My hard day at the Office

I’m Ernie, let me tell you about my hard day at the office. Here I am first thing, stretched out on the settee. I’m completely oblivious to everything that’s going on around me, a cat needs his rest and recuperation you know! If the sun shines I might move and go and lie on the carpet in the sun. Alternatively, I could go upstairs and lie on a bed – choices, choices! Yet again it might be fun to chase our other cat around the bedroom. When we do this I hear that we sound like “a herd of buffalo”. Later on I might go outside and play with my pal Smokey, then scratch at the window to come back in for a snooze. I can steal some water from the dog’s bowl and then check that my food bowl is above re-order level. If it has fallen below re-order level I’ll howl until they put some more in. Then perhaps return to the settee for another well earned snooze! That’s my hard day at the office, at least it’s not too bad a commute!

My hard day at the office
On the settee

Let’s think of summer

Let’s think of summer

 

Mike's Garden 2016
Multi-headed sunflowers

Mike's Garden 2016
Sunflower with colours from hanging basket in the background

Mike's Garden 2016
Vibrant yellow flowers on Kerria Japonica

Mike's Garden 2016
Closes up of poppy in front of the fence

Mike's Garden 2016
Tissue paper thin flowers of Cistus incanus

Let’s do away with the cold dreary days of January and February, let’s think of summer!  I can see the frost dripping of the tree branches and its cold and gloomy outside. We have the heating on now, but think of better times. In summer we can have the windows and doors open and sit outside and look at the flowers in the garden. Poppies, sunflowers, petunias – lots of bright colours. Purple Cistus and deep yellow Kerria Japonica. 

Have a look at the images I have included with the post. There is lots to look forward to. Hope this has cheered you up.

See more images in our garden galleries

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

Settings vary

Photographic Angle 1st Prize in competition

Photographic Angle 1st Prize in competition
Photographic Angle 1st Prize in competition
Cutting the tape. Barbara and Judith open the Schoolroom

Photographic Angle 1st Prize in competition. Mike entered this international competition run by Photographic Angle and won first prize! The email arrived this morning and he is still picking himself up off the floor. “Community Spirit” was the title of the competition. The opening of Schoolroom at the Chapel in Woodham Ferrers was Mike’s choice of image. Barbara and Judith cut the tape to formally open the building. These are the judges comments:


“A photograph that perfectly captures a moment, one which exudes community spirit. It’s hard not to smile along with everyone involved. The photographer has involved us closely with the two ladies involved in cutting the tape, while also allowing us to share the involvement of the bystanders, every facial expression adding a little something to the feeling of shared experience.”

This is a link to the Photographic Angle website

Barbara and Judith open the Schoolroom
Certificate

Life sized Nativity

Life sized Nativity

This Life sized Nativity scene is outside the Schoolroom at the Chapel in Woodham Ferrers. This image is illuminated every evening throughout Christmas. It reminds us that at the heart of Christmas is the birth of the baby Jesus in a stable in Bethlehem. Happy Christmas Everyone.

On the 15th January The Schoolroom Café opens again at 1030 am

Life size Nativity
Life size Nativity – Woodham Ferrers

Christmas Market in Dusseldorf

Three images from the Christmas Market in Dusseldorf this year. The atmosphere was enchanting, particularly in the evenings when it was busiest. Bands of musicians were playing, the stalls were lit up and everyone was friendly. I particularly like the image of the dog who was on his hind legs to see the customers. The detail on the Christmas decorations are amazing. You can find more information about the markets at https://happytowander.com/dusseldorf-christmas-markets-guide/

Christmas Market in Dusseldorf.

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

Settings: F3.5 1/50 ISO 200 ity50 \lsdlo

Mersea Island images – see our gallery

Up the creek at Mersea Island

Mersea Island. Shru and I have added 10 of the many, many images we captured last Saturday on the sunset boat trip from Mersea Island to an image gallery on our website. This image is NOT one of them. Click on this link to see all ten of the images. Just to be sure that this is Mersea in Essex and not Mersey in Liverpool. Though it must be said that both are in England, both have ferries and lots of mud too!

Mersea island
The sun has set over the water

 

Night lights – Sydney Australia

Sydney at night from the Opera House

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.

Night lights – Sydney Australia
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!

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

Settings: F3.5 1/15 ISO 1600

Hidden in plain site – Image of the week

Hidden in plain site – Image of the week

Hidden in plain site – Image of the week. This image is part of a larger image captured in Cambridge last Saturday. I was concentrating on the river and the punts and one punt with the boatman going through tree foliage. Everyone was laughing at his difficulty and no one including me noticed the girl on the wall!

Hidden in plain site - image of the week
Hidden in plain site. Girl sitting by the river.

What you see above is a girl on the wall by the river, nicely framed by the ivy (shame about the drain pipe!)

The point is this. Until I looked at the image in Lightroom at home I was completely unaware of this little cameo

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

Settings: F8 1/80 ISO 100

 

Image is a competition winner

Image is a competition winner

We have been contacted to say that an image is a competition winner. Farleigh Hospice is a registered charity (no. 284670) which provides hospice care to people affected by life-limiting illnesses across mid Essex, UK. They ran a competition for photographs for their 2019 calendar and Mike entered some of his images. The August image on Farleigh’s calendar is the one below.

Image is a competition winner
Oak tree in corn field near Toot Hill Essex

The image shows a spreading Oak tree in a sloping field of corn. There are white cotton wool clouds in the blue sky. The crop is golden and the tree a nice shade of green.

Equipment Sony SLT-A65V, Tamron 16-300mm

Settings F11, 1/200 ISO 100