Spring Markers 2016

After an unusually warm winter, March has been cold and dull so the flowers have remained about the same for the last 3 weeks. Thus on the 21st March same markers out as previous years - coltsfoot, wild daffodil, primroses, dandelion, celandine, plum

Ely and CCC Points of View

 A really grey and chilly day for our annual Points of View competition, this year set by Helen in Ely. She set us 5 interesting topics: Cathedral (outside), Water, Curves, Monochrome, Funny Face. Generally I found that I only had one or two images that worked for a topic but here are a few extras for the Cathedral and for Curves. 

Paxton Pits

A first visit of the year to Paxton Pits - not many signs of spring on a dull cold morning - only the Blue Tits and Robins were singing. New lens performed well even where a very large crop as in last three. 

 

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.