June through a Mirror

Whatever happened to Flaming June, as we call it over here. It’s gone AWOL! I recall saying jokingly to friends in March, when we had an extraordinary spell of warm dry and settled weather – ‘This is our Summer’. The unfortunate truth is we haven’t seen a significant spell of dry settled weather since, as depression after depression has roared in off the Atlantic. One heads north, the next heads south. The ends of the country have taken it in turns to get a soaking accompanied by unseasonally high winds. Living in the middle of the country (and on a hill) as we do has some benefits: bad weather blows around us or loses some of its force by the time it reaches us. But we, and our garden, are still battered and bruised – except of course for the weeds that flourish and lap up the rain.

So I have nothing to show you from our garden in June this year, but thanks to an efficient filing system I can go to the exact same week a year ago and see what we are missing. Then I don’t know what to do: feel even more miserable, or cheered up by what I captured previously.

So – four images from our garden taken in June 2011 and 2010, all shot with my 500mm Mirror Lens (750mm film equiv). For those not familiar with Mirror Lenses and wanting to know a little more about them click the link that follows: ‘Mirroring Autumn’

Long telephoto lenses are normally used for bringing the distant image closer. But used up-close (and mine focuses down to 6ft) they produce some unusual and atmospheric images although the depth of field in such a long lens is extremely narrow and focusing is tricky.