Decided to stick with the insects in the garden today. It was too hot to get stuck in the shed and puff smoke or even blow bubbles

C & C welcome please

Hefty

The pouch is not included with the lens when you buy it new. The seller is offering it as extra as he says he had one extra. Nice bonus I would guess for the buyer

Iain,

Unfortunately that is true, its still hard as I keep battling with the situation and mentally struggling with it.

Best way to deal with it and try to put to rest now is get up from here and go to Lido and have a walk and chat with the wardens. The episode yesterday just shook me off and left a bad taste in my mouth. May be its just me, that I am like this and perpahs others would have already forgotten by now, but unfortunately I take a while to get to grips with situations like this.

Thanks for your advice by the way, I fully see sense in what you say, and I will try to move on

It just got me thinking suddenly, as they actually went through my whole card with the photos. I had just formatted before leaving home, but had I not done that and continuted taking those images in the park they would have found images of my little ones in the camera. What would have happened then? I assume I would have either ended up in the station or being escorted home by police to confirm that the kids in the camera were really mine.

What a situation it would have been.

I still think unfortunately the people who are sent to investigate claims like this lack a lot of knowledge in the field, in this case the cops (before anyone starts blasting at me please note I am not by any way accusing the police or criticising them).

If I really were on to no good I would have escaped easily. I was carrying my Tamrac bag, huge one, easily could have had an extra camera there. I could have taken the shots and the card would have been somewhere else or in my pocket. So many scenarios occur in my mind that makes me just wonder that the real culprits just get away by this type of exercise, targetting someone with a camera, and the ones who end up with a nasty taste of the episode such as mine are the innocent ones.

Surely I am not the only one with the DSLR at Ruislip Lido
Check the flickr links and the range of children's images in the playground. Click on the links and you will see the wide number of images.

As much as I try to understand the idea behind the person's attitude of calling the cops I fall short of grasping any justificagtion for it. And the warden should have known better that photos can be taken in Lido.

link

Paul,
Fully agree with you, no need to entice and try to create a situation where otherwise it might not exist.

In defence to the cop though I must say that when I asked him if this is going to happen everytime I go into the woods with the camera he said "may be the person who called the cops was his or her first time there" "or the person was being over protective also", and he kept on reiterating that they were not stopping me taking pictures and I could go on doing that.

I obviously told him that it seemed unlikely that I would continue doing that under the circumstances and I would rather just pack and go.

Well,
I think we better really draw a line on this episode.
There is no doubt that this has shaken me tremendously, but I will take steps to get over this. Starting by today going to the park and having a chat with the wardens there or with the officials.

There is no need to further flare tempers here and drift away from the main episode, which was that a member of the public calling the cops and me being grilled, slightly without tact I must say though but I can handle that, and in the middle of the public being subjected to an embarrassing situation.

Truth is I hate the umcomfortable feeling that I have in going to the Lido now with the DSLR. And this is just not right.

But as for the situation with the cops themselves I think we can draw the line here. They could have handled it slightly better but hey, I can live with that. I have great friends who are cops and when I tell them the episode I am sure they will agree with me.

Paul, it was exactly between 6PM and 7PM and I was in the woods, not inside the play area of Lido. But even if I was inside for goodness sake its a public area. I go there with my children often and I have thought about this long and hard through the night as this episode has pissed me so much, and kept thinking what if it was me with my kids in the play area, which often me or my wife do, would I have reacted in a similar way or get concerned if I saw someone with a DSLR? The truth is I wouldn't get worried, unless I really noticed that the person was aiming and conentrating his photographs on a child.

I woke up this morning and have decided that as its going to be a great sunny day again I am going to pack my gear and go there and speak to the wardens or go into the superviser's hut and have a chat. Surely they knew that cops were there and might even have played a part in their being summoned, otherwise how on earth would the cops have gone to the info hut and come out straight from there and approach me at the location where I was. The area is quite big and surely they had directions pointed to the "strange man with the camera in the woods near the playground"

link

I walked from the running club which is at Bury Street, crossed the woods towards East direction, and took the shots of the hoverfly behind the Woodbay Railway Station, but still inside Park Wood.

Jack

stunning image of that passion flower. And if its not too much to ask I would love some seeds too . You see Peter has passed me the bug for "maracuja" .

Have they started giving fruits already? Peter said the ones he has although the non edible ones started flowring in February.

Would love to plant them in a greenhouse and see how they get along.

Jack goodness me, she really was into wanting to get you one way or another. She literally wanted to see you in trouble and her jealousy seemed to have no bounds.

You ended up having the last laugh , those are always the best haha.
Glad you like the shot. It will go down in history as the shot taken the day I was grilled by the cops hahaha