How Hill Sunset 10th june 2015

Time to go down to How Hill to shoot the Windpumps at sunset , the weather is looking ok so far but not really enough cloud for a good one.
After parking up i go down to the river and walk to the right first as its still ages until sunset time.

                                                        A phone pano of the boat house

 While walking towards Boardmans skeleton mill, i stop and watch two Marsh Harriers hunting over the fields opposite :)     wonderful to see and then as i turn back a Barn Owl flies straight past me with a vole or mouse in its claws!   Amazing!

                                 Turf Fen mill in evening sunlight . shot with 100-400 mm lens.

      As the sun sets the wind has dropped to give mirror reflections , pity there is not much cloud :(

Moving to the end of the staith to shoot this 3 frame hdr merged image.  just after shooting this,  i hear a loud crashing in the reads in front of me,  must be an otter hunting  :)

                       Back to the main subject , this is about as strong a colour that i got unfortunately.

                                                            A Panorama image to finish

                         Walking back to the Skeleton mill for a quick shot before leaving.......

Norfolk pt2 Windpumps and Hummers 6/7 th june 2015

Its Saturday and time for a morning walk around How Hill , this is a skeleton mill called Boardmans Mill , built in 1897 .  this one has now been renovated since we where last here :)

                                                              Looks fabulous in the sunshine :)

Walking upstream ,  i am looking back to Boardmans in this image as we head towards another windpump.   

Here is  Turf Fen Windpump , its a great location for sunset images so will be back one evening this week.....

                A view of the beautiful thatched house on the How Hill estate near the car park :)

Time to go to Strumpshaw fen now to see if i can find any Swallowtails in the early afternoon sunshine , its blowing a gale so i doubt any will be flying.

             My first Dragon shot this year :)   a male Hairy dragonfly, taken along the railway line that borders the Fen,   after ages walking around , no sign of a Swallowtail, but as i get back to the car one flys overhead   Arghhhh  

 I give up , not going to find any so back to the van for dinner and the an evening swim for the Mutts!

       Back to the beach now , its really warm  and the Terrible twosome need a cooling off   lol

                                                            Come on  Hurry up ..........

                   its a beautiful evening on the beach , still warm sunny and they are happy :)

                                      Lovely early evening sun , great to be on the beach :)

Its early afternoon Sunday  , as we came over the dunes this morning from walking the dogs  i noticed loads of Painted Ladies that have just come over from Europe helped by the strong winds, they are feeding on the red valerian on the sheltered side of the dunes.
i love the yellow tree lupins , they are everywhere but have only noticed bumble bees feeding on the bright yellow flowers.

I have put on my long 100-400mm lens with an added 12mm extension tube to allow closer focusing. there is a fence preventing me getting close to the flowers, so will have to shoot from 4ft minimum.

                                                                   Take off..............

While shooting this Painted Lady a Hummingbird Hawk moth buzzes in to feed  Yay!       as i look around , another 3 or 4 are flying fast in between the flowers feeding sporadically.
      I rarely see these back home , so spend ages watching and trying to shoot them while hovering .

They are staying at least 4- 5 ft away , so i have to crop a fair bit for these pics ...  all are shot with manual focus on canon 5d mk2 with 100-400mm L +12mm extension tube.

There are quite a few Wall brown butterflies flitting around but not settling unfortunately , so i will concentrate on the Hummers :)

                                                             A nicely lit Painted Lady

Eventually i have noticed one coming to feed on a clump near the fence, so manage to shoot  filling more of the frame :)  

We have had a day of rest in the sun,   but enjoyable non the less , and i had a wonderful couple hours watching the Hummingbird hawk moths and butterflies .

How Hill sunset Sept 14 th 2013 Norfolk Holiday

After a busy afternoon on the beach at Great Yarmouth driving back to the caravan park i noticed the sky looking fairly promising for a sunset , i have wanted to shoot a windpump sunset silhouette and tonight i might get that chance.  its going to be a bit tight getting to How Hill in time, so this time we take the back road instead of the sat navs round about way of getting there so should just about make it in time!


We have managed to get here in time, just as we are walking along the riverside path to find a clear spot to shoot through all the moored boats  , Jan takes this image on her I-PHONE!  i am still trying to set up my tripod and have missed these wonderful illuminated clouds!!!!!!  Arghhhhhhh   i will never live this down, or hear the last of this!   

                                       Yes I'm a bit miffed :(              its a superb image

                         Here i am after eventually setting up and starting to take a few shots.

Well   here is my image, the clouds have passed the windpump and i cant get the space i needed on the right side of the pump so it looks unbalanced.                    beaten by a phone pic :(

 moving quickly down the path to get the composition i originally wanted but i have lost the cloud now , still it makes a nice image but without the impact of Jans image.

 The sky is completely clear of clouds now , and not much colour in the setting sun either!  pity we hadn't found this location earlier in the week when there were good sunsets for 3 evenings.

my last image, its quite dark now and just a small area of after glow , and a couple of clouds but no sunlight to illuminate them .

                               a lesson learned , shoot faster and be ready   Ooops   lol

                                             or get to the location with plenty of time


tomorrow is our last day in Norfolk , forecast is for rain but we are going to a nature reserve that is quite close to where we are staying.   Dragon hunting is a possibility :)

How Hill and California beach Norfolk Holiday 13 th sept 2013

Having discovered that just a mile away from our camp site there are a couple of windpumps at How Hill , we are going to have a look, the weather is not looking too good for the early part of  today, cloudy with flat light so not good for photographs :(
Arriving at a small car park near to this lovely house

a small track leads across a field in front of the gardens leading down to the river , where we immediately see the first windpump :)

                      Black & White image for a change , no detail in the sky in colour images

                                 I have just tried an infrared phone pic, quite like it :)

 Walking down the river i can see a small "skeleton" mill , here is a phone pic

you can see the rill that channels water from the pumps paddles  from the field in to the river in this image.

                           Love the thatched boat house , but Molly is not interested in that  haha

We are now going to head down to Scratby to walk California beach, it is spitting with rain but quite warm and it is looking like sun might break through later :)

 the Terrible twosome are having fun, the sand has formed a channel so there is deep water either side of a shallow sand bar.

                                        watch out Mol, you going to get cut off  Bol.

                                               lying in the water as usual i see Mollster :)

         
                                                                  Bum in the air :D

                                     The sky is fabulous , Norfolk is famous for big skies :)

                            Chester has gone right out for the ball , Mol is waiting patiently

                                              Yes Mol  its right in front of your nose!

                                              love the light on the wind farm turbines

           Time to run the dogs dry on the sand , well we will try to keep them out of the water !

            a last image,  the wind turbines, lit up with sun against dark brooding clouds behind.

only two days left in Norfolk left now ,  tomorrow is looking dry in the afternoon anyhow.