Richard Hardwick Photography
My journey with a digital camera
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Archive of "Photography" Category
Skomer Island
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 USMLocation: Multimap
Emerging
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 USMGarden Birds
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 WoodpeckerI’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 USMNorth of the Boarder
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 USMLocation: Multimap
Studio Shoot
It’s been a long time since I did any studio portraiture or used studio lighting. So I went along on an event at ISL Studio in Leeds organised through the Talk Photography forum. I was a little nervous at first but everyone was welcoming and friendly. After the first session I had a chat with Gemma, one of the models, as she needed a little reassurance too and I think it did us both good and we relaxed. The day was very enjoyable and we had a good laugh, I don’t think it’s the best way to learn studio lighting because there was very little individual control over the setup in the studio. This improved when we worked out of the studio with just one light.
Gemma
Canon EOS 40D, EF 17-40mm f/4L USMZillah
Canon EOS 40D, EF 50mm f/1.4 USMCannock Chase
I attended a meet with a group from the Talk Photography forum at Cannock Chase. A wonderful heathland in Staffordshire with plenty of wildlife. We tried to shoot the Fallow deer but I think the number of us worked against that. I did get one shot of a buck:
We turned to photographing birds with a little more success but the elusive Hawfinch didn’t show. A few days later I had a spare afternoon at college and returned to the Chase in the snow to try again for Fallow deer, this time with a little more success:
Canon EOS 40D, EF 400mm f/5.6L USMLocation: Multimap
2008 – My Year in Pictures
January:
February:
March:
April:
May:
June:
July:
August:
September:
October:
November:
December:
Brownsea Island
Yesterday a group of us from the Amateur Photographer forum met on Brownsea Island for a day photographing whatever wildlife we encountered. The weather was amazing, early fog and mist cleared to a beautiful sunny autumn day. Food was plentiful for the Red Squirrels so they were well fed and showed no interest in the hazelnuts we had brought. Instead I took the opportunity to photograph dragonflies for the first time.
Canon EOS 40D, EF 400mm f/5.6L USM
Canon EOS 40D, EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USMLocation: Multimap
Photoshoppery
I keep wanting to improve my ‘limited’ Photoshop skills, so I set out to take a photograph that I could use the dodge and burn tools on. This one from Mouth Mill seemed to fit the bill quite well:
Canon EOS 40D, EF 20mm f/2.8 USMThe result is a bit over the top, but it was fun to do and I learnt a lot. I quite like the final image…which is nice!
Location: Multimap
The Big Smoke
Last weekend was spent in London. I met some of the guys from the Amateur Photographer forum on Saturday and spent Sunday wandering around on my own.
Canon EOS 40D, EF 50mm f/1.4 USM
Canon EOS 40D, EF 20mm f/2.8 USM
About Me
I'm an amateur photographer currently living in Lancashire. Although I've been interested in photography most of my life, it's only recently that I've started to concentrate on shooting wildlife.
This blog is just a few of my thoughts as my journey with a digital camera unfolds. Photos are taken from my Flickr photostream.
Recent Flickr
