Project 365 – Day Three Hundred and Fifty Four – Lost Glove

I went for another walk at Beacon Hill Country Park in northwest Leicestershire this afternoon. Sadly I didn’t get the best of the light today, I think that was probably happening whilst I was confined within the precincts of Homebase a bit earlier on. However, glorious light on two consecutive Sundays is probably too much to ask for in Leicestershire.

For this visit I parked at the “Lower Car Park” and took my time strolling through the trees on the way up the hill. I had decided to take minimal equipment with me today. It can be a drag lugging around the entire photo rucksack, especially if you end up only using one or two lenses anyway. I went out armed only with my Canon EOS 7D and the 35mm f2 prime lens. I really like this lens. The autofocus might not be as quick and silent as I would like, but it’s bright and on my 1.6x crop factor body the focal length comes out to 56mm, which makes it near as damn it a “standard lens”. It felt quite liberating to wander around with just the camera slung over my shoulder. Much more freedom of movement.

There was certainly plenty of interest to point the camera at, but this lost glove ended up winning my “Photo of the Day” award. The way it had been stuck onto the end of a twig made it look like it was reaching out for its vanished owner. The fact that it had a label stuck on it proclaiming it came from Disneyland, Paris added to the appeal of the shot. It was a long way from Disneyland now. I couldn’t help but think about the child who had lost this and whether they were still sad about losing a memento of their visit to Disneyland. I can only hope they come back and find it.

Canon 7D, EF 35mm f2, 1/800 at f3.2.

Project 365 – Day Three Hundred and Forty Seven – Beacon Hill

I was very lucky to be out and about with my camera on Sunday afternoon. I managed to time my trip pretty well to perfection in order to catch the sun.

I can’t remember the last time I was here at Beacon Hill, it was certainly many years ago, maybe not even in adulthood. I really have no idea why this should be as the views from the top are wonderful.

I concentrated on the summit area during this visit, taking shots of the views all around and of the wonderful rock formations. Just as I was about to leave I saw the summit bathed in golden light and with such a wonderful sky I decided I’d try to make something of it. I waited for a while for people to move out of shot and finally there was just a woman and a young boy left. The woman made her way down, but the boy was obviously having way too much playing on the rocks. Looking over my shoulder I could see more people on the way up so I fired away despite the lone figure still being in view.

I ended up cloning him out in Photoshop. Under different circumstances it might have been a great shot to have just a single figure standing on top of the hill, but for that to work I think it needed to be a bigger person, and maybe not to include the triangulation point which already juts prominently into the sky (and also maybe not quite such a wide angle view)

I’m now really looking forward to heading back here. I plan to do so as soon as we get another bright, clear day. I’ll take some sandwiches and a flask of coffee with me and make sure I stay for longer. There is so much more to explore here. There’s also a lot more to say about the history and geology of this place, scope for a few future blog postings.

Canon 7D, Sigma 10-20mm, 1/160 at f9.