersea in Essex. Yesterday Shru organised a boat trip for five photographers from the crabbing pier at Mersea in Essex. Five image from the boat trip are shown below.
Calm waters and reflections as we leave the jettyMarker poles along the creekWe have lift offIts so calm that the clouds clearly reflect in the waterThe moon shines over the creek
The water in the creek was classically calm as a millpond allowing astounding reflections as we passed the other boats. The trip was scheduled for sunset, however as you will see from the images the sunset exceeded our expectations. This was an open boat so the weather was also kind to us at the end of a warm October day. As we journeyed along the creek in the setting sun we passed a range of wildlife he sun set showing such glorious skies. It truly was a “Glorious sunset at Mersea in Essex”.The images include:
° Reflections of the boats as we passed them
° A sunset featuring one of the marker poles
° A bird taking off in the golden waters
° A sunset with the waters so calm that the clouds are reflected in it
Five images of the autumn colours at Danbury Lakes are shown with this post. Three are from this year and two from earlier years. Information about the images is at the bottom of the post.
Squirrel Nutkin?Leafy woodsDry stream bed in leafy woodsZigzag reflections in the lake
About the images
I was lucky with the squirrel, who posed nicely for a second on the end of a piece of stone. His tail curves round nicely and you can even see his whiskers! This year the lake has not yet reached the colours of the attached image. When I was at Danbury last week the waterfowl were also cutting up the surface so the reflections were not as nice either.
Along one of the banks there is a fascinating tree where it appears that the trunk has turned back into the water. The reflections of the tree and the banking are clear, however the movement in the water makes them a zigzag.
Two images from inside the woods follow, where the green canopy is still there, with a carpet of fallen leaves. One image has the dry stream bed running across it.
Autumn Colours at Marks Hall. The calm water in the upper lake at Marks Hall facilitates these lovely reflections on this autumn day in October 2017.
Autumn Colours at Marks Hall, Essex
Equipment: Sony SLT-A65V, Tamron 16-300mm Settings: F8 1/100 ISO 320
A dust cloud provided unusual weather that day. This made the sun go bright orange in the afternoon, like a sunset (see additional image below). The backdrop to this image is the colour of the trees. The leaves have just started to “turn” golden. This occurs as the plant cuts off the sap to its extremities to cope with winter.
Vibrant colours
The white pampas grass and the fiery red bush next to it create vibrant contrasts to the greenery above. They add the same vibrance with their reflections in the green coloured water. These reflections draw the eye into the water to the three arches which form the overflow to control the level of the lake. The arches and the brickwork alongside them reflect perfectly in the water. The vertical lines of the weeping willow also appear in the water.
The bushes on the path frame the image. As the dust cloud crosses the sun in different densities, changing the colour of the sun as it passes
Lurking in the bushes!
Lurking in the bushes on the long side of the lake was the only way to get the image as I wanted! It uses the power of the superzoom lens to bring the main features of the image nearer.
A sunset in mid afternoon!
I captured this image at 14:22 in the afternoon, according to the camera. Effectively we have a sunset in mid afternoon!
A “sunset” in mid afternoon?
Equipment: Sony SLT-A65V, Tamron 16-300mm, Settings: F8 1/200 ISO 125
Shru saw these startling starlings on a walk through St James park in London. This park is beautiful and is always busy with tourists, school groups, people lunching or exercising. If you are lucky you can even see starling bathing in St James Lake.
Startling starlings
You will have to work hard to see some of the birds, they are so well camouflaged against the background of the water and the gravel under it
These starling were out in large groups in the midday sun to either cool down or just have a wash. They were swooping in turns.
The eye is lead in from the diagonally from the bottom right and the top left.
Two similar images of the blue Agapanthus outside the front of our house. It will be one of the last flowers of the summer!
Agapanthus
Agapanthus
It will be one of the last blooms of summer this year. The background is the cream external wall of our house. This gives a warm feel to the image and contrasts nicely with the bright blue petals of the flower. These strikingly beautiful plants originate from South Africa and are often called African Lillies. They are also found in profusion on the Scilly Isles. The leaves are said to be “strappy” and the whole plant has a statuesque air to it.
Night lights – Sydney Australia. Captured under the lea of Sydney Opera House, this image has been cropped to portrait from landscape. The crop to portrait is important for two reasons. Firstly, it cut out a dark uninteresting area of harbour water. Secondly, the effect of the lamps and tall buildings is heightened and they are emphasised by the portrait format.
Sydney at night from the Opera House
The view looks back toward the city from the promontory where the opera house is. It shows the tall offices and hotels, their lights and the smoky red coloured light pollution hanging over the city. A quick rain shower had cleared the quayside of people. Everyone had dived under the Opera House overhang to shelter. I nipped out with the tripod, camera and remote set up to capture the shot. Until I returned to the UK I didn’t realise what a nice shot this was.
Reflections and leading lines
The glowing orbs of the sentinel pavement lights form a line leading the eye back towards the city. The rain on the pavement additionally allows a glistening reflection of the lights to form another leading line. This complements the “dash-dash” line formed by the paving slabs.
This was a December night and one of my first attempts at night time photography. In the UK it would have been cold then. However, even with the rain a jumper was all you needed down under at that time of the year.
I have a version of this image as a 20” x 30” canvas and it looks great!
A view from the high life! These three images captured not quite from the top of a mountain near Tucepi in Croatia show excellent views.
Shrouded in mistA road on the edgeLooking down at sea level
Climbing mountain roads (some glorified tracks) we reached several viewing points high up the mountain. Technically we were not in the Biokovo nature park, however we were right next door to it. Two images show the mountain road where we were, one shows us momentarily shrouded in cloud which came and went. The other is where the road almost appears to go off the end of the mountain. The road reminded us of the roads along the Almafi coast. Fortunately, we did not experience the Italian drivers overtaking on blind bends. The third image show the coast road below us, the glorious colours of the sea
