Oh Deer!

Excuse the pun but thats the way todays been! Very slow! I took off first thing to be greeted by a nice thick fog that just would't lift! After spending an hour at Prestwick Carr I gave up and headed home stopping at big waters on the way.

Reed Bunting - Male

Much of the same thing there! Not much about and certainly nothing landing anywhere other than a feeder meaning very few photos! All in all i took 13 today! Hoping the weather gets a bit better soon as I found a nice little spot where I can tuck myself away and watch two deer grazing in the field.

I managed to creep up to within 30ft of these two today but the grass is quite long so getting a clear shot will be difficult.

The light picked up a little bit for this second shot which made a massive change to the colours!

Thats all for now, hopefuly tomorrow will be a bit better and I'll have alot more to write about!

Out and about.

Went out on sunday morning to a few local hotspots but with not much luck! So before heading home I tried a quiet spot thats not usualy any good for wildlife but today was very different!
Within minutes of parking up I had a variety of wildlife at my feet and a kestrel above my head (No photos of him though!) so I set up and started snapping.

Heres a few shots from sundays outing:

Also managed to grab a quick shot of this little fella :

He was very shy and very fast!

I was out on satruday too but with a very dull sky and sleet for most of the day, the chances or a decent photo were pretty slim! However I took a couple that I think were worth saving from the bin!

Visit my Flickr to see the full size and better quality images!

Shots I'd forgotten about.

After digging through lightroom and finding a few hidden gems, I decided to do some more digging and found some shots I thought were worth uploading.

They were taken at Haggerston Castle last year while sitting in a boat which isn't the easiest of tasks! The greylag geese tend to prefer flying past my head that posing for photos unlike the Cygnets which quite happily swam round me nice and slow!

They were all taken with my trusty 20D + 300 f4L which gives a nice depth of field especialy when the subject is in the water! The only problem I faced was the harsh sunlight which wasn't very consistant so it was a never ending battle of blown out highlights or under exposed images!

I won't bore you anymore with the details! So heres a few shots I've uploaded:

You really need to see the full size version on my flickr because uploading them onto this doesn't do the images any justice! They always look soft!

Painting, with light.

Well as one of my projects for this week I felt like I needed to get started on it! The exposures varied to begin with from 5 seconds to 30 seconds but a happy medium was achieved with a 20 second exposure! Once I had that set all I had to do was "paint"! ... Easier said than done!

I had a few attempts, using various methods of painting and it came out with some pretty good results! All of the shots below were one exposure and straight out the camera with only a small crop on each!

I feel like this has quite a good potential and it is something I will be trying again, I have some new ideas for it already! I'll keep you posted with this little ongoing project!

First attempt at a portrait.

Well I had a little go at taking portraits this afternoon and quickly realised I need a decent lens. I was using my 50mm f/1.8 but felt restricted and the only other EF lens I have is my old 30-85 which isn't as sharp as I need it to be!

This is one of the shots I have from the session and I will be taking more, probably self portraits, later on because it worked quite well for such a low budget set up!

Equipment used:

• Canon EOS 1D Mark 2
• Canon EF 35-80mm Lens
• Metz Flashgun
• Some plain black material as a backdrop

Having one flashgun and no wireless trigger meant i could only really light up one side effectivly so I chose to bounce the flash off the wall rather than point it directly at her face!

Enough waffling heres a couple of sample images:

I think I need to work on making people smile when I take photos! I seem to take ages setting up and by then everyones lost interest!!

More to follow...

Follow me on twitter!

Well im slowly getting into the social networking stuff and twitter is my next challenge!

 Join me on twitter

Im officialy off work now and I have a few things lined up this week.. not all wildlife! I went out and bought some fabric to use as a backdrop to take some portraits and also a coulple of LED torches for a bit of light painting. I'll update this week with some photos from both "Experiments"

Im using my old laptop at the moment and I've found some old photos I really want to get into photoshop but only have lightroom on here! It's quite a handy tool not only for storing your photos but also editing, it gives you alot of control once you get the hang of it!

Heres one of the photos I've edited using it! 

 

 Best viewed in large

I also have lots of shots from a bird of prey centre to edit and upload so keep an eye on my flickr to see those shots which include a barn owl, harris hawk and a 12 week old kestrel!

The big freeze, Will it effect the wildlife?

Certainly not for this kingfisher, which gave a nice ending to a rather bleak day!








It was on the 9th of January 2010 and my first outing with the camera after finishing a long stint of night shift work. I set off at 7am packed and ready, camera, 3 spare batteries and my old 20D as a backup in case my 1D failed!

I was determined to get out and grab some shots to upload after my flickR account laid dormant for almost 3 months!

It wasn't until 2pm, 7 hours after I set off, that the kingfisher appeared out of the blue. It caught me off guard while i was trying to photograph a robin for next years Christmas card! I swiftly changed position and focused on the kingfisher and snapped away expecting him to fly off straight away! .. To my surprise he didn't budge, sitting quite content staring down at the water.

It gave me ample opportunity to get as many shots as I wanted and in a variety of poses and with his catches. The fish he caught were pretty small but there was plenty of them!






After the kingfisher left I packed up my gear and headed home, the weather was deteriorating pretty fast and the last thing I needed after 8 hours in the cold was to get stuck!

I have several images from that day uploaded onto my flickr site click here to view them!

One of the photos I took that day is also featured in a blog on the BBC Website.