Princess Diana Tribute

On a recent visit to Kensington Palace, I discovered that they were constructing 10 dandelion clocks. Each one representing a year since the death of Princess Diana.


I can’t believe it has been 10 years since her death. Time has past by so quickly, or is it because Diana is still in the news. The conspiracy theories are still circulating I wished they would end, and let her be left in peace.

Ice Cream

Still in Aldeburgh, and what a yummy surprise. An old fashioned ice cream parlour. This one had a choice of 30 different flavours. I did control myself, and limited myself to two, Apple Crumble and Rum'n'Raison. I will have to go back again to sample more!!!!

Aldeburgh

I really enjoyed my visit to Aldeburgh. I had heard of the place before, but an article in Photography Monthly encouraged me to visit. Its an old town, and full of surprises.

Its famed for its Fish and Chip shop, which I have to admit is well deserved. The town has a very lively arts scene, and is home to many galleries as well as theatre. Also, it has the most unusual cinemas I have ever seen:

A Walk Around the Naze

This is a picture of Toby enjoying a play in the sea at Walton on the Naze.

A walk along the beach here, shows you why there is a save the Naze campaign. The cliffs are slowly collapsing. I have been visiting the naze for the last 5 years, and it is so noticable how much of it is disappearing. I hope something can be done to save it.

Still at the Bricklayers Arms

The food is so good, they came all the way from Florida for dinner!!!!

Bricklayers Arms

This is a lovely old country pub in the village of Little Bentley. It has a long history, and was the starting point for the local "hunt".

Today, its a fine place to go to on a Sunday for a traditional roast dinner. Today, as always I guess, I picked beef. A whole plate full of meat turned up with a yorkshire pudding, and trays of the following vegetables:
- roasted and boiled potatoes
- cabbage
- cauliflower
- carrots
- roasted beetroot and courgettes

Next time I must remember to wear elasticated waist trousers!!!!

The food was fantastic.

Buckingham Palace

Over the summer holidays, the Queen opens the state rooms to Buckingham Palace. Originally done to help raise funds for the rebuilding of St George’s Hall at Windsor Castle, this has now become one of the hot tickets on the London tourist trail.

The opulence inside the palace was breathtaking. Unfortunately you could not take any pictures inside. However, this is how I have always imagined the inside of a fairytale castle to look like.

The work that John Nash did here for George IV could not be bettered. I know that he wasn't allowed to finish his work, as he was sacked by Parliament for overspending.

The highlight of the visit was the main entrance and the Grand Staircase. Obviously built to impress, and I can say it definitely does!!!!

This visit, has probably spoilt any future visits to other stately homes and castles.

Royal Horticulture Society Gardens

For some reason I felt inspired to take flower picutres. So I suggested a visit to the Royal Horticultre Society Gardens at Wisley. I had been there many years ago, and remember being bored to death, as gardening never interested me. However, that was before I got into photography.

I really enjoyed my day here, and have over 30 photos that I am proud off. You may get bored of them yet!!!!

Knebworth House

This was my first visit to Knebworth House, and I would love to visit again.

By luck, the visit coincided with the day they have free guided tours. Our guide, Matt Mathews, was very good, and shared loads of stories about the owners, the Lytton Family.

For instance, I didn’t realise that one of the most important members of the family when it comes to the history and development of the present house, was Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton.

The above picture was an addition to Knebworth House in the mid-1800s. It was part of the massive redevelopement of the house, and a tribute to the fashion of making houses look like castles.

New Lens

The first outing for my new Sigma 55-200mm lens. I must admit to be rather impressed with some of the shots I got. The most pleasing thing was the shallow depth of field.

Tips From The Top Floor London Get Together 7 - Part3

Another challenge, this time “Britain is….”. Walking around the British Museum, it was very hard to find anything that I thought would represent Britain. Well that was until I spotted the café. So I decided to stop for refreshment, in the hope that they sold pots of tea. Unfortunately tea only came in a mug, but they did have on offer these gorgeous scones. Here is a picture of me destroying the evidence. Things we do for art!!!!!

Tips From The Top Floor London Get Together 7 - Part2

This challenge was called “Like watching paint dry”. Take a photograph demonstrating the use of long exposures to add drama/mood/character. (i.e. any exposure that will cause significant motion blur/camera shake/whatever).

The picture above was taken with a 1 second exposure. I tried long exposures, but they became too bright, like this one:

First Day of the Football Season

Today was the official first day of the football season. It doesn’t seem like so long ago that last season finished. However, it was nice to be back. The pre-match retrial of a drink before the game, a chat about Chelsea news, and prediction time. For this game I predicted a 3-0 win for Chelsea (off course). Today’s visitors were Birmingham who were newly promoted to the Premier League. As it turned out it was one of the most entertaining games I have been to for a while, and although I got Chelsea’s score right, I’m afraid I missed out 2 goals for Birmingham. A win is a win, and this is our 64th game undeafetated at home in the League, which is a new English record.

If all our home games this season are half as good, we should be in for a very good season.

Tips From The Top Floor London Get Together 7 - Part1

I can't believe that this is the 7th London Get Together of people from The Tips From The Top Floor forum. Its now like meeting up with old friends. This get together was based around a visit to the British Museum. We had been here before on a get together, but because we were unsure what the weather was like, it was decided we should play safe and have an indoor venue.

One of the fourm members set us a number of challenges, and for this post I'll pick the challenge that I would find the most difficult, "Stranger Danger" - Photograph a stranger, learn something about them, tell the World their story. So here is my entry:


This is Veronica. Veronica comes from Hungry and is visiting London as part of her trip to the 21st World Scout Jamboree. She is wearing a red nose, as her challenge for today was to make people smile.

Best Number 2 Goalkeeper in the World

I had to include a picture of Carlo Cudicini I took at the Chelsea training day. Up to 3 years ago, he was the best goal keeper in the English Premier League. However, Chelsea signed Petr Cech. Who would have believed that he could be better than Carlo??? However, he was, and Carlo has since spent life on the sidelines waiting for his chance to be back in the team. You just have to admire his loyalty and patience. As if he moved to any other club, he would be their first choice keeper.

Camera Club Outing

At last we are experiencing Summer, and it means that the scheduled camera club trips out can take place without getting wet!!!!

Last night we made the trip to Mountnessing. I have seen a sign post for this village many times, but have never actually been there. Unfortunately the time we spent taking pictures of the windmill, the light started to fail us, and we had a choice of visiting the local church, or the pub. I'm affraid the pub won!!!

Canary Wharf at Night 2

Another picture from my Canary Wharf scouting mission. This time I tried to make the look a little different and used the layer blending styles in PS Elements 4. I settled on Colour Dodge to get this effect.

Canary Wharf at Night

I'm enjoying my night photography, thanks to my tripod. I was out last night really scouting for locations. However, I took my camera with me just in case. I was quite pleased with what I got. There are loads of locations around the Canary Wharf area for great nighttime photography. I shall be back.

Chelsea Training Session

One of the advantages of my sabatical is to have the opportunity to go to special events such as the Chelsea Football Club training day. However, because of the number of injuries, there were only 12 first team players present. That doesn't really bode well for the start of the season this weekend.

However it was interesting watching the players train. It was a very hot morning as well, with the sun right over head. However, the players do seem to put a lot of effort in to what they are doing.

It was also nice to see José Mourinho present, and hearing him shout encouragement to the players. He has also promised another open training session later when more players are fit. Half of me wants to be able to go, but the other half is hoping I will have a job by then.

Owls at Camera Club

Meet Mapple:

She is a Great Horned Owl from Canada. Those eyes are so mesmorising.

The camera club had a visit from someone who shows owls. They bought along 4 or 5 different breeds of Owl. I was amazed how calm they were with so many strange people, as well as the flash lights from as many cameras going of.

Unfortunately, I didn't really get too many good shots from this session. I do need to do some reading up on lighting.

New Camera

Although I love my Olympus E-500 camera, I have wanted a point and shoot camera for the occasions where you can't carry a DSLR camera, and also to have a camera with me at all times.

Before I switched to a DSLR I had an Olympus c750uz, which had a 10x optical zoom. I like the idea of having such a large zoom, as it would cover most situations. However, this was a bulky camera as well.

So I wanted a slim point and shoot with a 10x optical zoom. Enter Panasonic, and their DMC-TZ3. My first impressions are very favourable. The only draw back, is that there is no viewfinder, and all pictures have to be taken using the LCD screen. However, at 3", this is one of the biggest screens on the market.

Off course I had to test the camera. With a 10x zoom, I thought Toby would be a willing subject. Here is my first picture with the new camera: