I took a few images in Exeter’s museum yesterday. I’ll add a few more over the next couple of dayes. here’s the first.
Birds of a feather exhibition, RAMM, Exeter
Samuri, Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) Exeter, Devon
Large mammals exhibition, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, Devon.
Photography courses and workshops
Exe Estuary fine art prints
Dartmoor fine art prints
A black swan tends her eggs in the nest she has constructed along the banks of the River Exe.
A black swan frantically tries to save her nest and eggs as the river water rises following torrential rains.
The human cost of the wettest summer in 100 years, lost income and damaged property, has been highin the Southwest. The cost to wildlife has also been high. The mute swans that gather on the River Exe in the centre of Exeter have failed to raise a single clutch this year. At the end of September, an Austalian Black Swan (Cygnus atratus) attracted considerable interest as she tried to brood a small clutch of eggs along the riverbank. The weather was warm, and drier than it had been for most of the summer. perhaps she might be lucky. However Sunday and Monday the 23rd and 24th were to test her to the limit. Around 2am on the morning of the 23rd the rain becan to fall and the wind started to howl. For more than 30 hours it rained, and as it rained the river rose. By the early hours of the 24th she was already frantic, trying desperately to shore up her nest. By 10am the nest was still there, but floating. Although probably exhausted she moved incessantly, plucking reed blades of the bottom, trying vainly to build up her nest. The eggs were still same, but became submerged when she sat on the nest. She was engaged in a desperate race to raise the nest before the eggs lost too much heat. 
Although the rains had now stopped, at least temporarily, millions of gallons were still flowing down the river from high ground and so the river was continuing to rise. Passerby stopped to watch, and throw her bread, which is probably all she had time to eat since she had laid her eggs. No-one knew whether the eggs were fertile. She was the only black swan on the river all summer; tagging along at a safe distance with the larger mute swans that congregated along the quayside. But hybrids between mute and black swans were believed to have occurred in captivity. So it was just possible. And although the odds seemed against her, it was still possible her eggs main survive the flood.
This story will me expanded soon – and the whole story of the black swan and her nest will be told.
All images can be licenses from my Photoshelter website here Search black+swan
Stripey Howling Handcock busking, Exeter city centre.
Nigel ‘Stripey howling’ Hancock is almost a landmark in Exeter. His distinctive guitar style, a blend of ragtime, blues and celtic, can be heard somewhere in the city centre on most days. Stripey doesn’t just play in Exeter though; at different times of the year he can be heard in Poland, Switerland and other European countriesw, taking part on busking and street art festivals, most notably the buskerbus tours. Stripey has his own page, while his music can be bought here or simply ask him for a CD if you’re in Exeter.
For those interested in the technical aspects, this is an HDR image, created from a single RAW image, then converted to monochrome and slightly tweaked in Photoshop. If you are interested in Photoshop training please contact me ,
Book-Cycle volunteers load up container with books for Ghana. image no. MBI000947
Book-Cycle (www.book-cycle.org) is a dynamic young charity based in Exeter, Devon that collects donated books and allows you to choose how much you pay for them (they have a bookshop in West Devon Street, near the Cathedral in Exeter). The charity is run on an entirely voluntary basis, with all the cash raised going to fund their environmental and ‘fairer World’ projects. Perhaps one of the most exciting, for me at least, is that many of the donated books are delivered to swchools in developing countries such as Ethopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Madagascar. Yesterday was quite a big day; a container truck was being loaded up to deliver books to Ghana, and I was lucky enough to meet up with Ant. and some of the other guys behind book-cycle , and basically lounge around taking the odd picture while they sweated away loading the container on a very hot afternoon. From the warehouse in Exeter the books travel to Thamesport deepwater container port. They are being sent to the rural ashanti region of Ghana to help build library facilities, primarily for local children. If you’re in the Exeter area their bookshop (next to the ‘house that moved’ ) is well worth a browse, or check out their website (www.book-cycle.org) for other outlets in Exeter and along the south coast.
Book-Cycle volunteers loading boxes of books into a container truck at their warehouse in Exeter, Devon, for delivery to Ghana. Image No. MBI000944.
Book-Cycle volunteers loading boxes of books into a container truck at their warehouse in Exeter, Devon, for delivery to Ghana. Image no. MBI000948.
Nana Clara Aldrin-Quaye singing with London based cuban samba, timba and funk fusion band Wara at Exeter's Respect Festival, 2011. Image No. MBI000925.
Juanita Euka, singer with London based cuban samba, timba and funk fusion band Wara at Exeter's Respect Festival, 2011. Image no. MBI000923.
Slightly left field for me, but good fun. Had a great day at the Exeter Respect Festival with my son earlier this month but have only now got around to doing something with the pictures from then. A highlight was watching London-based samba/funk/fusion band Wara perform; real high energy, get-up-and-dance stuff. The marquee covering the stage was kind of gloomy so I was pushing iso’s and working with wide open apertures and as slow a shutter as I dared to get some half-decent shots (not always succesfully). Here are a few that worked.
London based cuban samba, timba and funk fusion band Wara performing at at Exeter's Respect Festival, 2011. Image No. MBI000926.
If you’d like to know more about them this is there myspace link http://www.myspace.com/waralondon
Exeter Midsummer Party marking start of Exeter Festival, Exeter Quayside, 17th June 2011. Pyrotchnics on the River Exe. Image MBI000919
A few quick images from the party on Exeter’s quayside last night. It was the most spectacular sunset, but of course I didn’t have my camera with me (Doh!). I did grab it in time to get some pictures of the finale, which was quite spectacular.
(If you would like to reproduce any of the images on my site, please email me, colin ‘at’ colinmunrophotography.com, giving the image number and the intended use)
Exeter Midsummer Party marking start of Exeter Festival, Exeter Quayside, 17th June 2011. Pyrotchnics on the River Exe. Image No. MBI000918.
Exeter Midsummer Party marking start of Exeter Festival, Exeter Quayside, 17th June 2011. Pyrotchnics on the River Exe. Image No. MBI000917.
The Port Royal bar reflected on the River Exe at night. Exeter historic quay, Exeter, Devon, England. Image MBI000910.
The Port Royal bar reflected on the River Exe at night. Exeter historic quay, Exeter, Devon, England. image No. MBI000910. Please email me, quoting this number if you’d like to license use of this image or purchase a fine art print.
I took this pic a couple of nights ago. The last of the revellers had staggered home and the quayside was quiet. It was warm and perfectly still, with a clear starry sky overhead. Perfect for this type of image. So a little after midnight I pulled my gear together and climbed out of my boat’s saloon. For a pic such as this, relying solely on distance sodium street lighting and faint starlight the iso needs to be cranked up a bit, but not so much as to make the image very noisy, and, obviously, the shutter speed way down. Depth of field is not an issue as everything in the picture is distant, so the iris can be (and was) wide open. I used an old 20mm prime lens, a favourite of mine. The sodium lighting gives the pub and adjacent buildings an unearthly yellow hue. I rather like it this so did not atempt to change this, feeling it added to the rather surreal look. Clearly the stars and buildings differ massively in brightness. To acheive useable exposure of both required melding two images at very different shutter speeds (four stops difference if memory serves me). Some post processing of the starry sky was also required. The image was converted in to a grey scale image to remove colour noise, then reconverted back to an RGB image before melding.
Hungry geese paddle across the snow-covered footpath on Exeter's Quayside
Snow has finally arrived in Exeter, just in time for Christmas! Despite sub-zero conditions that have lasted for weeks we have escaped the heavy snowfalls that have paralysed much of the UK. This morning I woke to a couple of inches in light, fluffy snow covering my boat, and pretty much everything else. Just enough to look pretty without causing too much disruption.
Close up of an inquisitive goose in snow, Exeter Quayside
Close-up of inquisitive goose standing in snow, Exeter Quayside
Mute swans (Cygnus olor) congregate under Cricklepit Bridge
One of the advantages of living on a boat is that you get to see a lot of aquatic life go past. Exeter is famous for its mute swans (Cygnus olor) with congregate in large numbers on both the River Exe and the Exeter Ship Canal. The swans have become very used to the tourists and locals strolling along the river and canal side in the centre of town, so much so they even nest next to the footpath in the heart of town. At this time of year pairs of swans can be seen cruising around guarding clutches of fluffy grey signets. The adults will shepherd the signets along, occasionally pulling bits of weed off the botton for the youngstesr to feed on, or paddling furiously with their webbed feet to stir up weed in the shallows for them.
Mute swan cygnet (Cygnus olor) only a few days or weeks old.
Mute swan cygnets (Cygnus olor) feeding in shallows.
Mute swan cygnets (Cygnus olor) swimming.
A pair of mute swan (Cygnus olor) cygnets swimming, Exeter Ship Canal.
As always my images are available to license and as fine art prints. If you’d like to use one of my images for publication please contact me. If you’d like a print of one of the images drop me an email stating image number and print size (costs for prints can be found on my fine art prints pages, e.g. Fine Art prints of Devon. Email me.
To my main website www.colinmunrophotography.com
Exeter historic quayside at night. Cafe live on a warm summer night, Exeter, Devon.
There has been a quay in Exeter since Roman times; the main trade was wool and woolen cloth, with the Customs House being built in 1680 to collect taxes on this burgeoning trade. The square riggers and the trade has long gone but many of the fine old buildings remain, converted now to cafes, bars and craft shops. I took these two images while out bat watching along the river bank with my kid (an extra treat as way past his normal bed-time). Each image is a composit of three long exposure images (these varied from 1/8th to around a second, from memeory). I actually took around 10 images of each scene but selected only three for the final images.
Exeter quayside at night. Cafe life along the river Exe by Exeter's historic quay in central Exeter, Devon, on a warm summer evening.