Birch Walk and Layer Marney Tower

Essex Records Office - well a little part of it.

My day job is working in an office in Chelmsford Essex. One thing I love to do now, especially as the weather is improving is to go for a walk with my new camera (a Canon Powershot G5X). I originally purchased this camera to use for Street Photography, but have found out that it is a cracking general all purpose camera. I have been to the Peak District in Derbyshire recently and will post some images from there soon. However, for now is an image of the Essex Records Office. Well a small segment of it.

This image is showing the roof details and one of the supports. Converted to black and white, which I think best shows architectural buildings.

Lavender

I have just spent the last 30 minutes chasing honey bees around my lavender, trying to get a decent shot. Well they just were not playing ball, I think they are too interested in collecting, than posing for me.

Anyway, I have just resorted to posting a picture of the lavender. This is the English type of lavender and not the French. Although I do have both varieites in the garden, the English one always blooms first.

 

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The sign of things to come......

Here in the UK we have had some pretty horrible weather conditions...... windy, rainy, windy, rainy.... you get the message. It seems that it's a never ending cycle. I think thats why us British people love to talk about the weather so much.

So I was out in my garden today, on an unsually bright sunny day, and saw that some crocus had started to bloom. It was such a joy to see the signs of Spring starting to break through..... it was such a welcome site, so as I had my camera in my had I just had to take a shot.

Not the most stylistic shot, or technically brilliant shot. But it was just a welcome site.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the shot, and remember Spring is just around the corner, so chin up!

 

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It's only farm equipment.....

Well the weather in the UK has been grim to say the least. I know other countries too are suffering with there own problems with the weather.

So while it's not raining it's probably best to go outside and enjoy walking in the countryside. After I finished work today (which luckly for me is 1pm on a Friday) we decided to go for a walk, instead of going to th gym. Afterall the weather forecast for the weekend is pretty dire to say the least.

We went for a walk over a place called Abotts Hall, which is the headquarters of the Essex Wildlife Trust. Camera in tow we found some old farm equipment, so took this little shot. It's actually a HDR image, hopefully I haven't done to much processing of the shot.

Anyway I hope you enjoy the photo.

 

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Emotions

I often ponder what people think and feel when they look at my photographs. The photograph below I have tried to make the viewer have a reaction.

 

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Dingies

I live on an island called Mersea Island, in the UK. Is is the most easterly inhabited island in UK. There are about 7 thousand residents. Being an island there are lots of people who love to go out on the water. This gives me many photographic opportunities around the place. And to tell you the truth I don't really care about going out or owning a boat, but thanks to all the people who do own boats!

This is a shot of all the little dingies (tenders) that people have brought out of the water for winter. A perfect foreground subject to that lovely brooding sky..... the sky kind of reminds me something from a Sci-Fi film.

Anyway I hope you enjoy the shot, and the original can be seen here: http://www.mhdigital.co.uk/Landscapes/Essex/i-bHb49t8/A

 

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Drama in the sky

The wonderful thing about nature is it can come up with some pretty amazing vistas. It's lucky as photographers that we have the tools at our fingertips to capture these dramatic scenes.

I love the look of these big angry clouds, as the sun is trying to punch it's way through. Living where I do we tend to have some great scenes like this. More in the Autumn and Winter when the sun is much lower.

I do hope you like viewing this shot, and the original can be viewed here: http://www.mhdigital.co.uk/Landscapes/Essex/i-cGbNfG3/A

 

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A snowy path.

Another shot from Mersea Island....

This was taken a while back, probably around 2012, but as with any photographer you tend to take many photographs and not get around to looking at them.

As you progress as a photographer, your post processing techniques change and improve so, its a nice exercise to go back through your old work and see what you can get out of an old photograph.

Anyway I do hope you enjoy looking at this shot.

Original photo can be found here. http://www.mhdigital.co.uk/Landscapes/Essex/i-GvwPcnQ/A

 

 

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White Echinacea

This is a simple shot I took with the Canon 100mm f/2.8 IS USM L Macro lens. This lens give a beautiful blurred background enabling you to put the focus where you need it. I upgraded my macro lens this year from the Sigma 105mm lens. I was in two minds to spend the money as I had been very pleased with the sigma lens, but after reading reviews, and seeing what other people had achieved with the Canon lens, I bit the bullet and bought it....... So glad I did.

International Garden Photographer of the Year 2013

Hi folks,
These are my entries into The International Garden Photographer of the year 2013. I have entered these into the category of “The Beauty of Plants”

I think they are fresh looking shots, and hopefully the judges will see that to. This is a competition I would dearly love to win, it could finally launch my photography work into something I could do for a living. Finger, toes and everything else crossed for me please.

Hope you like them.

Mark
MHDigital Photography

Essex Skipper

Went to a family BBQ this afternoon, and took my camera along, as Amanda has a beautiful garden with lots of interesting plants.

There is a lovely little corner with lots of Lavender plants, and here is where I found the little skipper buzzing around.  They are so quick so you have to be fast!

Hope you like the shot.  Thanks

A little Common Blue

 

 This is a picture of a Common Blue butterfly which I took in my garden this morning. I'd actually been gardening and not planned to take any photographs. We normally just have cabbage white butterflies in the garden so I was a little excited when I saw this little fellow. It crossed my mind if he would still be there once I returned with my camera. Luckily it was still there although on another bush in the garden. So I fired off a couple of shots and chased him around for a few minutes. This is the result, I hope you like it. 

  MHDigital

Very bad at keeping it updated

As you can see from the title, I have not updated this blog page for a long time. Well now I will start again. So lets start with a couple of recent images.

Spring it in full swing in the UK and we are having a very warm one at that. Today the temperature has been up to 19 degrees, and the plants and wildlife seem to be using the suns warmth to flourish. As you can see from the images all the spring blossom is out and its looking glorious.

Painted Lady Butterfly

Painted-Lady-Butterfly, originally uploaded by MHDigital - Mark Harrop.

Modern building of London

All-points, originally uploaded by MHDigital - Mark Harrop.

Just come back from a weekend in London. I love the old buildings of London and take many shots of them. However, this building stood out, especially against the blue sky's.

Close-up-Dog-Rose

Close-up-Dog-Rose, originally uploaded by MHDigital - Mark Harrop.

Magnolia - White

Magnolia - White, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

Sunset and Sea

Sunset and Sea, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

West Mersea Beach

West Mersea Beach, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

Cold day at the beach today, and a overcast sky. I used the B+W ND110 filter today to enrich this shot, also used the LEE .9 hard ND Grad filter to level the sky out.