New Lens, New Bird

Having had my Canon 7d and 100-400mm stolen from the boot of the car (along with other gear) when I was unable to carry them with me on a general walk, I have decided to see how I enjoy nature photography using the lighterweight kit of Fuji and their new 100-400mm lens. Yesterday afternoon when it arrived was not ideal to try on birds but had a go at the bird feeder through the window and very surprised that the first bird recorded is new to our feeders, a siskin. Considering the conditions and through glass, pretty impressed with lens - hope for brighter conditions today.

The Strid, Bolton Abbey Estate Yorkshire

I had a walk along the river at Bolton Abbey on Thursday up as far as The Strid, where the water flows very fast through a gorge. I did a series of shutterspeeds to see the effect on the water and decided around 1/8th to 1/15th gave a result that suited the location. I used the Big Stopper for 10 and 30 second exposures, interestingly not a lot different in the results.

 

RSPB Old Moor Reserve

As a consequence of having my laptop and wildlife camera gear stolen from the boot of the car, I will now always carry all camera gear and computers with me when away from home lecturing, so they need to be as light as possible. Yesterday, I visited Old Moor reserve on the way to talk at Sheffield and used the Fuji XT-1 and 50-140mm lens for a bit of bird snapping to see how it performed. Some of these are quite large crops but still show good detail. Not as high hit rate as with the Canon and I have yet to master anything moving but surprised at the ability to focus even where distracting branches as in last two.

Gibside Chapel, Northumberland

As it was raining heavily on Wednesday, I opted for a visit to Gibside (National Trust) before heading south to Leeds. Gibside is a country estate, near Gateshead and previously owned by the Bowes-Lyon family. The Palladian Chapel had been restored by the NT and is a wonderful example of that style of architecture. Images taken with 10-24mm lens and a 15mm fisheye on Fuji XT10, handheld down to 1/8th second!

Gateshead Attractions Were Closed

On Tuesday, I decided to go to the Quays area of Gateshead/Newcastle as I knew it well from our week there in 2012 and wanted to do some photography in the Baltic Contemporary Centre and the wonderful Sage building. Unfortunately the Sage was closed to the public and the Baltic had only one Gallery open. I had an enjoyable day photographing what I could in the area and walking into Newcastle city centre and back over the High Bridge.

Hadrian's Wall

I visited two of the areas (Birdoswald and Walltowncrags) where the wall, which was built in by the Romans in AD122 onwards, are well preserved. Amazing to think these structures have survived over two thousand years.