Wednesday 10th May - Hickling Broad Boat Trip (NWT)

What a fantastic day on Hickling Broad - 2 boatloads of us set off to photograph the fabulous scenery and wildlife found at this Norfolk Wildlife Trust site.

Weather conditions were much improved over recent days and our only 'problem' was coping with too much sunshine which made getting the correct exposure tricky.

Many thanks to Jacqui and the team at Hickling for ensuring we had an excellent, well organised and informative day at this beautiful site.

Some of us went onto The Greyhound in Hickling village (surprise!) where we were treated once again to some lovely grub!

Some of our images are below:

Little Tern by Liz Blake

Mute Swan by Robin Orrow

Crested Grebe by Geoff Lingwood

Family of Greylag Geese by Andrew Barnes

Flying the Flag by Jan Murphy

Mute Swan Landing by Geoff Lingwood

Mute Swan feeding Cygnets by Jan Murphy

Marsh Harrier over Meadow Dyke by Mick Ladner

Safety in Numbers by Kim Scrivener

Among the Reeds by Andy Caws

Male Reed Bunting by Di Jackson

Swan Aggression Display by Liz Blake

Motley Crew by Andy Caws

Mute Swan with Cygnets by Christine Alcock

Ready for Take-off by Di Jackson

Hazy Afternoon by Kim Scrivener

Mallard Ducklings by Diana Graham

Feeding Cygnets by Ron Wheeler

Avocet by Diana Graham

Tuesday 9th May - Gianpierro Ferrari 'One Year of Wildlife'

Gianpierro took us on a two-hour trip from Leicestershire to Italy and other parts of the Mediterranean.  He reminded us that we don't have to pay to sit in hides where the wildlife appears on command.  He demonstrated with his wonderful photos that with a little ingenuity and a lot of patience, the birds and plants in our gardens can make stunning photos.  Other locations always seem more attractive and the macro/wide angle combination of alpine flowers with a backdrop of snow-capped mountains is a far cry from Norfolk!

I know many of us were surprised and encouraged to hear Gianpierro say that he uses a Panasonic Lumix.  His techniques, dedication and determination should inspire us all to keep going out (at least as far as our gardens!) with our cameras.

Tuesday 2nd May - Out and About + panels

In the first part of the meeting, we made the most of the late evening light and took photos ready for a panel.  Jack Mitchell then summarised the main features of panels and took us through one method for creating a three image panel.  Somehow Photoshop knows when it's a live demo and chooses that time to spring new surprises but Jack was equal to the challenge and took us step-by-step through the process of creating a triptych.

We now have four weeks to master the techniques and produce our own panel for our Focus On ... Panels session next month.