Misty Walk Barton to Cambridge via Grantchester

Rather than battle with Cambridge traffic, we decided to walk into Cambridge, parking the car at Barton and passing over the M11. Here are some shots from the walk including a final image of a Kingfisher which obligingly perched on branches in Cambridge City by Hobson's Conduit

Cambridge Using Panorama Module in Lightroom

I was trying both horizontal stitches of images (holding camera vertically) or Vertical stitches (holding camera horizontally) with the Fuji 18-55mm lens as often this does not have quite a wide enough angle for shots. Results in first four images; rest a few extras from a rather dull rainy visit.

Fen Drayton Pits in the Gloom - Experiments of Fuji Raw Processing

We visited Fen Drayton RSPB Reserve yesterday afternoon when the light was very poor so 3200 ISO was the minimum. For my own future information, some results on using different Raw conversion recipes. I have been trialling the Phase One software as this has the best reviews for processing Fuji XT-2 files. In the images of Redwing and Fieldfare (of which there were hundreds at FD!) the Capture One conversion is first and ACR (Lightroom) second. For the Marsh Harrier, I show the  Capture One, then  ACR conversion, and finally with Nik Define used for Noise Reduction (the best result possibly for this image). Only real conclusion is that it depends on the paricular problem in the image and how much time to invest in processing. Certainly Capture One does a routinely better job on most files against straight ACR processing but the latter combined with Nik Define and Sharpening may well match it in most cases.

Night Photography in Cambridge After the Rain

Yesterday was wetter than Ros and I had hoped for our photoshoot in Cambridge. Some photos from the day's shoot to follow but here some from the afternoon as the light faded. The rain really helped with wet pavements and cloudy skies to reflect the city lights. The 6th and 7th images were taken at the starting exposure for full night photography (30secs, f8, 800 iso) and are more or less unaltered from the RAW file. I closed the aperture for the subsequent images to f16/f18 to cut the flare from the lamps and give the classic star burst effects. We have a CCC outing on Sunday afternoon so hopefully these images will be helpful in determining exposure settings. Monochromes are Lightroom conversions

The Great Fen Project and Clever Gadwalls

The Great Fen is a habitat restoration project in Cambridgeshire. It is one of the largest restoration projects in the country, and aims to create a 3,700 hectare wetland connecting Woodwalton Fen National Nature Reserve (NNR), Holme Fen NNR and other nature reserves to create a very large conservation site. We had intended visiting last year but somehow the months went by so we were determined to make it in 2016. Woodwalton Fen has a sixeable population of Bittern and also Harriers and Red Kites. We only saw Buzzards in the air but were fortunate to glimpse 2 Bitterns. A return visit definitely on the books.

While waiting for bittern action, I spent time observing the Gadwall ducks - an unusually large number present on a deep Mere (they are dabbling ducks). They were pursuing Coots especially when they dived for food. I researched this on the internet and found a large amount of literature on Kleptoparasitism in Gadwalls. This learned behaviour of pirating food off Coots is thought to be responsible for the large increase in Gadwall numbers in the UK.

Annual Invasion in Cambridge

Earlier this week, the Colleges in Cambridge saw the invasion of large numbers of Sixth Formers and their parents for Entrance Interviews for the University and also very large flocks of Redwings and Fieldfares from Scandinavia

Welney Pastel Tones: 2. Ducks and Waders

There are large flocks of ducks on the Washes at the moment including my favourite Pintails. The second flight shot shows Widgeon, Teal and Gadwall while the Mallard were formation dancing on the ice. The Waders are mainly black-Tailed Godwits put up by a Marsh Harrier that was being mobbed by a Crow.