Some photographic highlights from in and around King’s Lynn and a coin used as case study in editing techniques.
INTRODUCTION
This post features some of my recent pictures of King’s Lynn’s thriving bird life, and also some pictures of a coin that I use to demonstrate the different degrees of editing to which a picture might be submitted.
THE BIRDS
The title of this section both refers to its contents and pays tribute to Italian composer Ottorino Respighi one of whose pieces has this title. Every bird you see pictured here was within walking distance of my town centre flat, in some cases very close indeed.
Where the Nar flows into the Great Ouse – always a good spot for observing birds
No cormorants this time, but these will feature later.
The last two pictures you have seen were taken on the bridge over the upper Purfleet, separated from my flat by the length of a car park.On Wednesday afternoon the cormorants were back in force – on both sides of the mouth of the Nar……as witness
The mouth of the Nar showing the cormorants on both sides.
SOME OTHER PHOTOS
Of course it was not only birds that caught the eye while I was out and about on these occasions…
The next two pictures show fallen leaves.
Yes, even in October boats still moor on the Great Ouse
Greyfriars TowerA carving on Greyfriars tower.A picture in my aunt’s kitchenI carried this across from the neighbour with whom it had been left in my aunt’s absence. Note that this delivery had been made on the Saturday and then look a the big sticker on top of the box! (and the box already had three extra bottles in it to compensate for previous blunders!)
THE COIN
On Tuesday I happened to notice that one of the coins with which I was going to pay my bus fare was one that had been issued to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade, so I photographed it while waiting for the bus to arrive. Later while editing the shot I decided to use it to demonstrate various editing techniques…
This is the coin picture after cropping but no other editing.This is the coin after cropping and sharpening.This is the coin after my usual edit (shadow and highlights protection, lighting adjustment, sharpening and brightness for extra clarity.This one features the use of colour boost as well (I almost never do this)Finally this one also had the contrast enhanced (something I used to do regularly but now only do on rare occasions)
Some stuff about the Great Ouse at high tide, some stuff about evolutionary biology, lots of pictures and links.
INTRODUCTION
Having finally completed (after a couple of false starts – fortunately not a DQ offence in the blogosphere!) my post about the Metropolitan line I now have this offering which includes some links and a couple of quality infographics.
HIGH TIDE
This morning the Great Ouse was at very high tide. Cormorant Platform was almost enitrely submerged. There was also a high tide yesterday morning, but not quite so high as this – I have pictures from both for comparison purposes.
The first three pics are from yesterday.
One of several pics from today that indicate just why the marshland around old Boal Quay is most definitely not suitable for building on!Not suitable for building on!
In addition to these, my walk this morning provided some other splendid pictures. I saw a small rodent by the water near the bandstand, and a hare, a member of the lagamorph order of mammals later on in the walk. The lagamorphs and rodents form a cohort (intermediate between an order and a class in the system of classification) called Glires. For a fun and digestible account of these relationships and others among living things I recommend Richard Dawkins’s book “The Ancestors Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life”.
An excellent read.
I also got a few more pictures of other things that I consider worth sharing…
LINKS
I have some petitions to share with you, but will start with the other links first:
A close focus on one policy area – no surprise to anyone who knows anything about me I have opted for his policy on Railways.
The wonderful kittysjones has this piece turning her guns on the Daily Mail for its (and Tory MuPpet Ian Liddell-Grainger’s) response to the news that UN Special Raporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Catalina Devandas Aguilar will be investigating the UK’s welfare reforms to see if they constitute human rights abuses. Ms Jones’ excoriation of the Daily Mail is an excellent read.
A reminder of a petition of shared before, which comes by way of 38Degrees under the heading “Celebrate Suffragettes not Serial Killers“. I have a quote from the body of the petition and a link to the website of the true East End Womens Museum:
“The founder (a former Head of Diversity at Google) claims “It is not celebrating the crimes of Jack the Ripper but looking at why and how the women got in that situation in the first place”. This victim blaming attitude is unacceptable and cannot be condoned“
A Retropsective on the World Athletics Championships, More on the Inhumane Despicable Sociopath case, some photographs and some important links.
INTRODUCTION
As well as my title piece I have some photos, links and infographics to share, including a section following up my much shared “Inhumane Despicable Sociopath” post..
BRITAIN’S BEST EVER
At the World Athletics Championships which concluded yesterday Britain won a total of four gold medals, their best ever. Mo Farah with both the 5,000 and 10,000m, Greg Rutherford (Long Jump) and Jessica Ennis-Hill (Heptathlon) all ascended the top step of the podium in Beijing, all having experienced Olympic misery there seven years previously. There were also a stack of best ever performances from less experienced British athletes, encapsulated by BBC TV in this infographic…
Shelayna Oskanp-Clarke had never previous broken two minutes for the 800m, and until Proctor did so no British female long jumper had ever gone beyond 7.00m. The performances of Asher-Smith and Hitchon were also British records. Dina Asher-Smith having already become the first British woman go sub 11 seconds for the 100m and being part of the 4*100m relay team now has three British records against her name.
INHUMANE DESPICABLE SOCIOPATH: A FOLLOW UP
Partly because of a twitter storm conceived by a well known twitter user named Gail which tied in perfectly with it my blog post about the revelations of DWP deaths, forced out after a long and hard fought campaign, was very widely shared. I have a number of superb related links to share in this section:
Now, a few infographics about this story, starting with this great tweet:
This, formatted like a DWP case study, differs from them in being a true story:
Finally to the end this section, a screendump from a text book of the future that somehow appeared on my screen…
A PHOTOGRAPHIC INTERLUDE
LINKS
I am dividing this in to two main subsections, starting with…
AUTISM
Within this section I am starting with a case which is reaching a conclusion soon…
JUSTICE FOR KAYLEB
I have blogged about this outrageous case of an autistic grade 6 boy facing a lifeltime with a felony conviction, but since the case is now going through the courts I include these two links:
Also, for twitter users (I have already done so btw), here is a temporary profile pic you may wish to use in solidarity with Kayleb:
OTHER AUTISM RELATED LINKS
First up, The Art of Autism have this piece about an Op-Ed in the Los Angeles Times that asks searching questions about Autism Speaks. In particular, attention is called to the number of autistic people involved in running Autism Speaks: ZERO.
An account of a walk around King’s Lynn, accompanied by photos. Also some important links.
INTRODUCTION
I am in the process of putting together a very large post indeed as an experiment, and meantime I offer you this little post…
THE FIGURE OF EIGHT WALK
I did this walk immediately after lunch yesterday. Setting off I headed through Baker Lane Car Park, across the upper Purfleet and down to the Great Ouse by way of the lower Purfleet. The first photo I got was this one of a bird that was perfectly positioned for the shot…
I headed along the river bank and across the Millfleet, then took the path that skirts old Boal Quay round to…
CORMORANT PLATFORM
This meeting point of the Nar and Ouse provided some fine photos…
Just beyond Cormorant Platform is the path through Harding’s Pits, from which I then headed across the Nar, stopping to photograph a swan…
Up through the South Gate, across the London Road, through a little known passage and along to Seven Sisters, at which point I entered…
THE PARKLAND
The water by the bandstand is generally good for a few pictures, and today was no exception…
After the bandstand I followed the path the exits the parkland by way of the church of St John the Evangelist, walked up past the train station and on to the second loop of the figure of eight, following another little river in King’s Lynn until the path diverged from it to go past the first of two ponds separated by the width of a road. The river provided a few pics, but nothing was happening in either pond…
From the second pond I followed the road I was round until I reached the path through the meadow that leads to a bridge across Bawsey Drain, on to another path that I followed back towards the town centre. This section of the walk yielded only one picture – a green insect that because of its size I was not sure I would be able to capture…
On the last stage of the walk I got a picture of the model spitfire that currently adorns the Trues Yard museum…
After I was home, I got one final picture of a military aeroplane that flew very low (by the standards of powered aircraft) overhead…
LINKS
My first link is to a document outlining Mr Corbyn’s mental health policy, for which I am using a quote from the document itself – the second bullet point to be precise…
Brief mentions of the Hanseatic Water skiing and the World Athetics Championship, with pics and links.
INTRODUCTION
This is in the nature of a catch-up post about events from this weekend.
WATER SKIING AND WORLD ATHLETICS
The water skiing reference is to the Hanseatic Ski Racing which took place on the Great Ouse right here in King’s Lynn this weekend just gone. Although my involvement was very peripheral I have a few pictures…
The World Athletics championship got under way this weekend. There have been many great moments already,none more so than Jessica Ennis-Hill regaining her world Heptahlon crown a mere 13 months after having her first child. The way she surged past Brianne Theisen-Eaton of Canada in the final stages of the 800m to win that event outright was reminiscent of London 2012. The other result that was greeted with near-universal approval was in the men’s 100m where Usain Bolt retained his title. People were rooting for him because of who his main rival was – if I was a betting person I would be pretty confident of putting my money on the proposition that no one not named Gatlin wanted Justin Gatlin to beat Usain Bolt – that is a penalty that one pays for being a twice-caught drugs cheat – even if bad rules which are badly applied allow you to return they do not make you popular.
A PHOTOGRAPHIC INTERLUDE
LINKS
On Saturday I produced two of my most successful ever blog posts. My most successful ever, which I will be referring to more extensively in my next post, was this one about autism. The other was the latest in my “London Station by Station” which, carefully produced to coincide with day three of the Oval test match, was dedicated to Oval and Vauxhall. This latter post attracted the favourable attention of historylondon who included it in their “gobbets of the week” post. One of the other posts that made the cut for inclusion in that list was londonist’s offering “the walker’s tube map”.
As someone who writes frequently about London Underground I finish this fairly brief links section by pointing you to this splendid defence of tube workers.
An announcement of some Anti TTIP action, some important links and some good pictures from in and around King’s Lynn.
INTRODUCTION
I have many things to cover in this post, including a number of very important links.
THE BONKERS TRADE DEAL
The bonkers trade deal is officially known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP for short), and I am mentioning it in this post for two reasons:
This Saturday at 11AM there is action taking place against it, starting outside Top Shop on King’s Lynn High Street.
And linked to the above, I got my action pack from 38 Degrees through the post today.
LINKS
To begin today’s links section, a nod to youth…
THE CASE OF THE DRACONIAN DRESS CODE: AN UPDATE
This refers to an American school whose dress code is both draconian and being applied in a very sexist way. This has given rise to a change.org petition, and today there has been coverage on yahoo:
To conclude this subsection a photo showing the “revealing clothes” for which a girl was called, which ignited the controversy:
When wearing this falls foul of a “dress code” I think the problem is fairly obvious.
JUSTICE FOR KAYLEB
Just a single link, but I make no apology for giving it a whole subsection to itself. This is a truly shocking case involving a 6th grader (English equivalent of this would be a year 7 student) facing the possibility of spending his life with a felony conviction on his record. Please sign and share this petition.
AUTISM AND CREATIVITY
Another single piece, this time courtesy of Huffington Post, about a study into autism and creativity. I start with a quote from the piece:
“Wong and Doherty said we should think of autism in terms of differences rather than deficits. And these differences, as the study suggests, can give rise to important and unique creative insights.” NB The italicisation is theirs not mine.
The full article deserves to be read and shared. Naturally as both an autistic person and the creator of this blog I wholeheartedly concur with the notion that autistic people can be especially creative!
SCIENCE AND NATURE
My final two links, the second being in the nature of a segue:
An account of attending a music workshop organised by NAS West Norfolk, with plenty of photos, also some important links.
INTRODUCTION
This afternoon I attended a music workshop organised by NAS West Norfolk. The title of piece of this post, acompanied by many photographs, is about this workshop.
OUTWARD BOUND
Having established to my own satisfaction the location of Scout Hut 12, Beulah Street I walked out of town along Bawsey Drain as far as Lynn Sport before heading across the open grassland to the scout hut (my direction finding was up to its usual standard, so no hiccups). Although I was under some time constraint I got a few photos on the way…
St Nicholas Chapel looking splendid.
AT THE SCOUT HUT
First up, “hut” is something of a misnomer – it is quite a substantial building. There were many things worthy of photographing there…
After a brief meet and greet upstairs it was downstairs again to the room where the action was taking place. Fortunately, the music making was being done largely by computer – I would not have inflicted myself playing an actual instrument on anyone (there were some real instruments there but I was careful not to be assigned any of them). In the first session which was group playing I had first stringed instruments and then a couple of keyboard instruments (in computer program form)…
The computer I used to make music.
The second session involved recording ourselves making percussion type sounds from non-instruments – the results were not nearly as appalling as you might expect.
These were the twelve things I used to extract percussion type sounds.
I have a few more pics from the building to display…
HOMEWARD BOUND
For the walk home I headed down to King Edward the Seventh Academy, along to Tennyson Road and through to Seven Sisters, finishing up by heading along the riverbank. Here are the pics from that section of the day…
LINKS
Not so many links as as I sometimes have, but still enough to split into sections.
I am including in this section a petition calling on the government for a full assessment of the impact of welfare cuts on disabled people. My other two links are to an online publication called The ASD Times. They have been kind enough to include some of my stuff, so here a couple of links the other way:
An account of yesterday, with some good pictures. Also some high quality links and infographics.
INTRODUCTION
Although some of the links I have were located this morning, this blog post is really, as the title suggests, about yesterday.
A MORNING WALK
My walk started with the parkland. There is always plenty to see there, and although it was to elusive to capture on camera, I even got a glimpse of a water vole before it darted under cover. Still I did get some good photos…
I left the parkland via the Seven Sisters gate and headed past the South Gate and thence to the river via Hardings Pits, which at this time of year means one thing to a photographer…
BUTTERFLIES
There were many of these creatures in evidence, and I was able to get several good photos…
The river although not at particularly high tide was looking splendid…
Of course no walk along the Great Ouse would be complete without…
CORMORANT PLATFORM
This structure, which I have named for the birds that are its most distinctive users was once again proving popular…
Back in the heart of the town, there were many boats in evidence. One was a small family owned boat using the jetty, and there were various research vessels, at least one of which was owned by company called Gardline…
EAST RUDHAM
A Sunday lunch in East Rudham and afternoon spent sat out in the sun were both very enjoyable, and the latter yielded some good pictures…
I had noted a while previously that this £2 coin had a special picture on its reverse (the obverse was the usual prrofile of a ludicrously over privileged woman) and so I picked a suitable moment at which to photograph it.Wild marjoram, freshly harvested for use in cooking.Wild marjoram serving its principle function as a bee magnet.
BACK TO KING’S LYNN
Arriviing back in King’s Lynn I bagged a few photos on the way home. A quick check on the computer revealed the Australia had emerged from their tour match at Northampton with a draw – cause for celebration on their part given recent events!
LINKS
I have a variety of links to share with you, starting with several about…
I take the opportunity of having this section to once again remind people of the project to create a museum that really is about the women of East London. My next two links belong together:
A piece by fargaregardsanna which features a humorous use of one of Maurits Escher’s most famous pictures – I realize that some may quibble of me classing this as science, but I believe that since the explanation of how such optical illusions work is scientific that this is justified – and also it makes this section of my post neater!
An account of the Ordnance Survey’s Get Outside pledge, the associated hashtag and my own activities in relation to that pledge. Some important links and a platinum infographic as well.
INTRODUCTION
The title piece refers to a scheme being promoted by the Ordnance Survey, which I choose to endorse by way of this post. I also have lots of other links to share, and a very funny infographic about the right wing Republican approach to religious freedom to share.
THE GET OUTSIDE PLEDGE
I was already moving towards lengthening my walks to and from the bus station on work days before I came across this idea being promoted by Ordnance Survey. For twitterites like me there is a hashtag, #GetOutside that you can use to publicize this. I urge you all to check out this link, and if you can make a pledge of your own.
Yesterday morning I got underway a little later than planned, but still got in a bit of riverside and parkland walking, while yesterday evening, my first post-pledge journey, I got off the bus at Gaywood and took a long walk home. Here are some pictures from these walks…
Enviro-serve, the company running at least some of the boats pictured above were set up to provide appropriate vessels for people developing renewable energy – check out their “about us” page.
Now, here are the evening pics…
“Cormorant Platform” at high tide
LINKS
I have lots of links to share, and so have divided this into subsections, starting with:
PREVENTION OF TROPHY HUNTING
This section includes three links in total, two petitions and a blog:
I conclude this post with a number of links that relate to issues of discrimination. I make no apology, given the current standards of behaviour of the DWP for including a piece about the welfare state in this section.
An account with pictures of a morning walk and a day’s cricket listening, some important links and a couple of cool infographics. Coverage given to the East End Womens Museum project along the way.
INTRODUCTION
As well as my title piece I have some links and a couple of high quality infographics to share.
NAVIGATORS, CORMORANTS AND CRICKET
Before settling into day 2 of the test match between the England and Australia women’s teams I was able to enjoy a morning walk, which featured the first two elements of my title.
NAVIGATORS
One of the things to be found where the lower Purfleet flows into the Great Ouse is a circular display with compass points in the middle and details of navigator’s round the outside. I created a photographic montage from pictures taken this morning…
Having shown you the montage, here are the individual pictures in their full glory…
CORMORANTS
The cormorants were in their usual location…
Making use of a freely available resource.
My next set of pictures feature the walk from the river to the library via the South Gate and the parkland…
The library itself is usually worth photographing, and on a day like this doubly so…
A sideways view also showing the top of Greyfriars TowerThe top section of the tower.
This is a part of King’s Lynn Minster that does not all that often get photographed…
CRICKET
The test match currently in progress is going Australia’s way at the moment – England are playing over defensively having lost a few wickets. Australia declared at 274-9, with Jess Jonnasen making 99 on test debut. She shares this fate with Arthur Chipperfield in the 1936-37 men’s ashes. England’s principle remaining hope is Natalie Sciver.
LINKS
My links are grouped in several subsections, starting with…
THE INGLORIOUS TWELFTH
The title of this section refers to the fact that today is the start of the grouse season, a date referred to by the kind of rich vermin who get their rocks off shooting birds as “The Glorious Twelfth”. My opinion, shared by a gratifyingly large number, is precisely the reverse, and I have two links to go with it:
My first link in this subsection is to a petition calling on the Gidiot (a nickname compounded of the name Gideon and the word Idiot for Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer) to stop using public money to finance private corporations.
My remaining two pieces concern the dishonourable Simon Danczuk MP who has today revealed for all to see how utterly contemptuous he is of both the members of his own party and the democratic process:
This wonderful project (please check out their website) continues to gather support. The latest person to express a wish to be involved is Marie Proffit of womenshiftdigital. I am very optimistic that we will succeed both in getting a museum that really is dedicated to women’s history established and consigning the museum whose planning permission was fraudulently gained (which provoked this resposne) to the dustbin of history.
AUTISM
My first link in this subsection is to a piece produced by autistictimes which is a searing indictment of the organisation that miscalls itself Autism Speaks.
Finally, Autism Talk have produced some splendid stuff today, making this a segue to…
Back in the heart of the town, there were many boats in evidence. One was a small family owned boat using the jetty, and there were various research vessels, at least one of which was owned by company called 
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