Maplewell Hall School and the LRGT

Wed 25th June 2014 Maplewell Hall School

I'm a member of the Leicester and Rutland Gardens Trust and its always a pleasure to asked to do their publicity pictures.  We met up with Alison Hodges who's a Vocational Tutor delivering land based studies at Maplewell Hall School near Woodhouse Eves.

The LRGT raises money by organising an annual 'Celebrity Lecture' to fund our Schools into Gardening educational fund and Maplewell have been the recipients of our 2014 grant.

 
Maplewell is a small school with around 150 pupils with moderate learning difficulties from across the county and city of Leicester.  Ages range from 11 to 19 yrs and students come from as far away as Oakham to the West and Measham to the East.

Whilst it is small in terms of student numbers it has extensive, well maintained grounds and we were delighted to see the productive vegetable garden which has recently been installed.
The LRGT grant will go towards tools and equipment.

Maplewell has a lovely atmosphere and the enthusiasm of the students and staff was tangible.

 

Celebrity lecturer from September 2013 was Cleve West with his talk From Spuds to Chelsea.

The footings for a workshop have been dug out next to the newly installed glass house.

For Celebrity Lecture 2014 we've got Joe Swift coming in Sept.  Tickets are selling well and we're looking forward to meeting Joe.
 

Sold

Just to let you know, I've sold my car to a very pleasant gent.  I hope it will serve him as well as it served me.

I'm Selling My Honda CRV

I'm selling my car, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to post a few pictures of it here for reference.
It's quite difficult to photograph because it's so shiny.

Removeable Tow Hitch

Honda CRV ES AUTO

£1,500

Reg Date 17.09.1999

Taxed Till Feb 2013

MOT Feb 2013

131,000 miles

Full Honda Scheduled Service History.  Including routine timing belt at 77,000.

ABS, Air conditioning, Alloy wheels, Locking Nuts, Central locking, Electric sunroof, Headlight washers, Folding rear seats, Passenger airbag, Rear armrest, Radio/Cassette, Rear headrests, Roof rails, Radio/CD Multichanger, Drivers airbag, Front head restraints, Remote central locking, Height adjustable drivers seat, Heated door mirrors, Front electric windows, Electric door mirrors, Rear Electric windows, PAS, Steering wheel rake adjustment, Full size spare wheel, Full Service History

Very Genuine CRV

Last Service July 2012

Good tyres including 2 new 27.9.2011. Full size brand new spare on alloy wheel.

Automatic with Overdrive

Pioneer 6 Disc CD Changer professionally fitted out of sight.

Luggage Cover

Over carpets

Mud flaps

Pop In/Out tow bar. Has only occasionally towed a small garden trailer.

2 keys, one with FOB for remote locking.

I have had this car since Dec 2001 and am its second owner. I’m selling it because I am buying my Dad’s CRV which he is replacing with a new one.

It does have some small dings due to age and wear and tear, but is in good condition for age having been garaged.  Starts easily and runs smoothly.

Inspection Welcome.

Contact Through Facebook Messages or Comments Here 

First Attempts with Lee Filters

Because digital photography is sooo cheap, it leaves you with a shed load of money to buy accessories!  And the latest aquisitions are a couple of Lee filters.

Above is without filter, as shot. Just turning the RAW file into a JPG with very little processing.
Below is with a ND grad filter. You can see the blown out highlights in the sky being toned down.

I've been waiting for it to stop raining to give them a try and am well pleased with the results so far, but looking forward to a bit more practise.  Think I'll be returning to this location soon.

It takes a fair bit more processing to get to this one below.

How Photoclubs Fit Together

This is why I am looking forward to going to see the PAGB PDI finals at Warwick on Saturday 14 July.

PAGB Interclub PDI Championship Warwick 14 July

The Photographic Alliance of Great Britain hold the Interclub PDI Championship at The Arts Centre at the University of Warwick on Sat 14th July 2012 starting at 10.15am.

Two clubs from each of the Federations, together with the top 10 placed clubs from the 2011 Championships will compete to find the Champion Club for 2012.
Admission is by pre paid ticket only.

An application form is well hidden on page 7 of the PAGB news in this link.

Southern Marsh Orchid June 2012

Dactylorhiza praetermissa

On a trip out with the Leicester and Rutland Gardens Trust Research Group to Long Close Garden in Woodhouse Eaves.

What an amazing place, and planned on the only dry day for what seems like the last month.

The main aim of our group meeting seems to have been to decide what salads and chocolate cakes are best for picnics as well as to visit the incredible flower meadows which form part of John Oaklands stunning 5 acre garden.

We were tasked with counting the orchids and reached totals of over 200 in the first meadow, which is carefully managed for its wild flowers.

The difficulty was getting in close to one on what was very wet ground.  I was using my 90mm Tamron  f2.8 Macro and Nikon D700 on a Slik Tripod with a remote release.  The top picture is a stack of three images set at different foci.

Below is a single shot at f6.3, 200th sec, ISO 200.

The garden at Woodhouse Eves is open under the Yellow Book Scheme.

Long Close, Main Street, LE12 8RZ.

Midland Counties Photographic Federation Photofolio Exhibitition

Photofolio is an annual exhibition hosted by Smethwick Photographic Society at The Old School House, Oldbury.  It is organised by The Midland Counties Photographic Federation (MCPF).  Burton PS is a member of the MCPF.  All of the individual county federations join into the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (PAGB).

Sunday 10 June was also the AGM of the MCPF, and I took the opportunity to see the exhibition and attend the meeting.

Individual clubs are allowed to submit 20 printed images and 20 projected digital images (PDIs) to go into the selection process.  The images are scored by three judges who can each give a maximum of 5 points.  So the most an image can score is 15 and the acceptance mark for the exhibition is 12.  I was a helper at the judging day and was amazed to see the judges rattling through the pictures looking at each one for less than 8 seconds.  To get selected an images has to have instant impact and no distractions.

BPS Mono Acceptances:

Adrian Halford - Tall Ships and Tower Block and Paws For Thought (HC)

Pip Wheatcroft - The Viking





BPS Colour Acceptances:

Ralph Duckett - Honesty

Robert Belcher - The White Room

Sandie Holyland - Hellebore and Evening Stroll through Dunes

BPS PDIs Acceptances

Jacqui Davey - In Flight Club

Pip Wheatcroft - Surf Action and Woodpecker in Rain

Robert Belcher - Early Light on Rocks

 In the MCPF AGM, Ralph Duckett, our outgoing BPS President, took over from Judith Parry as President of the MCPF.

The exhibition is the best of the work comming from each club, so to even be chosen to represent your club is an honour.  The accepted PDIs were set to music and shown, simply stunning.  The variety and quality of work on display  was breath taking and inspirational.

I would encourage all photographers to visit these exhibitions if they have a chance. Look at the hard copy of these images, assess print quality, be swept away by the PDS and share a thoroughly enjoyable day with like minded folk.



LRGT Web Site June 2012

I'm a committee member of the Leicester and Rutland Gardens Trust and do the photography for them.We have an annual celebrity which raises funds for our Schools into Gardening Fund.  Chris Beardshaw did a great job last year.

With some of the funds raised we were able to organise a trip to Kelmarsh Hall in Northampton for children from Belgrave St Peters C of E Primary, and I was there to record the day.  Pictures were to be used for our web site and for a record for the the school and Kelmarsh.

Kelmarsh is a special place, from the web site
Built for the Hanbury family in the 1730s by virtuoso architect, James Gibbs and builder, Francis Smith of Warwick, Kelmarsh Hall was praised by historian Nikolaus Pevsner as, “a perfect, extremely reticent design, done in an impeccable taste.”

One other arbiter of fashion to leave her mark on the Hall was Nancy Lancaster. Drawn by the house’s fine bone structure, her taste for combining comfort with formality set the trend for the Twentieth Century’s Country House look.

Her spirit still pervades the house today in the delicate terracotta colouring of the Great Hall, the exuberant Chinese wallpaper and seasonal flower arrangements.

Well, a great time was had by all and we felt it was well worth the effort.  Kelmarsh had kindly waived their fee for the day, the kids seemed to enjoy it as did the old uns.
I wanted to take pictures that did not concentrate on individuals and were more abstact. We had permission to photgraph all except one child which made life a little more challenging.

Image processing for the web page is very different and here's the layout

I make up the blocks of images to hold the text in place, separated by white borders

These are 194px by 574px, so low res but you do need good quality to start with.

I particularly liked this one, which seemed to sum up the day.

Here's the link to the page

Playing with a Pin Hole

Why, why, why I don't know. But it was strangely liberating, even though I was wearing substantial undergarments, to head out with a £12 Holga pin hole lens and my Nikon D90.

There is no f stop, no focusing and nothing to look at through the viewfinder.  Exposure is by trial and error, usually over 2 seconds and requires a tripod.  I was having a drive round looking for some trees that I've lost.  Well, I saw them a while back and I've been trying to remember where I was.

Complete waste of time really, but I think it does the mind good to have a stretch and look at things from a different angle every now and again.

Whenever I stand taking photos with a tripod I always get folk coming up to me for a chat, must be the stupid look on my face.  Usually, older blokes come and offer advice and tell me their camera does this or that better than mine and this occasion was no exception.

Having a twitch

I've had a fascination for Fieldfares for a long time.  I leave the fallen apples in my garden, hoping they'll come.  Usually a few 'scouts' appear at the first sign of bad weather.  I set up a bird hide last year in an inverted builders bag and got a few shots and mild hypothermia.

The flock arrived a couple of days ago.  They are very wary birds, much more so than black birds.
Using a Yongnuo wireless remote (£12) I could prefocus on one patch and then wait inside, firing the trigger as the bird coincided with the spot. Much more successful and considerably warmer.

The old English word feldefare perhaps meant traveller through the fields.