Sunday 22 March 2015

Day 21 - 20th March 2015 - Windsor Racecourse to Runneymede

My second hiking day this week, the day of the spring equinox and the day of the solar eclipse which reached its maximum of about 85% at 09:30. Sadly the eclipsed sun wasn't visible at my location, too much featureless grey cloud, though its passing was apparent by the marked dulling down by about 4 stops (according to my camera's light meter) of the already grey morning. It would have been fortuitous if my arrival at Runneymede had coincided exactly with the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta in June - but I wasn't inclined to slow down. Not particularly photographically inspiring today - so I've even included a shadow selfie, just to make up the numbers! This segment of the hike passes under the flight path into Heathrow so the whole day was one continuous drone of planes landing at the rate of something like one every minute or so.
Click on any image to see full size views of the day's set of images.
Mural by Cosmo Sarson - 21.7.12
Weeping Willow and Mistletoe
Shadow Selfie - slowly does it. On one of the few road sections of the hike.
Windsor Castle & Mistletoe
My Love I Remember ...
St Mary Magdalene's - Boveney
Today's Symmetrograph

Tuesday 17 March 2015

Day 20 - 16th March 2015 - Cookham to Windsor Racecourse


This stretch of the Thames Path is liberally dotted with impressive mansions - not subjects I'm interested to photograph. But two of the bridges provided much material with which to work. The first is Isambard Kingdom Brunel's 1838 railway bridge - the widest and flatest single span brick built bridge in the world. And the second is that carrying the M4 motorway over the Thames. For once I had difficulty selecting the ones I liked most from the many I shot. The Thames is populated by large numbers of pleasure boats, mostly moored up for winter, so it was a pleasant change to see a working boat on the river, particularly as it showed the most unusual reflection of itself in the smooth water distorted by its bow wave. Signs of spring are all around, most noticeably the early blossom and the first Chiffchaff of the year, just back from wintering south of the Sahara. The whole day was grey and at times drizzley, not the best weather to be giving my new camera (Sony A7II) and lenses their first outing. But the soft light of grey weather is often perfect for image making.

Click on any image to see full size views of the day's set of images.

Under the M4 - I
Under the M4 - II
Boulter's Weir
Blossom and Steps
Spring
Working Boat
IKB's railway Bridge - I
IKB's railway Bridge - II
Today's Symmetrograph