Olympus Macro

Some macro test shots with the Olympus 60mm in the glasshouses of the Botanic Gardens on a rainy day.  Single diffused flash to the top left.  In spite of the OM specialist's view on Tuesday that the best aperture on this lens is f/5.6, it performs very well at most apertures: top is f/8 (and absolutely no white fringing!) middle is f/13 and lowest is f/11.  Maximum ISO needed was 400, and full flash worked down to the 'Low' setting of 64.  

Macro Class

I attended a Macro Day set up by Barry and Sue with the Olympus Support Specialist David Smith, whose services were provided free by Olympus.  Twelve club members turned up and David took us through the use of the Twin Flash, Focus Stacking and Focus Bracketing.  Top image is the start frame at f/16, the lower is an in-camera stack of eight frames, but the image area is 7% less, which I had not allowed for.  The model Concorde is six inches long (15cm).

Burwell Fen

A crisp day at the Fen with a northerly breeze; waited five hours for the Short-Eared Owls to fly, but they did not.  Flocks of Fieldfares in, and a Heron trying to disperse the assembled photographers!

Project Concorde

Sadie is doing a transport project about Concorde, so we went along to Duxford to see one.  She discovered that the 'Black Box' is actually orange and measured herself against the main undercarriage wheels.  The last photo is on the Avro York, representing the Berlin Airlift.  

Going Well Day

Sadie gave her first public performance on the piano, with her teacher Mrs Armitage, looking nervous before and happy afterwards.  A young man played the French Horn, and Meredith received the class cup for her work in writing.  Peter and I managed to extract the engine from his Midget, and later the gearbox.  We are not sure how we will get them back in . . . 

Henry Moore (2)

I liked this piece, 'Double Oval', but I could not say why.  It is about eight feet high and made of bronze.  Although it looks massively solid, it is actually hollow.  Kids would probably love climbing on it.  

Henry Moore (1)

A club visit to Perry Green to see Moore's sculptures.  Top: Restaurant and 'King and Queen', then 'K&Q' reverse view.  'Wall' with 'Vertebrae' behind left.  Part of 'Vertebrae' in close-up.  'Double Oval', then a tapestry of a 1940 sketch of people sleeping in the Underground.  The foreground reclining figure is echoed in the 1983 'Draped Reclining Mother and Baby' (flipped horizontally to show the resemblance).  Elephant skull (with bullet hole in forehead!) given to Moore by the Huxleys.  

Rainy Day

It's raining Datsun cogs today, so we are indoors.  Sadie is playing with her Sylvanian families and Meredith is reading her book on castles, which is her topic at school.

Danger To Fish

Ann went to Paxton Pits to do a fungi survey, and I went off to photograph birds.  The water level is now low and many small islands were exposed and full of water birds of all kinds; lots of Little Egrets, Herons and Cormorants, not to mention squabbling geese.  One young gull kept catching perch and dropping them, but managed to eat enough to keep going.  

Red Aeroplanes

The Comet made several flights during the day and is always a delight to see in the air.  There were three Comper Swifts present, but only two, G-ACTF and G-ECTF, made it into the display.  The floatplane is an Aviat Husky.  G-HEKL is a replica Mew Gull, seen with the original G-AEXF.  G-AAYX is the Southern Martlet, and the triple-finned Miles is a Messenger.