A drive to Wales on a gloriously sunny afternoon. It's been a while since we visited this lake, but well worth the five hours round trip.

Local wheat field that appears to have survived the recent storms.
I've started a new project, photos taken whilst out walking around the local fields.

Photos from a couple of walks through Milldale, along the River Dove.

View the Map

Well, not exactly the future. But it's the immediate future for my on-line presence. Decided today that I'm going to stick with Flickr and a Blogger account.
The renewal reminder for SmugMug came through; $60 a year for a non-profit hobby is a bit steep. SmugMug is a great product, but I don't make money with it.
I'm sticking with Flickr. Now they've updated the interface I'm pleased with it. Plus family and friends seem to prefer it over other services. I'll host my photos on there and drive the front end with a blog.

Not everyday you get one of these fly over the house. Didn't expect it to get so close, or put down just beyond the edge of town.

Managed to catch this shot as the soldiers were forming up to leave the arena.
I've pushed the contrast a little further than normal to improve the atmosphere.

It’s been a couple of years since we visited this event, staged by English Heritage and held at Kelmarsh Hall. The forecast said that we were going to get a break from the recent heatwave, so off we went.

We needn’t have worried, cloudy all day with the odd spot of drizzle, but not enough to dampen spirits. A busy day, not certain if there was as much there as for the previous event – a few gaps on the field – but the arenas had a full timetable.

Ended up taking the 5D along with 50mm f1.8, 70-210mm f4 and 400mm f5.6. Started off with the 50mm and the 400mm, with the 70-210mm in the car. It wasn’t long before my back was complaining, not helped by a rucksack and water. Half time, returned to the car and swapped the 400mm for the 70-210mm – didn’t seem to help much. This is really beginning to add fuel to my idea that I need a smaller camera system. The X100 is a fantastic camera, but not really flexible enough for an event like this – what to do?