The Purple Penguin

We have been trying to get out to Cheshunt, to see the orchids in the Lee Valley Park.

The are several trails and boardwalks . We took the train to Cheshunt and walked to where we thought the start of the walk was – we got it wrong :). Where we whould have turned left we turned right, but had a lovely walk along the river before turning back into Lee Valley.

Met up with a friend  for lunch in Waltham Abbey. She joined us for the orchid hunt and we managed to see some, but only at a distance. They are protected by a boardwalk which only goes out so far. Most of the orchids are quite a ways from the boardwalk. Still lovely.

We also saw loads of other flowers & animals. Lots of birds, lots of plants, and lots of pollen. Too much pollen. But the orchids were pretty.

Joe has photos up! On Flickr and Panoramio. In Flickr you can filter them as Scotland.

He took loads more. Lots and lots and lots more photos.

One of the Pictures from the hide

We arrived about 10ish and we basically did light theory and apeture stuff. Then talked through the idea of apeture priority and speed. (K-boring camera stuff) Then we got kitted up (K-sounds like diving!) and went down to the meadow to do macro photography. After the macro stuff we headed off to the bird hide and spent time in there until lunch. We were in the hide during most of the rain. Down to the lakeshore and had lunch overlooking the loch. The lunch was very good. After lunch made our way back to the studio to mess about with photoshop and look at the results. Up on the web soon (when we find a faster connection!)

So no one went to work :), how ever we were woken up buy weard sounds coming from the main room. Doors being opened and so one. We snuck down stairs just in time to see small black & white shapes disaperaring out the door. with thumps and crashes of a silver tea try boncing along be hind. I poked my head out the door just in time to see !!

[Weeee]

So It the U.K. is Winter its dark what do you do? Well these happen to be ideal conditions to mess around with Light. In a camera and L.E.D. (light emitting diode) way. So the London flickr group met up any painted the town red, well not actual red we did try but had no good results although others did. So I mainly painted in white, as i forgot to bring the green L.E.D with me. We also had a poi which had lights in brought along.

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These are some of the better results.

From a photographic point of view I found setting exposer times of around 30 seconds allowed you to draw most things. I did some test to get the background exposed right first, altering  the aperture till 30 seconds gave the designed back ground. Then start the shutter no need even for a time delay just walk in front and draw.

The advantage of the digital was clear as you could instaly see the results and try again.

The night was very could and after about two hours, the hands were ice blocks so every one retiaued to the pub 🙂

The Rainbow Warrior stopped of in London moored in the Thames, not far from Tower Bridge.

Here are one of the pictures I manage to take.

The Rainbow Warrior

While Kathleen was working I took a wander around the campus taking a few pictures which you can see below. The day was quite hot so went quite slowly looking at all the different buildings of different ages. Popped into the help desk to ask about gaining access via wireless but they told me they don’t do the guest login any more. Although apparently there is some open access around the Business School. I then made my way back towards the Vice-Chancellor’s office stopping for a cup of mint tea in one of the little snack places (the unusual shape). When I got back Kathleen was still busy so I told her I’d meet her at the bar, where I had a ginger beer and downloaded the photos from the camera. Kathleen joined me and we went for lunch at Pages Cafe on campus. I had my curry chicken and rice and peas and cherry drink (they were out of coconut milk) which was all very nice; Kathleen had the recommended honey roast chicken and Spanish rice which she enjoyed. We then wandered back to the room to cool off a bit and upload the photos and type this blog entry.

Joe – as typed by Kathleen

A panoramic view from micalangleos Piza

Please Note The Small Pictures are placed ware the photo was taken from.