Lackford Lakes, Suffolk

 Some images from Lackford Lakes yesterday - a first visit there and very impressed at the numbers of birds and species. The Egyptian geese spent a lot of time preening while flocks of Shoveller, Teal and Lapwing filled the air. Shots also of Greylag goose and Widgeon landing and portraits of Shoveller and Golden Eye.

Suffolk Crossbills

 It is quite a few years since I had good sightings of Crossbills so it was a great pleasure to photograph them today in beautiful winter sunlight. Not ideal positioning as there were lots of twigs obscuring them but managed a female and male more or less clear of obstructions. Then a fight broke out - the 1250th that I used was not sufficient to stop wing motion but the bird was travelling very fast when you see how far it has moved in the next consecutive frames (10 frames /second).

Fowlmere RSPB Reserve

 Beautiful sunny day yesterday so couldn't resist a trip out. Fowlmere looked superb in the winter sunshine but was practically a bird-free zone - only 2 mallard and 2 moorhens came within range of the camera. Resorted to reed patterns etc - the last image reminds me of a viking boat.

Sculpture Images Simplified.

 Here are the McGill Sculptures after the background has been removed. I haven't attempted to correct the mixed lighting colouring.

John McGill's Sculptures Toft

 We were set a very difficult task - to photograph some of John McGill's sculptures in situ in their very full house, which is a large converted thatched barn in Toft. The light was very poor and mixed origin. The main statue is about 9 foot tall and as you see in the first image surrounded by objects. I have done as asked on this one and removed the background. The other sculptures are as shot but the required background removal in these will be much easier. The book is a particular favourite of mine - it hinges both ways and has mystical beasts and plants tumbling out of the pages.

Toft at Sunset

 I tried a Canon 70-200 mm lens on my Sony Nex body - could be useful as a backup body when travelling. As it uses the lens wide open the depth of field is very narrow so it makes the manual focusing critical. The sunset was a worthy backdrop for the test.

Welney Floods

Lovely sunny morning but by the time we got to Welney it had clouded over and the light was pretty poor. The Reserve is completely flooded with only the main hide open. Opportunity for a few flight and behavioural shots until Meredith decided to try for a closeup.

Peak Cavern, Derbyshire

 We finished off the holiday with a trip down Peak Cavern. This has the largest cave entrance of all the caverns and used to be occupied by several families of rope makers. It is almost entirely natural but, unlike other cave systems in the area, does not have stalagtites.