JamesT

No problem. From a distance without size reference, it could be mistaken for a little egret. At first it was somewhat under cover so I didn't notice the yellow bill and was about to note it and move on.

A couple more from yesterday's visit to Farmoor. The fog had burned off by this time, so there's a bit more colour than for the grebe. The great white egret is mainly a bird of the eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea , but they do occur fairly regularly in the UK. About the same height and wingspan as a heron, but much more slender in build.

Thanks, I didn't do anything special to the water, just the usual local contrast enhancement and a contrast-increasing tone curve to compensate for the residual fog.

That's a rather strange-looking loco. I assume from the eight small drivers that it must be a goods engine, and the short cab roof suggests it's quite old.

A young great-crested grebe and a perch. Farmoor reservoir, this morning. This actually took several minutes, including two dives, even though the fish appeared to be dead by the time I spotted them.

Sunspot Sunrise

Beautiful simplicity.

The Sun, during the Venus transit in 2012. This was taken by holding my compact digital up to the eyepiece of one of the telescopes set up for the event -- probably David Elmore's 8 inch reflector.

As large-format cameras go it's pretty minimalist, but it still has a fairly full range of adjustments (which the Graflex doesn't). It'll be a while before I get everything figured out.

Testing out a new (actually new) large format camera, an Intrepid 4x5 Mk3.

I'm sure you can guess what comes next. Have you thought of running a film through the camera? You never know you, might enjoy it. Just by chance this was posted on 35MMC today: https://www.35mmc.com/08/10/2018/5-frames-fed-4-russian-rangefinder-julian-higgs/

Looks like the markets have seen better days. Presumably the lens is an Industar-61. Did you actually buy the whole system, or just the lens?

Building #4, Milton Hill I think it must have been a water tower, but it is surely strange.

Thanks everyone. Having seen the results I do agree about the crop for the first image. My favourite was the final one, mainly because there the geese are in context.

Thanks, actually there is a south-facing back where the reserve management have set up some logs and stones for the lizards, it's called the "Lizard Lounge". Today they were all on that one dark log, presumably the warmest place.