Montbretia

2 August 2009 // Comments Off

I had an hour in the garden with the camera and noticed one of the Montbretia flowers looked good against the background of scrub:

Canon EOS 40D, EF 180mm f/3.5L Macro USM

Posted in Photography

Pinhole Cottage

1 August 2009 // Comments Off

I’ve always enjoyed playing around with Holga and pinhole cameras. A while back I made my own pinhole using a T2 mount, baked bean can, Coke can and a washer. It was fun but the images weren’t what I wanted, so I’ve bought an pinhole adapter for the T2 mount from Pinhole Solutions, it has a working aperture of about f/180. This is a test photo of my cottage:

Canon EOS 40D, Pinhole

Posted in Photography

Still Life – An Orange

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July’s theme in the Amateur Photographer forum monthly competition was ‘An Orange’. I really wanted to enter to maintain my 100% entry rate, but I was a long way out of my comfort zone trying to shoot a still life. In the end and right on the last minute, I decided on a low key shot. Shot on my desk, with my desk lamp as the light source, I used liveview with the camera tethered to my laptop. I think I quite enjoyed it despite the final product not being too inspiring.

Canon EOS 40D, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM

Posted in Photography

Woolsery Show

27 July 2009 // Comments Off

I had some lieu time owed so was able to take the afternoon off and visit Woolsery Show, held at Clovelly Court. It was a really enjoyable afternoon with plenty of photo opportunities.

Canon EOS 40D, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM

Posted in Photography

Red Kites – Watlington Hill

20 July 2009 // Comments Off

On Sunday I had a go at photographing the beautiful Red Kites of the The Chilterns. The weather wasn’t kind with rain and drizzle but worst was the bland, white sky:

Canon EOS 40D, EF 400mm f/5.6L USM

Location: Multimap

Posted in Locations, Photography, Wildlife

Oxford Street Photography

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I met up with some guys from the Amateur Photographer forum in Oxford for a days street photography on Saturday. Not my best efforts but enjoyable nonetheless.

Canon EOS 40D, EF 50mm f/1.4 USM

Posted in Photography

Skomer Island

12 July 2009 // Comments Off

A group of sixteen of us from the Talk Photography forum spent the weekend on Skomer Island off the Pembrokeshire coast. It’s a truly incredible place and photographing the Puffins was a real pleasure. All these photographs were taken at The Wick:

Canon EOS 40D, EF 400mm f/5.6L USM

Location: Multimap

Posted in Locations, Photography, Wildlife

Emerging

7 July 2009 // Comments Off

We’ve had a lot of life in our garden pond this year. I’ve just seen a couple of dragonflies emerge, pump up their wings and dry off in the sun. This one was sat basking on the climbing roses:

Canon EOS 40D, EF 180mm f3.5L Macro USM

Posted in Photography

Garden Birds

5 July 2009 // Comments Off

Photographing garden birds is probably what sparked my interest in wildlife photography. I’ve spent a fortune on feeders and bird food and brought hundreds of birds into the garden.

Birds attracted by the different foods:
- Niger seed: Goldfinch, Siskin, Lesser Redpoll, Greenfinch, Chaffinch
- Mixed seed: Blue Tit, Great Tit, Marsh Tit, Coal Tit, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Collared Dove, Blackbird
- Black Sunflower seeds: Blue Tit, Great Tit, Marsh Tit, Coal Tit, Greenfinch, Chaffinch
- Peanuts: Blue Tit, Great Tit, Marsh Tit, Coal Tit, Great-spotted Woodpecker
- Mealworm: Robin, Blackbird
- Fat block: Robin, Great-spotted Woodpecker

I’ve attached interesting, lichen covered old branches to the top of one of the feeders to act as a perch and placed the feeder so the background is the opposite side of the valley. I shoot with the 400mm lens through a gap I’ve created in the hedge:

This is the result:

Canon EOS 40D, EF 400mm f/5.6L USM

Posted in Photography, Technique, Wildlife

North of the Boarder

9 May 2009 // Comments Off

The National Trust held the first of it’s Boarder series at Crantock Beach, Newquay. I arrived with about ten minutes of the competition left to run and managed to fire off a few shots. I quickly realised that 400mm was going to be a little short for photographing surfers with 600mm or 800mm being more suitable. So, standing in the sea up to me knees whilst still wearing my work boots, I managed to grab a couple of keepers:

Canon EOS 40D, EF 400mm f/5.6L USM

Location: Multimap

Posted in Photography