Sunday Afternoon Tea Outing

[Mike Farley]

A group of regulars from the Sunday Afternoon Tea social group, all stars of the small screen , gathered for a socially distanced real life meeting at South Norwood Country Park earlier today. The event was a dry run to see whether similar get togethers would be viable, subject to government regulations. These currently state that no more than six people from different households can assemble in one location provided that participants maintain at least two metres separation at all times. (One metre plus only applies to pubs and restaurants etc.)

This being high summer in England, climatic coditions played a part. The group did not encounter high contrast conditions due to the sun shining brightly. Instead, they cleverly managed to schedule their meeting for a break between weather systems. While they did not experience any problems in keeping the sun out of their eyes, they were not wiping the rain away from them either.

With lockdown restrictions easing, the Sunday Afternoon Tea event has fulfilled its purpose as a social group outside regular club meetings and will probably cease to meet fairly soon. There is no reason why small meetings such as this should not replace it provide people are willing to organise them.

From left: Mike P, David, Ron and Tina. Mike F behind the camera.

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[davidb]

Here's my pic of the group!

[Mike Farley]

This what I taking a shot of when David took the photo accompanying his post. The ducks are a purely incidental but necessary part of the image.

Feeding the Ducks

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[davidb]

I couldn't see that platform (there is an island in the way) therefore was unable to take a photograph!

By the way that's ducks and a GOOSE.

[Mike Farley]

By the way that's ducks and a GOOSE.

If we are being pedantic, a coot has snuck in there as well. Same difference in my book.

[Ronald Barker]

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It would be nice to see how other members shots look like, I think I have cropped it to close?.

[Tina]

Good to catch up in person with like minded friends. Light not great but here a couple of my efforts.
Kestrel is way too noisy but it was good to see.

[davidb]

Ron - you pointed out a tree with three birds in it. I couldn't see three, only two and I took a photo of it with my 100-400 zoom with 1.4 extender (total 560mm)

The first shot is as taken; the second I've cropped and cropped again. There's a lot of noise there! Do I see a Kestrel there?

I've had another look and to the far right there appears to be a parakeet.

[davidb]

A couple more …

[Mike Farley]

Both Ron and David have managed to achieve better results with the kestrel than my meagre efforts. Tina was right when she said at the time that it was a good experience simply to see it fly across the meadow and briefly hover midway.

Most of my shots were taken with a macro lens. A lot of the flowers and other foliage were looking good and the flat light allowed for even illumination of the subjects. The problem being that light was in short supply on such a dull day, so just about everything I shot was taken at ISO 3200 to allow for a smallish aperture and a high enough shutter speed to counter movement. Digital flatters us. Film photography would have been a far greater challenge.

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