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The Palm House at Kew Gardens, London. I was determined to visit this year. A 5-year restoration plan on this massive greeenhouse begins in 2027.

Water

Water feature at a local museum. WA lens was used to accentuate the attributes of the flowing water...

That spiral staircase is a gem. The ribs of the greenhouse are amazing too. What a treasure this place is to see and experience.

Last breath of winter.

snow is mostly gone but sea had some ice in bays last Saturday. In one shaded corner the patterns of ice/frost caught my eye.

How I Nearly Missed The Mist

I'm lucky to live in a part of Lancashire that's surrounded by moors and woodland, but one thing this area doesn't see much of is mist (or nice sunrises for that matter, at least judging by my recent futile efforts to capture one), so I was quite excited to look out of the window one lunchtime earlier this week to see that Rivington had entirely vanished from view. Of course, by the time I'd driven over there the mist was thinning, but there was still a little lingering around as I made my way into the woods below the terraced gardens, armed with the Z8, Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8S and a circular polariser.

Into The Mist

The terraced gardens, as the name suggests, are built on a steep hillside and surrounded by mature woodland. This view is looking up at the woods from the lower flanks of the hill. Still plenty of mist clinging to the woods at this point.

A Friendly Wave

This is taken from just inside the treeline, roughly in the trees behind the lone tree in the field on the previous shot. The three trees featured here are full of character and appear to be waving to their friends further down the hillside. Note how, now that I'm in the woods, the mist has mostly dissipated. This remained the pattern for most of the afternoon. The mist would either be above me, or below me, but rarely where I was, which is kind of par for the course at this point. On the plus side, it did act like a huge softbox, illuminating the scene with really nice light.

Verdant

The mosses are looking particularly verdant in this shot of the lower summer house that's kind of tucked away in the lower levels of the woods. Like most of these images, this was taken through a CPL to really pull out the colours and required very little additional processing.

Steps of Doom

This path leading down The Dell is a bit of health and safety nightmare for the landowners, no wonder it's fenced off and difficult to reach.

Down The Dell

Looking down The Dell to the lower bridge. The stepped path in the previous shot is on the left here. This area always reminds me of how Rivendell was portrayed in the Lord of the Rings movies, albeit with a significantly less impressive waterfall.

The Beast of Rivington

I was in the process of lining up my shot on this archway when a fearsome hound burst forth from the mist. She hung around just long enough for me to grab this shot before running off back to her owner. Pity she couldn't have been a bit more considerate and lined herself up more centrally in the arch, but I quite like how she's framed by the misty trees so I'll forgive her. I think this is one of the few shots in this set not taken with the CPL, hence more reflections on the wet steps leading up to the archway.

Arch

The same archway again, sans dog but plus CPL. Note how the steps have. a lot more colour in them compared to the previous shot.

Is It Summer Yet?

Another summer house, although it's clearly not summer by the look of it.

A Path in The Woods

There was something about the light here that really caught my eye.

Resilience

A bonus pic taken on a canal walk one miserable afternoon later in the week. When the weather's looking a bit dodgy I tend to bring out the OM1 and just stick with the 100-400mm lens I have for it, which has a habit of giving me really soft images compared to the Nikon kit, so this has been run through Topaz for a bit of sharpening and upscaling.

I've seen this Buzzard hunting over the fields on the far side of the canal a number of times. Apparently, they've all got unique plumage patterns, supposedly making it very easy to identify individuals, although in this case the big gap in its left wing is more of a giveaway I think. Still, despite its damaged wing, it was managing to effortlessly hang motionless high in the sky regardless of the strong winds while it surveyed the field below, which I think is even more impressive than seeing a fully intact one at work.

Still experimenting with small objects. Even with the light tent, this photography is more difficult than it seems.

A new addition to my collection. I am fascinated by the different solutions used in these 4 colour pencils.

I bought this back in the eighties, and it has been well used over the years.

The Parker Jotter, a timeless cheap classic.

The distortion of the steps from your 12mm lens makes this look like one of Escher's impossible geometry drawings.

These are my faves. The rest are magnificent too. Great atmosphere.

You really have some treasures here...

That frozen land really makes me shiver...

Fantasctic relationship between curved roof and stairs. Green and white colour palette is nice too.
Back in the days when it was a penny (1d) to go into Kew, I went in there with my elder sister and remember vividly the hibiscus flowers up at the high level.

Catkins

Alder catkins. On the tree they make a haze of deep plum colour along the banks of the local becks at this time of year, but the gales have blown quite a lot down.

This is a focus stack of 9.

Really nice. I like the smooth water on the corner too.

Where i live, Ontario, Canada, squirrels would have a field day with those catkins...

How lovely. I'd have assumed they were frozen reeds or similar.

Love this . That glassy effect of water fallling over the edge is an endlessly fascinating subject.
How many of us would want to sweep up the gravel on the left? 😁

I think I like the first one best. Maybe the overall composition, with the ice revealing its texture on closer examination.

Your best set for some while Steve. I must use my Polz filter more often but I tend not to have as much time when I'm out with a camera as you, usually because I'm with someone impatient.
These two are excellent and I disagree about the dog in some ways, not centred in the arch but it works because it's perfectly centred by the two trees behind it.

I wish I had my tiny tripod with me at Kew. There was a great opportunity to use it.
This is technically well done.

The mossy carpet in these is lovely, so atmospheric. Enhanced in the second by the drifts of leaves.

Yes, I think buzzards are often identifiable as individuals. We used to have a regular visitor to our old house that sat at eye level on top of an electricity pole and stared in through our window. She was very pale coloured. I missed her when she disappeared.

Jeez, that 2nd pic really jogged my memory. I had one of those for years but had had completely forgotten it. It's so odd how much data the brain stores but most of it remains covered in dust until a moment like this.

Thank you sir. This was hand held - well actually I was lying on the ground baced on my elbows. Most of my focus stacks are done hand held as I'm too lazy to carry a tripod 😁