30th April

In an attempt to find any remaining interesting photos to take in the flat, I captured the view through our unusual door peep-hole thing today. I think it must have a prism inside it or something...

29th April

The Hampton Netball season officially finished this evening with the cup final. I took the camera along and tried to document the evening - particularly challenging since we spectators were confined to an area outside of the fence.

The team has lost only two fixtures all season and were looking forward to the final. There was a good turnout of supporters, probably the biggest crowd that I've seen at a club netball game, and the atmosphere was tense.

The team huddled for their final words before the game started, knowing that this was their last competitive game for a few months. They were very focused and the pace was intense from the start.

Playing with a 5-goal handicap as their opponents were from the division below them in the league, the game see-sawed back and forth at a furious pace, especially through the first half. As the minutes ticked by of the second period, Hampton kept coming close to catching their opponents from Cobham NC but never quite managed to make up the handicap despite their heroic efforts, losing by four goals, albeit that that was a moral 1-goal victory.

A nerve-jangling evening and perhaps the most exciting game of netball I've ever seen. Much better than just sitting at home watching the telly! For more photos of the game, click here.

28th April

On the way home this evening I stopped off by the river again. I liked this view of the bridge with its many arches and then started playing with the exposure to try to flatten out the water. Again, I probably should have got the tripod out but I did get a strange satisfaction out of holding the camera still for 0.8 seconds almost perfectly. There are more to come in this series, with the proper equipment. It's quite satisfying when it works and this one is rather close I think.

27th April

The netball season's coming to an end, so I took the camera along to the last game of the league season today. I find netball a very difficult sport to photograph well. It moves very fast but takes place over quite a small space, with the spectators close to the sidelines (though not too close... I've been gently told off by more than one umpire before for standing too close.)

As it happened, I took this photo in a swift 'move the camera to the eye and shoot' moment, but I think it worked out quite well. An action shot, with a ball in the photo, is generally a result, particularly when they player looks like they're enjoying the game too!

26th April

Another "quick, get a photo taken" moment this afternoon, but I then came home to a beautiful sunset from the window. It was a little like a photo I've taken previously but looked really good until I got it onto the computer and found a reflection in the window pane of a light bulb within the flat had ruined all of the shots.

That left me with an interesting cloudscape. I'm beginning to think that sky photos are almost as dull as photos of food, but sadly it's all I've got today.

 

Looking back, it's not all that bad - quite atmospheric really...

25th April

The moon was huge and very orange this evening, also refelcting off some really interesting clouds. I couldn't get the right angle from home or outside so I went to the highest local point that I could think of: the top of my local car park.

I set the tripod up and got the camera attached but the conditions had changed and the photo that I had been trying to get was no longer possible.

It was at this point that I discovered that the car park has a security man as he came up and asked me what I was up to. Standing at the top of a deserted multi-storey, with zoom lens on camera, I guess I did look a little suspicious but it was to the man's credit that he believed my story that I was trying to photograph the moon without me even needing to show him the photos that I'd taken at that point.

In the end, the landscapes that I'd taken with moon and buildings were more interesting than the close-ups of the moon, but I think it's quite an interesting shot.

24th April

I'm back to cycling to work from time to time. Funnily enough it's not very easy to cycle whilst carrying a lot of camera kit so I took a photo in my classroom. It looks a bit like a stock photo to me, which makes me happy with the quality even if the subject matter isn't the most riveting.

23rd April

What a lovely sunny day! I was walking around at work today taking photos for publicity purposes and found myself just snapping beautiful scenes. Everything seems so much cheerier and simpler when it's warm and sunny.

22nd April

It's been a busy week. I was so busy today that I ended up running around late in the evening looking for something to take a photo of. In the end, I came up with this unusual angle of our final plant. Better start looking for new filler material now...

21st April

Spring is here and I've noticed birds all over the place chasing after each other in courtship rituals. Down by the river this evening I saw a pair of ducks chasing each other around. They then proceeded to mate just a few metres in front of me. After that had finished, they seemed to wash off - ducking their heads under the water and then shaking their wings to clean them out. I did manage to catch this one shot, which has a good element of action.

20th April

I enjoy running and have completed nearly 60 parkruns. Part of the parkrun ethos is that the runs are free because they are run entirely by volunteers. Today, I volunteered to photograph the runners.

Finishing near the back of the field was this lady. I've seen her at Nonsuch a number of times and, before she finished, her daughter told me that she was on the way. It turned out that this was the 50th event that she's started but the first event that she's ever finished. She's been coming along for months to run around a part of the course, increasing the distance as she goes along and determined to get to the standard of fitness and stamina that she could complete the 5 kilometres.

I love that you can see both the tiredness and excitement in her face. There were 6 or 7 members of her family there to run to the line with her or congratulate her when she arrived and they'd all run the 5 kilometres too. They were all so proud of their mother, mother-in-law, grandmother...! It was actually quite a moving thing to watch.

In many ways, my photography is not great here, but sometimes the story is much better than the photo.

19th April

There's a tree underneath a lamppost near me and I tried to get a photo of it last night. I was in quite a rush so it's not perfect - it's also inside a fenced off area so the angle's not perfect either, but not bad I guess...

18th April

Finally we had a sunset this evening so I tried to get a shot of it through the trees outside of where I live. Not too bad a result: very interesting colouring in the sky so I'm quite happy with this.

17th April

I pass this tree every day and noticed how beautiful the blossom growing on it was. Sadly, it's not in the most attractive area but I do like the contrast of the beauty against the ugliness of the office block and black metal fencing here.

16th April

At work today, I looked up at the building and saw again how ornate the decoration where the wall meets the roof is. The building itself is an old house and I like this unusual view of a part of it against the blue, clear sky.

15th April

I wandered on Ashtead Common this afternoon to see what it was like. It turned out to be a maze of footpaths, some very boggy, criss-crossing between trees, many of which were very old. They were also waiting for some pleasant weather, the first signs of which seem to be appearing, so that they could grow leaves.

In this dormant forest I came across a view over a farm towards the hills opposite. In an ideal world the farm would have had neither wire fences nor a modern, shiny building, nor the power cables in the distance but it's a pleasant view nonetheless, particularly when one considers that it's within the M25.

14th April

What a lovely day it was today. This afternoon I saw this scene out of the window. I managed to get white clouds, grey clouds, whispy clouds and vapour trails in the same shot, not a bad group.

13th April

Having driven home in the rain on the M25 this afternoon, and it looked more like fog than rain spray that we drove through, I wandered down to a bridge over the motorway to try to get images of the spray. I got some of the spray, though it had reduced since the drive home, and I think I managed to get some element of the movement too.

12th April

Since it was a pleasant-looking evening yesterday, we took the car out to a nice place for a walk. As soon as we parked, the rain came down. Quite Heavily. And then it came down even more heavily.

We had dinner reservations so we gave up on the walk and took some photos of the lovely view from the car.

Then we went to the pub.

11th April

I've had a busy day, Spurs are now playing in a tight match (never a particularly enjoyable experience...) and so, at half time, I've taken this shot of the orchid we have in the flat. It sort of looks like a dragon, well maybe, and I quite like the dark backdrop too.

10th April

I went for a walk this morning and was planning to try to take some photos of the river. It turns out that it's quite difficult to balance out the exposure with the other settings to create the look of still water without over-exposing the shot. I'm going to look into this further and practise but I did take a nice shot of the morning mist over the trees and hills.

9th April

Adding fragrance to our lives this week is a basket of hyacinths that my wife was given at work. They've bloomed quite quickly and some have become so top-heavy that they've needed staking in order to keep them standing. They do brighten the place up and are evidence that Spring has come inside the flat, even if there's not much evidence outside!

8th April

Near my gym is a church on a hill that gets lit up at night. Ever since I have been going to the gym, and had a camera, I've had an urge to photograph it, but never got round to it. In fact, I'm not sure I ever actually had my camera with me before.

Tonight I left the gym and had the camera with me. I didn't have a lot of time so I decided to forego the tripod and this was a decision that made the whole process longer because I can't hold the camera perfectly still for the half-second exposure that I needed to get a decent shot. This shouldn't have been a surprise to me, but it didn't stop me trying... In the end, I improvised a resting place for the camera on my camera bag, preset the zoom and then shot without looking through the viewfinder.

It's not perfect, but I'm quite pleased with the result. Just to add to the list, I'll return one time with the tripod and take this photo properly. I like that I could capture the surrounding buildings in the light of the church. A little longer exposure and this could turn out really well...

7th April

We popped over to Richmond Park yesterday afternoon to have a walk at Isabella Plantation. In some ways we were a week or two too early since the flowers hadn't really come out yet. Anyhow, it was a pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon and there was a good deal to see, even if some of that was a number of picnics (at 4pm - what meal were they eating?) and some kids throwing stones at ducks - poor ducks!

6th April

Spring seems to finally have sprung and the daffodils have decided to bloom. Over in Chertsey to watch the netball, I noticed a few clumps and took a few quick shots.

I'm enjoying the return of some colours to nature!

5th April

I like taking landscape photographs but I'm also interested in the contrast between the urban environment and nature. As if that doesn't sound pretentious... I tried to capture the town with the green hill in the background today. I'm not sure I got the right angle, but this could be the start of an interesting collection.

I like the way that the zig zag of the roofs points towards the background, I just wish I could have got a bit higher.

4th April

I will definitely stop bloggin about the weather soon. Really. However, this morning, it snowed. Again. I'm no fan of the snow and I'm glad that it's not been settling but I thought I'd try to get some photos of it falling.

It turns out that this is quite a challenge. When I have the exposure long enough to capture enough light, the snow comes out blurred. When I have the exposure short enough to capture the flakes in one place, the picture is very dark.

Again, this is one to work on, but I did manage one half-decent attempt.

3rd April

At dusk, I popped up to one of my favourite places today, the top of Box Hill. It was rather hazy, though the visibility was much better than my last visit there.

I also went there to give my tripod a test and to see what the camera can do in low light and on 1 second exposure.

I'm quite pleased with the results given the conditions. Again, sure I'll return for a better go in better conditions.

2nd April

In a moment that excited numerous people in England, the clouds went away today and we had a beautiful, sunny day. It was still unseasonably cold, but a good opportunity to take this shot of the sun starting to set behind some trees.

Here's hoping there'll be more opportunities to take shots like this soon!

1st April

We went to visit my little sister in Swindon and she took us to the Cotswold Wildlife Park for the afternoon. It's a lovely Wildlife Park that feels part Country Park, part Zoo. We enjoyed the giraffes, giant tortoises, Humboldt penguins and capybara, but the meerkats were the best for photographing.

This little chap was in an enclosure quite close to a number of bird enclosures so he kept looking around for predators. This was either a fortunate mistake or a very clever move on behalf of the zoo as he was looking around for ages, very alert.