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Round 3 of the dragonflies, another male Ruddy Darter (sympetrum sanguineum) not more than 4cm in length. I'm happier with this shot, better focus on the little chap and a cleaner background. Now off you go son, don't let me detain you any further...
Our garden, August 2024
Corringham, Essex UK
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(Canon EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens. Raw file into Affinity Photo for development, a little HSL boost and a 10:8 crop.
13/8/2024 tightened crop)
WPD24Animals
Once there were oil storage tanks here. Now, amongst the broken asphalt a lone tree grows bathed in mist and awaiting Spring.
Canvey Wick Nature Reserve, Canvey Island, Essex, England
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This image is All Rights Reserved and may not be used for any purpose without my express written consent.
Marsh harrier quartering the saltmarsh on the Norfolk coast. Just about to pounce on some unfortunate creature (or eggs). They are a wonderful symbol of this wild coastline.
OK, so not that apple. Nor even the first of an orchard. It's but a small tree we planted last year for the simple joy in doing so. And as it matures and soaks up rainwater from a ground generally prone to being saturated then it has its place. And it is the first apple. Of ours...
(Our garden, July 2025)
Food all year round for chiffchaffs on the Canary Islands so they are quite a regular site. This one is sitting on almond blossom in the hills above Santiago del Teide and searching for insects. It is a subspecies of our UK summer visitors and named Phylloscopus canariensis
The locomotive was built at Swindon and completed on 19th February, 1953 at a cost of £13,756 and was initially allocated to Owestry. It spent almost its entire working life in Wales, but was transferred the the London Midland Region for maintenace on 7th July, 1962. She subsequently had Heavy Maintenace repairs at Crewe between 30th April and 1st June, 1963 probably because the locomotive was earmarked for Royal Train duties in August 1963, when the Queen visted North Wales for three days. Its duties were positioning moves and overnight steam heating of the Royal Train stock
She was withdrawn by LMR on 29th October, 1966 and arrived at Barry scrapyard in March, 1967, unusually still retaining its original boiler.
A Cold Morning At Threave
Its a location that I have visited ever since I was a boy, the trips over in the wee boat to visit Threave Castle. I still try and visit a few times a year, but more for the photographic possibilities these days. It was a very cold morning but not the frost or misty conditions I was hoping for, the wind was stronger than normal making the boat move continually and not allowing the longer exposure I usually like here.
Threave Castle, Threave Estate, Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway.
Sony A7RII
Sony FE16-35mm f4
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© Brian Kerr Photography 2016
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/longstrattonian] and I visit the RC Cathedral again.I have borrowed a fisheye lens which I am enjoying experimenting with. Especially, I like NOT correcting the distortion. It gives images a 'different look' and I find it fascinating. The RC Cathedral near to me hs been an ideal place to try this out...a beautiful building and the light is often extraordinary...
Full red moon rises over the west Dorset coast & Lyme Bay, with the last light of the setting sun illuminating Seaton's Haven Cliff.
Field of barley at Duffus Castle in Moray, Scotland
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.
By 1350, the castle had passed to a younger son of the Earl of Sutherland through marriage. It may have been then that the keep was abandoned, possibly because it was beginning to slip down the mound, and a new residence established at the north of the bailey.
Viscount Dundee, leader of the first Jacobite Rising, dined in the castle as a guest of James, Lord Duffus in 1689, prior to his victory against King William II’s government forces at Killiecrankie. Soon after, Lord Duffus moved to the nearby Duffus House. The castle quickly fell into decay.
Farmland as seen from Langdon Hills, facing more or less due west as the land rolls down to the fenland of Bulphan and Ockendon then on towards Greater London. Back at the top of the hill and on a clear day you can see the skyscrapers of the City, but today you’ll have to take my word for that. I’d rather be here anyway.
Langdon Hills, Essex
Aldeburgh, Suffolk. Just when you thought it was safe to sit on a bench....
Project 52, Week 13 (27/3 - 2/4)
Durham Cathedral The knocker on the Cathedral’s northern door, known as the Sanctuary Knocker, played an important part in the Cathedral’s history. Those who ‘had committed a great offence,’ such as murder in self-defence or breaking out of prison, could rap the knocker, and would be given 37 days of sanctuary within which they could try to reconcile with their enemies or plan their escape. -
A first landscape foray for a while, investigating what the heather may be like across the New Forest heaths. It's mainly looking pretty scorched with no rain for weeks and record temperatures, so I'm not sure what the colours will be like this year. I was blessed with unexpected beautiful conditions however, and had the place to myself which is always a bonus......just lovely to witness if nothing else. Despite it being a very man-influenced landscape I'm always amazed at the wild feeling it can still produce stood there at dawn in the mist!
(A repost in portrait, previously known as 'Basil')
Urban fox dining out on leftover take away. Not the best ever wildlife shot but my first so I'm proud of it! I'd been inspired by a piece in Amateur Photographer magazine by Richard Peters about wide angle urban wildlife photography so I gave it a try. I was using the wifi function on my Nikon D750 to monitor the scene live via my iPad in order to spot when Basil turned up and then trigger the camera. Six hours later at about 3-30 am, two hours before I was due to be up for work I had this shot. There was a better opportunity earlier when he came and looked into the lens which got me really excited but it transpired that I hadn't set the flash correctly. D'oh! Live and learn.
Lit with one Nikon SB700 wedged in the deck above to camera left, no modifier. Gelled with a half cto to balance with the warm ambient streetlight
ITLS (It's the light, stupid!).
And what else do we need to know? On another day I might have been pondering manual settings or lens choices on my DSLR and missed the moment. When really sometimes all you have to do is turn up and look. Come down early mind, bring a friend...
(SOOC at 16:9, HEIC file from iPhone 11 to JPEG in Flickr.)
08:00am Gravel Hill, Thurrock, Essex UK
Very happy to say I got a commended in the Trees Category of International Garden Photographer of the Year
Getting my fix. Still Life fix that is...
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Canon EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens. Single shot, raw file into Affinity Photo for a tidy up. 2 Canon EL-100 Speedlites, main light at 1/16 power to camera right. 7:5 crop.
From the Richard Harvey Studio One.
....that I can't quite put my finger on. Topographically, historically or culturally two neighbouring counties in the east of England can't be that different. Except when you travel through you notice the difference. They seem to have kept more of this. And I think this is why I like it so much.
An upgrade. Or technically, the same. The red Fredmobile has been replaced by a 2025 model. Because you know....you're worth it.
(When it stops raining I'll let him get in it but only if he promises to keep his filthy paws on his patented "dog-proof" seat cover, also newly purchased).
The ruins of The ‘Church of the Blessed Peter at Duffus’ which is first mentioned in a charter from 1190 The church was probably built by Freskin de Moray, who also constructed the mighty Duffus Castle nearby.
The church was badly damaged in the early 1300s during the Wars of Independence. It is situated in an situated in an idyllic location among mature trees. A rare medieval ‘mercat’ cross survives among the grave stones.