Wildlife Photography across the Water: Quick Update

Saturday 23 January 2010

Quick Update - General Stuff

Just another quickie from me, particularly as Dave has been doing some lengthy photo posts with some great images.

I am still tied up writing a long environmental report for work which is taking a lot of my time and will do again tomorrow so no chance of getting out with the camera. So fingers crossed for next weekend, although having said that the light has been awful today so no real loss there to be honest.

It is pleasing to see a lot more comments and interaction on a number of our recent posts with a big thanks to Ashley, Julian and Peter in particular for their inputs. It does make it much more worthwhile for us to get your comments, so thanks, and we will always welcome more.

Also numbers of readers and daily visitors have been good so if you are a new reader, then welcome to our blog. Please feel free to leave comments, take an RSS feed or sign up as a blog follower via the various links on the right hand side.

We also are signed up to Amazon.co.uk, so even if we are not showing what you specifically want to buy, if you click in via us to whatever you are looking for we would be most grateful.

I must add some Amazon.com banners so that all of our US readers, and in fact UK and rest of the world readers can get stuff that way too.

I have had a bit more hands on time with a 7D over the Christmas and New Year period, so will think about a bit more useful feedback.

On a different note, I have read an awful lot of rubbish on various forums about the 7D. Simply put, if you want to get the most from it, then you will need to think about it and set it up.

Coming from a few years of 1Dmk3 experience it is very easy. I think if you are upgrading from say a 450D or 30 or 40D, it is a much bigger leap, and if you employ the same techniques, you may well struggle, as seems to be the case from a lot of what I have read.

In terms of processing 7D RAW files, the best tool you can use is Phase One Capture 1 v5. Simply put it really is the best tool for the job. There are Pro and LE versions - there is a big price difference, and the LE version will cover just about all your needs. Again I have seen lots of people having problems with some of the Adobe products. In addition, the latest update v 1.9.4.3 for Breezebrowser Pro will now also process 7D RAW files. Only for PC users, so if you have a MAC, bad luck you could always upgrade to two PC's for the price of your white plastic :-)

Anyway, I will cover the 7D in a bit more detail in later blogs. If there are any particular aspects you want covered, please let us know through the comments, and I will do my best to cover it off for you.

Finally, I have cleaned up the 'Other blogs' section down the right hand side, removing a couple that were essentially dead as they weren't being contributed to, and replaced them with a couple of others that I have come across recently that are both active and enjoyable in terms of content. So I hope you enjoy having a look at them too.

Martin

3 comments:

Bobbster23 January 2010 at 18:22
Hi Martin, I used a 1DMK3 which is now backed up by the 7D. I will be interested in your views. I have had issues with noise mainly and I am still not 100% happy with the focus tracking.
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Ashley Hugo23 January 2010 at 18:53
This comment has been removed by the author.
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Ashley Hugo23 January 2010 at 19:46
Something I have heard about with the 7D is the Centre Spot Focusing (think thats what its called).
The small focusing points inside the centre focus point, could be good for small birds in flight/hovering. Hopefully its as good as it sounds, the Focus points on my MKII are to chunky to focus on Sparrows etc in flight.

If you are able to try that out it would be great. Although not for me because I can't afford one :-(

Could help a future 7D owner though.
Ash
PS: last post deleted due to my rubbish spelling
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Bio's

David Courtenay, a self taught wildlife and nature photographer, has been capturing images for over 30 years. He has had a passion for wildlife since early childhood and remembers being glued to the television whenever Survival, Wildlife on One and other natural history documentaries were shown. In the 2006 he swapped his established career for the life of a wildlife photographer, such a move demands a measure of uncompromising passion and commitment.

David has travelled extensively throughout Europe as well as spending more than 7 months in India working with local guides and trackers in search of Bengal Tiger, Asian One horned Rhino and Asian Elephant. He has also photographed Wildlife in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra, Africa, Canada and America. Working closely with Conservation companies he tries to raise funds to help Wildlife that has been put on the endangered list by poaching and habitation loss

Martin Dyer has had a passion for avian wildlife since childhood, particularly raptors. Photography was also another keen interest and it was with the specific availability and control of the whole process that digital offers that Martin was then able to combine the two in 2003. Based in the UK, Martin is a regular visitor to Scotland, specifically the Isle of Mull to watch the Eagles resident there. Other trips to Europe and around the UK are usually part of Martin’s agenda in a typical year.

However, as a firm believer on making the most of the local patch, Martin has spent a lot of time and hard work creating a wildlife garden which is reaping the rewards with many new species and varieties of wildlife. A keen member of a number of wildlife photographic groups, Martin is keen to expand his portfolio into other areas of wildlife, and has already established a wide portfolio of images of fungi.