2 days in North Norfolk - birds & a beach

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday based in Blakeney with Mike Harris and Barry and Sue Badcock. we spent our days walking through the marshes looking for shots of birds for which I'd have been better equipped if I hadn't left my 300mm lens at home, so anything I managed was with my 70-200 with a 1.4x converter. Here are a selection of little egrets, redshank, Brent geese and a black-headed gull. We also made an early morning foray onto Sheringham beach where I hoped to get some interesting shots using my 10 stop neutral density filter - you won't find any of those shots below so you may judge my success!  Luckily I also had my infra red camera with me and you will find a couple of shots from that here - I was particularly surprised by the infra red shot of the seaweed on the groyne with (I'm told) a turnstone watching me.

RPS Advisory Day

The large hall at Foxton was filled with photographers yesterday, all (well, many..) agog to find out what the advisors would make of their panels of images for LRPS and ARPS submissions.  Each panel gets complimented, criticised and sometimes adulated by a panel of three wise men, all Fellows of the RPS.  This was only an advisory day, so rather more relaxed than a judgement day, but nevertheless an arduous task to organise, admirably handled by the Eastern Regional organiser for the RPS, Ian Wilson, with the principal assistance of Ann Miles,  but helped on the day by a crew of up to 20 individuals, each with an allocated task.  My task was to operate the sound system and to take photos for use later by the Eastern regional branch of the RPS

The vultures gather….

Pre-flight checks from Ian with his usual demonstration of Wandering Hands!

Richard Walton waiting to hear what he's posted onto Facebook..

Print handlers all ready with their white gloves

An introduction to LRPS and ARPS using a sample panel from Richard and Roger Force

It was this long….

We're off...

Ian records a supplicants panel after the Advisors have shuffled the order

Richard scrutinising some images...

Mike Harris listens intently as his panel is examined and declared to be ready to go

Roger giving reindeer impressions..

And now for some A panels - one of the first came from Barry Badcock and was declared to be excellent

Ian discussing his daughter's panel with Richard..

One of the applicants reads his Statement of intent for his panel...

Ann Miles called upon to help with this ARPS panel...

Will Cheung in full flow...

Another Statement of Intent../

The last panel of the day for Richard..

And Ian winds up (the day that is)

Thatchers at work

There is a barn conversion going on four doors away from my home which is being thatched with Norfolk reed - at last the local planning officers have seen that forcing the use of wheat straw makes no sense - this barn has taken two large articulated lorries each with a large trailer behind to deliver the reed bundles, but at least the thatch will have a good chance of lasting 70 - 80 years rather than 15-20 for wheat straw.  The barn is being converted into a luxury 5 bedroom house, but from the outside will retain many of the features of the mediaeval barn that it was.  Last week there were nine thatchers working on the roof, but today that had reduced to just five. I shall be returning with my camera to try to catch some of the work without intervening scaffold poles when the action is higher up the roof, but meanwhile here are my first shots at what I believe will be a beautiful building.