2: February

Ginger, a hamster we adopted from Kirkby Animal Welfare. Although a little underweight, she is now doing her best to make up for it.

Ginger again, sorry about the repetition of subject matter, but time was running short and it was Ginger or nothing.

When the snow messes up your plans for an evening's photography, reality strikes!

Ted who loves to be fed and sleeping in bed.

This is just me playing about with my 17-40mm lens in availiable light. I just love the forced perspective at 17mm end of the zoom.

Wollaton Hall, Wollaton Park, Nottingham.

The view along the avenue of trees on a misty February morning.

Wollaton was built between 1580 and 1588 for Sir Francis Willoughby and is believed to be designed by the Elizabethan architect, Robert Smythson, who was the architect of Hardwick Hall.

My second attempt at an image for our Easter Cards. This time with less troublesome bunnies!

See January 9th for the results of the first try.

Cormorant Photographed from the bridge over the waterway near to the visitors center at Attenborough Nature Reserve.

I admit it's not the greatest image in the world, but it was taken today, Mr Bunny the big (4.3Kg) boss bunny and Marge the much smaller doe guarding their cardboard box den.

I Pass this bridge on one of my routes home of an evening from work. If the timing is right the bridge catches the evening sun.

"Elford is a pleasant village, upon a declivity on the north bank of the Tame, four and a half miles N by W of Tamworth, said to have derived its name from the great number of eels with which the river here formerly abounded."

[From History, Gazetteer and Directory of Staffordshire, William White, Sheffield, 1851]

I Saw these back faced sheep on a snowy field with the sun setting behind the hiil. I thourght it might work as an image so I gave it a go.

Escapee, the title say's it all. No one ever warned me how crafty and tenatious these critters can be, talk about personality.

Tools Of The Trade.

The Presentation: Bullet Tip Flip Chart Markers.

This is the first in what I hope may be a theme to work upon throughout the year.

Pickles, non too happy about been woken from her cat-nap.

Just in case you all think I do nothing but photography in my (few) spare moments, this weekend I knocked up a quick web presence for a struggling Animal Rescue charity.

A Yew tree in Shining Cliff Woods thourght to be around 2000 years old, badly damaged by a fire lit by vandals in the 1930's it continues to produce shoots and leaves each year.

This tree was home to Betty (Kate) Kenyon and her husband Luke a charcoal burner, in the branches of this tree they raised eight children in the early 1700's. This family and the tree are believed by many to be the origin of the nursury rhyme "Rock-A-Bye-Baby".

A winter's morning in Hartington, Derbyshire. On arrival it was a clear crip morning with a blue sky. After a cup of tea in the Post Office the sky had turned grey and it was begining to snow. Doesn't seem to bother the ducks much though.

My simple tribute to the works of Ansel Adams.

An Egyptian Goose doing a fairly good impression of Count Duckula at the local nature reserve.

Two of my Medium Format Cameras. A Pentax 67 and a Mamiya 645 Pro TL, just for a sense of scale the lens on the Pentax has a filter thread of 95mm, and the camera lens set up wieghs in at 3.2Kg

Hartington signal box at Hartington Station, beside the Tissington trail, though some distance from the village, has been restored and converted into an Information Centre, open in summer on Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays. Also serves welcome hot tea and coffee on snowy days such as this one.

Mr Bunny just has to get out and check his boundaries no matter what the weather. Nothing to do with the fact he loves running and jumping (binky) in the snow.

A self image, this is about as near as this project is going to get to a self portrait. Looking out over the Derwent Valley from the top of Shining Cliff.

Techy stuff:
Tripod mounted Canon 7D, Canon 17-40mm Zoom. Self timer plus cable release with 10m extension. (I only just made it into position before the shutter fired, I really could do with a IR remote.)

Macro Photography. This is Ginger the Hamster curled up inside her chewy log, doing her best not to be photographed.

An image of the inside of my test-rig PC after a power supply transplant. I find it both strange and a bit frightening how much we now depend on this technology.

Techy stuff:
Tripod mounted Canon 40D, Tamron 90mm Macro. ISO 400, 30 sec@f1/22, final curtain flash at 75% from lens mounted Sigma ring flash. Subject CPU running during photograph.

The Bunny mobsters return to their favourite lair (the giant cardboard box that they have "redesigned") after a sucessful raid on the treat box and hay store!

How dare you wake me up with that flashy, clicky thing. Good job I've got extra claws to sort you out with!

Tools Of The Trade.

Networking: My CISCO stack, a sad Saturday evening practicing for my CCNA.

This is the second image in this occasional theme.

The Cobblers on Albert Street in Derby. I Never see anyone use it (apart from me to get the odd key cut), but it must do business as it has been there for years.

When open I walk past as close I can because the smell takes me back to my childhood days; collecting repaired shoes with my Gran from the cobblers shop that used to be on the corner of Valley Road and Victoria Avenue in Blakenall.

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