Crystal droplets
An English Oak tree’s leaf’s surface has captured crystal droplets of rain from the latest shower, balancing the watery baubles until a motion from the wind or another deluge releases their cohesion…
*Shot on a Canon 6d 20.2mp full-frame dSLR using a Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX Macro lens with settings at ISO-400, aperture at f/5.6, spot metering mode and an exposure time of 1/100 seconds*
Sunbathing time
A female Blackbird – complete with dried mud on her beak from foraging for her brood – takes time out from this busy schedule to enjoy some ‘me’ time and relaxes with some personalised sunbathing.
*Shot on a Panasonic Lumix FZ1000 20.1mp digital Bridge camera with camera settings at ISO-80, aperture at f/5.6, spot metering mode and an exposure time of 1/320 seconds*
Golden
Sunbeams burst through a fracture in the clouds over RSPB’s Leighton Moss nature reserve at Silverdale, Lancashire and throw the trees in the foreground into stark, black silhouettes: off in the far background can be seen Heysham, with its huge National Grid wind turbines jutting skyward and both Heysham 1 and 2 nuclear power stations bulging up from the horizon between the trees in the distance.
*Shot on a Canon 600d 18mp dSLR using a Sigma 18-125mm f/3.5-5.6 DC lens with settings at ISO-200, aperture at f/4.5, spot metering mode and an exposure time of 1/4000 seconds*
Bridge 76
This is Bridge 76 on the Lancaster canal at Forton in Lancashire, UK: for whatever reason, the stone bridge has not been used for many years now and has become completely overgrown with vegetation, hence the reason you can see Sycamore tree saplings growing on top of the arch curvature.
*Shot on a Panasonic Lumix FZ1000 20.1mp digital Bridge camera with camera settings at ISO-80, aperture at f/5.6, spot metering mode and an exposure time of 1/60 seconds*
Sneaky
This Cat has been disturbed whilst being sneaky and trying to get close to a Blackbird, although with that electronic collar bulging from its throat, this feline’s killer instincts are probably being ‘regulated’ by some other battery-operated means…
*Shot on a Panasonic Lumix G9 M4/3 mirrorless camera using a Panasonic 100-300mm f/4-5.6 MEGA O.I.S lens with settings at ISO-400, aperture at f/5.6, spot metering mode and an exposure time of 1/640 seconds*
Dovestone quarry slog
A lone rambler approaches the boulders and scree fields of Dovestone quarry at Dovestone reservoir in Greenfield, Oldham, Greater Manchester and is about to enter ‘the slog’ on Saddleworth moor.
(It’s an old picture from around nine years ago, so I can see the errors caused by either myself or the cheap lens I used, but the left-hand side of the picture is out-of-focus: could be a de-centred lens element?)
*Shot on a Canon 600d 18mp dSLR using a Sigma 18-125mm f/3.5-5.6 DC lens with settings at ISO-200, aperture at f/6.3, spot metering mode and an exposure time of 1/500 seconds*
Love on the promenade
A loved-up couple lounge uncomfortably upon a concrete block at the end of the jetty at Sandylands promenade at Heysham in the UK. They are holding hands and gazing upwards, lost in the azure blue sky, their backs jostling with one another for every available inch they can maintain and seemingly oblivious to the spectacular Lake District mountainous view that looms above the river Kent’s estuary mouth off in the distance, just beyond their raised knees.
But I suppose that’s love for you!
*Shot on a Canon 70d 20.2mp dSLR using a Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 IS L lens with settings at ISO-100, aperture at f/10, spot metering mode and an exposure time of 1/320 seconds*
Elegant
This Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) drifts elegantly on the Glasson spur of the Lancaster canal; the water bird glides beneath an oak tree’s overhead canopy, casting its brilliant white head and neck plumage into shades of grey, but its Sun-burnt orange bill still blazes brightly, regardless of the leaf cover…
*Shot on a Canon 7d 18mp dSLR using a Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 IS L lens with settings at ISO-400, aperture at f/4, spot metering mode and an exposure time of 1/250 seconds*
Red-headed cardinal beetle
A Red-headed cardinal beetle (Pyrochroa serratiornis) sits sunbathing perched upon a Hawthorn leaf, its pectinate antenna appearing as personalised tuning forks for picking up other insects’ movements for this predator to then attack.
*Shot on a Panasonic Lumix G9 M4/3 mirrorless camera using a Panasonic Leica 100-400mm f/4-6.3 DG Vario-Elmar Lens with settings at ISO-200, aperture at f/8, spot metering mode and an exposure time of 1/250 seconds*
Queen Victoria
In line with Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee today, here’s a bronze statue of her Great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, looking very regal (but stern) standing aloft in Dalton Square in Lancaster, UK.
(By the way, the green coating is ‘bronze disease’ a process that is caused by water interacting with the bronze, pretty much like the interaction of metal and rust.)
*Shot on a Canon Powershot S95 10mp compact digital camera with camera settings at ISO-100, aperture at f/4.5, spot metering mode and an exposure time of 1/1600 seconds*
Stretch the Horizon 