Clevedon Pier

This is a picture of Clevedon Pier on the coast of England near Bristol. I have wanted to do this high key shot of this pier for about 2 years but it has been encased in scaffolding while the deck and legs were restored. The official opening of Clevedon pier was held on Easter Monday, 29th March 1869 and to date it is the only Grade 1 listed pier in the UK (not counting Brighton Pier which has largely collapsed).

To make this shot I took 3 exposures, 1 normal and the other 2 overexposed. I then used photoshop to blend them and adjust the tones to get the smooth transition.

Kit: Canon EOS 5DIII EF 24-105 @ f/14 – various exposures.

More of my photos can be seen at FLICKR.

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Swan take off

 

Rooksbury Mill

I pitched up to this little nature reserve in the south of England in the hope of seeing a Kingfisher. While there I had a walk round the lakes early on where there were two swans having an early morning paddle. All of a sudden one of them spooked and made  to take to the air. As anyone who has seen this knows it is not easy for swans to take off. They have a long run at it and make a lot of noise. Luckily for me I was in the right position to get the reflection which is the difference to this being an interesting shot or not.

Kit: Canon EOS 1Div EF 500mm f/4 @ 1/1600s ISO 160

More of my photos can be seen at FLICKR.

Colour Splash

We spend a lot of time in our photography trying to get things perfect. Exposure, focus, composition and all the other things that don’t allow us to just enjoy it.

So a group of us togs have got together and will try to put the fun back into it. This last week-end we found a willing model (April) and a few dresses cheap on eBay. We mixed up some poster paints and set about having fun.

A simple backdrop fixed up to a garage door, one flash each and some helpers to throw the paint.  Just in case you wondered it’s all water based so just washed off the model afterwards (although the dresses were trashed).

Photography is fun 🙂

Kit: Canon EOS 1DIV EF 50mm 1/1.4 @ f/10 1/200 ISO 200

More of my photos can be seen at FLICKR.

Skomer Island Puffin

Skomer Puffin

This is a picture of a wistful looking Puffin taken on Skomer Island off the West coast of Wales. Only 250 people are allowed on to the island each day and no booking is allowed. You have to arrive at the ferry very early in the morning to ensure your place.

On the island there is a wide variety of wildlife, mostly sea birds, but including owls and mammals.

I was there to see the Puffins in particular having not seen one before. They were all in one area on the south west of the island where they nest in burrows on a cliff top. The island was still covered in Bluebells and Campion (seen in this pic).

I will definitely be going back at some point in time. It is too good not to.

Kit: Canon EOS 7D EF 70-200 + 1.4x f/4 @ 1/1600 ISO 200

More of my photos can be seen at FLICKR.

Eurasian Jay (Garrulus glandarius)

This is a picture of a jay taken on a feeder in my back garden. The love peanuts, monkey nuts and sunflower seeds. During preparation for winter they will bury up to 10,000 nuts around their patch for them to go back to during the hard times. They will remember where they have put up to 9,500 of those.

These birds are very skittish and will not come into the garden if any of my windows are open so for this shot I had the camera on a tripod with a USB lead coming back in to the house through a small window. I then used canon’s utility to focus and take the shot. You get plenty of time as they will put up to 10 peanuts in their crop and then a few more in their beak before flying off.

Kit: Canon EOS 5DII EF300mm @ f/4 @ 1/1250s ISO 640

More of my photos can be seen at FLICKR.

Long Eared Owl

This is a picture of a long eared owl taken at the Hawk Conservancy nr Andover in Hampshire.

Because I am so close to the bird and using a longish focal length of 300mm, the depth of field is quite shallow. It does give a nice smooth background though. It is vital in shots like this to have the eye in focus (the near eye if two are visible but it is not possible to get them both in focus).

The hard part of this shot was getting that close. A friendly falconer was the key. Once there, I stepped down to f/5.6 for a little more depth of field. If I had thought a bit more, I would have taken the ISO down to 500 and the shutter speed to 1/640 to match but I was rushed so used what I had already setup. It is a little noisy but not too bad.

Kit: Canon EOS 7D 70-300mm f/5.6 @ 1/1250s ISO 1000

More of my photos can be seen at FLICKR.

Bushy Park Deer Rut

This is a picture of a young Red Deer taken in Bushy Park, West London. October and November see a period called the ‘rut’ during which time the males vie for females to add to their harem of hinds and also to defend or enhance their status. Most of the time this is carried out by posturing and barking at other deer with the occasional charge to ward off the young pretenders. Sometimes it will escalate into a fight during which the deer will literally ‘lock horns’ in an attempt to down the opposition.

Clearly it is not wise to get to close to the deer during this period as they are prone to stop fighting each other and turn on the onlookers as several people can attest. 300mm will get you plenty of full frame action shots. Get there for first light and try to catch the condensation on their breath backlit by the sun.

Kit: Canon EOS 1Div EF 500mm f/4 @ 1/500s ISO 1250

More of my photos can be seen at FLICKR.