Well you certainly got good value from us last month. A record 48 posts in the month, and a short one at that.
That compares to only 33 on the same period last year.
The blog goes from strength to strength, and another 6 friends have been added to the followers list.
Content wise I think it has been our best month yet personally, with many photo contributions, some fabulous stuff from Dave on his latest project, a brilliant guest photographer contri from Robbie, and I even managed to get a few photos posted myself.
Plenty of good gear feedback on both the Canon and Nikon range. Check out the archives for February here and see for yourself.
Site visitation is up by 10% on visits, 55% on visitors and 32% by number of countries from last year.
We have been pleased to see may more comments - keep 'em coming, we do appreciate it.
Martin
Showing posts with label reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reviews. Show all posts
Tuesday, 2 March 2010
Saturday, 16 May 2009
Reviews - Orchids Website
Now that orchids are starting to bloom, I had a pleasant walk this afternoon through a field with dozens of Early Purple Orchids (sadly too windy to photograph today) and was photographing White Helleborine on Mull yesterday, I thought I would flag up an interesting site that I have found. It is Britains Orchids Field Guide. There is lots of really useful information there with details of the UK species as well as their respective flowering periods.
I have a number of different types near my home in Warwickshire and so will look forward to getting some images as they bloom.
Martin
I have a number of different types near my home in Warwickshire and so will look forward to getting some images as they bloom.
Martin
Thursday, 23 April 2009
Review-Hahmel Pro Remote Control
Heres a review that didn't start well and i thought it was going to be a slating, The postman delivered a couple of packages yesterday, 1 being a Think Tank case for my upcoming trip to Colorado,The other was a small package containing a Hahmel Pro Remote Control, I have read a couple of reviews in monthlies that intimated that this was a good product,Hahmel have been around a while and make quality products at good prices, I wanted a wireless remote since going over to Nikon, I used to use a Canon LC-4 which at around £300 is bloody expensive but i had it a few years and the wide angle wildlife shots that i got with it paid for itself time over, I don't use one a lot but they really do have their uses, So at around £35 or $60 it was a no brainer, The one for the Nikon comes with a hand remote and a transmitter that can go onto the hot shoe, The cord between the camera and transmitter has a break in it and you get 3 cords that fit into it for different bodies from the latest D3/X to the D1 series and every body in between-great,
It also comes with all the batteries which is a bonus as nothing worse than getting a new toy and not being able to play with it straight away, So i put the right connector on for my D3 and D300 bodies and connected it to the camera,Firstly the pin connection is snug at best and takes some effort to get out, I set everything up and raised the antenna and pushed the button-its a hair trigger and if you have it set to high speed mode then you get 9 frames before you can think about it,so setting the camera to single shot i tried again,I noticed that the image didn't pop up on the screen and wouldn't until i disconnected the transmitter-strange i thought and then i could hear the stabiliser spinning without touching the button and it wouldn't switch off which would drain the battery, I removed it from the D3 and put it on a D300 with 14-24 (no stabiliser) but then i could here the focus hunting all the time without touching the button-i thought i had a dud and would need to call the service dept, I came upstairs to my pc and bought the unit with me, I had one last look and noticed that the connection in the cable wasnt fully snapped in-1 big push and SNAP in it went, i went to have another go and bingo everything worked, I set it back up in the garden and took a series of shots and the stabiliser worked ok turning off shortly after the shot and the images popped up on screen, I left the camera in the garden and went indoors with 2 walls between myself and the camera, pressed the button and bingo it took a shot so i paced 50m and took a shot and it worked fine -sunlight wont affect the performance as its radio controlled, The units are well made and nice and small, 
You can take the transmitter part off of the camera and use it as a normal corded remote as there is a button for that which is very handy,The hand piece has button for focus/shoot and a self timer button, It can used as BULB setting as well and both units have a 4 digit channel panel so you set yours so that others in the area wont affect it-well thought out and for the money amazing value, after the initial problems it all seems to work fine and you just need to remember to snap the cords together, I look forward to working with this piece of kit along with my D3 and 14-24 to get real close ups of the animals that use my garden, I will keep you informed of how things work outDave
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Reviews - Looking back at your own work
Later on this evening I will be giving an illustrated photo talk on the Wildlife of Mull for the second time.
While putting the talk together and considering and processing the images, it prompted many thoughts.
But lets quickly step back in time as to why I am doing the talk to set it in context.
Last year while on Mull, I was asked if I would do a talk for Wild Isles Week which is
held every year in May. Naturally I was pleased to be asked and of course accepted. In order to give it a dry run, I asked if I could speak to Stratford Photo Group just to check out the content and flow - nothing like a home audience to see what works and what doesn't. Meanwhile, I have also been asked to give it to the Smethwick Photo Society Nature Group and later in the year to the RPS Nature Group
Well I was asked for the Smethwick talk at quite short notice and hadn't prepared a thing with a couple of weeks to go- so panic set in and I got to work quickly.
Tracing through four sets of images comprising of a total of about 2500, I was never convinced that I would have enough material and expected to have to supplement the talk with images of wildlife that is seen on Mull but not actually taken there, so I slight cheat if you like.
But once I got into the selection process, based around the story I wanted to tell, I found that I had more than enough and had to filter out hard.
So what?
Well what came out of this for me was that I had many more images that I revisited with a specific purpose in mind and found them both useful and actually pleased with a lot of them in a way that I had previously glossed over in the past.
It also got me thinking about the photography I do on these trips as I quickly realised that there were many holes in the story I wanted to tell with missing images. For example, I don't have any decent Red Deer shots from Mull. Red Deer are one of the major animals that many visitors want to see - I just took it for granted. Also it is worth taking some of the picture post card type shots to set the scene, show the landscape and show the topology, all important stuff for contextualising the wildlife environment.
So given that I need to do this talk later in the year, and I have another trip in May, I can fill those gaps in.
However, for me, the great benefit of doing this is that it really got me closely looking at some archive work, processing many images that were 'just there', occupying disc space and for no seeming purpose.
So with that in mind, I now need to go through the rest of my files with the same 'eye'
How many of us have got many 'photographic gems' on our hard drives that we overlook?
Tell us your views
Martin
While putting the talk together and considering and processing the images, it prompted many thoughts.
But lets quickly step back in time as to why I am doing the talk to set it in context.
Last year while on Mull, I was asked if I would do a talk for Wild Isles Week which is
held every year in May. Naturally I was pleased to be asked and of course accepted. In order to give it a dry run, I asked if I could speak to Stratford Photo Group just to check out the content and flow - nothing like a home audience to see what works and what doesn't. Meanwhile, I have also been asked to give it to the Smethwick Photo Society Nature Group and later in the year to the RPS Nature Group
Well I was asked for the Smethwick talk at quite short notice and hadn't prepared a thing with a couple of weeks to go- so panic set in and I got to work quickly.
Tracing through four sets of images comprising of a total of about 2500, I was never convinced that I would have enough material and expected to have to supplement the talk with images of wildlife that is seen on Mull but not actually taken there, so I slight cheat if you like.
But once I got into the selection process, based around the story I wanted to tell, I found that I had more than enough and had to filter out hard.
So what?
Well what came out of this for me was that I had many more images that I revisited with a specific purpose in mind and found them both useful and actually pleased with a lot of them in a way that I had previously glossed over in the past.
It also got me thinking about the photography I do on these trips as I quickly realised that there were many holes in the story I wanted to tell with missing images. For example, I don't have any decent Red Deer shots from Mull. Red Deer are one of the major animals that many visitors want to see - I just took it for granted. Also it is worth taking some of the picture post card type shots to set the scene, show the landscape and show the topology, all important stuff for contextualising the wildlife environment.
So given that I need to do this talk later in the year, and I have another trip in May, I can fill those gaps in.
However, for me, the great benefit of doing this is that it really got me closely looking at some archive work, processing many images that were 'just there', occupying disc space and for no seeming purpose.
So with that in mind, I now need to go through the rest of my files with the same 'eye'
How many of us have got many 'photographic gems' on our hard drives that we overlook?
Tell us your views
Martin
Sunday, 29 March 2009
Review - British Butterflies DVD ROM Guide
For our 101st post, I wanted to tell you about a great DVD interactive guide I have just acquired. Published by Birdguides, it features over 60 regular British Species, with over 500 illustrations and 200 professionally filmed video clips. It shows all stages of the cycle of a butterfly with all the relevant information. They great thing with this guide is that it now resides on the Netbook, so I have full field availablility of the information.
With the warmer weather, and the first appearrance in the last couple of weeks of butterflies in my garden, the timing for this is just right.
Update: Some more detailed info here
Martin
With the warmer weather, and the first appearrance in the last couple of weeks of butterflies in my garden, the timing for this is just right.
Update: Some more detailed info here
Martin
Friday, 27 March 2009
Reviews - Gear Insurance
This will be a short post tonight, specifically covering an item which somebody has requested.
Before I moved to my current house, I was in rented accommodation for a few years I had all my gear covered by House Contents insurance, with a maximum allowance for loss at any one time. I didn't really properly check out the T's & C's with hindsight, but fortunately was never in a position to need to make a claim.
That all changed when I moved into my current house and switched to a connected Buildings and Contents Policy. The new insurers could not entertain that my kit levels were purely of an amateur status. They did offer me some additional cover but the quote was quite frankly ridiculous. So time for a rethink.
I has heard of good things of Glover & Howe from some of the pro's who used to frequent EOS Forums when that was alive so checked them out.
The long and short was that they offered 10% discount for EOS Magazine subscribers as I was then, they offered various levels of cover from Amateur, Semi Professional and Full Professional. It turned out that Semi Pro insurance was actually cheaper than Amateur for me. This gave me the option of actually being able to sell some of my work, if I desired to so do.
The cover and replacement options were much better, particlualrly in terms of theft from vehicles a,d it has been extremely easy when adding or subtracting bits of kit as I have bought and sold stuff.
No claims discount is accrued each year if you do not make a claim as well, and it is just the most simple business dealing with them on the phone.
So if you have gear that you cannot afford to lose, think carefully about how it is insured. Check out all the Terms very carefully and if there are loopholes, then think about going to a specialist.
There is a very good Tips document that Glover & Howe have published if you are not sure.
Do yourself a favour and read it.
And if you buy from them, please mention my name
Martin
PS - it will be our 100th post tomorrow
Before I moved to my current house, I was in rented accommodation for a few years I had all my gear covered by House Contents insurance, with a maximum allowance for loss at any one time. I didn't really properly check out the T's & C's with hindsight, but fortunately was never in a position to need to make a claim.
That all changed when I moved into my current house and switched to a connected Buildings and Contents Policy. The new insurers could not entertain that my kit levels were purely of an amateur status. They did offer me some additional cover but the quote was quite frankly ridiculous. So time for a rethink.
I has heard of good things of Glover & Howe from some of the pro's who used to frequent EOS Forums when that was alive so checked them out.
The long and short was that they offered 10% discount for EOS Magazine subscribers as I was then, they offered various levels of cover from Amateur, Semi Professional and Full Professional. It turned out that Semi Pro insurance was actually cheaper than Amateur for me. This gave me the option of actually being able to sell some of my work, if I desired to so do.
The cover and replacement options were much better, particlualrly in terms of theft from vehicles a,d it has been extremely easy when adding or subtracting bits of kit as I have bought and sold stuff.
No claims discount is accrued each year if you do not make a claim as well, and it is just the most simple business dealing with them on the phone.
So if you have gear that you cannot afford to lose, think carefully about how it is insured. Check out all the Terms very carefully and if there are loopholes, then think about going to a specialist.
There is a very good Tips document that Glover & Howe have published if you are not sure.
Do yourself a favour and read it.
And if you buy from them, please mention my name
Martin
PS - it will be our 100th post tomorrow
Sunday, 1 March 2009
A look back on the 1st Day of Spring
White Rabbits!!!
OK - so on the 1st day of the Spring here in the UK, I thought I would have a look back at the progress we have made with this blog after our first two months of writing.
Looking back at the stats since I hooked the 'Analytics' up in early Jan, we have had over 4000 visits, with just over 8000 page views.
You have visited us from 317 cities from 41 countries now. We are now looking forward to visits from South America, the Middle East and more of Africa, so if you know any friends in these countries, please spread the word, we would love to see them here.
On the technical front, the photographic community is a little more discerning when it comes to browsing habits, with 47% of you NOT using MS IE browser and 88% of you realising the benefits of 32 bit colour on your screen settings.
11.3% of you use Macs while the rest of us don't!!!
Peak visiting day is Thursday and Saturday is the lowest, as I expect you are all out photographing or on trips.....or doing chores in the house like me.
So thanks to all of you who have supported us, and particularly so if you have been linking through Amazon to make your purchases, it provides welcome support to the site.
If you have any great links, news items or things you want from us, then please let us know, we would welcome lots more comments and interaction from you. Particularly if there are any subjects you want us to write about.
I have added a Poll on the right hand side, so we would welcome your views and feedback on that.
Having spent yesterday in my garden doing various things, it is good to see new growth on the hedging, and at least four species of wildflower are in bloom from my planting last year.
Update: Make that five species, plus two lots of frog spawn!!
Another update: Nine frogs at it in the pond!!!
I am going to get on processing images now as I have to prepare for a photographic talk that I am giving on Wednesday week entitled 'Wildlife in the Highlands and Islands' at the Smethwick Photographic Society Nature Group as a practice run before I give it during Wild Isles week on the Island of Mull in May this year
Martin
OK - so on the 1st day of the Spring here in the UK, I thought I would have a look back at the progress we have made with this blog after our first two months of writing.
Looking back at the stats since I hooked the 'Analytics' up in early Jan, we have had over 4000 visits, with just over 8000 page views.
You have visited us from 317 cities from 41 countries now. We are now looking forward to visits from South America, the Middle East and more of Africa, so if you know any friends in these countries, please spread the word, we would love to see them here.
On the technical front, the photographic community is a little more discerning when it comes to browsing habits, with 47% of you NOT using MS IE browser and 88% of you realising the benefits of 32 bit colour on your screen settings.
11.3% of you use Macs while the rest of us don't!!!
Peak visiting day is Thursday and Saturday is the lowest, as I expect you are all out photographing or on trips.....or doing chores in the house like me.
So thanks to all of you who have supported us, and particularly so if you have been linking through Amazon to make your purchases, it provides welcome support to the site.
If you have any great links, news items or things you want from us, then please let us know, we would welcome lots more comments and interaction from you. Particularly if there are any subjects you want us to write about.
I have added a Poll on the right hand side, so we would welcome your views and feedback on that.
Having spent yesterday in my garden doing various things, it is good to see new growth on the hedging, and at least four species of wildflower are in bloom from my planting last year.
Update: Make that five species, plus two lots of frog spawn!!
Another update: Nine frogs at it in the pond!!!
I am going to get on processing images now as I have to prepare for a photographic talk that I am giving on Wednesday week entitled 'Wildlife in the Highlands and Islands' at the Smethwick Photographic Society Nature Group as a practice run before I give it during Wild Isles week on the Island of Mull in May this year
Martin
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Reviews - Canon 50D - A quick hands on trial
Well as I mentioned on this trip report from last week, I was very grateful to Terry at Stratford Photo Group for the loan of his Canon 50D for a few days. Well I didn't use it a great deal, as I tended to go with my 1Dmk3 for the situations where I knew I needed to be sure of my handling of it.
However, it is a fine bit of kit and a body that I 'think' I would have as a back up body to the mark3 in my bag. Well why only 'think'? Well I didn't get a lot of shots out of it and essentially just in one set of light conditions, so I really would need to do a much longer trial before I would be prepared to give up my own personal thumbs up, as you will read below.
General handling was very easy, the only problem I found was down to user error. I use the back button focus method on the !d and have been for many years now. I had set it up the same on the 50D but was unable to find the option where you can switch over the Af-On button with the * button. Well it is there I found out afterwards, but it did cause me confusion when I was trying to grab focus on a Golden Eagle that was stopping down a hill towards me being mobbed by a Raven - so I missed that whole sequence of shots.
However, it did grab focus very well when the user got it right and gives sharp enough images - so no complaints there.
Curlew picture is a repost now I have processed it properly on the bigger screen. Light was awful and shot at ISO800 (see below)
File sizes are pretty big, jumping typically from about 12mb in RAW from the 1Dmk3 to over 20mb on the 50D, so card and hard drive management will be a little more demanding.
Now then the crunch question - higher ISO performance?
At ISO 800, which is a setting I am very happy to use on the 1D, the 50D files are quite a bit noisier with chroma noise. Now I have 100% pixel peeped and of course I appreciate that the 50D has 50% more pixels, but the noise was quite a bit more. I had set the in camera noise processing to be totally switched off so I could ensure a direct like for like comparison. But at these settings, I would need to use Noise software with the 50D whereas I wouldn't with the 1Dmk3. All the images I took were at ISO800 so I have nothing more scientific that that to compare. S0 it is this area that just leaves me with a little doubt.
The rear screen is fantastic and really wish I had that level of resolution on the Mark3.
There are plenty of reviews in much more detail all over the web and in various parts of the dead tree press.
I linked to this 50D tutorial a few posts back, so it is probably relevant to post again for you to get a much more objective technical appraisal than I have given here
Martin
However, it is a fine bit of kit and a body that I 'think' I would have as a back up body to the mark3 in my bag. Well why only 'think'? Well I didn't get a lot of shots out of it and essentially just in one set of light conditions, so I really would need to do a much longer trial before I would be prepared to give up my own personal thumbs up, as you will read below.
General handling was very easy, the only problem I found was down to user error. I use the back button focus method on the !d and have been for many years now. I had set it up the same on the 50D but was unable to find the option where you can switch over the Af-On button with the * button. Well it is there I found out afterwards, but it did cause me confusion when I was trying to grab focus on a Golden Eagle that was stopping down a hill towards me being mobbed by a Raven - so I missed that whole sequence of shots.
However, it did grab focus very well when the user got it right and gives sharp enough images - so no complaints there.
Curlew picture is a repost now I have processed it properly on the bigger screen. Light was awful and shot at ISO800 (see below)File sizes are pretty big, jumping typically from about 12mb in RAW from the 1Dmk3 to over 20mb on the 50D, so card and hard drive management will be a little more demanding.
Now then the crunch question - higher ISO performance?
At ISO 800, which is a setting I am very happy to use on the 1D, the 50D files are quite a bit noisier with chroma noise. Now I have 100% pixel peeped and of course I appreciate that the 50D has 50% more pixels, but the noise was quite a bit more. I had set the in camera noise processing to be totally switched off so I could ensure a direct like for like comparison. But at these settings, I would need to use Noise software with the 50D whereas I wouldn't with the 1Dmk3. All the images I took were at ISO800 so I have nothing more scientific that that to compare. S0 it is this area that just leaves me with a little doubt.
The rear screen is fantastic and really wish I had that level of resolution on the Mark3.
There are plenty of reviews in much more detail all over the web and in various parts of the dead tree press.
I linked to this 50D tutorial a few posts back, so it is probably relevant to post again for you to get a much more objective technical appraisal than I have given here
Martin
Tuesday, 17 February 2009
Reviews and a bit of News - Canon 5Dmk2 and other stuff
OK a few bits and bobs for you today, gathering up a few reviews and videos.
I have to say the images that I have seen from the 5Dmk2 look pretty stunning, but then again there was nothing much that wrong with the old 5D. It certainly gained a cult following. I owned one for a while alongside my old 1Dmk2N and it used to provide significantly better images in many circumstances. the AF system was clearly never going to be a patch on the 1D and I was never happy to shoot in the rain as I did on many an occasion with the 1D.
Anyway, I would like the new 5D but given the current financial situation - thanks for that Mr Brown by the way, you might blame the US, but most of us here blame you. OK politics over.
Here is a full detailed review from dpreview so I will let you all make your own minds up on that one. Certainly, the video option appeals for me simply for this reason. There are many times when shooting stills of our subjects we see some wonderful behaviours. It is as times like that I would love to just press another button and capture some moving footage, and then just quickly click back to still mode. OK so I will have to wait.
It seems that a few models succumbed to harsh weather conditions in the Antarctic recently judging by this post from Luminous Landscape . I wouldn't be to worried about the authors comparison with the Sony Alpha as there were only two on the trip it seems, so hardly a representative sample. I would be good to hear from Sid Jervis how he is getting on with his, as I know he has been giving it a run out in very low temperatures in Canada, so if you are reading this Sid, comments would be welcomed.
A good friend, Dave Newton who works with Canon has recently being showing off his latest movie star Hollywood style on the the Canon Professional Network with a interesting set of videos on the 5Dmk2 and also the 50D.
I have manage to blag a 50D from a friend for a try out later this week. I am hoping to be catching a bit of wildlife photography later this week, so will see how it pans out with some of the more distant stuff and see how it compares with the 1Dmk3.
I have to say the images that I have seen from the 5Dmk2 look pretty stunning, but then again there was nothing much that wrong with the old 5D. It certainly gained a cult following. I owned one for a while alongside my old 1Dmk2N and it used to provide significantly better images in many circumstances. the AF system was clearly never going to be a patch on the 1D and I was never happy to shoot in the rain as I did on many an occasion with the 1D.
Anyway, I would like the new 5D but given the current financial situation - thanks for that Mr Brown by the way, you might blame the US, but most of us here blame you. OK politics over.
Here is a full detailed review from dpreview so I will let you all make your own minds up on that one. Certainly, the video option appeals for me simply for this reason. There are many times when shooting stills of our subjects we see some wonderful behaviours. It is as times like that I would love to just press another button and capture some moving footage, and then just quickly click back to still mode. OK so I will have to wait.
It seems that a few models succumbed to harsh weather conditions in the Antarctic recently judging by this post from Luminous Landscape . I wouldn't be to worried about the authors comparison with the Sony Alpha as there were only two on the trip it seems, so hardly a representative sample. I would be good to hear from Sid Jervis how he is getting on with his, as I know he has been giving it a run out in very low temperatures in Canada, so if you are reading this Sid, comments would be welcomed.
A good friend, Dave Newton who works with Canon has recently being showing off his latest movie star Hollywood style on the the Canon Professional Network with a interesting set of videos on the 5Dmk2 and also the 50D.
I have manage to blag a 50D from a friend for a try out later this week. I am hoping to be catching a bit of wildlife photography later this week, so will see how it pans out with some of the more distant stuff and see how it compares with the 1Dmk3.
Finally, some good news from a Politician - yes very rare I know, and I did say politics was over earlier, but if this does get away then it will be good news for wildlife in the UK. When I read last year the the 'set aside' programme was coming to an end, I was very upset as this has proved to be a major lifeline to our farmland wildlife, that is still very much under pressure. But this story on the BBC gave me cause for a little cheer. Lets just hope that they do deliver on it, and it is not just yet another round of spin. But I really am trying to set aside my own cynicism and hope this one comes off.
Sunday, 8 February 2009
Review - Look back at our First Month
Well it was a month ago that we launched Wildlife Photography across the Water so I thought I would just have a quick look back at the stats. and see what we have achieved.
We have managed to post every day so far and hope to continue to do so, although there will be times when we will no doubt 'have a day off', but that is one of the benefits of two of us writing.
We have included news, reviews, views, trip reports, gear we use and abuse, long lenses, software and some work from the archives. We still haven't started our guest photographer slot, but expect to get that off the ground this month.
Looking at the numbers, we have had 2,216 visits from 637 different visitors from 37 different countries from all continents except South America. 47% of you don't use Microsoft's Internet Explorer with Firefox being the most popular and 11.5% of you using Macs and 1.2% of visits from an Iphone.
So many thanks to those of you who have visited the site and continue to support us. We have had a couple of comments with some specific requests, which we have now covered in the Lenses section and also metering.
If there are any topics you want us to cover, please feel free to ask and use the comments section, we welcome all feedback.
We have managed to post every day so far and hope to continue to do so, although there will be times when we will no doubt 'have a day off', but that is one of the benefits of two of us writing.
We have included news, reviews, views, trip reports, gear we use and abuse, long lenses, software and some work from the archives. We still haven't started our guest photographer slot, but expect to get that off the ground this month.
Looking at the numbers, we have had 2,216 visits from 637 different visitors from 37 different countries from all continents except South America. 47% of you don't use Microsoft's Internet Explorer with Firefox being the most popular and 11.5% of you using Macs and 1.2% of visits from an Iphone.
So many thanks to those of you who have visited the site and continue to support us. We have had a couple of comments with some specific requests, which we have now covered in the Lenses section and also metering.
If there are any topics you want us to cover, please feel free to ask and use the comments section, we welcome all feedback.
Martin
Saturday, 7 February 2009
Reviews - Ameristep Doghouse Hide
Well as I was looking out of the window this morning mulling over what to write about today, I looked at the snow still sitting on the top of my hide and thought I would share my experiences of the hide with you. At the last house I lived at we were lucky that we backed up on to a line of woodland that was home to a wide range of bird species, and too many grey squirrels unfortunately. Unfortunately to get the best views for photography, I had to go past the feeding area and look back towards the house. So I needed a hide (or blind as you US guys) call them to make life easier to get the birds in and also sit down in a bit of comfort.
When I bought this hide, there was a limited choice in the UK and the prices were quite expensive. So a trip to ebay established that I could get the Ameristep hide delivered to my house for about £70 compared to the £155 or more that it was available for from UK dealers.So why this hide? A number of reasons really. Firstly, it is constructed to be very fast to put up/put down as each side is supported by wire bands. So it pops up like a studio reflector. Well it is a bit of a wriggling octopus to put away until you have done it for a few times, so watch your face when it decides to fight back.
The great thing about this style of construction means it folds up to a very small size and goes into it's own backpack.The pack comes complete with a small bag of eight pegs so that you can peg down each corner at the base and the corner guy lines, which you do need to use if you are leaving up for a period, as it does move about it the wind without them fitted.
In addition, there are two fibreglass poles, that are used to support the roof to avoid any puddling.
It has one large door on the back, see photo below, and then other three sides have a large zip down window that goes across the whole width, which is useful when there are two of you in it, and it is big enough for that. You can also see on the first image that there is a small port in the main window as well. When I am using it on my own, this is sized perfectly for either the 300f2.8 L or 500f4L lenses, allowing just a little panning movement.One word of caution - they do get very warm in the summer, so dress accordingly and of course they will fade over time as the UV breaks the colours down.
There are other options of hides that are now available including from Wildlifewatching supplies and also Ultimate Nature Gear. There is usually a link for Ultimate Nature Gear in the Google ads on the right hand side of the blog, so check them out, they have an exceptionally good range from one to three person hides.
One of the very useful options in the field is a bag hide, which I bought from Kevin at Wildlife Watching Supplies. I will be making good use of this in a couple of weeks time, so I will get some pictures and do an update after that trip.
I know that Dave have set up some more permanent options in the past for photographing fox and badger so he will no doubt tell us about that some time in the future.
If you have any other great hides or blinds that you use, please drop us a reply in the comments
Martin
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Reviews - A good read for Photoshop CS4 users
If you buy the latest greatest Camera bodies you are normally forced to up grade various components to go with it. Like software and even your PC to work with the new programmes. This is something I had to do when I bought the Canon 1D3,To open the RAW files in Photoshop I had to buy the new CS3 as I prefer Photoshop to Canons DPP software, I could have opened the RAW files in DPP then converted to Tiff and then opened in CS2 but I like to work on a RAW not a Tiff so I purchased Photoshop CS3 and then found that my PC was too old for the new software so ended up with a new Dell-A lot of extra money on top of the Camera body, Now moving over to Nikons new bodies i purchased in advance from Adobe the new Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom programmes, CS4 is not that different to CS3 but it does have one or 2 nice new features tucked away in the ACR engine,The adjustment brush for one, Now I am the first to admit i am not really into processing and keep it to a bare minimum,I always try to get it right in camera so basically my workflow involves adjusting levels,Curves,Saturation and sharpening along with cropping and levelling if needed,So i have £500 software and use 2% of it, So i decided that now is the time to learn how to use the product more just in case I need to, After looking around the shops and forums one book kept coming up and that suit my needs-Photoshop CS4 for Nature Photographers-'A workshop in a book' By Ellen and Josh Anon, I purchased it from Amazon and for the last week or so have been going through it,The thing that I like is that it comes with a DVD that lasts about an hour and shows you how to set up 'Bridge' and runs through the new features found on CS4 over CS3,By watching the DVD you can clearly see how to do things and its done it a very simple manner-perfect for me as I hate it when people who know what they are doing write stuff like everybody would know how to do it,The book has lots of images of before and after and what the screen should look like as you are doing things-very layman's terms. It's priced here in the states at $39.99 but on Amazon its much cheaper-A good read and perfect for the Nature Photographer who is trying to get his/her head around Photoshop CS4-Now just need to get one for Lightroom 2
Dave
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Reviews - Digital Film
Digital Film comes in various forms, the most common or popular being CF or compact flash cards and the SD or secure digital cards. These have replaced the old microdrives which were the cheap CF card of its day but as they had moving parts they were unreliable (and slow) and with the drop in price of CF/SD cards its days were numbered. It wasn't that long ago when you could say that you would pay about £100+ per 1GB but these days cards are much cheaper and there is no reason to not have sufficient for at least a full days shooting. I now carry around 30GB of CF cards on me (My Nikon bodies only take CF) so this means that even on the 'best' days I wont run short.
I remember going abroad to shoot and having to carry in excess of 100 rolls of slide film with me- but now a handful of cards and a downloader and you are set. One thing that you must be careful of is when inserting your card into the camera, if it is not 100% straight it can and will bend the pins inside the camera body meaning a trip to the repairers.When downloading you can simply plug the camera body into your PC and do a direct download, but I prefer to take the card out and download from a CF card reader (readers are available for all types of card) Using a firewire downloader you can download your images straight into the PC very fast, USB2 downloaders are excellent if you have a camera under 10MP but once you are over 10MP and the file sizes are very large a firewire downloader is the fastest way, There are various manufacturers of cards Sandisk and Lexar are probably the biggest names followed by Kingston and various others, I would advise to go with a good make and not penny pinch on some cheap card that nobody has heard of. I have used Sandisk from the start and with their lifetime guarantee and free recovery software I cant see that changing soon. Most bodies will take 1 card but some pro bodies take 2 - either 2 CF or 1 CF and 1 SD card,
I remember going abroad to shoot and having to carry in excess of 100 rolls of slide film with me- but now a handful of cards and a downloader and you are set. One thing that you must be careful of is when inserting your card into the camera, if it is not 100% straight it can and will bend the pins inside the camera body meaning a trip to the repairers.When downloading you can simply plug the camera body into your PC and do a direct download, but I prefer to take the card out and download from a CF card reader (readers are available for all types of card) Using a firewire downloader you can download your images straight into the PC very fast, USB2 downloaders are excellent if you have a camera under 10MP but once you are over 10MP and the file sizes are very large a firewire downloader is the fastest way, There are various manufacturers of cards Sandisk and Lexar are probably the biggest names followed by Kingston and various others, I would advise to go with a good make and not penny pinch on some cheap card that nobody has heard of. I have used Sandisk from the start and with their lifetime guarantee and free recovery software I cant see that changing soon. Most bodies will take 1 card but some pro bodies take 2 - either 2 CF or 1 CF and 1 SD card,
This can be a bonus as you can either use the 2nd card as a back up, shooting RAW files to 1 card and Jpegs to the other or have the second card for over spill so if you have 2x4GB cards in, you can shoot 8 GB of images without having to swap cards over-Great! With cards now up to 32 GB that means you could have 64GB of cards in one camera body-Now I wouldn't advise anybody to do this as that a lot of images and if a card get corrupted in any way you could lose an awful lot of shots. I keep my cards down to a max. of 4GB in a 12 MP body. If I was using a body over 20MP I may go to 8GB cards.
CF/SD cards can be confusing- so which one to buy and what are the numbers on them? As I have said I buy Sandisk, but there are many in the range from the Ultra range to the Extreme range. At this moment in time, the Sandisk Extreme 111 is by far the best value card around in my opinion, I would recommend this card to anybody no matter what camera they use.
The original Extreme 111 was rated at 20MB/S but the new ones are rated at 30MB/S whilst the Extreme IV's are rated at 45MB/s. What does that mean? - well its the speed that the images could be uploaded and downloaded to and from your camera. Some card manufacturers rate their cards but X speed, Lexar for example rate theres at 133x or 300x. If you have a 10 year old digital body you wont need the fastest cards and will be wasting your money if you buy them as there will limitations on the uploading speed of an old or budget camera, however if you have a fast PC/Mac and a fast card reader you will still be able to upload to the PC/MAC quickly. Rob Galbraith has spent some time doing charts that show the downloading speeds of the current range of cards and his site is well worth a vist if you need more info on what cards to use.
See Perfomance Chart here
Dave
CF/SD cards can be confusing- so which one to buy and what are the numbers on them? As I have said I buy Sandisk, but there are many in the range from the Ultra range to the Extreme range. At this moment in time, the Sandisk Extreme 111 is by far the best value card around in my opinion, I would recommend this card to anybody no matter what camera they use.
The original Extreme 111 was rated at 20MB/S but the new ones are rated at 30MB/S whilst the Extreme IV's are rated at 45MB/s. What does that mean? - well its the speed that the images could be uploaded and downloaded to and from your camera. Some card manufacturers rate their cards but X speed, Lexar for example rate theres at 133x or 300x. If you have a 10 year old digital body you wont need the fastest cards and will be wasting your money if you buy them as there will limitations on the uploading speed of an old or budget camera, however if you have a fast PC/Mac and a fast card reader you will still be able to upload to the PC/MAC quickly. Rob Galbraith has spent some time doing charts that show the downloading speeds of the current range of cards and his site is well worth a vist if you need more info on what cards to use.See Perfomance Chart here
Dave
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