Contrasts with Muscat 3a - # 29/2011

The chapel at Ham Common.  Richard commented yesterday mentioning the snese of scale in the photo of the Grand Mosque.  I like the proportions of this little church, and the way it decorates the scene of Ham Common.

Autumn light at Ham Pond - # 90/10

Ham Common pond in the evening light. The reeds are catching the setting sun and the natural brown of Autumn turns to gold. (The red car is now, unfortunately, a permanent fixture in any worthwhile of the pond, darn the ruddy thing!!! I shall have to start experimenting with the cloning and removing tools.)

Bullrushes - # 87/10

Ham Common Pond - Autumn.

The Mandarins are back - # 86/10

We are still lurking around Ham Common Pond, because it's close and very attractive at this time.  This pair of Mandarins recently appeared.  A pair (most likely the same pair) have appeared for about three years running, but never stayed to make a nest. They obviously like the area but something isn't "just right".

See how the male is so magnificent and the female is relatively hard to see and so dull and well camoflaged.

I did not have a telephoto lens mounted, so the quality is a bit scratchy. I've cropped this and heavilly enlarged the fragment using Genuine Fractals.  The original was taken at 70mm (35mm equivalent) at f6.3 ISO800 1/30th sec on an Olympus 14-35mm f2.0.

Four trees with two figures - # 85/10

These days I'm forced to find "a good photo" in the near vicinity and work with what's available when I'm available. That makes you look harder and try to see things in a certain way, or style.

So, everything here is as carefully crafted as I could make it: the perspective, the grouping, the tones, the scene, the shadows, the exposure etc.  But to begin with I saw it and thought "That looks nice. I wonder what I can do with it".  For you it might not work, but for me it's approaching the quality of what I call a "gut wrenching" B&W.  It's not quite there, but near enough and it's all I've got time for at the moment.

After school - # 84/10

Relaxing on the way home from school, enjoying the last superb days of October before November comes.

First sight of Autumn 4 - # 77/10

A couple of years ago the The Arcadia Project within the Thames Landscape Strategy restored the 17th C Great South Avenue leading from Ham Common up to Ham House. The House lies at the very, very extreme end of the photo, about a mile (maybe less; but almost) away.

The young replacement saplings have suddenly turned brown, from one day to the next.

As you can see, RuT is, for a while at least, returning to basics, and simple things.  This is still the best I can do under the cirumstances. The more exotic images I was once striving to achieve will have to wait until the consequences of the fall on the ice last December, have totally cleared up.

First sight of Autumn 2 - # 73/10

Walking across Ham Common I was attracted to the appearance of the water under the willows, the reflections, the shadows and the knarly exposed roots on the eroded bank. The willow leaves have not yet turned brown.  The green reflection in the water was startling. The camera has captured it quite well.

The Dog Show at the local village fair - # 28/10

As most of you know, I don't do "people shots", but this one was so nice, I couldn't resist it.  (The village fair on Ham Common).

The Sentinel - # 09/113

Much dithering over colour or B&W, but I think the colour does it better. The tones seemed to be too much "dark or light" with not enough of that nice gentle grey in the middle.

Here is another variation of the view across the pond at Ham Common, looking due south. The Egyptian goose is guarding his brood of no less than 9 goslings. Mrs (or Mr?) Goose seems to have disappeared. I hope that it has not fallen victim to a passing car, or perhaps a fox. Yesterday's little chapel sits immediately behind the camera. Just swivel the camera round and you get yet another nice photo.

(Sorry about the weird sky, but that's how it is these days).

Three Windows - # 09/112

What's this and why?

On Ham Common there is a small church dedicated to the name of St. Thomas Aquinas. I like the way it looks. And as I looked at it this evening I was attracted to the three windows and the way they look, and tried to do them justice.

Now, the next thing. This is the church where the painter Vincent van Gogh (which name Americans like to pronounce as "van Go" - Why on earth do they insist on pronouncing it like that?) preached his last sermon after which the Roman Catholic Church kindly suggested that perhaps the priesthood was not the right place for him. He might be happier doing something else.

I only recently found this out and was rather tickled to think of the remarkable painter van Gogh preaching in a little church in England, right where I live, before he was sacked and became famous.

(Some of you may have noticed that my normal daily "sermons" have been disrupted. Have patience. They will, I sincerely hope, ease themselves back.)

Clear signs of Spring - # 09/43

...........just as the title says. The pond at Ham Common.

Version 2 - # 09/41

I'm still dithering, so here's the colour version of yesterday's. Which do you prefer?

Sunlight across Ham Pond March 2009 - # 09/40

We've moved away from Surbiton/Kingston back up to Richmond.

Some of you will recognise the Pond on Ham Common with Gordon House behind.

Here's another attempt to capture the brilliant reflection of the sunlight across the water. I dithered over whether to use colour or b&w. Sorry about the cars at the back - but that's the curse of urban living.

You can enlarge the picture by clicking on it. It's full size, so that you can roam around a bit.

(For the technically minded, I confess to a tweak using an "oh, so soft and slight" touch with the very useful Neutral Density Graduated Filter tool in Lightroom 2.3. The shaft of sunlight was OK "in camera" but I felt it needed softening slightly).

Camera: Olympus E3. Lens 14-35mm 1:2

Capturing September # 071630 - # 08/231

To be honest this is one extremely rare "misty September sunrise - 2008". This year the conditions have been wrong, but we can hope that perhaps October will bring some more early morning delights.

It's too early for a "lone figure" to take its place on the seat (I waited for 3 hours, but none came ;-) Ho, Ho)....but it's already "Rush Hour", as you can see by the trail of cars on the main road. The photo is far from being a "stunner", but then this September has been quite disappointing. Today, the "endless" grey clouds are back. Can we hope for a "Golden October"?

The view is looking across Ham Common towards the Petersham Rd.

Wispy reeds by the pond and clouds in the sky - # 08/134

Late evening sky, light, high cirrus clouds, reeds catching the light, as dusk gathers around the pond in Ham.

Four new cygnets on Ham Pond - # 08/121

As promised yesterday - here are the four of them. I'll try to track them through the season, and if really lucky catch them when Daddy is giving flying lessons. He starts by teaching them to lay out a runway and calculate distance.

Mother and child - # -8/120

Great news from Ham Pond! Some time ago I told you the story of the demise of the resident swan family because of the uncontrolled dog. This year the new resident swan (who arrived after a season with no swans at all occupying the pond) found a mate, and four new cygnets hatched out about 3 days ago. I saw the new babies shortly after hatching, but had no camera. Here is my very first, carefully selected, shot (I'll show all four tomorrow).

Camera: Olympus E3

Smile! - # 08/79

It's early Spring and the strong, cold, easterly wind is blowing the smell of German pig manure over a distance of 444 miles all the way to the London area. We lift our noses and give our companion a quizzical look. Is that Germany I can smell? (FACT....listen to the BBC news....so it must be true). Whatever....there IS a smell in the air, and this morning Hamburg pig farmers apologised to Britain.

Cold weather and German pig s**t have not dampened the enjoyment of the travelling fun fair on Ham Common.

Rough Nature - the whole story - # 08/65

Two years ago a dog killed the whole family of swans living on the pond. Last year a new swan took over the empty pond and this year found a mate. Canada geese arrived as usual in winter. This Spring the swans have mated and the Cob is now very aggressively defending "his" pond.

Most of the other Canadas have gone but these two remained. Naturally the powerful aggressive swan is keeping them off the small nesting island. Hour by hour he confronts the geese and refuses to let them onto the water.

I captured the goose as she started to lay and egg on the bank. The swan is keeping the two geese off the water. You can see the egg just starting to emerge. Yesterday you saw it two thirds out.