London in June (4) – Camden Town

Camden is an inner-city district in the north of London. It is a very colorful place and a center of alternative culture like punk and Goth subcultures. If you stay in London you have to visit this district. I’ve never seen so many tattoo and piercing studios in one street.

The Camden Lock Village reopened in May 2009 so we were lucky to visit it. The market in general is very exciting and if you are there you have to eat in the section along the canal.

They have a vast range of different food from Mexican, Thai, Chinese, Italian etc.. and the places where you can eat it are special. See below:

More pictures of Camden Town.

Dragonflies

Below are some macro shots of dragonflies from the last weekend. If you are very close to the subject  it’s important to shoot with a big enough depth of field (DOF). One way to increase the DOF is to shoot with a high f-stop. I used f/8 and  f/9 this time. Unfortunately if you use a high f-stop value your exposure time also increases, so make sure there is enough light for a sharp image.

Recently I found a online DOF calculator and there are even tools for your iPhone and iPod-touch to calculate the correct values when you are in the field!

f/8, 1/800 s, 100mm

f/9, 1/200 s, 100mm

London in June (3) – Kew Gardens

Kew Gardens

The correct name would be the The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew but usually one says just Kew Gardens. It is a vast collection of living plants (more than 30’000!) and the size is about 300acres. The entry fee is about 11 pounds. More pictures of Kew Gardens.

Rhizotron & Xstrata Treetop Walkway
This walkway gives you the opportunity to walk high above the ground through the tree canopy of sweet chestnuts, limes and deciduous oaks. If you are lucky you see birds, insects, lichens and fungi that rely on these huge organisms. The walkway is about 200 meters long and is really thrilling. You also have a great view of the vast 300 acres of Kew, as well as the London skyline. It is designed by Marks Barfield Architects, the architects of the London Eye. The pioneering structure of the Xstrata Treetop Walkway is an ingenious design based on a Fibonacci numerical sequence, often found in nature’s growth patterns.  And if you have forgotten what the Fibonacci numbers are, here the reminder : 0,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,…

Temperate House
The central part of the Temperate House was designed by Decimus Burton and finished in 1861. It was very expensive and because of financial constraints the construction of the two side-parts was delayed until 1899. It is the largest glasshouse at Kew and the world’s largest surviving Victorian glass structure. It contains plants from Asia, Australia, Pacific Islands and Africa. You can even walk up and view the trees and plants from above.

Waterlily House
It is the hottest and by far the most humid house at Kew. There was immediately a film over my lens from the camera. The Waterlily House contains a large pond with huge lilies surrounded by other heat-loving plants.

London in June (2) – Richmond

A nice day trip you can plan is to visit Richmond and on the way back Kew Gardens. Richmond sits on the south side of the river Thames. If you have a 7-Day Travelcard for zones 1 and 2 (and I remommend to buy one if you stay that long)  the return ticket only costs about 3 pounds. Below you can see the Richmond bridge which was built in the 18th century. 1937 they widened the bridge due to increasing traffic.

We enjoyed the Thameside walkway with the pubs, terraces and beautiful green parks. Again there were lot’s of squirrels in the parks..

Andrea attracting a squirrel…

London in June (1)

The Piccadilly Circus at night is one of my favourite places in London to take pictures. It’s so vivid and colorful that you have lot’s of opportunities to test different modes and parameters for your “perfect” shot. Below are a few examples taken without a tripod. I tried some different ISO values and aperture times to compare the results.

 
1/2s, f10.0, ISO 320

 
1/4s, f7.1, ISO 320

1/20s, f3.5, ISO 320

Raggal -> Hoher Frassen (1979m)

We started the hiking trip at about 9:30am at Raggal near the church. There are enough parking spaces and also a restaurant. So you have at least something to look forward to after the tour. We went via Nitzkopf to the Hohe Frassen summit, which was a 2,5 hour walk. The ascend was not that exhausting because we didn’t use all the steep shortcuts. 

On the way back we headed towards the Frassenhütte but due to bad weather conditions we decided to go straight back to the car. The last part of the trail it started to rain. During the heavy rain showers we looked for a shelter under the trees.
Gernot was happy to test his new skinfit outfit under such circumstances  

More pictures in the Hohe Frassen gallery.

Some Details:
Total Walking time: 5 hours 45 mins
Length: about 13 km
Vertical Up: about 1000 meters

Raggal -> Hoher Frassen Trip Details

Zurich Zoo

This time we took the route to Dübendorf/Wallisellen. It is the longer way but you don’t have to drive through the city. I think it is the fastest way to get to the Zurich Zoo from Buchs. After the exit 65 it is about 20 mins to the parking spaces.
The shot from the bird below was taken in the Masoala Rainforest park.

This time we were lucky because I got some good close-ups of the lions although there was a wire frame in front of the lens.

More pictures in the gallery!

Zurich Zoo Trip Details