Flat Holm

By shendyNo Comments
I went to Flat Holm today - an island in the Bristol Channel for those that don't know.  There are some fairly interesting Victorian gun emplacements, and it's particularly notable for a substantial colony of aggressive seagulls that will dive-bomb you with poo if you get too close to their nests and chicks. Couldn't have asked for a better day - the hottest day of the year so far, and completely calm for the crossing. The boat goes from Penarth, just by the Cardiff Bay barrage - this is the counterweight for one of the bridges. As seen previously, I'm always a sucker for lighthouses, and this one came with a nice rusty gun as well. This one was taken from down in one of the old gun emplacements A load of the flying crap factories. I didn't get pooed on fortunately, but it was close a couple of times. Next month I'm going to Steep Holm, which is nearby and apparently steeper than Flat Holm....
Read More

North Wales

By shendyNo Comments
We had a few days pootling around bits of North Wales. We were based in Porthmadog, which turned out to be a really good base for getting around. Home of course to the Ffestiniog railway. This is the evening sun breaking through the clouds onto the Snowdonia hills behind Porthmadog. While much of Snowdonia is beautiful, you can't escape the industrial background of some parts. This is in Llanberis, and I think the Dinorwig hydro power station is in that hill. One of these hills is apparently Snowdon - taken from the road between Beddgelert and Llanberis. One really annoying part of Snowdonia is the lack of places to stop by the road and take photos of the views. The road down the Llanberis pass has great scenery but only about 2 places to stop. There was plenty of military jet activity. Unfortunately, by far the best view of a plane was one that appeared out of nowhere and passed very low overhead -...
Read More

Llanerchaeron

By shendyNo Comments
The final stop on our Welsh trip was to Llanerchaeron, near Aberaeron - a John Nash house with an enormous pair of walled gardens. These were full of more fruit and vegetable plants than you could imagine.   Panasonic FX-37, 26mm equivalent, 1/500 @ f3.5, ISO 100 There is also a working farm, with some particularly inquisitive pigs!   Panasonic FX-37, 26mm equivalent, 1/500 @ f3.5, ISO 100 Some of the plants in the walled garden were covered with more bees than I've ever seen - I assume they've got a hive or two somewhere. There were also plenty of butterflies - I seem to have hardly seen any since I was a child (and that's going back some way now...). I was surprised by just how close I could get to it with the macro turned on on the compact camera.     Panasonic FX-37, 26mm equivalent, 1/500 @ f3.5, ISO 100 Having mentioned on a previous post about the fogged infra-red film at Dyrham...
Read More

Abbey House Gardens

By shendyNo Comments
A visit to Abbey House Gardens in Malmesbury in early September. I seem to have taken quite a lot of photos of bees this year, and am quite pleased with these two. Nikon D200, Cosina 100mm macro lens, 1/250 @ f11, ISO 250 Nikon D200, Cosina 100mm macro lens, 1/320 @ f8, ISO 400 And finally I rather like the colours, light and shadow on this. Nikon D200, Cosina 100mm macro lens, 1/640 @ f8, ISO 160...
Read More