Today's blog post is brought to you by Dan...
It is not often that we venture to the east of the capital, or perhaps more accurately, anywhere east of the Metropolitan line. There is some logic to this unofficial frontier that has come to dictate our walks, at least on costs and convenience grounds given that we mostly set off from Niraj’s base in north-west London. Nevertheless, it would be hard to deny that Niraj’s inexplicable preference for the West [of England as opposed to the whole world] also plays a part. That said, the Epping Forest Walk marked an exception to this long-standing convention. Covering some 6,000 acres, the forest is London’s largest open space and stretches 12 miles from Manor Park in east London to just north of Epping in Essex. The forest is also of national and international conservation importance with two thirds designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation. Our walk began not far from Chingford Station at Connaught Water– one of a number of man-made lakes in the area that were formerly gravel excavation pits. The circular route took us on a well-trodden track through the heart of the forest, northwards to High Beech and back. Although famous for its ancient oak, beech and hornbeams that have stood for many centuries, the forest is home to an astonishing variety of trees - around twenty species in all. Just before halfway emerged the hamlet of High Beech, the only settlement within Epping Forest. Being Good Friday, we caught a procession heading towards the Holy Innocents Church – a quaint church entirely embosomed by the forest. On reaching, we stood for a brief while in the church’s graveyard, musing momentarily on the impermanence of all things, before entering the church for some inner repose. A little while later, we headed further on, passing the Epping Forest Visitor Centre to the King’s Oak pub for a spot of well-earned lunch. The return leg took us eastwards and back south through Loughton Camp – the site of an iron-age hideout, and along the small streamlet of Loughton Brook meandering its way through the forest, before eventually reaching the far side of Connaught Water where we had begun. Technical details: Sony a850 with Sigma 50-500mm (Bigma) lens.
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A small collection of photos taken over a few visits to Stocker's Lake and the Rickmansworth Aquadrome...
Technical details: Sony a850 with Sigma 50-500mm (Bigma) lens. Lugging around the bigma lens and a full-frame camera (plus other lenses) on a few occasions gave me the excuse to invest (as many other's are) into a smaller complementary set-up. I decided to stick with Olympus for a few reasons: as I love their beautiful colours, jpeg processing engine and there accuracy in metering etc. Furthermore, I wanted to use a small collection of cute and compact manual focus Olympus OM Zuiko prime lenses (most are approx 30 years old) that have not seen any action recently. They're easier to shove in a bag, and less intimidating than the big gear too!
Below are a small set of unedited photos taken around Hatch End, with some of these legacy lenses. Technical details: Olympus E-PM1 with OM Zuiko 28mm f2.8 and 135mm f3.5 lenses. Excitement to test out the new (second-hand) Bigma lens (interesting page here) took me to the Aquadrome on an unusually dry but cold winter day. This winter has taught me not to take the sunshine for granted and I was keen to make use of it, or more so the absence of bad weather (not unlike how we confuse an absence of suffering with happiness!) A long walk with this behemoth certainly gave my arms a workout, but after enjoying the 50-500mm range and seeing the results it was certainly worth it.
Technical details: Sony a850 with Sigma 50-500mm (Bigma) lens. Write-up by Dan (I can take no credit):
There are few green spaces left in London that quite retain an air of secrecy and other-worldliness like Holland Park. Nestled between Kensington High Street and Notting Hill, at first sight the park’s walled exterior seems almost to shield it from the inclemency of city life. Inside, the footpaths meander around dense thickets of bush and woodland. Even in the icy grip of winter – when we visited – the park was dubbed with a marvellous mix of birdsong. To the untrained ear, bird calls probably resemble little more than a cacophony; but with patience and mindfulness they begin to unveil a world that still dances to the rhythm of the seasons and beats to a tune before time. At the heart of the park is the little known Kyoto Peace Garden – a sanctuary for silence-seekers and a fine example of a traditional Japanese water garden. The garden and surrounds are also home to a flock of peacocks which add to the sense of exoticness unique to the park. In the afternoon we paid a brief visit to the Natural History Museum. As impressive as the extent of its collections is the museum’s architectural splendour. The front façade and entrance hall is perhaps one of the finest of any building in the UK – and a fitting monument to Victorian extravagance. Highlights of the visit included the life size replica of a blue whale spanning 30m in length across the museum’s mammalian hall. Technical details: Sony a850 with Tokina 19-35mm lens. A very belated Happy New Year everyone. Apologies for the delay - I've got a several exciting 2013 posts coming very soon! Wanted to share some highlights of the year in an end-of-year collage.Actually, I've only included the second half of the year (1/2 / 2012 ?) since the blog was started in July. Looking through, I feel privileged to have had so many stunning opportunities to attempt to capture this variety of visual beauty. Click on the images to take you to the relevant posts from earlier this year. Unusually, photos are square-cropped here so not in original shape. Alternatively you can see the images in their normal form in the slideshow below. Comments / feedback welcome - just click on the "add comments" text at the bottom on this post. Slideshow of above photos. Hover over the photo and click "play". More wide angle photos taken at the Rickmansworth Aquadrome. The second photo shows the extent of flooding on some of the paths - fortunately this young cyclist seemed to enjoy the new challenge.
Technical details: Tokina 19-35mm lens, photos shot in raw with minor colour / white balance / vignetting edits before conversion. A combination of heavy morning fog, frost and icy daytime temperatures set the scene for some beautifully cold and eery winterscapes... Warmed only slightly by the meek winter sunset. My hands were frozen through thick gloves after half an hour!
Technical details: Tokina 19-35mm lens, all unedited and straight from the camera. Below are a few photos taken at Aldenham Country Park on a beautifully chilly winter's day, testing out a new wide angle lens. The last photo shows a flock of relaxed Canadian geese on the ground.
Technical details: Tokina 19-35mm lens, all unedited and straight from the camera. I felt lucky to witness this truly vibrant sunset at the Rickmansworth Aquadrome, just at a time when I felt like going for a wonder with the camera.
Technical details: Tamron 28-75mm lens, photos shot in raw with minor colour / white balance / vignetting edits before conversion. |
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