Category: Photography

The river embankment in Bedford is always a pleasant place for a Sunday-afternoon walk with the camera.

The Embankment Bridge

View from the Embankment Bridge

The Longholme – a good place to stop for a coffee and a cake.  They also hire out boats.

The boating lake – view from the Longholme.

The Butterfly Bridge

Some cygnets on the grass next to the river.

But don’t get too close – Dad is keeping guard.

A crowd of Canadians – I think a group of geese is called a “gaggle”.

The waterfowl are occasionally disturbed by the odd canoe.

And back again.

The Swan Hotel.

The Weir.   Why are those logs there?

View From a Bridge – the boat had just passed underneath.

The first Whitwell Steam Fair was held in 1998, in the village of Whitwell from which it takes its name, before moving to a larger site owned by the Bowes Lyon family in nearby St. Paul’s Walden.  Since 2008 it has been held in Mansell’s Farm in Codicote.  The Steam Fair is held to raise funds for MacMillan Cancer Support and features working steam engines as well as classic cars, tractors, military vehicles & motorcycles.

Crimson Lady  – a Burrell Traction Engine, built in 1927.

Stanley Steam Car – c.1911

Hogwart – half-size model based on the famous road locomotive ‘Boadicea’ which was a WW1 heavy gun towing engine.

The Gaffer – Clayton & Shuttleworth General Purpose Engine, built in 1910

Fortunately not much to do for the medic!

Dad’s Army?  A display by the Hertfordshire Home Guard Living History Group

John Fowler

The Blacksmith

The Gaffer (again)

Keeping it clean & Shiny

Crimson Wheel

Green spinning wheels.

The Little Giant

Having a chat

Foden C Type scale model

Enjoying the ride!  (They’re in a carriage being pulled by a horse.)

The first of Hitchin Camera Club’s summer meetings was a “Scavenger Hunt” around the streets of Hitchin.   About 20 of us took part and we had two hours to find and photograph 25 items on a list, before retiring to the Cooper’s Arms in Tilehouse Street for a pint (or two!).

The intention was to shoot the images with a view to cropping them into a square format so they could be displayed as a 5 x 5 grid.  I used my Panasonic DMC-TZ70 rather than my DSLR because I could set that to shoot in square format.  This was a big help in framing the shot when I took it and also saved a lot of time cropping later!

I found a bit of creativity was needed to get some of the subjects.  Here are my efforts:

A Blue plaque

The word “Brick”

Two photographers

A stranger’s hand

Your reflection

A yellow flower

Old Writing

A repeating pattern

“Going Green”

Symmetry

An animal with 6 or more legs

A bird in flight

Something empty

Radial Lines

Something beginning with Q

A yellow front door

Graffiti

Something Spanish

The Hitchin logo

A small window

An interesting street light

A coloured tile

The Time

Ironworks

A historic date

It was the late May bank holiday weekend which meant that it was time for the Luton Carnival.  As per the last few years, the carnival procession took a circular route around Wardown Park, starting and ending on the New Bedford Road.  This year I positioned myself near the start rather than half-way round as I had done in previous years.  Besides meaning there was less waiting for the procession to arrive, it also meant that the various groups were a bit closer together and they hadn’t had the time to spread out along the route.

All photographs taken with a Canon EOS 60D with a Tamron 70-300 lens and processed using Adobe Lightroom.

Lavenham is a picturesque village in Suffolk with a large number of Tudor buildings.

The Priory

Lamp and Beams

Wisteria Wall

The Crooked House – now a tea room

De Vere House – once stayed in by Henry VII and also used in the filming of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

The conversation

There was a 1940s weekend on at the time.

Hats

Red and White

I thought this close up of a wall made a good “abstract”

Stained glass window in the church.

Lavenham Lady – cropped from the “Hats” photograph above.

All photographs taken with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ70.

It was the May Day Bank Holiday and we visited the Chiltern Open Air Museum for their “May Day Merriment” weekend.  We attended this event last year and thoroughly enjoyed it, so we decided to go again.  The Suffolk Free Company were again providing a Tudor re-enactment, with period music from Myal Pyper (pictured above).  In addition, the museum has a collection of re-erected historic buildings.

The Iron-Age House

The Nissen Hut

Inside the Nissen Hut

The Shepherd’s Living Van

Garston Forge

Manor Cottage

Farm Buildings

Roof Detail

Barrel and Can

The Suffolk Free Company

All photographs processed in Adobe Lightroom and converted to monochrome using Nik Silver Efex Pro.

This time in 2006, Luton Town had just completed a successful season in The Championship, finishing 10th.  It’s been a long 13 years since then, with three consecutive relegations in 2007, 2008 & 2009 and five seasons in non-league before the return journey finally began in 2014 with promotion back to the Football League.  A second promotion from League 2 to League 1 followed 12 months ago and yesterday, a 3-1 home win against Oxford confirmed Luton as champions of League 1.  Next season, we will be playing in the The Championship once again!

The promotion celebrations took place today in St George’s Square, Luton.

Club Captain, Alan Sheehan.

Andrew Shinnie

Harry Cornick (in the ICON hat).

Chairman David Wilkinson raises the trophy.

Jack Stacey

James Justin

James Shea

Top-scorer James Collins

Luton Mayor, Naseem Ayub

George Moncur

Matty Pearson

Sonny Bradley

Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu – the only member of the side that won promotion back to the Football League in 2014 still with the club.

Danny Hylton – still on crutches following surgery on his knee.

Luke Berry

Manager Mick Harford

Elliot Lee

Raising the trophy!