Skipwith Common

It looks like the last hottest and sunniest day of the year so at 27 degrees, I decided to incorporate my bike ride into a photography trip. Complete with packed lunch, phone charged and times when I would be there, for how long and time I would be back, all health and safety procedures were covered. I managed to find a tripod which fit into a rucksack therefore decided against the need for bike panniers. This is something I regretted as my back did not enjoy the weight of the camera, tripod, field notebook, flask and packed lunch for the distance travelled (about 25 miles on the bike and around one mile walk). I managed to get three images in the time spent there. One on top of a bird look-out, so the height was there but the lens not long enough for the long-horned cattle in the distance. The image featured of the pathway through the trees and another I shot of the same area, in colour, using a different focal length. I was mainly experimenting with the settings without getting the hotspots, so I managed to work out the best settings for this as I have discovered this lens performs very poor for infrared. A longer focal length would be better, so I will have to investigate this, but for now, I do like to be quite up close to the view, rather than seeing miles into the distance, so I will have to work with what I have which is 18-55mm. This is fine for A1 images so I am not worried at the moment, as I keep up the photography reconnaissance.  

Interestingly I listened to a Psychogeography talk called 'How Women Walk' and I thought it was a coincidence that I was also experiencing the health and safety overdrive and the paranoia at visiting these locations on my own. Anything could happen. At the moment, I have met with very friendly people, although I am constantly feeling vulnerable and on this location, as I had never been before, I even thought at one point I was a little lost and may have to turn back. It was only until I heard the road and saw the bird hide that I recognised at the start of my walk that it put me at ease and I revisited an earlier part of the walk where I could then concentrate on the photography. It would help more to get a tracker on my phone so people can keep an eye on me.