Chasing numbers....

Cold and grey outside so I thought I would spend the day trying to work out how to improve my tactics on FlickR to improve the hits I have been receiving. The first thing to do was work out which of the groups I was a member of was effective in generating hits. This meant I reduced the groups down to a more manageable 60 in total.

The second step was to try and identify the groups that generate the largest number of hits per photograph. This is somewhat hit and miss but it would seem the best groups to join are those with strict post one/comment 5 rules. It is amazing how convoluted some of these rules can get and you have to take a moment to make sure you understand all the ins and out.

Once this has been done you then have to start posting your photograph. The one I chose was the puffin above. This had been on my Flickr site for some time but not generating any hits - an ideal candidate for the experiment. So I have spent the greater part of the day posting this to groups and placing the required comments on other photographs. What were the results?

Well spectacular - but not just for the obvious reasons. First the obvious result. As I write this I have generated 166 hits since midnight. Before this I had about 50 in over 6 months so I think you can see it has been a success so far - and the hits keep coming. Now for the less obvious result. I have found some outstanding photographs - which I have added to ever increasing list of favourites This has been really inspirational stuff. Flickr is a huge vat of bubbling photography. There is a thick crust of pornographic at the edge of the vat - some actually very unusual and almost Mapplethorpesque - however most exactly what you might expect. Another ingredient is the mundane. This is even greater than the porn. I just cannot understand why people take so many photographs of their cat - but they do and they are almost as popular as the porn. However amongst all these are the gems - the photographs that, for me, make Flickr worthwhile.

So what have I learnt? Well to have a successful Flickr presences you need to work at it, nothing surprising there. Quality alone is no guarantee of attracting hits you have to sell your wares. In the end Flickr is like life - the more you work at it the better things get.

One final thing. In the time it has taken me to write this paragraph I have had another seven hits.

Puffins Puffins and Puffins...

Best laid plans etc. I didn't expect to get round to working on the Skomer photographs for a day or so. However, the sorting out of the Landscape Photographer of the Year submission was a lot easier than I thought - the reason for this that I broke the short list down into individual shortlists for the categories. Once I did this the selection seemed to fall into place. I am leaving it a day or so to see if I want to change anything.

So back to puffins. They are a wonderful and charming bird - perhaps the most photogenic creature there is? Maybe, maybe not. However if you want to up close and personal then Skomer is one of the best places for this. The birds are so unconcerned by the people they walk quite happily amongst the crowds on their way to feeding their chicks. Click here to see the latest photographs.

I had set myself two aims for the shoot on Skomer. The first was take some really close portrait shots - not difficult given the birds behaviour. However the second proved much more difficult. I wanted to capture the birds in flight. This was proving unsuccessful until I walked back to the landing site on the harbour at South Haven. Here the birds just zip past you but without their nervousness they have at the Wick. Only later did I discover that this too didn't work out. After a lot of head scratching and reading the manual I found that the 1D's focusing only works really well with lenses with an aperture of f2.8 or larger. The 100/400 zoom has an max aperture of f4.5 - this clear contributed to the high failure rate. Big lesson. Fortunately I had sufficient images to satisfy me. However it was a painful lesson.

Whilst on the island there was a camera from the welsh language channel S4C. It was fascinating to hear the Welsh language spoken as a first language. It is strange and very beautiful language to listen to. I latter spoke to the presenters about the welsh language and the fact that there were so many common English nouns. They reassured me that when specking welsh they didn't use the common English noun but rather the welsh. This was rather undercut when a young volunteer spoke to them and very quickly it was clear that she certainly didn't appear to have difficultly using English nouns in the welsh language. Of course this is no scientific sample, and also o reflection on the girl in question, but I still have difficulty believing that common English nouns would be replaced by welsh ones. You only have to examine the development of the french language to see how English creeps in even when officially frowned on. This doesn't get away from the fact that the welsh langauge, when spoken in a relaxed manner, is a beutiful, poetic langauge of rythms and harmonies that english simply cannot approach.

One final thing. I watched the programme they were making the other day and I say my tripod leg on the screen. Fame at last!

The problem with puffins

Puffin - Bempton

Puffin - Inner Farne Island

Puffin - Skomer island

First off some house keeping.   I took 2485 images this morning out of which I kept 418 which is a 17% hit rate - about right for the type of photography I was doing today.  I think I have got some very interesting images that I think I can make into first class photographs.  It is noticeable that my standards have risen markedly over the past few visits to Bempton.   Images that may well have been kept on my first visit only get the most cursory examination before being deleted.  This is especially true of Gannet images.   After a while one image of a Gannet flying overhead tends to look like the next.  This is progress and I have to say I am happy with the situation.

This brings me nicely to the question of Puffins.   The RSPB makes a big thing about the puffins at Bempton and yes there are a relatively large number of them.  However, the views are to say the least restricted.  They spend most of their day sitting on the chalk cliffs which on a very bright day posses some real problems.  Also even with a very powerful lens the resultant image is not that impactive.   To show this compare the the three photographs. I think the the Bempton is a distant third of the three.  

So what does this mean?  Well, first I have try harder to make the photographs more interesting.  One idea may well be to try High Dynamic Range (HDR)- the Bempton photograph has a shutter speed of 1/8000 th so this give plenty of scope to implement a HDR experiment.   This, however, is incidental to the main problem.  Puffins are just not as accessible at Bempton than at the Farnes or Skomer.  Can't wait to visit both site in the next month.

Bempton - some reflections

Puffin - Farne Island's not Bempton

Well I have had a good nights sleep, still feel knackered but that is another story, and time to reflect on yesterday's shoot at Bempton.  I have written in the past about the sea bird colony and that is still stunning.   Yesterday was a really windy day on top of the 300 foot cliffs and it was amazing to watch how the birds effortlessly exploited this resourse.  The lasting image for me was the way that Fulmar's backed into their nests.  They really are true masters of the air.   

Another thing that struck me about the people that went to Bempton was that they all seemed transfixed about the puffins.   Now you do get good views of the puffins but, and it is a huge but, they really are fleeting.  The birds dash out from their perch and are gone.  Perhaps the best way to describe this is that it is similar to the view you have a of kingfishers.  A brilliant turquoise blue flash and that is that.  So it is with the puffins.  They launch themselves into the air and all you are left with is a flash of orange.  That is it.   I am sure there will be better views once the birds have started nesting but at the moment it is very transient.

Tree Sparrow

Perhaps one of the less known but equally wonderful part of the Bempton experience is the large numbers of non sea birds.   From tree sparrows to kestrels the reserve is teaming with them and from a photographers perspective you can get some really close views.  It takes a while to get your eye in for these other birds given the frantic show on and around the cliffs but once you do it is really rewarding.  Considering that much of the reserve is no more than 100 metres in depth there is a wonderful variety of birds.  I even saw a deer, I think it was a roe, in the distance yesterday.  It is an amazing place to visit.

Now for the camera report.   Well the 1D didn't disappoint.  However there are a few things that I have to sort out.   The first is the focusing.  I still haven't mastered the way the 1D focusing works - not surprising has I still haven't read the manual - a common problem with me!   The second problem is that you burn through memory cards.  At 10 fps it doesn't take long to a 4GB card.  You also need to have really fast cards otherwise it can take what feels like an eternity for the buffer to clear.  Fortunately this is easy to fix and I have just ordered some new cards.   The combination of the 1D and the 100x400mm zoom is, for me, a winning formula.   The two work well together, well balanced and the results can be superb.

As for the 40D this is really good as a static camera on the tripod.   Here the lack of 10 fps is not an issue as I am not that good at panning with a long lens on the tripod.  The quality of the images, given certain constraints, are excellent.  As thing stand at the moment there is no need to change this.  Just to demonstrate this both of the photographs were taken by the 40D.

One final thought.   I have culled the 2700 images down to a more manageable 322.  It has been grueling but worth while process.  I have found that images that I would have kept in the past were jettisoned as the quality has risen.  One final final thought.  How much would this have cost if I had been shouting film!

Not everything went according to plan

Believe it or not this is a puffin.  Now these are fast flying birds at the best of time, when you add in a gale force wind they move at incredible speeds - much quicker than the auto focus, and me, could deal with.   Still I hope to get far better shots later in the season.

Off to Bempton in the morning

We're off the the Bempton Cliffs RSPB reserve in the morning, and when I say morning I mean it is a 4am start.  Why such an ungodly hour to set off?   Well it takes nearly two hour to get there so we should arrive around about 6am.  The reserve at this time is deserted and you get the pick of the photographic locations.  As the day wears on then you get a lot more people there and you don't have the freedom to roam that you have earlier in the day.   Also the light starts to become too harsh, it is, after all nearly May and so the sun is getting quite high in the sky.

Gannet

So what do we hope to see in the morning.  Well there will be an ever increasing Gannet colony and if we are really lucky we should see the first Puffins of the season. 

Bempton Cliffs

The Bempton reserve is a strange place.   It is about a mile from the village and when you arrive all you can see are fields and the sea, there is no indication of a bird colony at all.   However, as you walk to the sea you start to become aware of noise of the birds, yet very little sign of them. Then wham you are on top of some of the tallest chalk cliffs in the country and below you are all the birds stacked high up the cliff face.  This stretches for miles along the Yorkshire coast and is a fantastic spectacle in its self.   Lets just hope the weather holds.

More tails from the river bank...

Not sure how long this has been in the river!

Went on my warbler hunt this morning - still no signs.  However, there are signs that winter is now a distant memory and that summer is on the way.  I saw my first Swallow this morning.   I always find that this is a real tonic for two reasons.    First, it is the continuing example of how powerful nature is.  Here is a small bird that has flown all the way from Africa in just a few short days.   Second, it means that the opportunity for great bird photography is increasing - it is now just over six weeks before my first bird expedition of the year to Pembrokeshire - can't wait to be reacquainted  with the puffins.

Whilst I enjoyed my walk along the river bank - the best bird I saw today was a kingfisher, as usual all you see is a iridescent flash of blue.  I spent most of the time rummaging around the scrub trying to make photographs of the ordinary.   The patterns of bark, the new growth on brambles and the like.   Whilst going through the hedge bottom I found more signs that the local sparrowhawk has been busy.  There were 3 separate sights where the hawk had plucked an unfortunate woodpigeon.  Anyway, I was trying out different techniques to capture the first signs of spring growth.  Not sure how well this has worked but you have to try.

As I write this it is a lovely sunny evening, the skies are clear and the sun is starting produce the wonderful evening light loved by landscape photographers the world over - myself included.   However, it does prove one thing.   That when I wish for some form of weather the exact opposite happens.  In truth I am not complaining.