Lost in the mist..

Sheep in the mist...


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Trees in the mist...
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Geese in the mist.


..and if I win the lottery this weekend I will post "gorillas in the mist" next week!

London calling..

Spotlit graffiti covered skate park. Plenty of hoodies and skaters abound, but none of their blurred movement was particularly pleasing and this turned out to be my best shot. Nice lighting, plenty of detail, great colours and pleased with my composition.


One of a sequence of hand held, long(ish) exposures I took trying to get something a bit different in a popular tourist spot. It was going to be of a Japanese tourist taking a photo with a point and click camera, but they pointed, clicked and were off in a blur! I still like the tones and movement in the shot though.

Metal underground. Again taken by accident almost, I spotted the great flooring lit really nicely and waited for a gap in the commuters to take a clean shot of the floor, when it dawned on me that the people passing by and their shadows and reflections actually add to the shot.

Fresh roasted chestnuts and toffee apples. Night-time market seller, again nicely lit and plenty of detail.

Dappled light on a grey squirrel in Hyde park. They are practically tame and I got several close up shots, but I like the light on this one (Sunlight wasn't exactly common place on this wintery day).

It also shows the bokeh (background lens blur) of my 100-400 lens on the new 50D sensor, a 1000% nicer than when using it on my old 350D! Hoorah!

All day Bath

Rusty old petrol pump, found at the entrance to a mechanics' workshop, looks older than most of the Roman remains!


Grave of William Fry of the infamous light brigade charge at Balaclava. He died several years after the battle, but I cannot find how. From books I've read I know, unfortunately, that the unwanted fame, horrific memories, guilt of surviving and poverty of the survivors caused many to take their own lives.

Grey squirrel keeping a tight hold on his nuts.

Opportunity Knocks..

In a happy twist of fate I find myself driving to work half an hour earlier than I need to be, with my camera on the passenger seat and passing flooded fields below an amazing pre-Sunrise sky. With the car parked in a layby, I breathe in the freezing air as I hop a farmers gate (no-one around to ask - looked like a common path though). Mist hovers over the distant flood waters as the Sun warms the air, fences submerge and trees wade up to their trunks in swirling water. I spot a lone Oak tree looking particularly photogenic and head over frosted grass and iced puddles to isolate it from power lines and more visually challenged trees. Holding my breath and bracing my cold hands I take the shot, then head off to work, some days I love commuting ..

Steam Driven

With my previous steam engine attempt foiled by a combination of fading sunlight, creeping shadows and a slight mis-judgement in just how fast the train would be thundering past, a change in plan was taken for this attempt..

With a half day off work, a print of the time-table and a bit of a scout of the area on google maps, I was on my way to spot, Bittern, a 72 year old A4 steam locomotive of the same design as the famous Mallard (holder of the world speed record for a steam locomotive). My choice of location this time: a nice head on, sweeping bend with no over-shadowing trees or embankment, lit by the sun from slightly behind, with a footpath crossing to get trackside, but with plenty of view to see it coming. As it turns out the view was nice and clean of obstructions, telegraph wires and general modern clutter. The track was also on a slight incline , so the engine would be producing more steam, bonus!

Still a couple of meters away from the track - partially because of a fence and partially due to nervous paranoia after the ground shaking Tangmere experience - I chose a fairly wide shot (29mm) to encompass some of the nice surroundings, the lines holding one corner in place. The dim light forced some less than ideal settings: ISO 1600, a fairly shallow aperture of f/6.3 and -1 stop exposure compensation (using center weighted metering) to keep my shutter speed up (1/400s). I've used Neat Image to reduce the noise and did some brightening of the RAW image to bring out the details...