In Search of Fall Colours

Following my last post on the beginning of fall, I have been investigating the best places to see the autumn colours in my area.

I live in the county of East Sussex which is in the south east of the UK but the county of Kent borders East Sussex, hence we visit Kent a lot too.

(The white patch north of Surrey and north west of Kent is London. Also the rest of kent is surrounded by the sea which you can't see on this image. A bit of UK geography!)

After some research it seems there are 2 places which are renowned for beautiful autumn colours:

1. Sheffield Park, East Sussex

This is a National Trust garden of 200 acres which includes rare trees and shrubs set around lakes which give gorgeous reflections. There are plenty of acers, Japanese maples and North American species such as Nyssa, providing some of the best autumn colours.

 2. Bedgebury Pinetum and Forest, Kent

This pinetum holds the world's finest conifer collection. You may wonder how conifers give autumn colour but interestingly, not all are evergreen.

This is what the curator has to say:

"A walk through the Pinetum reveals a variety of trees chosen for their spectacular autumn colour - including liquidamber, tulip, ginkgo, oak, black birch and recently-planted nyssa. The spindleberry and maples are already turning a vivid pink. The cornus amomum is covered in metallic blue berries and, as its leaves start to fall, the Katsura tree fills the air with the smell of candy floss. Around Marshal's Lake the dawn redwoods and swamp cypresses, despite being coniferous, take on various shades of burnt orange and foxy red before shedding their needles."

 I am drooling!

I also read in the newspaper today that the autumn colours in the Uk are going to be particularly spectacular this year due to the weather conditions. We had wet weather early in the summer which meant the trees produced a large volume of leaves which were also retained for longer. Then recently we had some very warm end-of-summer days increasing sugar levels in the trees which will boost colours even further. Now we are getting cooler nights so the leaves will start to turn.

Gosh I love this season : )

I Heart Faces Photo Contest: Scenic B&W

This photo is of my Dad standing in front of Herstmonceux Observatory. I often walk my dog on the fields surrounding the telescopes. We live in rural Sussex in the UK and it is really strange walking through the woods and then suddenly these telescopes appear, it's like something out of a sci-fi movie!

Interestingly, the famous Royal Greenwich Observatory was moved here after the 2nd world war because of the light and pollution in London. In 1967, the giant Isaac Newton telescope was moved to the site and was used for world class astronomical research.

For those of you who are British, the 6 beeps on the BBC news were originally broadcast from the atomic clocks at this site. Now the BBC generates them themselves.

In 1979, the Isaac Newton telescope was moved and is now in La Palma, Canary Islands, on top of an extinct volcano. About 15 years ago the observatory reopened as an educational science centre and was renovated. To me, the telescopes and site still look rather run down but I've never actually been inside.

History lesson over! Check out all the other great scenic B&Ws at I Heart Faces!

Walking at dusk

Yesterday I went for an evening walk down the country lanes with my dog. The sun had very nearly set and the sky was a beautiful mix of blue and orange. When I uploaded the photos, I played around with the fixing options available on windows (I don't yet have photoshop elements). Some were beautiful originally but I had fun chaning the sky colours a bit.

There are lots of things technically wrong with some of the photos, including the blurryness of the leaves photo but I thought that actually added to its winter charm!

Cornelius in the country

My Canon camera now has a name - Cornelius. This name makes me think of sophistication, wisdom, quality. Perhaps this is due to my memory of the character Cornelius from Babar who was the wisest of all the elephants. He is in blue below:

I am home at my parents house in Sussex for the weekend, so it is a chance to try out Cornelius on natural landscapes. I am very much playing around with the settings at the moment so a lots of shots were awful but there were a few decent ones. Firstly some berry tastic pictures:

The dome in the background in the photo above is a disused telescope in an old science observatory.

A few of my Dad and greyhound cross Minty, who had to have his left eye removed a few months ago due to a benign growth.

And lastly a few pictures of what is left of autumn. Everything was looking very wintery today and the beautiful autumn light has gone, it's quite dull and grey but I guess I'll just have ot learn how to overcome that!

I am quite pleased with my first proper try out of Cornelius, we have so much to learn together!

I will go to great lengths . . .

To justify a new camera!

As it says, in the little About Me section, my main reason for starting this blog is to begin a 365 photo project on 01/01/11. I have been casually reading blogs for a year or so now and I started to stumble across some bloggers who posted both interesting posts and stunning pictures.

I really love photography. About 5 years ago, I purchased a Ricoh Caplio R6 digital camera and it has served me well. At the time, I was still in school, and it was quite an investment for me. I have managed to take some pretty good pictures over the years and have won a few prizes in the annual village show which has a photography section.

However, through reading blogs, I discovered sites such as I Heart Faces, where people sumbit photos for a weekly theme. Browsing through the entries, I am always mesmerised by the beautiful, high qualtiy images sumbitted. Realistically, most of these can only be achieved using a DSLR camera.

So here we are in Novemeber. I am a Christmas baby, my birthday is 1 week before Christmas, the 18th December. Around this time of year, people start asking if there is anything I would like for xmas / b.day and usually I can't think of a thing. I really do not need anything and rarely even want anything, I am very happy with my lot! But close relatives always want suggestions and this year there is actually something I do want, and it is this baby:

 This is a Canon EOS 1000D DSLR camera. It is an entry-level DSLR, marketed at beginners, which I very much consider myself to be. I had been dithering between the above and a similar model by Nikon.I have decided to go with the Canon, after reading reviews online. I may also be slightly biased as my Dad worked for Canon for many years and still swears by their products.

So I will be asking relatives for a contribution towards the above. I am actually so excited about it. You know the kind of excitement children feel about Christmas? Well that is how I feel about this camera! I don't think it's the camera itself so much but the thought of all the gorgeous pictures I will take and how much I will learn over the course of the 365 photo project, because I have a LOT to learn.

Last week I took my Ricoh with me to walk my greyhound cross, Minty, in the field next to the nearby science observatory. I wanted to capture some of the autumn colours so was snapping in between throwing a ball for the dog. As we were about to walk back home, I realised my camera was not in my pocket. It has obviously slipped out when I bent down to pick up the ball. I spent ages walking back and forth across the field, which incidentally, had quite long grass, to no avail.

I decided well, that was fate. I obviously am meant to get a new camera! The Ricoh had pretty much had its day. The lens quite frequnetly gets stuck open or closed which drives me round the twist and it is dire in poor light, absolutely dire. I was still hacked off though since I had hoped to still use the Ricoh when I didn't want to lug a larger DSLR with me. Plus there was the memory card inside etc.

Anyway, this had all taken place at my parents' home in East Sussex and I had to go back to my student lodgings in London so my Mum said she would walk the dog on the same field the nest day and have a look for it . . . low and behold she found it, a little soggy but it works fine!!

I shall still order the Canon for Christmas, safe in the knowledge that my unreliable old Ricoh will be available for emergency use!