Helen Stephenson's Keston Pictures, November 24th, 2006

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Stephen and I were considering a trip to Kew Gardens, but the weather didn't look particularly promising, so we decided on a local visit to Keston Ponds instead. The best of the autumn colours may have been past, but there was still plenty to see and photograph.

These pictures were captured using a Pentax *ist DS digital SLR camera.

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We parked in the Leafy Grove car park on Heathfield Road and I decided straight away that Leafy Grove was worth photographing. The day was dull and light levels were low, and I realised fairly quickly that shooting without a tripod wasn't going to produce results. I decided to have a go later with the tripod and we took off across the road and through the common ground towards Keston Ponds.

The first thing of interest that we spotted was a clump of fungi.


 

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The last two pictures were taken using the Sigma 28-300mm lens that practically lives on my camera, but I wanted to get closer than that lens goes, so my 1970s vintage Tamron 85-210mm lens came out of its case. I like the fly on the picture on the right.

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Fungi photography over, we went in search of the ponds. Here are two fairly similar views across the middle pond taken with the Tamron lens.


 

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This clump of grass was at the edge of the lower pond, and I'd swapped back to the Sigma lens before taking it. (I was trying to photograph ducks on the pond, but wasn't having any success, even with the extra 100mm the Sigma gave me!)


 

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The middle pond appeared to be the most photogenic one and I moved back there and snapped some more pictures.


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Then I moved on to the upper pond, where I shot through some tree branches to frame my shots. There were a lot of birds on the upper pond, and they appear in the foreground of a couple of these pictures.


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Here are some autumn leaves snapped en route from the ponds back to the car park.


 

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There was a tricky spot on the path we'd taken to the ponds. I thought that it would be easier to get up than down, but on our return, when I attempted to get up it, I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and we detoured and came out on Fishponds Road near its junction with Heathfield Road and then we walked up the side of the road.

This route took us past the War Memorial and the Windmill, which are featured next.


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Here's the windmill first. It doesn't look as good on a dull day as it did in rather better conditions when I last photographed it in 2000: Earlier Keston Pictures.

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Now here's the War Memorial.


 

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The War Memorial pictures really don't lend themselves to anything other than a vertical layout. I'll start with the wreath which is incorporated in the top of the Memorial


 

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The next picture depicts the plaque containing the names of Keston people who lost their lives in World War I.


 

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A lower plaque commemmorates those who lost their lives in World War II. It is interesting to note that the list of civilians is longer than the list of service personnel. When you consider the proximity of Keston and Leaves Green to Biggin Hill, it was probably a prime target for air attacks, so maybe the list of civilian casualties isn't surprising.


 

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With Remembrance Sunday only a couple of weeks ago, wreathes of artificial poppies were laid around the base of the Memorial.


 

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On arriving back at the car park, I had several more attempts at photographing Leafy Grove, this time with the help of a tripod. Here's the best of my results.


 

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Last Revised: 24th November, 2006.