Photography – Page 20 – David Bradley

Oak apple day

An oak apple or oak gall is the common name for round, vaguely apple-like, galls formed on many species of oak, they’re usually and inch or two in diameter. They grow when a female wasp of the family Cynipidae (commonly in Europe, the waspÂ Biorhiza pallida)Â lays a single egg in a developing leaf bud. The larva that emerges secretes chemicals that cause the tree to pump nutrients into the “infected” leaf bud and the larva then feeds on the gall tissue.

There were numerous oak apple growing on this tree (Quercus robur, commonly known as the pedunculate oak or English oak) growing in the centre of Rampton Pocket Park.Â Oak Apple Day (or Royal Oak Day) used to be a public holiday in England held on 29th May to commemorate the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660, alluding to him purportedly hiding in an oak tree during the English Civil War.

Great spotted fledgling

The Great Spotted Woodpecker chick (Dendrocopos major) I have been photographing these last few days is getting very bold and almost bouncing out of his tree house when the adults visit with food.

I am surprised that there is only one chick, maybe nest size limits how many eggs the female lays. Either way, this little fellow with his red crown (does that make him a male?) is clacking away requesting regular invertebrate meals from the male (with the red nape to his neck) and female (black and white, but for her rump). Mrs Sciencebase reckons the clacking of the adults from neighbouring trees is probably encouragement for the chick to fledge (we’ve not heard much calling from them). The chicks head seems at least as big as hisÂ mother’s, so presumably he is almost read to leave the confines of his woody abode.

Here are a few more shots of male and female attending to the needs of the chick. That beak is sharp, makes sense for Dad to close his eyes whileÂ passing grubs beak to beak.

Speckled brown butterfly

Snapped a speckly brown butterfly in the local woodland, went to my book…misread the page pictures, thought it was a woodland brown (Lopinga achine), but 1 AND 2 were of the same speckled brown species, the woodland brown is absent from British shores. Turns out to be a female speckled brown (Pararge aegeria). A lot less timid and flitty than many of the butterflies around, sunning itself on a nettle patch while I walked around it to get a couple of closeups. I was using a 600mm lens from about 3 metres away, but had to walk closer to it along the path to get to the other side for the open-wings view.

Thanks to Lisa King for correcting the error, I have now added the speciment to my invertebrates gallery on Imaging Storm.

Kingfisher – Alcedo atthis

UPDATE: 21 Jan 2019. If a male Kingfisher joins this female on the Cottenham Lode then we can hope for Fisher Princes and Princesses by late spring 2019.

The common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) unmistakable at the river bank if you’re quick enough to hear the “pip pip” just before it darts across the water and out of sight. You may well spot one perched on an angled branch or mooring staring keenly at the surface investigating the depths with speary intent.

Unlike many other species, numbers seem to be on the rise in the UK, personally I’ve seen them fishing regally in at least four different locations over recent weeks [this was January to February 2017]. However, it was only with the acquisition of a flashy new lens that have I been fortunate enough to get a shot of one.

The scientific binomial for this bird derives from the Latin alcedo (from the Greek for kingfisher, halcyon) and Atthis, who was a beautiful young woman of Lesbos, and favourite of Sappho. If you were wondering about that former word, halcyon, its etymology can be found here, suffice to say that its modern meaning of calm and peaceful, as in halcyon days of yore, refers to calm weather before the winter solstice. At that point in the calendar, a mythical bird (something like a kingfisher) was said to build its nest on the calm seas. Hence halcyon days are those times when it’s sufficiently calm that you could something as odd as build a nest on the sea! The word has nothing to do with conception nor salt as some sources claim.

How to photograph Christmas starbursts

UPDATE: November 2023. This year’s tree on the village green

UPDATED December 2022, signed with my dB/ logo using my phone flash to create a light trail during the 30-second exposure.

2021:

2021

2020:

2019:

2018:

The important point in getting the starburst effect is to use as small an aperture as possible. So, this was f/22 on my Canon 6D. ISO was kept low (around 500) to avoid noise, but that meant the shutter needed to be open a long (30 seconds) to allow enough light in to capture the image, which means you need a steady tripod and a timed shutter release (or remote shutter release) to avoid blur from camera shake.

I snapped a few night-time shots of the Christmas tree and lights on our village green this weekend. I did a few “pulling” the zoom with a fairly low shutter speed so that I got some nice drawn out light effects from the tree and the Xmas lights encircling The Green in Cottenham.

Having seen the starburst lighting effect in a fellow photographer’s photo of the same scene, however, I thought I’d grab my tripod and have a go at reproducing that effect too. I didn’t want to copy their composition so had to duck and dive about, avoiding the odd looks from dog walkers on The Green and Christmas shoppers jumping off the city bus.

The starburst effect is not a filter nor an app nor any Photoshop trickery. As with much in photography (even digital) it is a scientific phenomenon. The formation of the starbursts where lights are bright in the photograph is down to diffraction of light around the edges of the fins that make up the camera’s “iris”, the aperture.

You can just see the red rear lights of a car that passed as I was taking the photo (around the tree on the right-hand side). The light trails from cars and buses were much more sensational in some of the other shots, especially ones I took looking towards Cottenham Village College. One in particular embedded the College’s steel sculpture and looks like some kind of futuristic biker racing past.

Fall Sky

It’s always quite intriguing where conversations on social media end up. I posted a photo on Facebook of the view from my office at sunset last week, the sky was quite vivid and red and it was a nice shot. One friend, music PR and singer Jo Forrest, whom I first met when we recorded together at Abbey Road Studios years back (as part of one of The Really Big Chorus, TRBC, events with Karl Jenkins) said she loved the colours and thought it would make a nice top.

I sent her the original photo and she had it made up by one of those sites that prints photos on to teeshirts, leggings, bedspreads, mugs, and wallclocks etc. Works well…maybe I should take more sunset photos, the Society6 lets you produce duvet covers, shower curtains, iphone covers, scatter cushions and much more besides…

Photo of Jo was taken by Adam Forrest.

“My mum says I’m a butterfly as I’m drawn to bright colours,” Jo tells me, “so when I saw this picture on Facebook last week instantly fell in love with it. That’s the way I tend to clothes shop too, this photo was perfect for a top and printed and delivered within a couple of days.”

Via Riccardus Filius

Currently underway is the demolition of the ancient residences of Via Riccardus FilliusÂ onÂ the site of what is nowÂ Newcastle University; known in the modern tongue as the Ricky Road flats. The department of archaeology has been on the site for several weeks and has so far unearthed at least 17 traffic cones, thought to be terracotta, although possibly a primitive polymer-fibreglass composite.

ricky-road

They have Â also identifiedÂ several fossilised cloak laboratorium, many of which still carry coinage, quills,Â spatulae and eyeware inÂ frayed and stiffened pouches, or pockets. The sophisticaed chemical testing method of mass spectrometry has been used to identify theÂ faint alchemical odour as being due toÂ acetone and pyridine degradation products thought toÂ have been used in pyrotechnic rituals.Â Atomic absorption spectromometry, AAS, has also identified traces of sodium known to haveÂ been present asÂ flakes of desiccated sodium hydroxide used as a method of tortureÂ or in the emascalation of errantÂ eunuchs.

The biology team, meanwhile, is busy extracting and sequencing DNA from fatty deposits (some containing lustrous red pigments) and foamlike fermentation residues from the rimÂ and interior of pint potsherds originally used by Bacchus, circa AD 85 (AD 1985, that is).

terra-cotta-traffic-cones

We have attempted to contact one expert of the era a Professor(?) Smell(?) for comment on the legend of the so-called “Bridge Pool”, thought to be the site of at least one near-gladiatorial encounter that took place somewhere between Segedunum and the Priory at the mouth of the Tyn river (known in the modern era as Wallsend and Tynemouth). However, evidence from Stephanus Negotianis suggests thatÂ event most likely took place closer to one of the many viaducts or walksways used by merchants and centurians alike to cross the ancient water course. There were significant numbers of broken potsherds and slanderous graffiti enscribed on the stone walls of buildings identifiedÂ asÂ local hostelries as well as the interiors of ablution houses of the period that provide further evidence of this and related episodes.

Under the radar in Valletta, Malta

If you’re looking for a fascinating capital city that flies somewhat under the tourist radar, take a look at Valletta, Malta, it’s European Capital of Culture for 2018, so be a hipster and visit sooner rather than later.Â And, don’t miss theÂ rabbit at the quirkiest of quirky restaurants Angelica and have a pint in The Pub (where Ollie Reed popped his proverbial clogs).

There’sÂ the city’s (in)famous grid layout, the Grand Harbour, the oldest record shop (in the world?), the piers (andÂ St Elmo’s Bridge), The Three Cities (a â‚¬2 euro ferry ride, ask for a return ticket), the Basilica of our Lady of Mount Carmel, the phone boxes and pillar boxes, evening jazz, the Knights of St John stuff (buildings and chapels etc) and the co-cathedral and, of course, Renzo Piano’s ~~new~~Â City Gate and a whole lot more…

A few of my snaps from our visit here on the Sciencebase Flickr page.

Give them the vees…

Today’s Maltese memory brought to you by the letter V

Vacation, vacuum, vagina, vain, Valentino, Valium, vague, Valletta, vanity, Van Gogh, vanish, variation, V.A.T., Vatican, vasectomy, Vaseline, vegetarian, V-Day, velocity, venereal disease, vendetta, venial sin, venture, vent, ventilation, ventriloquist, Venus, veritas, vernacular, vermouth, versus, velvet, vermillion, vessel, Vesuvius, victim, V.I.P., vice versa, vicious circle, Vicky, victory, video, vino, violence, violin, virgin, virile, Virgin Mary, virtuoso, virtue, Viagra, vibration, vice, vicinity, vicious, viper, virus, visceral, vision, visitation, vitamin, V-sign, vixen, vocabulary, vocation, vociferate, vodka, voice, void, voluntary, volatile, volcano, volume, voluptuous, voltage, vomit, voracious, vote, voyage, voyeur, vulgar, vulva

Photographers’ rights in the UK

Photographers’ rights in the UK*: Basically, you can photograph anyone or anything from a public place. Period. 6’19” in on the video.

Caveats: Photographing Ministry of Defence (MoD) property might sometimes be in breach of The Official Secrets Act, by which everyone is bound whether or not they have signed it. In this era of increased terrorist threat tension, you might also arouse police suspicion if you’re taking detailed photos of known sensitive sites or if you’re repeatedly photographing an individual and it seems like harassment.

But, the police do not have the right to stop you photographing and certainly no office building door staff can, if they try to and threaten you or try to take your camera, you could have them arrested for assault and attempted robbery.

Keep snapping!

*This is under the law of England and Wales, I assume it is valid in Scotland and Northern Ireland too, but there may be variations on the theme there.