Owner: Dave's Photo Blog URL:http://davelicence.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Mon, 21 May 2007 15:48:57 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: My favourite photos as I take them from my travels and general life, plus various musings Site statistics:Click here
More from paradise park 2007-05-21 22:42:00 There's not just owls at Paradise Park in Cornwall. Here's a few more of the hundreds of birds they have there - first two kingfishers, second another colourful little fella (sorry, I really need to start writing down the names of the things I photo so I can at least let you know what you are looking at) and lastly two flamingos in the rain.
Kitesurfing 2007-05-20 16:23:00 The stretch of coast between Hayle and Gwithian in Cornwall is popular for water sports, especially when its a little windy. The day I was there two weeks ago it was more than a little windy and the kitesurfers were out in force, with the view over to Godrevy lighthouse full of power kites.
Towans and dynamite 2007-05-17 22:02:00 In the late 19th Century an explosives factory (the National Explosives Works) was built in the stretch of dune land - called the Towans - near Hayle in Cornwall. The factory survived until 1919, but explosives were still stored in the area until 1960, in various 'huts' dotted throughout the dunes.
Now those huts are ruins, and when walking the Towans between Hayle and Gwithian it is quite
Owls - they've got your number 2007-05-16 22:45:00 While on a visit to Paradise Park in Hayle, Cornwall last week I had a great opportunity for some owl shots. Owls can be tricky - during normal wildlife centre opening hours they tend to just sit at the back of their aviaries asleep, or as close to being asleep as makes no difference. The owls here put on a bit of a show though - all the ones shown here look as if they know exactly who you are
Can you tell what it is yet? 2007-04-28 19:17:00 Another item seen during my trip to Sweden this week. It's probably not too hard to tell what it is, but I'm going to keep schtum anyway. A small bit of intrigue for a sunny May weekend. I probably would never have taken a picture of this, but I was a little tipsy and I noticed the shadow, which interested me enough to get this close.
Some Fun With Language 2007-04-27 14:22:00 I've had a quick jaunt over to Sweden this week - spent most of one day travelling to get there and what felt like most of the next day travelling to get back (strikes and an apparent shortage of air traffic controllers causing delays aplenty). We stayed in Bromma for the night, so didn't even get to see the city. I'm glad it was only a one night stay - the room I got at the hotel had a curtain,
Under Lambeth Bridge 2007-04-22 12:35:00 The underside of Lambeth Bridge. Another photo taken with the Nokia - the only changes being brightness and contrast, a vertical flip and cropping - the weird effect was created by the camera itself trying to compensate for the low light, but it kinda works.
Morning Calm 2007-04-21 17:40:00 A scene from my walk to work in the morning - taken with my Nokia. I really need to be carrying my proper camera more often - these pictures could be soooo much better!
This was taken from almost the same spot as this (the tree in the background is the one in this picture), this and this - a very productive corner indeed. Read more:Morning
Clouds and Glass 2007-04-20 23:59:00 A reflection of clouds on a glass office block. Taken with my Nokia phone on the way to work one morning last week. Read more:Clouds
, Glass
The Light 2007-02-11 13:28:00 A photo of the light above my desk. Edited a little to darken the shade, bring out the elements of the bulb and convert to black and white.
Sigma 30mm, f8, 1/320sec
More snow (for real this time) 2007-02-08 19:46:00 The UK went into lock-down today. Not because of the latest wave of letter bomb scares, but because of a few inches of snow. Every time it happens someone says this country needs to be better prepared next time (today it was Jack Straw), and every time it's like the first time we've seen a bit of bad weather - websites go down with the number of people checking the forecast, the trains stop
London Motorbike Show 2007-02-04 14:26:00 Went along to the London Motorbike
Show on Saturday. Much as I expected - lots of new bikes to sit on and imagine owning (the Ducati 1098 ... mmmm), lots of things to tempt me from parting with cash (I resited - all I bought was a coffee and a car sticker), and a show of some description that is impossible to get into unless you're willing to stand in a queue for ages.
Still, a good time was
More snow 2007-02-03 21:44:00 No, there hasn't been any more of the white stuff falling since last week (although it was pretty chilly out on the bike today). I just got around to going through last week's photos properly and I thought I'd post my favourite.
I liked the way the snow was clinging to the branches of this tree, and the colour of the sky was created by fooling the camera a little bit. Even though the sky was
Three days ago ... 2007-01-24 11:14:00 Sigma 30mm at f4.5, 1/25 sec, ISO1000
Can't believe it was only three days ago that I was saying that the seasons were becoming confused and winter may have been skipped! Above are the same daffodils that I blogged on Sunday - not looking happy now are they? Below is another shot from my walk to the station this morning. Apologies for the lack of quality - it was still pretty dark, I was hurried Read more:Three
Spring already? 2007-01-20 19:40:00 Guess I missed winter. Me and some Daffodils both. This was taken today.
Its a bit of a rubbish photo, but I was surprised to see these so early in the year. It has been pretty warm for January and I guess its easy to get confused if no-one bought you a calendar for Christmas. Anyone got a tortoise that's out of hibernation yet?
As soon as the cold weather does get round to paying us a visit Read more:Spring
Storm Damage in London 2007-01-19 13:38:00 Yesterday the UK suffered from the worst storms in 17 years. Here in London, two-thirds of the way up the Centre Point tower, things started getting weird around lunch time, with the building starting to sway - a few people got a bit motion sick and decided to head on out. Lower down, the trees that had only recently been planted outside were almost blown completely away, water from the fountain Read more:Storm
, Damage
Wet Wales 2007-01-15 22:03:00 Went to Wales
this last weekend - to the Brecon Beacons to be precise - to climb some of the peaks around there. The plan was to cover six of the peaks on Saturday, including the highest, Pen-y-fan. Thought it might be cold, it being January and the middle of winter - didn't really count on it being so windy! We managed three of the six, then decided to call it a day and head back before we all
Back from Asia 2006-12-28 15:10:00 Hello! I am back from Cambodia, and have almost fully recovered from the trip. I didn't get as much done there as I had hoped, either in or out of work. One of those is my fault. As for the second - others are trying to imply that's my fault too. Oh well. I did get a few pictures from the trip, so here are a couple. No great quality, as they were both taken with my phone :-) Read more:Asia
Night Light 2006-12-04 23:11:00 Here's another photo taken on my trip between work and home - this one in the opposite direction to those I posted a couple of weeks ago, so its already well and truly dark.
I thought I'd try to get an image showing how the street light illuminated the tree that had grown around it - quite difficult to focus due to not having a tripod and also to capture correctly because of the huge contrast Read more:Night
Back garden colours 2006-12-02 18:48:00 Another Autumn related photo - OK, last one I promise. This one was taken in my back garden - we have an old garden chair that came with the house and has been sitting out in all weathers for years. I wouldn't trust the chair for supporting my weight any more, so it just stays in a corner, forgotten. Looks good with leaves on it though.
Nikon 18-200mm VR at 18mm, F3.5, 1/10sec
Journey to work 2006-11-25 18:36:00 I'm normally quite rushed on the way to work in the morning - I leave the house late or dawdle a little on the way so can't stop if I'm going to catch the train on time. Then, by the time I do get to London, I've allowed myself to sleep on the journey and am not really awake enough to pay attention to what's about. When leaving work for the day, at this time of year, there's no light left.
This Read more:Journey
Photoshopping 2006-11-21 23:31:00 Was playing around a bit with one of the images I posted the other day and created a couple of nice versions. First is a straight black and white conversion. Second is my 'the aliens are coming' shot - looks like it came out of the X-Files or any other generic sci-fi film of the last couple of decades.
Autumn colours, finally 2006-11-19 18:27:00 Autumn is my favourite season - the weather starts cooling down, the mornings are nice and fresh and the leaves on the trees all start to change colour before they drop. But isn't autumn supposed to begin in September? Either at the start of that month, or on the 21st depending on whether you hold with the meteorologists or the astrologists. We've had the odd tree here and there turning colours Read more:Autumn
Fireworks 2006-11-12 19:52:00 I mentioned last week that I had some fireworks shots that I thought were pretty useless. Well they are as far as pictures of fireworks go. Far too low an aperture selected for anyone who is interested in why - I stupidly thought I'd keep it as low as possible to enable me to keep the shutter speed up as I had no tripod so was hand-holding. The upshot of that is that there's no focus as all, no Read more:Fireworks
Update 2006-10-09 13:05:00 OK, so I updated the picture so its now rotated the right way - I guess if you're reading this now you'll have no idea what the issue was in the first place and there's no way to see my error. I could have kept it all quiet eh?
Ho hum.
As a bonus I'll attach my favourite photo from my recent holiday in Portugal - taken on a day trip over to Seville. Read more:Update
Facebook 2007-05-24 14:34:00 I may have briefly mocked it, but thanks to Neil I've discovered Facebook
. I joined because I pretty much have to join every site I come across and I have to take advantage of the firewall being broken at work while I still can. I've also just discovered that there are eighteen other people with Facebook accounts that I share a surname with. This may not be news to your common-or-garden surname-holders, but for me, with the surname Licence, this is a bit of a revelation: apart from people in my direct family (of which none have accounts), I've never met anyone with the surname Licence, or anyone else who has (apart from the check-in girl at Gibraltar airport, but that conversation was so weird I've put that in the 'I may have been dreaming' category).I've also just run a surname search (thanks Helen) on the Surname Profiler Project, where you can track the distribution of your name between the 1881 and 1998 censuses, and found that there are only eight Licences in every one mill
Asian Otters 2007-05-23 15:14:00 Both the Paradise Park and the National Seal Sanctuary in Cornwall have Asian
Small-Clawed Otters.Asian otters are a lot smaller than the European variety - probably only half the size. They make up for this by making much more noise - squeaking and meeping amongst themselves all the time.The first two shots below are of the otters at Paradise Park, while the two in the shot at the bottom are at the Seal Sanctuary during feeding time.
Red Panda 2007-05-22 16:55:00 Although Paradise Park in Cornwall houses mostly birds, they also have some otters (more on those later) and a couple of Red Panda
s. I've seen a Red Panda before - in the zoo in Washington D.C. - but these ones were a little more active. They are usually fairly tricky to photograph as they like to sit up in trees, hidden by the shadows under the branches and leaves. Fortunately, this one poked his head out enough for me to see.
Bluebells 2007-05-01 17:09:00 I said yesterday that I went to Ashridge at the weekend to see if there were any bluebells about. The deer were just a lucky coincidence so I guess I better post some photos of the flowers themselves for good measure.Nikon 105mm VR micro, 1/60sec at f/8 Nikon 105mm VR micro1/400sec at f/5 1/180sec at f/4
Deer in bluebells 2007-04-30 11:30:00 On Saturday I went to Ashridge to see if there were any bluebells still about - in previous years when I've been there the place is carpeted with them, but I was worried I'd left it a little late. I needn't have worried at all. I was wondering around the woods, off the paths, climbing trees and lying on the floor to get a few shots, when I spotted another photographer of to my left, about twenty meters away. Suddenly I saw some movement in front of me: there's a group of about fifteen deer heading straight for the other guy. They see him and stop, wondering what to do, so I sit down on the nearest log to to see if they will come any closer. I think about trying to change lenses, because I'm all set up for close-ups. Before I have any more time to do anything, the deer decide the second guy is not to be trusted and run straight at me!. They spot me and change angle, but end up running between us - about five meters from me. I snap away a few shots, but haven't had time to think ab
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