just rambling about … enjoy the "post"-cards
I like capturing details with my macro lens … and most often it’s insects among flowers, like this one from my friend’s garden in Suffolk. And of course, a bee isn’t an insect !
Weekly Photo Challenge: Details
~ Spotted Cow
Three trees. Can you say that without tripping over your tongue?
I took this picture at Devil’s Dyke simply because I liked the light. It was flat at the top of the hill and the trees were the only objects that added some interest.
~ Spotted Cow
Partners in crime. These two lambs looked like they had been up to no good as they walked out sheepishly – no pun intended – from under the farm machinery.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Partners
~ Spotted Cow
On the weekend, The Actress and I went for a walk at Devil’s Dyke, just outside Brighton. It was a 15-minute ride on the happy bus to get to the lush countryside. Devil’s Dyke is a deep, steep, mile-long valley. The legend goes that that the Devil, in a mood, dug a big groove in the earth to drown the local parishioners. The scientific explanation starts from the Ice Age and is a much less exciting story, albeit more informative.
We chose the Histories and Mysteries walk from the National Trust site, which was a moderate figure-of-8 amble up and down the valley, with a few interesting stops. It starts and ends at the pub, and there is a tea room in the middle, which was a thumbs up for both of us. I should add that The Actress is a much hardier walker than I am, and would probably have favoured a circuit five times as long. She was humouring my Saturday afternoon out in the fresh air.
~ Spotted Cow
We walked the Valle delle Ferriere route when we walked from Amalfi up to Ravello. The way winds through some lush forests, with rivers and waterfalls, and old paper mills and ironworks (hence its name). It was lovely and peaceful, and a refreshing difference to the cliffs and sea that tourists mostly associate with the Amalfi Coast. It rained for some of that day but we had wet weather gear, and instead of getting us down, it added to the enchantment of the forest.
~ Spotted Cow
The weather was variable in the first few days that I was on the Amalfi Coast, and there were times when we were completely enveloped in mist. It was a walking holiday, and we walked regardless of the weather. We would arrive at a peak and the tour leader kept saying to us, his expectant troops, “the view is stunning, I assure you !” But all we saw was white cloud.
However, the few times when the opaque white fog did lift, it was usually a most spectacular sight.
~ Spotted Cow
Amalfi Coast. Earth … and Heaven. A somewhat ominous marker as we started our ascent up Tre Calli, which translates unromantically into Three Callouses – the peaks of which you might be able to see if not for the mist.
~ Spotted Cow
7 Day Nature Challenge. Day 3
There’s nothing I like better than cutting herbs from the garden (read planters) and cooking with them. They smell lovely in the heat of the sun. And rosemary is hardy, which is great for a pretty useless gardener like me.
The lovely Joanne from Coffee Fuels My Photography invited me to do the 7 Day Nature Challenge. Normally, I’d nominate someone in turn, but I’m on holiday away from London and might not be able to keep up with comments and all that. So, I invite anyone who is keen to take part too.
~ Spotted Cow
7 Day Nature Challenge. Day 2
I’ve never visited a bluebell wood and I’m thinking that I should make an effort to do so this spring time. Mental note to research it. Tips welcome.
The lovely Joanne from Coffee Fuels My Photography invited me to participate in the nature challenge, and I hope you’re inspired to join in too.
~ Spotted Cow
It is said that a good photographer can take a picture of an everyday object and make it look interesting. Well, I haven’t got to that stage yet, although I am positively surprised at some of the images that I snap somewhat randomly. Like this one, standing outside a Bali hotel, waiting for a taxi.
My intention was to get a picture of the waxy leaves overlaid, one over the other. When I looked at the image on a bigger screen later, I was pleasantly surprised to see the green patterns, shading and veins that I had also captured. It made me think that I should make a mini project of photographing random everyday things.
~ Spotted Cow
I’m a novice at gardening and acquired some planters with herbs and grasses last year. Low maintenance gardening for a non-gardener. Difficult to get it wrong, I was told. Well, the planters look a tad spartan after the winter months. However, my green-fingered friends tell me that everything will sprout forth in abundance in spring and I will be surprised at the lush-ness. So, I am looking forward with great anticipation!
~ Spotted Cow
In anticipation of the spring equinox on 19 March, I’ll be posting a series of images along a “spring green” theme over the next week. I haven’t set the bar very high, so it should be achievable. Do join in if you fancy it.
I snapped this picture on a walk in the Carpathian mountains in Romania. It was hot and I was ahead of the group, and so I took shade under a tree. The curtain of hanging branches in front of me made a lovely pattern … and I took a picture while I waited for the others to catch up.
~ Spotted Cow
I could be accused of missing the forest for the trees … but I couldn’t resist taking pictures of the spotted textures of the bare tree trunks and branches.
Chamonix, France
~ Spotted Cows
The star-like moss was so pretty, I wish I had brought my macro lens with me. I like the delicate features of the moss, sitting next to the rough texture of the bark.
Chamonix, France
~ Spotted Cow
Looking out yonder while the new year is yet fresh, as are our resolutions.
Bird on chalk cliff edge, Beachy Head, East Sussex.
~ Spotted Cow
If you’ve ever wanted to stay in a lighthouse, the Belle Tout Lighthouse at Beachy Head is only an hour & a half train ride to Eastbourne from London. The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1902 because it wasn’t visible on foggy nights and it now runs as a b&b. In fact, it was moved back from the cliff edge in 1999 and the rails are in place if it has to be moved further back one more time.
There are spectacular 360° views from the communal top floor. Out to the east, is the working Beachy Head lighthouse down at sea level. And over to the west are the Seven Sisters cliffs – we walked 4 of the 7 before the ups & downs got the better of us, plus we had to walk back !
It was an amazing pre-Christmas weekend and we felt very special staying in the lighthouse. Didn’t everyone want to live in a lighthouse when they were children?
~ Spotted Cow
Now. The view of the Seven Sisters chalk cliffs from the beach at Birling Gap on the East Sussex coast. I went down there for a long weekend getaway before Christmas.
The cliffs erode about 0.3 to 0.7 metres every year – that’s one to two ruler lengths – which means that houses have had to be demolished or buildings have had to be moved back from the cliffs edge over the years.
~ Spotted Cow
Watching the leaves fall off and pare back for autumn and winter.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Change
~ Spotted Cow
Yes, I’m still in the garden. It’s that thing called a summer cold which dragged me down for 2 weeks (!) and the only place I have enough energy to get out to is the herb garden. I know that I’m supposed to pick the flower heads off the basil because it makes the leaves taste bitter. But I’ve failed in this regard and photographing them seemed less labourious. It’s less exciting without the bee, but far more delicate.
~ Spotted Cow
I was using the macro lens in the garden (again), set on manual, aiming to get a precise focus on whatever it was. Ahh, a bee landed on the basil flower. Perfect. When I sat down to edit the images, I realised the level of detail I had on the bee … because of course, I was standing at a respectful distance. Seeing the bee’s eye, its bee’s knees and all its limbs in high definition gave me a case of the heebie-jeebies. Grimace.
Click to see the photo at large and tell me if you feel the same.
~ Spotted Cow
I love taking pictures of nature with a macro lens because you can get really close-up and detailed. The thing to remember is that you have to be very precise with your point of focus if there are varying depths of field in the composition. And then, I guarantee that you’ll be amazed at the sharpness. The best thing to do is experiment with shifting the point of focus and you’ll get a variety of results, at least one of which you will be extremely pleased with.
Contrast this with the rainy day pictures I took in my folks’ Sydney garden. I had forgotten to bring the macro lens on the trip and my standard travel zoom lens couldn’t achieve the same life-size magnification.
~ Spotted Cow
Wandering Cows 
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