August 2020 – Bushcraft Days

August 25, 2020August 25, 2020

Evening Light – Moonlight and my struggles

Up until I got my DSLR (Nikon D3200) any pictures I took of the Moon showed a bright blob in the sky. Even with the standard kit of the D3200 things only got slightly better.

It was not until I obtained an 18-300mm zoom lens that I started having success (though I am a definite amateur here). The best bit of advice I ever received about shooting the Moon was to use a shutter speed of around 1/250 to 1/400, ISO 100 to 200 (though some say higher), f10 – 12 and around 200mm (though I do start to creep towards 300mm at times) – then I started to get some better results. I have since been told to shoot with the focus set on manual but have not tried that yet.

Getting the focus crisp seems to be my goal – most Moon pictures I take I bin but just occasionally the details of the craters really pop out.

While out and about I try and get the Moon from different angles – though I have never mastered that art where you can use your zoom lens to make the Moon look larger than it actually is in comparison to other objects around it – below the Moon is sitting on top of some electricity cables.

I have always wanted that Moon shot with a plane or a bird flying across it – this is the best I can come up with – one day 🙂

I often shoot the Moon through tree canopies however the scene below of the Moon over Lose Hill in the Peak District really caught my attention.

I have tried to put my photos of the Moon into the order they would appear in the sky from Waxing to Waning and realised that I had only one Waning Moon picture – must work on that 🙂

It is not all about detail – my kids asked to do this pic with a camera phone.

My last picture on the Moon is one of it rising. I took this without really looking at my settings – not crisp as I was using auto focus instead of manual but I do like that one of the craters is visible.

Cheers, George

August 22, 2020

Evening Light – Animals

Over the last few years I have tried to crack that elusive low light photography skill with varying levels of success. I must admit to using Adobe Lightroom to help bring out these evening colours. My next few posts will be in this area as there has not been much in the way of Bushcrafting going on 🙂

To begin with I have taken a few evening pictures which included horses from around our village, our dog Sorcha and one from the Thames.

Hill 170 – Pippingford Park – Ashdown Forest – UK

Hope you like them.

The next post will be on my attempts with photographing the moon.

George

August 21, 2020

Wintermoot 2020

Currently I am on holiday in the North West of England. I was reflecting on the fact that the 2020 Bushcraft UK Bushmoot had to be cancelled due to Covid when I suddenly realised that I had never got round to writing a blog on the 2020 Wintermoot that took place last February – pre-Covid, of course. I had published plenty of videos from the event but not actually written it up – probably due to the fact I was still digesting the enormous amount of food I had eaten in that week 🙂

The Wintermoot is held at the same place as the summer Bushmoot, at Merthyr Mawr in South Wales, and as it is a smaller affair (around 45 folk in comparison to the 200-300 at the summer event) it feels very homely. I soon had my camp set up (seemed strange with no leaf cover over me and no family with me) and the kettle on.

Set Up

Tony – the boss – settled on two main areas for cooking and food preparation and after a bit of strange rope work (in terms of the kitchen tent on the right) we were soon set up and the fire lit. Folk arrived over the first two days and prepared to get on with the cooking – well not me personally (I just do not have that artistic sort of mind) – my focus was on photography, video work and building campfire cooking constructions.

The Deer

Not sure who obtained the deer for us but after setting up the tripod it turned into a butchery class (led by Wayne) and then a shorter class on preparing the hide for tanning. Before long the ribs were slowly roasting over the fire on the rotisserie.

It was great to see everyone getting involved and trying out new skills.

Cooking Contraptions

Throughout the week I had fun alongside a few others coming up with different set ups for cooking.

These included:

A Rotisserie with reflector
A Hot Smoker
A Spit
A Campfire Crane
An Asado

All these alongside the usual cooking with Dutch ovens, skillets, frying pans and in foil.

Family Time

The Wintermoot, like the full Bushmoot, is family orientated with lots of chances for the kids to get involved if they wish. Even without any snow the February temperatures were low but everyone was kept warm with the great food on offer.

Great Dishes

As I am no chef I struggle to describe these different meals – I can but try with my photography skills – as an experienced eater I can say they were brilliant 🙂 – Lots of people helped out with the cooking but special mention must go to Beth Shepheard, Andy Illsley and Wayne Jones – as well as cooking continuously they demonstrated butchery, baking and food preservation.

Other Fun

In amongst all this cooking and eating we managed a few other activities including fun on the range, constructing a Windlass and a bit of Jedi training.

As it is a long time until next year’s Bushmoot I do hope we can have another Wintermoot next February.

Stay safe and hopefully see some of you next year.

George

August 19, 2020August 19, 2020

The Minimoot with Forestknights

The Bushcraft UK (BCUK) Bushmoot was supposed to be held this August however like many other big events had to be cancelled due to worries around Covid.

Wayne Jones from Forestknights Bushcraft (a fellow BCUK Moderator) along with his co-worker Beth Shepheard offered to run a small (for 20 to 30 people) Minimoot at his woods near Arundel for anyone who felt they could make it.

Home in the woods

This was proper camping (no cars anywhere in the woods) and after a few trips back and forth with the trolley we soon had our hammocks up. I was joined by my son Finlay and our friends Dave and Alan.

We had a communal cooking area and Fin managed to sneak a movie in each evening around the fire (got to make allowances for this day and age).

A little bit of whittling

The Minimoot, like the Bushmoot, was a relaxed affair however there were a few classes. One of the first that many asked for was spoon carving – this one went to Wayne to organise with all ages involved – it was great to see all that knowledge being shared.

Multi activities

If spoon-whittling didn’t appeal, we had a lot more going on over the weekend including;

Net needle carving
Log rockets
Nordic braiding
Campfire cooking constructions

Down on the Range

Usually in the afternoon we had the range up and running – we had all sorts of bows to choose from and Finlay was happy to be shooting some Mint Imperials down the range from his catapult.

Food – Glorious – Food

One thing that did not happen on this weekend was going hungry – Beth and Wayne (I will put them in order of priority here) are renowned for their cooking skills around a campfire. They cooked a mega breakfast every morning, a curry on the Saturday night and had the pizza oven fired up on a number of occasions.

Life around the fire

It was not just Beth and Wayne around the fire – eveyone got stuck in. My son Finlay loved making pizzas and Alan (being a cheffy-type person) loved the raised firepit – I was happy to stick the kettle on every now and then 🙂

Evening Relaxation

It was not all hard work (though that heat really made doing simple chores twice as hard as they actually were) and in the evening we would sit around our campfire before joining a socially distanced group fire when it was fully dark.

Most evenings you could hear the penny whistle from the likes of Stephen Crump and on the Saturday we had great singing (and guitar work) from Ruth and Mel.

Glorious light

As a photographer I usually struggle to get good shots in the woods with my phone camera and have to rely on the big old DSLR. But on this weekend the light was fantastic, so my DSLR never left my rucksack. Loved seeing all these rays through the canopy with the smoke from the cooking fires.

Thanks again to Wayne and Beth for hosting the Minimoot – the first camp I had attended since lockdown. It was great to see some friends again in a relaxed and socially responsible way – there was plenty of room in these woods.

Cheers (and look forward to future Minimoots alongside the main Bushmoot), George