Well I have foresaken the wamth of the house for the freezer of the garage. So far so cold - still early days.
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Showing posts with label Garden Birds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Garden Birds. Show all posts
Thursday, 7 January 2010
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Working in the back garden...
It really is a winter wonderland - I'm really thankful that I can work at home rather than trudging into the office. Anyway, after doing some shopping I settled down for a days shot in the warmth of hearth and home. Whilst this was satisfying in itself it had two other purposes. The first is to make some work for this years British Wildlife Photography Awards - particularly the Wildlife in My Backyard category. The second is for my ARPS portfolio. I have still to finalise the portfolio - not a problem as I don't want to submit it until the end of the summer - so I can keep my options open. One final thing on this I am also going to use this work to enter ther RPS Nature group annual exhibition - so not bad for one set of photographs.
Saturday, 19 December 2009
Worth the freeze...part 2
Today was the first day that I strayed outside the confines of the house on a photographic mission. That makes this seem like some vital mission of national importance. Believe me it was not! No instead it was just nice to get after being side lined for a week with a bad back. So what to report? Well Swithland reservoir is a mixed blessing for bird photography. I have made some wonderful photographs at this location however you have to get the timing just right - usually dawn or just after as the main part of the reservoir is facing almost south and shooting straight into the sun is not to be recommended.
However, there is a second part of the reservoir that is further south and you shoot with the light behind you. This can be much better part from the fact that you have zero cover so most birds are just dots in the distance. So both locations have significant draw backs but that didn't matter today - it was just nice to get out.
So I was out but boy was it freezing. The air temperature was just about zero but with the wind chill it felt more like -10c as the cold wide was blowing straight into your face across a large frozen reservoir. The previous entry was typed into my iPhone at the scene and I have not corrected the spelling mistakes as it helps to show how cold it was but, and it is a huge but, the light was so clean and bright that it literally hurt your eyes. This was really Kodachrome light.
And the photographs? Well it is early days but they also look pretty good. I usually find that I take or so to really see the value of the shots I have taken so over the next few days I will work through the shoot and hopefully come up with some real winners. The ARPS portfolio - Leicestershire Wildlife is now growing at an inordinate rate. This is a good thing as it gives me more and more choices - and this is on top of the Birds of the British Coast portfolio or the Garden Birds portfolio. It is nice to have a large selection to work on.
Friday, 18 December 2009
Worth the freeze...
It was worth the cold and frost. However, I wish the bird had landed on a branch with some snow on it - but for two hours I couldn't get the shot. Still something work on.
Freezing...
Cold afternoon trying to capture birds in the garden. As I write this a small group of house sparrows have just flown into the garden - so must get back to the day job.
Thursday, 17 December 2009
Greenfinches on Feeder...
Well what a waste of day. Earlier on I was prevaricating then I finally managed to sit down and start to write the code for the program. Great. However after two hours work I hit a dead end and I realise that my approach was not the right one - there is an old adage in programming that you should only program when all other easier options have been dismissed - it is all to do with diminished returns - well guess what I forgot this. If I had taken the more simplistic approach then I would have been doen and dusted in half the time - instead I am back to square one - GREAT!
So why greenfinches? Well, I took this morning when I was trying to find other things to do other than the task at hand - also it is nice to see the birds returning to the garden.
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Young Wood Pigeon & Blackbrid...
A bit restricted at the moment as to what I can photograph so I'm having to make do with whatever flies into the garden.
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