All aboard "Kitty"

The sun was shining when we boarded Kitty, but the strong breeze meant there was a distinct nip in the air.  The direction of the wind, along with an incoming tide, meant that we had several false starts before we were finally able to pull away from the quayside.  In the end it took some good old-fashioned pushing and shoving to get us on our way.

Some examples of Homo photographicus, all looking out for "the decisive moment".

By the time we were out in the middle of the estuary the sun had gone in and the wind was absolutely freezing.  Martin - who was significantly more "manly" than me - decided to turn up wearing shorts and sandals.  Needless to say, his goose-pimples were visible at 100 yards!  Other people simply wrapped themselves up as best they could; or, if all else failed, went down below for a hot drink and a piece of cake.

Ken appeared to be looking for divine inspiration.  Not sure whether he received any...

We came back to port under sail, which was a wonderful experience: so quiet and smooth.  As we were returning, Hydrogen was just setting out.

There was also a rowing crew out practising.  Note that the heavy work is being done by women, with the men either chatting or taking pictures.

The crew were a hardy bunch, but even they looked cold as we were docking.

An excellent trip, thoroughly enjoyed by everyone, and it only took about six hours to thaw out completely.

Maldon, Essex

Way back on the 10th of April, Harriet and I joined other members of Cambridge Camera Club and the RPS East Anglia Region for a trip to Maldon in Essex.  The principal aim of the visit was to spend the afternoon on Kitty, a Thames sailing barge, but the morning was occupied wandering around the town and taking in the sights.  The barges looked splendid in their moorings, although at the time I took the pictures they clearly weren't going anywhere!

The statue is of Byrhtnoth, who died in 991 at the battle of Maldon.

There was some bird life around on the mud: mainly gulls of various flavours and black-tailed godwit.

There were also some rather unsavoury examples of Homo photographicus around, but we managed to avoid them - most of the time, anyway.

Back on the quay we spent a while looking at the boats moored there, including an old tug and several Thames barges.

Although the sun was shining it was rather bracing, so we retreated into a pub for a bite to eat before the scheduled sailing time of 14:00.  Look out for the next exciting episode...

A trip to Bristol Zoo

The day after I visited Crufts back in March (yes, it's taken me two months to get round to processing the pictures!) we went for a family outing to Bristol Zoo.  It was the first decent spring-like day of the year, and the Zoo was absolutely heaving with people.  It's not an ideal place for photography anyway as many of the animals are behind very dirty glass (as with the lizard) or in cages of fine wire mesh (as with the red panda).

I wanted to test a new acquisition (a Fuji 1.4x teleconverter, matched to my 50-140/2.8 lens), and the Zoo was an ideal place for this.  I have to say that I'm really rather impressed: there is a very slight loss of sharpness when viewed at 100%, but this is absolutely minimal.  It's perfectly possible to use the combination wide open, and the converter extends the focal length to a very useful 200mm (300mm in full frame terms).  An excellent addition to the kit bag, in other words.

OK, so the black headed gull wasn't exactly an exhibit at the Zoo, but it proved an ideal subject to test the sharpness and contrast of the lens/extended combination!