Redeveloping my website

This may come as a bit of a surprise to some people but I am looking at redeveloping my web site.  This is a long term project which will no doubt take over a year to achieve.   The key to this redevelopment is the use of Adobe Flash.  At this time I have little real knowledge as to how flash works and how best to deploy it in a modern site.   This is something I hope to overcome in the coming months.   I don't any real changes in the lay out of the site until after the 11th May (the last day of the course this year).  However, sitting next to me on my desk is a document called 'Creating a simple document in Flash CS4' - I started out with even less and I taught myself Visual Basic.  This being said I have no idea if I will succeed but it is worth the effort.

Watch this space - but not just yet...

More about Composite Images

Feeding Time - Staunton Harold Reservoir

I have been working on producing a composite image this morning and the results have been very encouraging.  However, I think I need to reflect on the issues raised by the approach I have taken.

Set Up

The set is very simple.  Find an area where the birds come to feed.  Place your camera nearby with a wireless remote attached and when the birds arrive - take the images.   

Technical issue with this approach

Living in the UK the light is at best marginal.  On very rare days we get brilliant sunshine.  When this occurs then there is sufficient light to mean that you can use high shutter speeds with low ISO.   However, on most of the other days you have to do battle with poor light an high ISO.   This causes the image to degrade.  No doubt the best pro cameras don't suffer from this problem but I haven't got the luxury of this so I have to make do with the technical limitations of the Canon 40D.   At high ISO it starts to suffer.  Also it will only take 6 FPS on JPEG which also adds to the problems.

This brings us onto flash.   I have tried to use a flash before but this has two problems.  Firstly,  it scares the birds - bit of a show stopper this!   Secondly, most cameras are only sync'd to a maximum of 200th of a second shutter speed - a slow speed for what I am trying to achieve.  No doubt there are technical fixes to these issues but I am not willing to spend the money just yet.

I will need to think about this some more and see if I can't come up with some better solutions.

Remote Flash

Robin taking off from feeder

I have a new toy - a wireless remote control for my camera.   I have been playing around with it today and the results have been mixed.   To be ell the truth I had no idea what to expect but it has given my some food for thought.   I used my flash and surprise surprise this spoked the birds.    I was able to capture some action but I need to do some thinking about how to improve the results.   Still this is a whole new enterprise and is fascinating.