TestPass.jpg
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WembleyStadium.jpg
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I've been learning to ride a motorbike. I passed my full license test in November then bought a used Honda CB500S in December. Then on Christmas day I took another Wembley Stadium shot. The place looks completely deserted!
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| Picture of me taken by my instructor outside the test centre just after I passed my bike test. | A 2000 Honda CB500S - All mine! :D | A ghostly deserted Wembley Stadium. |
There were lots of fireworks being let off tonight for Divali. Here are a few of the better shots. The first three zoomed in on distant fireworks for a 15 second exposure, while the last one was a much closer rocket taken with a 2 second exposure. As ever timing was critical. Press the shutter at the wrong time and most or all of the fireworks got missed. Meanwhile on the 14th the neighbours were also celebrating. I took some pictures from my window.
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| Fireworks taken with a 15s exposure. | A rocket taken with a 2s exposure. | A roman candle taken with a 1s exposure. | A catherine wheel taken with a 0.5s exposure. | |||
A November rose in the rose garden at Gunnersbury Park. Then later on I zipped over to Lasham Airfield for some Guy Fawkes night fireworks. You can see the drift from right to left due to a westerly breeze. Later on after I got home people were setting off fireworks from a house behind the nearby synagogue. 15 second exposures of the synagogue made for interesting results.
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| Pink dew-covered rose. | Fireworks taken with a 1s exposure. | More fireworks taken with a 2s exposure. | ||||
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| More fireworks taken with a 1.3s exposure. | Guy Fawkes night would not be complete without sparklers! | Two 15s exposures of the Synagogue. | ||
A few pictures taken while on Barnhill. I went up there to take another 3-monthly picture of Wembley Stadium. Also see the Weather page for some spectacular weather piccies from this day.
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| Wembley Stadium. | Crows perched on top of a tree silhouetted against the deep blue sky. | Mushrooms growing on the side of a log and on the forest floor. The flash was necessary in the dark conditions. | |
More pictures from Gunnersbury Park.
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| Two shots of a heron stalking its next meal. | A seagull resting. | Panorama of kids playing in a field in front of very autumnal looking trees. | Crows flying past. Looks soarable in the background! | |
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| Two long range shots of a bird slowly rotating on a platform with wings open. | A holly bush full of ripe berries. | Two more shots of autumnal colours. | |||
Pictures taken during my journey to Aboyne. On the 1st I drove to the Lake District and had a look around. The weather was pants but it was still good fun with some awesome views to be had. After a stop overnight in Carlisle I continued into Scotland on the 2nd via the Forth Bridge.
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| The north shore of Lake Windermere, looking south to the lake, and north into the hills (from the Waterhead area). | Heading into the mountains as I went towards Wrynrose and Hardknott passes. | Up in the mountains. | ||
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| Looking Westwards from the top of Wrynrose pass. Hardknott pass is just visible to top right of 2nd picture. | Another mountain stream between the passes. | Looking up Hardknott pass from the East. It took 1st and 2nd gears to haul that Vauxhall Corsa of mine up there! | Made it to the top! Looking back. | |
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| Looking down the west side of the Hardknott pass. This is the steepest road I have ever driven on! | On the B5289 between Buttermere and the Honister pass, looking East. | Views of the rail bridge to my right and the road bridge as I cross it. Shame about the roadworks and the truck. | ||
First pictures from Gunnersbury Park. I must admit, though, that I find the place a bit bland and too 'sanitised'. Makes for a nice lunchtime walk for the exercise though. But not a patch on Stockley Park which I rather miss.
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| Fungus growing at the base of a tree. | A curious small tree that looks like a good shelter. | These flowers growing under a Sweet Chestnut tree look remarkably like Crocuses, and were growing in large groups in places. | The Sweet Chestnut tree. | ||
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| Spiky Sweet Chestnut seed pods. | There are plenty of squirrels around in Gunnersbury Park. | A flock of Parakeets also live in the park. | ||||
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| Conifer silhouetted against the sky. | Signs that autumn is here. Pretty though. | Well they keep the park very tidy... | |
First pictures from Gunnersbury Park. I must admit, though, that I find the place a bit bland and too 'sanitised'. Makes for a nice lunchtime walk for the exercise though. But not a patch on Stockley Park which I rather miss.
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| The Potomac pond outside the office seen from the back. | Granted the trees are older and bigger here than at Stockley. | Someone flying a kite in the strong breeze as I walked north along the western edge of the park. Crow in foreground of 2nd pic. | One of many resident crows. | Conifer tree silhouetted against the sky. | |
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| I found this ornamental circle close to the northern entrance. | There are a number of old (and some ruined) walls and buildings in the park from a distant past. | A secret passage at the back of the rose garden led to the wildest area of the park. These pics look from both sides. | |||
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| An odd tree with a really knotted trunk and a cape-like canopy. | Palm tree. | The path back to the office. | A curiously bright yellow fungus growing on a felled log. | Admittedly this shot of the EMC clock from the park makes it look like a concentration camp! | Finally the customary autumnal conker shots before I retreat back to the office. | |
I heard the arch was being lit up after dark for a half way stage ceremony, so of course I had to take a picture. There were fireworks but I could not get any good stills. I didn't have a tripod which was a major problem. And resting my camera on the ground mainly resulted in wonky shots. But here's one that came out OK.
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| The Wembley Stadium arch lit up. |
About 20 minutes from the new office in Brentford is Gunnersbury nature reserve - a small triangle of land surrounded by railway tracks. I found it by accident about a week or so ago. This time I returned with my camera.
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| A typical path through the reserve. | Crossing a pond. | Windy steps over a small hill. Looking up then back down from the top. | ||
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| From the hilltop the main pond can be seen. | Two more pond shots from opposite sides. | On my way back out of the reserve. | |
Time for the summer 2004 shot of the work-in-progress new Wembley Stadium. Shame it was rather hazy.
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| Wembley Stadium on a hazy and very hot summer's day. |
I slept in a tent this evening for the first time since I was a kid. So of course I couldn't resist taking the odd picture. This was pitched at Parham Airfield where I was staying for the Interclub League Gliding competition. I also couldn't resist taking pictures of an aerobatic remote controlled aeroplane as it got dark.
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| The tent pitched near the clubhouse. | The view inside the tent. | A remote controlled aerobatic aeroplane. | |
Pictures of landmarks from the air. On my way back from a business trip I managed to capture the London Eye and the Wembley Stadium arch from the air as the aeroplane was in the circuit for Heathrow Airport. The slightly poor vis did make the London Eye in particular a bit hazy looking though. However the view of Wembley was great, despite the vis, because the arch totally dominates the local landscape.
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| The London Eye from several thousand feet up and quite a few miles away. | Two shots of Wembley Stadium from the East and from the South as the plane came in to land. The second was probably from only 1000 feet up. Barnhill is clearly visible too, just above and left of the crane just to the right of the arch. | |
Grass Hoppers and Hazelnuts. In "The Wasteland" (see 24th June) the Grass Hoppers exist in huge numbers. This was one of the largest. On the other side of the Golf Course I found Hazelnuts growing in what seemed like their thousands. Shame they are not likely to be ready before my company moves offices away from Stockley Park. I also found an interesting and deadly looking toadstool.
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| 2-3cm long Grasshopper | Hazelnuts | Toadstool (2-3cm across) | |
More time spent up Barnhill and around Stockley Park. A note about "The Wasteland" is that I have spent a lot of time in this area of long grass and weeds recently, where I have obtained a lot of pictures of butterflies, moths and other creatures. This is once really diverse area for macro sized wildlife.
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| Those Barnhill pond ducklings (last seen 23rd May) are growing up. | Yet another shot of the rising Wembley Stadium arch. | A large raft of lilly pads on Barnhill pond. | A wall of blossom maybe 10 feet high. This was where I found Red Admirals feeding on the 11th. | |
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| A curious green bug on a blackberry flower. | Hoverfly resting on a blade of grass. | Goslings passing my office window. The parent geese were just off the picture to the left. | "The Wasteland". |
More wildlife and Wembley Stadium pics.
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| A shield bug posing for me nicely. | Wembley Stadium from Stockley Park, Shaftesbury Avenue near my house, and from Barnhill. | ||||
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| Some kind of hopper on my monitor. | Signets. | Bee Orchid closeup. | Wembley Stadium from Stockley Park again. Look how that arch has risen over 3 days. | Mmm tasty. I've been growing radishes from seeds. |
Various bugs in Stockley Park.
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| Clover closeup. | Two yellow ladybirds mating. | Spider with what looks like a deformed leg. | |
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| A 2-spotted ladybird. | A curious metallic coloured bug that looked a bit like a tiny robot. | ||
I went up Barnhill again to get a new shot of Wembley Stadium as the arch is currently being raised. It's only half way up but already it looks rather impressive, and dominates the landscape.
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| Wembley Stadium. | A huge fern leaf passed on the way back down the hill. |
Cute ickle ducklings speeding past on the Barnhill pond made it hard to get a good focus, plus more various Stockley Park and Kenton closeups.
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| A train of ducklings speeding past. | 2-3mm flower. | 1cm flower. | Super closeup of the centre of a Pansy. | Fly | Flower |
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| Bumblebee feeding on a dandelion. | Garlic Mustard plants. | Tiny 1-2mm beetle. | Daisies. | Tiny 5-10mm hopper. | Hoverfly. |
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| Bumblebee and ant on bean flower. | Purple flower columns. | |
A few more closeups from Stockley Park on the 7th, including the closest I have ever got to a Ladybird. This was achieved by using manual focus, and setting the focal distance to the smallest possible distance of 5cm. To get any closer I need to use my closeup filter. So on the 11th (pictures 4 - 7) and 13th (pictures 8 - 10) that is exactly what I did.
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| My closest ever shot of a Ladybird. | Large 4-5cm daisy. The centre is so much more complex than the 2cm ones. | Yet another flower - also 4-5cm across. | Holly flowers. | Spider on its web. |
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| Insect having just been caught by a spider. | Super-closeup of a 1cm blue flower. | Another super-closeup of a ladybird. | Insect. | 1cm spider. | Signets. |
I went into Central London in the afternoon with two cousins. It had been raining all day but the rain stopped and the sun came out just as we hopped aboard the London eye. That was lucky! Then after the Eye we went for a wander along the South Bank to the Millenium Bridge before returning home again, passing the Eye again on the way out.
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| Arriving at the London Eye. | Just climbed aboard and starting to climb up the north side of the Eye. Itai is really enjoying himself. | |||||
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| Looking down from half way up. | Charing Cross station. | Waterloo station. | Buckingham Palace. | The view Northeast from the top of the wheel. |
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| A panorama taken from the top of the London eye. Unfortunately I had a number of problems stitching it together as you can see, but despite this it is still a great panorama of Central London. |
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| The Foreign Office. | The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. | The British Telecom tower. | The Wembley Stadium cranes are just barely visible. | The impressive brand new building that looks like a gurkin. |
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| A look back down at the avenue in front of the Eye. | County Hall. | Westminster bridge. | The view South. | The transmitter at Crystal Palace. | Starting to descend the South side of the Eye. |
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| St. Thomas' hospital. | Looking at Hungerford bridge through the wheel. | A boat passing under Westminster bridge. | Back on the ground, we spotted this mime artist on the South Bank. |
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| Looking West, East, South and North from the middle of the Millenium bridge. I must comment this bridge seems much more boring now they have solved the wobbling issue. :o) | |||
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| Looking East - Tower bridge behind Southwark bridge. | Itai and me on the Millenium bridge. | On the way back I took one more picture of the Eye. And boy did it come out well! The sun silhouetted the wheel just enough to make it a rather arty pic. |
I went for a wander around Barnhill before lunch and the Grand Prix. Most of the walk was out in the fields surrounding the wooded hill. But the most notable part of the walk was seeing the carpets of bluebells in the woods. The pictures don't show it, but they almost seemed to glow in the shadow of the trees.
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| Bluebells lining a path through the woods. | A clearing lined by tall trees. Looking right then left. | More bluebells and white equivalents. | The largest patch of bluebells I have ever seen. The 1st picture is zoomed in. The 2nd picture shows the whole patch. It was like a carpet from a distance. | ||
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| A hazy view northeast from near the top of the hill. | Panorama south to east from northeast bank. Last time I took a panorama of this lake it was half frozen. What a difference 3 months makes. | A view of the Wembley Stadium cranes from the hilltop lake. | Wembley Stadium. | Closeup of a part of a large carpet of yellow 2cm flowers. |
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| Closeup of tiny (~5mm) white flowers. | Looks like some kids were here first. | More bluebells. | A closeup of the moss on the log in Bluebells5.jpg. | |
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| Another small clearing on my way down the hill. | The path leading down the hill and out of the woods. | Looking up the trunk of a huge ancient oak tree guarding one entrance to the woods. |
More images of spring.
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| More spring blossom. The blossom this year is very impressive. | Tiny (2-3mm) flowers. | Small(1cm head) mushroom. | My closest shot yet of a ladybird. | Bluebells seen from underneath. | ||
Back to Stockley Park. Just managed to take a few more experimental flower pics before the camera batteries died and a thunderstorm moved in. Then later on a tiny spider posed for me around sunset.
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| Two overhead tulip shots. Plus a view of the red one from underneath thanks to the twisty flipout screen. | Bluebells also as seen from underneath. | Whitebells? | A tiny (4mm) spider on my window, seen from underneath. | |||
As the weather was gorgeous I stopped off at Horsendon Hill near Greenford on the way home just to see what was there. The results were excellent. The place was huge, with plenty of great views and miles of common land to walk around. I headed straight for the hill top, a couple of miles from where I parked the car, before returning through the woods and grass fields bordered by tall walls of blossoming bushes. These bushes also hosted lots of Peacock Butterflies fighting it out for mates, as well as some Commas and the odd Brimstone and White butterfly.
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| In the distance you can see where I parked the car (next to the shopping centre. | The Wembley Stadium cranes | Descending through the woods down the South side of the hill. The 3rd picture looks back up the hill. As a glider pilot I note that those thermal clouds are atleast 6000 feet high! | Bluebells starting to flower in the undergrowth. | ||
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| The Grand Union Canal is just to my left (Southwest). | View back up the hill to the northeast from a bridge over the canal. | View of the path to the west back to the car. |
Too many flowers. But the smaller weedy flowers can be surprisingly pretty when viewed closeup.
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| Dandelion Seed Pod. | Dandelion. | These flowers look remarkably like orchids closeup. | Tiny (1-2mm) flowers. I think this plant is a touch-me-not but not sure. | Yet more blossom pictures. | |
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| The same type of flower as seen on 23rd April 2003 (~5mm) now seen even closer. | My best shot yet of a crow. | A standard 2cm garden daisy as you've never seen it before. The dark patch at the bottom is my shadow. | About time we got some more duck pictures. |
Found a Bee Fly sitting on the job.
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| A Bee Fly resting. Focus was very difficult because of the wind blowing the branch everywhere. | |
Opportunistic shot of a bird. Plus evidence of spring.
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| This bird kept wagging it's tail. Preparing for mating season perhaps? | Yellow Crocus popping up out of the grass. | More evidence of spring emerging. | A rapidly growing bed of nettles. | A ladybird exploring the nettles. | Closeup of tiny flowers (less than 1cm across). |
I went to a concert this evening. I had also got asked to take some pictures, so for the first time I tried taking pictures at a heavy metal gig. The conditions were very challenging as the camera doesn't handle the dark very well, especially with the rapidly changing stage lights. I also couldn't get anything useful below ISO 200, so the pics were a little grainy too. Despite that I had a good vantage point at the top of the stairs above the main floor, and some interesting pics emerged. Unfortunately fewer Dragonforce pics were salvageable than Heavenly pics for some reason. Read the review in the gigs section for full details. But judge the pics for yourselves:
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| One of the test shots taken before the start. The room was packed! | The support band was called Heavenly. | Slow exposure with no flash. Turned out surprisingly psychadelic. | A dark closeup of the lead singer. | ||
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| Heavenly about to leave the stage. | Dragonforce burst on at full speed. | The beginnings of a stage invasion at the end. | ||||
At approximately 5pm on 28th a thundery cold front swept down rapidly from the arctic and dumped a couple of centimetres of snow in just an hour. It started off as heavy rain. 5 minutes later it was a howling blizzard and everything outside got plastered. However this snowstorm was not as bad or as heavy as 30th January last year. After it cleared the slush on the roads and pavements promptly froze, turning everything into an icerink. So unable to get to work on the 29th I worked from home. At lunchtime I swapped my normal walk around Stockley Park for a walk up the local hill - Barn Hill - which has a wooded area and ponds at the top.
There are more pictures in the weather gallery too, including a couple of panoramas.
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| This is what greeted me when I left the office. The bright dots are large snowflakes reflecting the flash. | Just after midnight this 15 second exposure reveals the view northwards from my window as an eerie orange-white landscape under the streetlights. | The view out of the back door the morning after. | My car was clear, but the Cavalier wasn't! | ||
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| Looking up and down the trail as I crossed from the Jubilee line to the woods. | Walking through the woods up to the top of the hill. | Looking back down the hill. I wish I had a sled! | |||||
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| The half frozen pond at the top of the hill from opposite sides. | Those Wembley Stadium cranes as seen from Barn Hill. | Bird Tracks. | On my way back down the hill. | |||
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| A row of brambles. | A zoom-in on the brambles reveals hoar frost on the snow. | Crow | Magpie | |||
More Stockley Park pictures.
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| The cranes building the new Wembley Stadium, as seen from Stockley Park. | Blimey a flowering plant in January... |