I'm not afraid of the dark.

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A day out on the levels through the Enchanted wood, over Aqueduct bridge and on the Hamwall, quick blast through Shapwick then finishing at Westhay. This is the usual route for The EFRS our other blog about birding. I did take but decided to give the fisheye a rest today. It was all about the 50mm f1.4 and 35mm f3.5 Takumars.

So first stop the Enchanted wood

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And so to Hamwall were Autumn was starting to kick in

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Final stop Westhay. The light was starting to get rather good and I took advantage in the Autumnal afternoon.

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This area is famous for its Starling murmurations. These chaps where on their way to Shapwick or Hamwall for the evening. The light was really fading as I stood and enjoyed the evening calm. Not spooky in the least but a nice calm with occasional bird calls as they made sure everyone was present and the rush of Starlings over head.

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The final stop was for this shot just before Godney. Fab blood red sunset!

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Then it all went a bit.... erm..... dark!

Ok Birt

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As someone once said, 'I prefer to be far from the madding crowd' but it had to be done. It was the first proper weekend when Westonbirt Arboretum would be in full swing with the autumn colours plus the schools had just broke up for the break. What else would you expect but this........

A madding crowd

But the cliche had to be done for the year and so it began. The kit consisted of Canon 6D with Takumar 17mm Fisheye, 35mm f3.5, 50mm f1.4 and 100mm f4 macro. It started out with mostly the 35mm then onto the 50mm and fisheye.

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Waiting (After a photograph by my brother Peter)

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Not sure what happened here. The light must have bounced around somewhere but it has a certain charm

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17mm fisheye

Then I had a play with an trick I tried a while ago. Works great with a fisheye but any wide angle will do. If you don't know how, you set your camera to a longish exposure of about 1/30th to 1/50th then as you press the shutter you twist trying to keep the lens as the fulcrum. You then get this rather cool bottle bottom effect.

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I particularly like this one. It reminds me of Cezanne

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Another Cezannesk

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This ones a bit watery

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feeling a bit sick now!

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The colours at Westonbirt are amazing but due to it's own success I suggest popping along on a week day and not on a school holiday weekend. It's best appreciated when you've got the place a bit more to yourself.