View allAll Photos Tagged APpicoftheweek
I'd have liked more contrast for this, but it is what it is... there are limitations to the camera I've been using, not least my expertise! Today I'm planning a trip out with a different analogue camera. Wish me luck ;-).
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Camera: Cosina CT-10
Film: Fomapan 200 (camera set to ISO 400)
Lens: Pentax 50mm
Emerging spore bodies of a slime mould> I'm thinking Tricia species. This is 5x magnification - in life they are about 1.5 mm in height. Have them in a moisture pot and will follow-up.
I've been wandering through ancient woodland this summer, marvelling at the undisturbed beauty and sense of ages passing undisturbed. At this location however is a remnant of deliberate wildfires that were set in the hot summer of 2022, not a quarter of a mile from a gas storage depot. And with that I am sharply reminded that the human race, if we don't kill ourselves first, will probably wipe out everything around us...
Canvey Wick Nature Reserve, Essex UK
Meadow pipit with dinner in the scrub on Holkham Beach, Norfolk, UK. Sometimes you just get a poseur.
By this country stile we'll pause a while,
And taking in the view, I'm so glad I'm with you.
Old Fobbing sea wall and farmland, Fobbing, Essex UK
Odd-looking bird with an odd call! Also apparently known as 'Philemon' as it scientific name is Philemon corniculatus. Its diet consists of nectar, fruit, insects and other invertebrates and sometimes eggs or baby birds.
Oh, go on then...
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All sorts of trickery here in Affinity Photo. Many of you can work it out. However I can reveal the drink is....a summer fruit squash. I'm on the wagon.
(Rule 20 - YCPTPH Group. Come on Jim, let me do this trick just the once!)
From the Richard Harvey Studio One
A new garden pond is delivering in spades this summer. For the first time I have breeding willow emeralds (UK)
There are centuries of agricultural tradition along Thames Estuary marshes. Whilst this location is but a few miles from the nearby towns of Corringham and Basildon, there's a palpable sense of ages old activity here. That history spans the medieval land engineers who knew how to drain wetlands to the thoroughly modern farmers actively engaged in preservation of wildlife habitats. It's also very peaceful. I can walk from my house to the top of the track leading down here in about 20 minutes. Getting back up again presents a bit more of a challenge... To give some context to that here's a view from the High Road.
www.flickr.com/photos/bigharv/51035168188/in/album-721577...
Fobbing Mashes, Essex UK
(SOOC shot, no crop, no filters)
This is Bob's territory and she watches it keenly...
I followed the cats around, to run off a few shots on the unfamiliar camera. I think they got fed up with me in the end!
Camera: Cosina CT-10
Film: Ilford HP5+
Lens: Pentax 50mm f1.7
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.
Gelada baboon at Colchester zoo - we managed to catch an extraordinary display of this large family at play. Bared teeth, many tumbles and throwing themselves off the hammocks. Given their origins on the Ethiopian plateaus it's not surprising that they are nature's acrobats This if course is the head man.
One of the shipwrecks (fishing trawler?) on Fleetwood Marsh at high tide. The tide was so high when I got there that I had to wait for it to start going out so that I could see the safe route through the water! Would have certainly given passersby a good giggle if I fell into one of the deep channels...
The Mardyke River runs its lazy course from the South Essex fens out to the River Thames at Purfleet.
One of the hidden gems of Essex. If you're ever driving on the M25/A13 interchange for the Thames crossing or the Lakeside Retail Park you will see this scene below you. And you’ll have time to look, as you're unlikely to be moving very fast...😉
Lindisfarne Castle in the distance with a fisherman's hut in the foreground. Old fishing boats on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, upturned and recycled to become fisherman's huts; you could say recycling taken to it's limits!
Low cloud clearing from the northern edge of Kinder Scout and the Ashop Valley. Seen from the Pennine Way on Mill Hill.
Taken from Golden Jubilee Bridge (Charing Cross end)
The bridge moves with everyone walking on it! A 1 sec exposure seems to have managed enough sharpness; longer became iffy. The double-decker London bus is perhaps still recognisable in this too. :-)