In a Happy Place

Feeling in a completely different mood to my recent post on Being in a Dark Place  I can relate on how spent a happy afternoon in Axbridge recently. Not actually a happy occasion as reported in Paint it Black, but with people who shared interests and backgrounds, especially the aspect of liking our dear departed friend Chas Weathered

I had a wonderful afternoon and evening the one thing I can easily say is that the only Boring thing was the old museum building and that only in terms of the woodwork so my first picture is entitled ...

A Boring Landscape

After the ceremony we were entertained by some of Chas's old friends... non looking older than the Morris Men

Love me... Love my Hat 

Who despite many a grey hair between them could still manage a sprightly dance.. please note close proximity to the nearest available watering hole...

A flock of handkerchiefs

As I understand it's a legal requirement for Morris men to drink real Ale.. So how could I do otherwise

I'm sure Chas would have been happy I made it this far in my pint

Getting there

Regards
Andy

Not Caving - Mostly

We went across to Mendip this weekend to visit some of our close friends in the the ISSA cave art group for their AGM meet.

As we left wales I had a sudden realization.. I had left my caving camera at home

Well at least I still had my above ground equipment with me so I could concentrate on taking pictures in the sunshine OK. Plan B looked inviting until just as we arrived in the Mendip area the clouds rolled in, it started to rain and and plan B looked a little less inviting as well

Nothing ventured as they say and we headed off to a secret location to see the site of one of the cave digs and maybe even take part. I got roped in literally as my rope and ladder were sequestered into the cause to make the diggers safe, but I (not reluctantly) stuck to the above ground support role with my camera

So I kept myself entertained with some of the excellent views you can find in a small Mendip woodland

Somewhere deep in the depths of the wood lurks an as-yet unknown to science new type of tree crawler. Well that's at least what it looked like to me when I first saw this leaf frozen to the branch of the tree.

Deep in the woodlands you find other unusual things and this is a lesser spotted Meg wandering around at the back of this picture. I have kept the depth of field short to protect the innocent

 Also with a close depth of field is a close up of the old winding gear of a cavers winch used when excavating into the bed of a stream to find out where the water was going to. It's now a bit beyond its productive life, but forms an interesting unusual feature on this nature reserve walk

I'd like to thanks Robin and Barry for arranging an excellent weekend and in particular for showing me the delights of East Twin Swallet and the major engineering works that have been done by the local cavers in trying to explore more of this cave. In particular the link to Spar Pot which has the most incredible fossils on-show and is a place I really need to go back to WITH my caving camera

Not my Picture of the Year 2010

I am currently running the Picture of the Year 2010 competition over on the Olympus e-Group http://e-group.uk.net/

for that people enter their top 3 pictures and we have a blind voting system and elect a winner who has the great prize of being named as such on the forum

To prepare to enter you of course need to go though what you have taken in 2010 and pick some favorites so its a great opportunity for reflection

As it's a blind vote even the organizer can enter so as the competition is still running I'm not going to discuss my entries. What I will do as it's a great way to get this blog going is show some of the pictures I considered and rejected and explain why.

My number 4 picture was this one which is a Herald Moth taken at Charterhouse, Somerset

Herald Moth, Charterhouse, Somerset

These moths hibernate over winter and this one taken in February would be coming near to the end of it's hibernation. The moth was in an overhang in old mine workings in a section that could just about be classified as underground and was taken with my Olympus E-30, 50mm Macro Lens and an FL-20 flashgun which is a great little gun for close up work. The Flash was off camera on an CB-05 cable which is why you can see a reasonable amount of shadow on the picture

The 50mm is not true macro, but an incredibly sharp lens and really usable as you are not too close to your subject