View allAll Photos Tagged APpicoftheweek
We planted a small cherry tree in our garden in the late summer of 2021 but this is the first year it has shown blossom. Already a survivor of several windstorms, frost and snow I intend recording its progress over the seasons to come. Hence an album for the purpose, to be updated from time to time. ⬇️
www.flickr.com/photos/bigharv/albums/72177720307172357
****************************************************************************
Canon EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens. Single shot, flash for DOF.
Almost identical to great northern shrike this is southern grey shrike - I suspect only the genetics differ. Finally found this very flighty bird in the caldera of Mount Teide on Tenerife. No close approaches possible. Subspecies koenigi is unique to the Canary Islands
Avebury is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in south-west England. One of the best-known prehistoric sites in Britain, it contains the largest megalithic stone circle in the world. It is both a tourist attraction and a place of religious importance to contemporary pagans.
Constructed over several hundred years in the third millennium BC, during the Neolithic, or New Stone Age, the monument comprises a large henge (a bank and a ditch) with a large outer stone circle and two separate smaller stone circles situated inside the centre of the monument. Its original purpose is unknown, although archaeologists believe that it was most likely used for some form of ritual or ceremony. The Avebury monument is a part of a larger prehistoric landscape containing several older monuments nearby, including West Kennet Long Barrow, Windmill Hill and Silbury Hill.
By the Iron Age, the site had been effectively abandoned, with some evidence of human activity on the site during the Roman period. During the Early Middle Ages, a village first began to be built around the monument, eventually extending into it. In the late medieval and early modern periods, local people destroyed many of the standing stones around the henge, both for religious and practical reasons. The antiquarians John Aubrey and William Stukeley took an interest in Avebury during the 17th and 18th centuries, respectively, and recorded much of the site between various phases of destruction. Archaeological investigation followed in the 20th century, with Harold St George Gray leading an excavation of the bank and ditch, and Alexander Keiller overseeing a project to reconstruct much of the monument.
Avebury is owned and managed by the National Trust. It has been designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument, as well as a World Heritage Site, in the latter capacity being seen as a part of the wider prehistoric landscape of Wiltshire known as Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites. About 480 people live in 235 homes in the village of Avebury and its associated settlement of Avebury Trusloe, and in the nearby hamlets of Beckhampton and West Kennett. Wikipedia
Another shot of the fishing boats on Aldeburgh beach taken during a workshop I took with Justin Minns last October. He rustled up a fab dose of morning light for the occasion!
Sunday morning along the Benfleet Creek, Essex UK. With my thanks to this unnamed rider who had just waved at us as he passed by.
Sorry toddkeith533, I couldn't resist! I shot this yesterday but wasn't sure what (if anything) to do with it. Yours gave me the idea...
Monochrome captures the rather forlorn nature of what was once a pretty little pond by the roadside.
Mucking Wharf Road, Essex UK
Just one more fallow buck a young male unsuccessful this year but not injured either. The failed suitors are getting together to migrate and gain strength to come back and try again.
The first of the surprises from our "wild" area of garden, this appears to be a form of barley. But maybe that's not such a surprise as there's whole fields of it nearby and we have bird seed on a nearby table. Still, nothing gets wasted here...
Natural light, single shot. Hammered the histogram and desaturated in Affinity photo.
From the Richard Harvey Studio One
2 months of rain makes for muddy trails down below so we head up.
Langdon Hills Country Park, Essex UK
After several years in the Explorehood wilderness with nary a sniff I’m hoping that this ‘bumped’ pic will get a second chance.
This is the old Sawmill on the outskirts of the tiny village of Osmaston, Derbyshire.
A torrential downpour of hailstones and rain for over an hour today accompanied by thunder and lightening. We have had a thunderstorm each day for three days now... but today was the heaviest! Loved it1 I put the camera in a plastic bag and made a hole in it so that the lens poked through. Worked very well.
Starlings taking a moment's respite with a view of the River Thames. Recent years have seen them diminished in numbers (according to the RSPB) but this was just a small part of what was still a very sizeable and noisy flock. And I enjoyed seeing them socialising on this power line, a forensically sharp take on an individual bird not being important to me in this moment.
Thameside Nature Reserve, Mucking, Essex UK
Whilst waiting a brief time for my friend to return with a tray of adult beverages I glanced up at the ceiling leading me to ponder the cyclical nature of all things. Indeed, here in the UK at least, a tray of drinks is called a round. Chin-chin!
(Shot as from camera, cropped and given a grey curve adjustment.)
Photography Week magazine have very kindly published this image in issue no. 550.
The ever-popular pond at Mogshade in the New Forest. Odd name perhaps, and as Amanda Scott in her blog explains, it's from the old English meaning "the shadow of trees". Apart from the row of trees here, there are hardly any others, it being one of the highest and most exposed viewpoints in the Forest. Apparently it was once covered in ancient hollies which is obviously where the name comes from, but these were destroyed in a fire in the early 20th century. Talking of 20th century history, it was also the site of a large allied forces gathering prior to D-day with the Canadian War Memorial close by.
However, it's such a good spot for sunrises, at any time of year and with stillness in the water, a reflection shot is hard to resist, even if it has been done many times before!
At last some warmer weather with lighter winds and the dragonflies have come out of hiding. This is a freshly emerged four-spotted chaser on one of the ponds in Epping Forest (UK).
The shadow of the Big Wheel or Ferris wheel if you are American falls across the beach. It occurred to me that now that all restrictions have been lifted it will be quite difficult to take this shadow with the beach so empty since (obviously) it only occurs in the afternoon. I guess as summer wanes and people leave the beach earlier, then it may be easier.
Ashwellthorpe Wood Norfolk
Ashwellthorpe Wood. Link for this very ancient wood. www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/visiting-woods/woods/lower-wood-...
Chanced upon this fox eating in a dark corner. Decided to get as close as I could to him, I only had my 50mm lens with me. Also decided to shoot from very low down, to be at his level and include an interesting perspective of the street. I moved slowly and kept small and low. He was watching me but did not run.
Saturday sunrise at the beach didnt work out, but on the way home there was lovely light peering through the trees. A quick walk and fire two shots off before it disappeared.
Martinhole Wood, Corringham, Essex UK
I’m aware of some ghosting here, and the image is little soft. But I loved the light and colours. C’est la vie…
(Canon EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens)
Música (abrir en nueva pestaña) / Music (Open link in new tab): Alan Silvestri-A Christmas Carol
Algunos añejos rincones de la ciudad atesoran tal magno poder evocador, que nos llevan a revivir entrañables tiempos de antaño. Es como si en ellos habitara ese dickensiano espíritu de las Navidades pasadas...
Some old corners of the city hold such great evocative power that they lead us to relive fond memories of yesteryear. It's just like the Dickensian Spirit of Christmas Past was dwelling in them...
Imagen protegida por Plaghunter / Image protected by Plaghunter
© Francisco García Ríos 2021
Rainbow over Duffus Castle today...
Part of my 'Duffus Castle through the seasons' project.
The castle is situated on the Laich of Moray, a fertile plain that was once the swampy foreshore of Spynie Loch. This was originally a more defensive position than it appears today, long after the loch was drained.
The motte is a huge man-made mound, with steep sides and a wide ditch separating it from the bailey. The whole site is enclosed by a water-filled ditch, which is more a mark of its boundary than it is a serious defensive measure.
Duffus Castle was built by a Flemish man named Freskin, who came to Scotland in the first half of the 1100s. After an uprising by the ‘men of Moray’ against David I in 1130, the king sent Freskin north as a representative of royal authority.
He was given the estate of Duffus, and here he built an earthwork-and-timber castle. Freskin’s son William adopted the title of ‘de Moravia’ – of Moray. By 1200, the family had become the most influential noble family in northern Scotland, giving rise to the earls of Sutherland and Clan Murray.
In about 1270, the castle passed to Sir Reginald Cheyne the Elder, Lord of Inverugie. He probably built the square stone keep on top of the motte, and the curtain wall encircling the bailey. In 1305, the invading King Edward I of England gave him a grant of 200 oaks from the royal forests of Darnaway and Longmorn, which were probably used for the castle’s floors and roofs.
Movement
One more image from yesterday and my trip out to the beach at Powillimount near Southerness. I love the various rock formations here and just wanted to try and catch the tidal movement around these foreground rocks.
Thank you for looking:)
Sony A7RII
Sony FE16-35mm f4
All rights reserved
© Brian Kerr Photography 2016
A fair amount going on here. Remants of (I believe) the former Shell Oil refinery site, the current fuel terminal and in the background the Coryton Power Station. Behind me is the London Gateway Port in full swing, (that's for another day). Meanwhile, as I had the distinct impression amateur photography is not welcome I did a quick drive-by and shot this picture out of the car window. Click-click...
Shell Haven and Coryton, Essex UK