Pink Dawn

Looking at the weather forecast on Sunday night for the following morning, it was unclear if Monday was going to be one of those totally epic mornings, or just grey, boring and damp.

Every weather app was saying 100% cloud cover, but it was high cloud, and sometimes even a full coverage of high cloud can light up like a Christmas tree.

I set the alarm. Sunrise is pretty late now so it's no big deal to wake up and twitch the curtains. If the weather looks rubbish then I don't need to go out.

The Monday morning window check looked good. Very good. I could already see the clouds catching the first rays and it was still over an hour before sun rise. For some reason it took me longer to get out of the house than normal. I pegged it up to the gates on my bike, locked up and started walking.

The easterly horizon was really on fire. I was walking as fast as I could in my wellies, and with my own body weight of camera gear in tow. The pink glow spread across the sky, it was over my head and reaching right across to the west. It was also very misty. The pink clouds reflected the pink light downwards, turning the mist pink. Everywhere was pink!

Damn it I am not where I intended to be. I'm in a misty field with a few trees in it. But this light is wild, and I have to stop and take a photo because it wont last. I stop walking, get out my tripod, line up a tree with the amazing sky and take a shot.

ISO 100, 78mm, f/10, 0,5 sec

This image is barely edited. I brought down the highlights in the sky a fraction, and removed a very distant plane heading in to land at Heathrow, and a dust spot (I should probably clean my sensor). It's almost identical to the raw image straight out of the camera.

I continue walking towards the ponds. The pink is fading and suddenly I'm at the ponds and there's no mist. The light is gone. It's just grey. Thank goodness I got my camera out when I did!

Here's a bit of footage I grabbed. The phone has saturated the colours to ridiculous levels, but it gives a decent representation of what the conditions were like.

LONDON

I am super lucky to live close to an amazing wildlife park, but for a little while I’ve felt that it would be nice to photograph somewhere different for a change. Last weekend, I met up with a very talented Instagram friend at Waterloo Station for a photo walk. It was a grey, overcast afternoon. The sort of weather I wouldn’t dream of taking my camera out in, if I was going to Richmond Park. However this sort of weather seems to work much better in the capital. I had an amazing time, and have vowed to return sometime soon, maybe for a sunset…

The Shard

One New Change

Bluebells

It’s bluebell season, and my Instagram feed has exploded with gorgeous images of beautiful, misty bluebell woods. Sadly, there are no bluebell woods in Richmond Park - the delicate flowers would probably be trampled/eaten by deer - so I’ve never had the opportunity to photograph them. Driving for miles into the shires just to grab a couple of shots does really appeal to me either, so I’ve always felt that I’d have to wait for an opportunity when I’m not in London. At the beginning of the week I drove up to Lancashire to visit my Mum who (thanks to COVID) I hadn’t seen since November. I always take my camera up north with me, but never come away with any photographs. Until now that is. I found a lovely little bluebell wood just a 15 minute walk from the house. The weather was a bit wild and windy, and there was definitely not going to be any mist while I was up there, but I did get up for first light one morning, and came away with a shot that I’m quite pleased with.

It’s worth noting that bluebells are very delicate. It’s important to stick to the paths in bluebell woods as they are easily damaged.

Bluebell wood - Lancashire 11/05/21

New Tripod Head

Last week I bought a new tripod head. I had a 3 Legged Thing ‘Travis’ with a ‘Neo’ ball head, however the Neo isn’t really designed to carry the weight of my massive brick of a DSLR, and sometimes I would get a little bit of ‘settling’ when I framed up a photograph, which is annoying. I decided to upgrade to the Airhead Pro, which can carry a much greater load…

I haven’t had much chance to get out and use it so far but can’t wait to put it through it’s paces.

Frozen

Had an enjoyable, but freezing cold walk in the park yesterday morning. The wind was biting. Sadly, my favourite winter pond had had sticks thrown all over the ice, making for a very scruffy foreground - it’s never been like that before when frozen and I imagine it’s another symptom of lockdown and closed schools. Anyway, it made what would have been a very lovely shot completely pointless, so I didn’t linger there. The upper Pen Pond was completely frozen over, and I watched the old male cob plough through the thin ice with his mate following close behind.

Swans on the Upper Pen Pond, 13th Feb 2021.

He was leaning into the ice at a much steeper angle that he would if swimming, and it looked like hard work. I’m sure that all the wildlife will breath a collective sigh of relief now that the thaw has begun and temperatures are forecast to be much milder in the coming days.

Misty morning....

Thursday was a stunning misty start. I haven’t seen any mist in the park since Autumn, so I was pretty excited. As the sun rose, the mist really billowed up, and the bank of cloud on the horizon rolled in. These conditions are perfect as the cloud prevents the sun burning off the mist too quickly. Ideal for photography! I had to be at my desk for 9.30 for work, and the light was still amazing when I reluctantly left for home.

SNOW!

We had snow yesterday here in London. I’d quickly fashioned a camera ‘rain coat’ out of a sheet of sturdy plastic and a strip of elastic to hold it on the end of my chosen lens (24-120mm) to help prevent any moisture from entering the internal camera workings. Turned out it was a very sensible thing to do as it was chucking it down with snow and my camera would have been soaked without it. It was still difficult to deal with the amount of snow coming down as the flakes kept blowing into my lens hood. The park was also insanely busy so it didn’t feel appropriate to mess around with a tripod so the shots I took were all hand held. Despite these difficulties I took some shots that I’m very happy with, and I definitely learned some valuable lessons for the next time I go shooting in heavy snow.

Friends of Richmond Park Autumn Tree Competition

Very pleased to announce that I am the winner of the Friends of Richmond Park Autumn Tree competition. There were four competitions for each season, that ran through out 2020, although the Spring edition was postponed because of the COVID lockdown and will run this year instead. Amazingly, I have already won the Winter competition with my images of the Willows, and it was this win that spurred me on to enter it into the Landscape Photographer of the Year competition last year. I feel very privileged to have now won twice.

The Ent of Richmond Park, taken in November 2020.

New (old) lens

On Saturday I cycled to the north side of the river to The Chiswick Camera Centre to test out and buy a second hand lens. It’s has a 18-35mm focal length, much wider than my current widest lens which only goes to 24mm. I was interested to see what a wide angle lens would offer me, with compositions that are not possible with my current gear. Sunday morning was forecast to be sunny, and although I wasn’t expecting any epic photography conditions, I couldn’t wait to get out with my camera, and my new lens.

It was a nice morning. As predicted, not spectacular for photos, but it’s always fun to be out walking in the park. I just took hand held shots, testing out the widest lens setting to see how the park looked at 18mm.

I was happy to see that the auto focus worked well, and that the images I took were sharp.

Something that I really wanted to test out was the ability to take sun stars as my main landscape lens doesn’t produce them (round aperture blades, apparently!). I was pleased to see that when the sun finally emerged from the cloud bank that was lurking on the horizon, the lens did make a sun star.

Finally a lens that produces sun stars!

Epic fog!

On Monday we had epic fog in the park. If I hadn’t been working, I would have waited until well after sunrise as there was no light - just lots of thick fog. However, I had to be back home and at my desk for 9.30, so I went out early and wandered about in the gloom. It really wasn’t light enough to take any shots that I was happy with. I started off in the woods, but then a large heard of red stags wandered by, and two particularly big stags were having a right old scrap. Keeping my distance, I got out my telephoto and took some shots. Naturally, when it was time to leave, it started brightening up and there was lovely warm foggy glow…

Taken on the 7th December, in a very murky Richmond Park!

Friends of Richmond Park Calendar

I’m very proud that 2 of my photographs are featured in the 2021 Friends of Richmond Park charity calendar, as the main images for both January and April. The Friends of Richmond Park do some amazing work for the park and purchasing a calendar is a great way to support them. The calendar is available both at the park visitor centre located at the Richmond Gate car park, or from the Friends of Richmond Park online shop, which can be found here:

https://www.frp.org.uk/shop/

April

Landscape Photographer of the Year!!

Earlier this year, on a very last minute whim, I decided to enter the UK Landscape Photographer of the Year competition. To my amazement, one of my images made the shortlist! I didn’t ultimately make it any further through the competition, however the image in question was taken only 6 months after buying my camera, so I thought it was a bit of a result!

The Beverly Brook in early February

Toppled!

Last week one of my favourite trees was blown over by heavy winds. The little tree grows on the small island on the lower pen pond, and has been the muse of many photographers who visit the park. It’s now lying on it’s side, with the root ball pointing 90 degrees into the air. I’m hoping that it doesn’t die, and instead grows into a new weird and beautiful shape. Fingers crossed!

The little tree, blown onto it’s side…

Autumn.....

Summer is a tough season for photography, with the early morning sunrises and late sunsets, so the arrival of Autumn is exciting. Thanks to life getting in the way, I missed the whole Autumn season last year, so I am chomping at the bit to get out and photograph some lovely autumnal scenes. We have already had some beautiful, cool, damp misty mornings and we’re still in the first week of September. Hopefully a sign of the things to come! Here’s an image I took earlier in the week, down by the brook.

Prints.....

Over the last few weeks I’ve been working towards getting some prints ready to be sold on my website. It’s been a rabbit hole of colour calibration, paper profiles and soft proofing.

After many test strips to try different papers with each image, I now have the first two photographs fully printed on a beautiful giclée hahnemühle photorag paper, which is a heavy, matt paper with a very subtle texture. The results are almost painterly, and I’m very proud of them.

Monarch of the Glen

Acid Green Leaves

Summer mist....

The forecast looked really promising for Sunday morning - a low of 10 degrees, very light winds and high humidity. I set the alarm for 3.50am and hiked to the park. When I arrived at the park gates and saw that there was finally some mist, I did an internal celebratory dance. It was a stunning morning to be out.

Taken on Sunday July 12, at 5.32am

No mist!

Set an early alarm yesterday morning because the forecast was to be relatively cool overnight and I thought there was an outside chance of a little mist forming over the ponds for sunrise.

Off course there was none. But I was treated to an amazing sky and sunrise!

Taken at 4.45am, on the 7th of July.

The injured jackdaw

This morning I woke up at 4 am and felt wide awake! Despite trying hard to get back to sleep, it wasn’t happening, so at 5 am I decided to get up and go for a walk in the park. I took the camera, just in case, but despite what the BBC weather app said about some cloud cover, there was very little, and the light was quite harsh.

On the way home, I saw a bird lying in the gutter on a big busy road. I realised as I got closer that it was still very much alive, a young jackdaw lying on it’s back, but head looking around as the cars and lorries roared past and people hurried by on the pavement. I asked a man to keep an eye out for traffic for me, and stepped into the road to retrieve the injured bird and wrap it carefully in my jacket, where I though it would be as comfortable as an injured bird could be.

I hadn’t thought it through at all. As an owner of 2 cats I couldn’t bring it into the house. I lined the cardboard recycling box with a blanket and lay him in there, tucked away in the recycling shed in the front garden, out of harm’s way. I had absolutely no idea what to do so I called upon some Instagram friends who have experience in such matters, who directed me to the Wildlife Aid Foundation. So the jackdaw and I drove out to Leatherhead where he could be looked after properly by experts. They were absolutely lovely, and I’m really happy that the jackdaw is in the best possible hands. Fingers crossed that he will recover from his injuries. I can phone in a couple of days time to see if he is OK, but even if he doesn’t make it, I’m glad that I took him to a calm and peaceful place. It has to be better than dying at the side of a road.

The Last Poppy

I’ve wanted to photograph a poppy field for ages, and a couple of weekends ago one of my friends came upon a wonderful poppy, cornflower and daisy field. The phone image she sent me looked amazing - poppies, cornflowers and daisies filling an enormous field in South Oxfordshire. I decided that I should go and look for myself so a few days later, on an amazing hot summer’s evening, I headed out of London for a taste of the countryside…

Although this was only a few days after the sighting, the poppies were mostly gone. The fallen red petals scattered amongst the barley and cornflowers were nearly all that was left of them, aside from the last brave handful that had endured the hot spell.

The field was still utterly gorgeous, even without most of the poppies. Bright blue cornflowers covered the field, swaying in the wind. The field was bathed in warm, evening sunlight, and although there was no obvious vista to capture, there was clearly potential for some macro photography.

I walked through the field along the path, down the hill to a gate into a woodland. Might as well have a look at what’s in here I thought…

Inside the woodland was dark and shady, it took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the dimness. Once my eyes had re-calibrated, I could see that the woodland was amazing. It was so GREEN! There was a tiny path - not much more than a rabbit path - that caught my eye. A lovely composition with a strong tree in the left foreground, the path leading off into the green, and the wonderful higgledy-piggledy trees further away.

I’m already getting the tripod out of the bag, it’s such a lovely sight. Camera on the tripod. Switch the lens to manual focus and get the shot set up.

My remote shutter release is already plugged in. I do this every time I go out with the camera, even if I don’t think I’ll use my tripod. The reason being that it’s a proper pain to get the shutter release cable into the socket. It’s exacerbated by the fact that I’ve got an L bracket on my camera for the odd occasion that I shoot portrait compositions. Squeezing the shutter release plug into the socket, with the L bracket on, is a nightmare. I can spend several minutes messing around, which is why I always do this before I leave the house. Once it’s plugged in, i wrap the cable around the bracket, and it stops it dangling around to much, or falling out.

The shot is set up. I press the remote shutter release button to take the photograph. Nothing happens. The stupid thing has come half out of the socket. I ram it back in. The live view on the back of my camera goes dead. Bugger! I switch the camera off and on and switch live view back on. Nothing. I press the camera shutter to see what happens. No sound of a photograph being taken. I press some more buttons, and turn it off and on some more. Nope, still not behaving.

I take the camera off the tripod and after pressing some more things, off and on again, swap to another lens. Suddenly it’s all working! I take a look at the images on the memory card and I have, somehow, some photos of the wonderful woodland composition. Hurrah!

Back into the field the light is low and very soft and part of the field is in shadow. I have a play with my old second hand macro lens and the light slowly fades and eventually it’s time to head home.

The next day, and with the photos from the evening loaded into Lightroom, it was clear when I zoomed into the woodland image that it’s actually slightly soft. It was a 2.5 second exposure, and with all the button pressing I suspect camera shake has been at play. So for now this is just a work in progress, and I’m putting the image up here as a mark of intent to return to this spot one day, and not suffer a camera malfunction.

The last poppy in the poppy field….

Amongst the flowers and grasses there were new poppy buds growing that hadn’t yet flowered. Perhaps another variety of late flowering poppies, and a reason for another visit…?