Maldon Birds Continued

Here are the rest of the birds from the Maldon trip - lots of Black-Headed Gulls behaving badly, Starlings in mating mode and some of the 200 or so Brent Geese still roosting at high tide on the Estuary.

Blackwater Birds

 I was testing using the 2X converter on the 70-200 lens as still searching for a good 'travel' set-up for bird photography. It was bright and sunny in the morning and the results were pretty good. When it clouded over, focus was not so accurate. Lots of Black-tailed Godwits feeding and then roosting on the mud banks. I always enjoy the way the light and dark change as the flocks wheel around. Coot, Moorhen and Widgeon all obliged to test the lens combination.

Maldon, Essex, in the Saharan Dust Smog

 A few pictures taken at Maldon yesterday in the fog resultig from the local pollution and the Saharan sand storms. They were painting the Thames Barge sails with Fencing protection paint. Abundant birdlife - some shots to follow

Nottingham Graveyard - More Images and Problem Solved

 I was mystified by the fact that some of my monochrome exports from Lightroom have been displaying as sepia in Blogspot. Thanks Ian for solving the problem - Google+ in its wisdom sets as default to autoenhance images. I have now set this to off.
A few more images from the visit to Nottingham graveyard showing the effect of air pollution in the overall views and the use of Silver Efex Pro plus texture screens on the statues.

Paxton Pits

The Black-Headed gulls were busy scooping small invertebrates from the surface of Paxton Pits on Friday. 

Nottingham Rock Cemetery

 On Friday afternoon I visited the  Nottingham Church (Rock) Cemetery. The graveyard  is built into sandstone rock and looks very much like an old style Necropolis with caves. Catacombs were built into a larger cave but they were never used. The Cemetery was laid out by Edwin Patchitt for the Church Cemetery Company and was opened in 1856. It abounds in Victorian stone angels. 
The weather was dull with some rain so not an ideal backdrop. As I was in Nottingham to give workshops on Blending modes in Photoshop and the Nik software, I used the techniques to process some of the images. 

Reyjkavic Birds

 Final post from the trip to Iceland. It was a bird watching as well as northern Lights trip but the former had been a bit thin on the ground until the last day in Reyjkavic. The Marine Lake there produced Red Breasted Merganser, Whooper Swans, Pink-footed goose, Greylag Geese and Comoon gull. Elsewhere Redpoll, Snow bunting and Redwing