Category Archives: Photography

A Pictorial Review Of 2014

Photography, Volunteering

2014-10-24_A Young Volunteer

 Who said driving a tractor was hard?

David Pottinger writes:

Here’s my selection of photos that were published on the blog during 2014 (plus two others). They are mostly in chronological order, January to December.

As you can see, a lot more goes on at the Pond than you might imagine!

If you’d like to support Fleet Pond Society, please consider joining, it’s just £10 a year (with the newsletter emailed) or £15 via post (see here).

Membership fees help us carry out a wide variety of tasks that extend and complement those carried out by Hart Countryside Services. In addition to this, we also greatly appreciate funds and services kindly provided by a number of local organisations and companies.

On the theme of pictures, please note that the deadline for the FPS Photographic Competition for 2014 is fast approaching – 5 January 2015. You can find the details here. Best of luck!

2014-01-20_Fujitsu Team

The team from Fujitsu helping out in early January

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This is the sort of thing that volunteers end up doing!

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 The start of the year was unfortunately a bit of a washout

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 The photo competition winners for 2013 – see here for a slideshow

FPS 2013 Liza Toth Winner - Small

The overall winner for the 2013 FPS Photographic Competition – Liza Toth

2014-02-26_Eastern Viewpoint 2

 Something unusual being constructed at the Pond!

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 BT volunteers together with Rachel Jones, Hart Countryside Ranger

Phill Gower Volunteer of the Year 2013

 FPS Volunteer of the Year for 2013 – Phil Gower

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 FPS stalwart and Deputy Chairman, Terry Austin, receiving a well-deserved award from the High Sheriff of Hampshire

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 The Lions’ View taking shape – an attractive new addition to Fleet Pond

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 The opening ceremony for the Lions’ View

2014-05-31_WD Rescue Hedgehog 2

How surprising – an albino hedgehog!

2014-05-31_WD Parade of Stands

The very popular Wildlife Day at the Pond in May

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Being interviewed (in the reeds) by Eagle Radio

Woodpecker June 2014

 Bird ringing – a magnificent Green Woodpecker

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 Navigating the World Wide Web (Fleet Carnival)

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Jim Storey, one of our Committee Members!

2014-09-05 Dimension 1

Dimension Data helping out at the Pond, as they have done for several years – it’s really appreciated!

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 The enthusiastic team from SSE

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Mud no object…volunteers can de a dedicated lot!

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 Beavers having a great time at the Pond (September)

2014-09-26_Board at Lions View

Appreciating the info and panorama at the Lions’ View

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Ranger Rachel doing some serious reed cutting!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O0m_Y87JpM&w=560&h=315]

Video of sunrise at Fleet Pond (wildlife appears after one minute)

Photography At The Pond – Competition Deadline 5 January 2015

Photography

David Pottinger writes:

The Christmas season is fast approaching and doubtless some of us will be receiving cameras (or smartphones) as presents. I’m sure you’ll also be keen to try them out! This being the case, why not have a go at entering the current Photographic Competition organised by Fleet Pond Society?

The details are as below and the deadline is 5 January 2015. You can of course enter photos that you have taken previously at the Pond and which fit the theme of “Fleeting Moments”.

FPS Photo Comp 2014 b

Please note that the competition is free to enter and is open to everyone.

If you’d like to see previous winning entries take a look here and, under Pictures, also the results from previous years.

There’s also an attractive slideshow of last year’s winning entries on the GetHampshire site.

FPS 2013 - Liza Toth

The overall winner of the 2013 FPS Photographic Competition by Liza Toth

For some general photographic inspiration, please also take a look at the winners of the recent photography competition organised by the local Estate Agent’s Mackenzie Smith.

A free calendar based on the winning entries is being produced and covers the attractive North Hampshire area. Interestingly the entry for July was taken by Chris Straker and features Fleet Pond (see below).

Best of luck!

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Fleet Pond by Chris Straker (from the Mackenzie Smith Competition)

Bright New Ideas And Fleet Pond

People, Photography

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH9eW4b7FP0&w=560&h=315]

Tom Hardless at work, including some shots featuring Fleet Pond

From GetHampshire:

A Fleet fashionista has become a viral success, with a video in which he features racking up more than half a million YouTube hits since it was posted less than a week ago.

The video captures reactions of traders from the 12 Hour Store where six small businesses had the opportunity to trade on the corner of Oxford Street and South Molton Street in central London for the day in October.

It was part of the Big Things Start Small campaign by smartphone and tablet payment technology firm iZettle.

Tom Hardless, of Iam Vibes, who lives in Fleet, was one of the businesses to trade alongside global retailers in one of the busiest shopping locations in the world.

And at the end of the article:

In another video promoting his business ahead of his day in the 12 Hour Store, Mr Hardless is seen working in the bedroom of his Connaught Road home, on viewing platforms around Fleet Pond and taking fashion shots in the woodland surrounding it.

Blogging About Fleet Pond

People, Photography, Walks

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David Pottinger writes:

It’s always illuminating to read what others think of Fleet Pond and to hear how they get involved and appreciate it. Recently I came across an interesting post by a local resident, Melissa, who gives her reasons for visiting, and some of the different animals and locations seen:

Over the past couple of months, I’ve been spending an hour or so at the end of each day walking around my neighbouring nature reserve. Fleet Pond is so close and it seems ridiculous that we barely visited when we first moved here years ago. Now, I can’t imagine a day without it. Instead of getting home and immediately vegging out, I take a lovely meditative 2 mile walk, sometimes extending it to 3 or 4 miles over the weekend.

Please take a look at her interesting article for the details (the attractive photos above and below are taken from it).

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The story related in Melissa’s post reminded me a bit of my own situation. Although I live very near the Pond I rarely visited it for quite a while.

However when I had business trips to London I used to walk to the railway station through the nature reserve (at least if it wasn’t raining) and each time I noticed something different, in particular various improvements (better paths etc).

When I decided to work part-time I thought I’d give something back to the local community by joining a voluntary group. Luckily I’d heard about Fleet Pond Society (FPS) and elected to give that a go. I was quite amazed at how much they did and what an inventive group they were.

2014-09-26_Board at Lions View

Visitors reading the new board at the Lions’ View (both provided by FPS)

Fascinated and surprised that so much was going on (see example picture below), I decided to set up this blog as a way of communicating events and activities at the Pond to as wide an audience as possible. This has paid off as, since starting in July 2008, we’ve had nearly 130,000 views!

Air Ambulance at Sandy Bay

From the first post on this blog in July 2008 – it really happened!

If you’d like to join (and thereby support) FPS, please see here.

If you’d like to get involved as a volunteer, in one way or another, please contact Colin Gray, our Chairman, who would be delighted to hear from you.

Colin’s contact details are:

Phone 01252 616183

Email colin@fleetpondsociety.co.uk

Picture credits (top two): here.