Reeds and reflections on Trentham Lake.

Here's another one from our visit to Trentham Gardens, Staffordshire, in April this year.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/2, 1/3200s, 35mm, hand held.

Geese feeding beside Trentham Lake in heavy rain.

It had just started raining hard when I took this photo in April this year - it was bouncing off the lake and giving it a shimmery effect. Whilst everyone else was running for cover, the geese didn't even seem to notice and just carried on munching away on whatever they had found in the grass.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100. f/4, 1/80s, 35mm, hand held.

Fairy sculpture on Trentham Lake.

This is one of the many stainless steel wire fairies hidden around the lake and gardens at Trentham. They were created by local artist Robin Wight and I think they fit beautifully with their surroundings. I took this photo on a visit to the gardens and Monkey Forest in April this year.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/1.8, 1/1600s, hand held.

Tethered boats on Trentham Lake.

I took this on our walk round Trentham Lake, after we'd visited the Monkey Forest a few weeks ago. The weather was really varied at that point - throwing it down one minute; hot sun the next. That created a real mixture of clouds - the black heavy ones hanging over the white, fluffy ones on the horizon.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/8, 1/320s, 35mm, hand held.

Swan on its nest among reeds on Trentham Lake.

Yesterday we visited the Trentham Estate in Staffordshire. We walked through the Monkey Forest (the woodland home of 140 free-roaming Barbary Macaques), then walked around the lake and gardens. This swan was nesting at the side of the lake.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/1.8, 1/800s, 35mm, hand held.