October gets over today, and cold rain and winds lash Cambridge. The nights come early. In the midst of all this, a single rose valiantly blooms for the last time in 2012.
Autumn mornings offer a great chance to see myriad spider webs drenched in the early morning dew making a million natural necklaces of tiny pearly dew drops. I took these pictures on just one such day. The industrious spider had built this web on the clothesline overnight.
1/60 f/5.0 ISO200 with flash1/60 f/5.0 ISO200 with flash1/60 f/5.0 ISO200 with flash
I am constantly amazed at the persistence of the spider to continually attempt to make a web in the most unlikely of places, day after day. Maybe there is a lesson in it for us all…. Technical details
I seem to have forgotten to post this photograph of a British butterfly to go with the other two I have posted before. The picture is that of a common blue butterfly. The males are bluish in colour but the females have varying amounts of blue.
Common blue – female
Seems like a good way to remember the summer gone by and the dreary winters yet to come!
Last week I had this really nice bunch of gold-coloured roses and I wanted to try out my photography skills using a remote flash on commander mode. I placed the flash on the tripod and right angles to the photograph with some interesting results. One of two of these are with the flash on the camera, but can you tell the difference?
head-on flashexternal flash behind rosesexternal flash behind rose to the rightexternal flash at right angles to the camera. Light coming from the left.External flash right angles to camera from left. Longer exposure.external flash about 45 degrees to camera in a V arrangement
The main advantage I found to having an external remote flash was to be able to play with the colours and backgrounds. No post-processing carried out for any of these pictures. The roses too look different depending on the light source.
What do you think? Click on any image to see a full-size view.
The last two days I’ve strolled out at lunch time with just my iPhone. This, of course, is not the best camera in the world but it is handy. Here are a few pictures from the iPhone.
The skies in the picture below were dramatically darker than seen here. I did try to post-process this picture to enhance the black but not too successfully.
The common ivy – possibly the best signal that autumn has arrived. The vibrant reds and oranges highlight and make even the most drab of buildings come to life!!
Ivy adorns a brick garage in the village of Ickleton, CambridgeshireIvy leaf
Other leaves are also changing colour at this time of the year. Soon everything will be barren.
But there is always light at the end of the tunnel 🙂
Footpath between Ickleton and Hinxton villages in Cambridgeshire
All these images were touched-up in the iPhone Snapseed app.
I think sunsets are beautiful. They mark the end of a day, promises of rest and a new beginning with dawn the next morning. The geographical location of Visakhapatnam means that sunsets are always on the side away from the sea, and I’ve never been an early riser to capture sunrise on the sea in the morning.
Sunset over Visakhapatnam as seen from Kailasagiri Hill.
The sunset seen from the Kailasagiri Hill in Visakhapatnam was particularly stunning.
Eastern ghats looking north of Visakhapatnam along the Bay of Bengal.
A beach road runs along the coast from Visakhapatnam to Bheemunipatnam for 46km, a stretch of which can be seen in the photograph above. Bheemunipatham has evidence of early Buddhist culture dating back to the 3rd century AD (photographs of Bheemunipatnam in a future post).
Sunset over VisakhapatnamPalm fronds, sunset and Visakhapatnam
Kailasagiri has huge statues of the hindu god Shiva and his consort Parvati and a small mountain railway that offers scenic vistas of Visakhapatnam and the coast north towards Bheemunipatnam. Kailasa or mount Kailash is the abode of Shiva and Parvati according to hindu mythology. One of the mountains in the Himalayan range is the mountain called Kailash (6638 msl).
Shiva and Parvati statues at Kailasagiri, Visakhapatnam
But all good things must come to an end, and it was with a heavy heart that I left this beautiful place. I could not, however, resist taking one last shot of a glorious golden sunset.
PS: As always you can click on any of the pictures above to see a full size view.
Visakhapatnam (aka Vizag) is a large coastal city in the eastern coast of India in the state of Andhra Pradesh. I am a frequent visitor to this city as this is where my wife’s family live. Vizag is sandwiched in a narrow strip of land between the bay of bengal and the eastern ghats mountain range that runs along the eastern fringe of India. Here are some pictures from my recent visit earlier this year.
Ramakrishna Beach with Dolphins Nose in the backdrop.
Visakhapatnam is an important port on the east coast of India and is the only natural harbour on the eastern seaboard of the country. Due to its strategic importance, it houses the Eastern Naval Command of the Indian Navy.
Submarine museum – The INS Kursura in dry dockINS Kursura – A Kalvari classsubmarine of the Indian Navy
The eastern ghats on which Visakhapatnam nestles offers beautiful vistas of the sea and the city. Prominent among this are the Kailasagiri Hills, a popular spot for visitors.
This lovely photograph is from a close friend of mine who sent it to me a couple of weeks ago. I think this picture covers everything that is beautiful about a rose. I share it here with you with her permission. I have post-processed the picture to get a perfect dark background and remove noise from the photograph.
Juridicious 