Friston Forest

Came across this cute thing running around enjoying himself in Friston Forest.



Interesting how you look one way and it looks like autumn, turn your head and it looks like spring.

Challenge

OK, I'm going to start taking this photo blog seriously now. My aim is to take at least one interesting, presentable photo EVERY day. But I'm not saying how long I'm going to do this for. I know myself well enough not to make a promise of doing this for a whole year, 365 days. I'm not ready for that yet. Then again - who knows! I shall see how it goes.



This photo wasn't taken especially this challenge in mind, but just happens to be the only fairly presentable photo I took today, during a lovely walk in Friston Forest with my funny dog. I seem to be fond of vignetting recently. AND I've used the square format a few times.

From tomorrow I will be making a conscious effort to challenge myself every day.

Flash at Friston Forest

Practised flash use at Friston Forest today.






Don't know how Miles managed to get such a crazy photo of me...

Friston Forest in detail

We went to a different part of Friston Forest today, and I thought I'd take some small detail photos this time. But it wasn't going to happen today; didn't get excited about anything I saw. I was hoping to see some interesting shrooms, but it's been too dry (for a change!) recently. Then I remembered that I've been meaning to test whether it is possible to use macro extension rings with the Canon 100-400mm lens. So I thought I'd give it a try.



Absolutely! OK, what can we find to take photos of...






All the above photos are straight from the camera non-cropped, focal length 390mm shots, taken from hmmm maybe about 50-70cm from the subject. The closest focusing distance of the Canon 100-400mm lens is 1.8m, but with the macro extension rings the closest focusing distance is reduced, thus the subject appears bigger in the frame. When I was on the Sussex Summer Safari with David Plummer earlier this year, first off I started taking photos with the 100-400mm, but soon realised that due to the 1.8m minimum focusing distance of the lens it wasn't practical at all when trying to take photos of butterflies. That's when I got the idea of trying macro extension rings with it, and although David said he wouldn't do it, I'm actually quite pleased with the results: I can take the shot from a lot further away than when using my 70mm (Canon 24-70mm "macro"). So until I buy myself a true macro lens, I'll have a little play with this interesting combination.

Second visit to Friston Forest

We did a long, two-hour walk in Friston Forest today. It's a lovely forest to walk in, and even more fun when you see the doggie enjoying it so much. The only worry being that he dislocates his tail by wagging it too much!

I took different kind of photos today. What started as a misfire: a second exposure of the same shot while I already started lowering my camera off my face after the shot I thought I was taking (had the camera in 'continuous' mode and pressed a little too hard and too long (ooo arrr), resulting in an unintended second shot)...



..surprised me by being quite interesting, so I took another one like it, only with a slightly longer shutter speed...



...and continued to explore this method...









...and noticed this cool effect:



When you pan the camera diagonally with a wide angle lens, the above is what kind of lines you end up with. Looks impossible to have two "centres of movement" (in two opposite corners of the frame) with only one, straight-line movement of the camera, but there you go! Of course it's the same effect with the horizontally and vertically panned photos, but I only realised it when I looked at the diagonally panned one.

A detail from one of the photos - could stand alone as an abstract, I think. Love this stuff.



Then back to more conventional shots.



There's a pond in the area so I tried to get Zebedee to swim finally, but he wouldn't. He waded in the water after a stick, and for the first time went into water deep enough to reach almost the top of his back, but he wouldn't go further. And I thought springers loved water! Obviously not this one. Not yet, anyway. (Apart from the time he fell into the lake in Piddinghoe while playing with a flat coated retriever!)



On the way back to the car we saw this couple training their huskies to pull a self-made cart on wheels. Just for them to get the exercise they need to be happy huskies. ;-)





View of Cuckmere River.



We decided to go and have dinner at the George Inn in Alfriston. And a fine dinner it was, too! (As always at the George Inn; highly recommended for all foodies!) After the delicious dinner I grabbed a shot of the patio of one of the neighbouring restaurants (Moonrakers).



...and the local church.

Friston Forest

Today we went for a longer walk in Friston Forest. The puppy was very very excited and ran around wagging his tail like nobody's business. He must have covered about 10 times longer distance than I did during the 1.5 hours.






(OK, this pretty house wasn't in the forest, but right next to it.)










In the evening we walked along the river to Piddinghoe and back.

New place for a walk

Today we went to Friston Forest for the first time. Some people I've met on walks in Newhaven have recommended it, so we decided to go and check it out. We didn't actually walk a lot in the forest itself, but came across a practice horse race track on these lovely fields:



There were a few jumps further on in another field, and then we saw these "portable" starting gates for the practice race track.



On a whim I went down on the grass to take a photo from a low position, and as soon as I did, as usual, Zebedee came over to see what I was up to...



...followed by Miles who took a picture of us.



A cool-looking mongrel we met on the walk.



Just one photo from the forest itself. Next time we'll walk a little further and venture more into the forest.