January 2nd – Still feeling my way. In a late evening bible after the rain cleared I pottered up the Black Path and along through Newtown to see how the camera reacted to the low light in the first instance and the streetlights in the other.
The shots seem a bit dark. I’m wondering if I’ve broken an exposure setting since Monday, which is a huge possibility.
They aren’t bad pictures, though for handheld on a dark night.
Puzzling.
January 1st – Oh hi 2018, where did you spring from? Not yet back at work and sunset already past 4pm. You can stay, new year, you can stay.
Well, the Canon GX7 is a remarkable bit of kit if I’m honest. I’d been home all day with guests and family stuff to do, and nipped out in the evening on an errand. I found Brownhills and Clayhanger somnambulant, deserted and desolate. It had been raining. It was very windy. I was feeling, if I’m honest, low.
Then I got to playing with this camera. My goodness, I think I’m in love. Some familiar muses here, from the otherworldly portal of Silver Court and it’s ethereal cashpoint glow to the dystopian Ravens Court, I’m going to have some fun with this one. Oh yes.
Unexpected clarity on what could have been a really low evening.
December 31st – At last, a decent if rain-sodden ride. Going stir crazy on a wet New Year’s eve, I slipped out at 3pm determined to test the loan cameras on something decent. Instinct had me head for Hopwas Hays Wood near Tamworth.
Both cameras are excellent. At the moment, the GX7 has the edge but the user interface is bizarre to me. I’ve never had much joy with Canon kit before, but this was a revelation.
I didn’t use flash once, just the bike headlight. I’m quite pleased with these.
Oh, and happy new year!
December 30th – I was in Brownhills at dusk again, sorting out questions for the annual quiz on my main blog, and also fiddling with a new camera I have on loan – a Panasonic TZ100. This is a one-inch sensor compact that I’ve been curious to try.
I haven’t read the manual; I popped in a card, charged it up and off I went. So far, it’s very much like the TZ90 but with less zoom and a more strident low-light response, which is warm and pleasant.
Hopefully, the weather will improve soon and I’ll be able to get out and try this, and the Canon GX7 Mark II I also have been loaned side by side.
I’m ready for a more flexible camera in low light. I wonder if these will be the answer?
December 28th – A ride out in ice, after overnight light snow. I was still nursing a shoulder strain which made the ride slow and plodding, but it was very enjoyable in the clear light and snow-dusted countryside.
I went to Chasewater to practice ice skills in safety, and even had a go at the boardwalk on the north heath, which was enjoyable once I got over the fear.
Staffordshire looked wonderful and the run out via Shenstone, Wall, Canwell, Hints and Weeford was a joy.
Just hope this shoulder improves soon.
December 26th – I met this interesting fellow on the way back from Chasewater. I guess it was hunting frogs and amphibians in the marsh there, as there’s no real open water – but of course, an adult frog must contain plenty of sustenance for an adult grey heron in winter.
Whatever it was expecting for lunch, it was a handsome and healthy looking bird and totally unexpected there. A nice treat.
December 26th – I headed to Chasewater, which was brooding and quiet.
Quiet that is, apart from the bickering, squabbling flock of waterfowl of every shape and size gathering around the boardwalk balcony as someone fed them seed.
The water boiled with desperate pecks and defensive wing flaps. There were fights, squabbles, pecked heads and nipped tails.
We all love these lakeside clowns. But man alive, they have no manners…
December 26th – The Boxing Day weather was altogether better, but still somewhat grey and overcast with that keen wind. Again, bad weather was forecast for the evening, with heavy rain and even snow predicted.
I slipped out at lunchtime into a grey landscape, and was encouraged to find these bright honey fungus clumps growing on an tree stump on the Black Path.
Some days, the mere sight of something natural and bright is enough to improve your day.
December 25th – Happy Christmas. My goodness, that was a long time coming…
I was away in daylight at a family do and didn’t get chance for the traditional Christmas Day Ride; this wasn’t really to bad as my shoulder was still stiff and the weather was wolfish and blustery.
I returned in the evening, and went for a spin in heavy rain. I don’t know why, perhaps it was a reaction to the enforced socialising, but I had on waterproofs and just rode for all I was worth; out via Ogley Hay, up Chasetown High Street, over to Sankey’s Corner, back over Chasewater and up the canal back to Brownhills via Catshill Junction.
Obviously, the photography opportunities were not copious, but I thought the lights of the Sankeys Corner Christmas tree in aid of Stephen Sutton were beautiful in the wet night.
December 24th – The workboat I noted in the ice last weekend has been engaged in the process of cutting back trees on the far canal banks locally, clearing overhang from the waterway. I noted as I passed over Catshill Junction that once more, the sculpture here was now visible, if looking a bit sad and jaded. The trees that shade light from the new flats also seem too have been thinned.
I always feel sad about the Cycle of Life sculpture here: In utterly the wrong place, even when not overgrown (as it is every summer) it’s impossible to see in detail from and point publicly accessible on the towpaths around the junction and is therefore overlooked and wasted.
I hope one day someone realises and moves it somewhere a little more suitable nearby.
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