Frosty morning Cambridge

I've not been out much recently so it was really good to get a text from a good friend Phil asking if I wanted to pop out into Cambridge early on Sunday morning. The weather forecast was for a heavy frost and clear skies. Sunrise was not likely to amount to much, but nice frosty conditions can be really photogenic.

I arrived in town at just after 7:15am, Phil about 2 minutes later. We parked up just the other side of the river (free until 9am) and headed over to Jesus Green and the fabulous avenue of London Plane trees.

Jesus Green avenue of trees

We only had a few minutes before the streetlamps switched off. There were a few hardy folk out and about. The following shot is 3 images combined. One at iso3200 to catch the man walking and then two iso100 shots blended into a hrd image.

Morning stroll

It was very cold (car had reported -6 on the way into town), but there was no ice on the Cam. I've only seen ice on the Cam twice in 10 yrs.

Spot the punt

The shot above was the fist I've taken with my new Kase filters. I used a 0.6 soft ND grad for this one to balance the sky. The Kase filters replaced some rather scratched Hitech resin ones which have lasted well, but seen better days.

Heading into town I was able to capture an obligatory bike shot.

Locked up

After wandering around town seeking inspiration we headed back towards the cars. The sun was starting to burn through a slight mist over Midsummer Common.

Midsummer joggers

It was fast approaching 9am and time to head home for a cup of tea and some breakfast. A lovely if slightly chilly morning to be out and about.

Resources:

cambridgeimages.co.uk

Grantchester Meadows - 7 years in the making

Grantchester Meadows is one of my favourite landscape photo locations close to Cambridge. I've now managed to "get lucky" with the weather on a few occasions and I thought I would share a few photos taken over the last few years.


Dec 2007 was my first early morning visit, nice frosty morning, but not much in the way of cloud cover.

Grantchester trees

River Cam

After some heavy snowfall in Dec 2010 I visited mid morning.

Snowy Grantchester

Winter wonderland

Jump forward to Jan 2014 and a near perfect morning. Frosty with some light cloud cover which picked up the sunrise colours really nicely.

Fire in the sky Grantchester trees

Frosty ditch

Long exposure shot of the sun rising

Frosty molehills

Jan 2015, after carefully studying the weather forecast I made a good call and was lucky with conditions again, nice frosty morning a little cloud cover and a bit of mist rising off the fields.

Classic Grantchester meadows

Glowing tree

Sun's up

Looking through my shots over the last 7 years is quite interesting.  My equipment has changed very little, a camera upgrade from a Canon 5d to a 5d mk2, but my lens selection (for all the shots above) has stayed the same. Another change is my switch to Lightroom in 2012, but probably more significant than these minor adjustments is my ability to learn. I certainly feel my style has developed and improved over the years and that's what drives me on in photography. 

I look forward to doing a similar review in another 7 yrs time, now that's a scary thought!

Resources: 
www.cambridgeimages.co.uk