New Year in the Lot

We are staying with old friends near Puy l'Eveque in the Lot for New Year.  This has allowed me to try to get some winter views of scenes which I have photographed before.  In particular, today I have returned to an abandoned hay-cart on the road side.

Happy New Year to you all!

Christmas Tree Decorated

Every year I look at our Christmas tree and try to get a decent shot of it; I have yet to hit upon the right way to include the lights without burnout whilst also having a reasonable view of the tree;  Again I failed this year - I may try an HDR treatment before I give up!  Meanwhile, I always enjoy seeing the tree decorations, many of which bring back memories from long ago when they were bought.  This set includes decorations made from bamboo leaves bought in Hong Kong 25 years ago and Thai silk decorations bought about the same time.

Anglesey Abbey under Lights

Every year around now Anglesey Abbey light the gardens and open them to the public in the evening.  This year Tom & Emily invited us to join them and naturally I took my camera along to see what I could get!

First, a few of Joshua waiting his turn in the queue:

The showpiece at Anglesey Abbey is their collection of Himalayan Silver birches.  These were lit with different colours on each tree and the colours were continually changing

Some magic mushrooms:

And then the poplars, but what are those trees in the middle - I thought that they were all poplars, but there seem to be some aliens there? The eternal question, colour or mono?

And the bridge over the mill-stream:

A hollow stump and a view across the lawn:

The house was floodlit in blue, but I think that I prefer it in monochrome:

Finally, in the parkland there were performers wearing glowing costumes and twirling light-sticks in the stygian gloom:

Seasonal Frolics in Chippenham

We went to see the Chippenham village pantomime on Thursday. It starred my old friend Sean Newell as Widow Spanky, so I took my camera on the off chance that there might be an opportunity.  We were very pleased that we made the effort; the whole thing was fantastic and at times we were weeping with laughter.  Having secured front row seats, I was able to take some photos without disturbing others and I am fairly happy with the results.  It was quite hard work suppressing the orange light which was being used for much of the show, but it's wonderful what Lightroom will do!

In search of a Seaside Shot

31 October was the closing date for a Cambridge Camera Club competition in which we were invited to produce a single shot to illustrate "Seaside".  We were staying with friends near Colchester on Saturday night so off I went to the seaside on Saturday morning.  These are a few which I didn't use, but they include some shots of the Helter-Skelter which the St Jude storm blew away 12 hours later.