New - New Resource and Forum gone live

A quick heads up for a new resource and forum for Canon EOS users from a friend of Wildlife across the Water has now gone live. The EOS Network is a resource for all things EOS, covering a blog, training opportunities and a forum, under the tab Network.

There is also a gallery section for image posting too.

Martin

Time to reflect

Trips away always finish too quickly-just when you start to get the hang of the place you have to leave-it will be nice to be back in my own bed again i must admit, As i sit here in a motel in Colorado for the last night before flying back tomorrow i have time to reflect on the last week-it started slowly as the weather tried to defeat us,but with some travelling we managed to get some great images each day,The last 2 days we have managed to track down our main target-the Mountain Goat, The weather still gave us a hard time-high winds that tried to drag us off the side of the mountain along with wind chill that cracked the skin on our faces,Being at 14000 feet we suffered from UV rays and no amount of lotion stopped us getting burnt,The wind was soo strong that when i dropped my lens hood it was swept over the mountain side and never to be seen again-that was my 600 lens hood,The D3 gave grief twice and needed to be turned off and the CF cards needed replacing-imagine that high up with gloves on,so Nikon will be getting a call to get it sorted-it seems that its not an uncommon problem, But all in all we never got down hearted and kept bashing on from 4am until 7pm-i am well and truly knackered but have 3500 images to go through and i know that some are crackers and will be on my website next week, A big thank you to Phil Shaw who was excellent company over the week and look forward to the next time we shoot together again


Dave

News - Common Spotted Orchids

Now is the time to photograph these in England if you have any near you.

I have seen any number of these at three different locations on Thursday evening in Warwickshire and at another location on Friday and also in Dorset. They do not have a very long life span when all the flowers are in good condition, so if you want to get some images then you will need to get out there soon.

Some details on the species can be found here.

Martin

Trip Report-Colorado day 3+4

The last couple of days have been very tough, We have been up to 14260 feet and down to 7500 feet, We have had 75 degrees and -20 windchill and a white out, We have had to be on the move and work hard to get results,But we have had results, The last couple of days we have had good broad tailed hummingbirds,Beautiful landscapes,Big horn sheep,Woodpeckers at the nest,Elk and lots more, I can honestly say its been some of the hardest conditions i have shot in and the most physical, I have shot totally in manual mode which is unusual for me and have used flash everyday,The D3 showed a error the other day and after swapping the extreme 4 for extreme 3 i havent had the problem back but will need to keep an eye on it, Here are a few images from the last 2 days






Dave

Local Patch - Another wander

......down to the local nature reserve on my doorstep, known as Bridgetown Meadows in Stratford upon Avon.

I shared a couple of images from there last weekend here, and also a male Broad Bodied Chaser from my garden and here.

Following that theme, I saw a number of Female Broad Bodied Chasers, about four in all, plus I got a nice underside view of another Painted Lady butterfly, and also a Green Veined White with some late evening side lighting on it.

All of these images were taken with the Canon 1Dmk11 and the Canon 180 f.35L macro. I supported the camera on a monopod with the Arca Swiss Ballhead. I find the monopod gives useful support, and maintains a more steady platform than if I were handholding. For these subjects, I find a tripod is far too time consuming and doesn't allow you to move easily towards the subject. I prefer to stand off, get an image and move slowly towards the subject. Shooting off another image and again moving. The monopod helps this technique far better than I can ever manage with a tripod. The support provided is useful given that the two Canon macro lenses of the 180 and the 100 do not have image stabilisation, so a steady hand would be required ordinarily.

This little reserve really is a gem just five minutes away and I am looking forward to a number of other photo opportunities presenting themselves there.

Female Broad Bodied Chaser

Painted Lady

Green Veined White

Martin

Trip Report-Colorado day 2

Well today could not have been more different from yesterday and i am glad that we put soo much effort into the previous day, It consistantly rained all night but on the mountain it snowed and when we arrived at 5.30 this morning we were greeted with 4-5'' of fresh snow,The road is very narrow in places with sheer drops so careful slow driving was the order of the day,We managed to get to the area where we saw the goats the day before but it continued to snow and there was no way we could do anything else than decend,The road was closed shortly after and will be closed for another couple of days as the weather looks set to get worse, So tomorrow we head to the Rocky Mountain NP for a recce and will hopefully return here at the end of the week-weather permitting,It wasnt a complete wash out as we shot hundreds of Ruby throated Hummingbirds along with some scenics so not all bad
Here are a couple of images from yesterday




Dave

News - A few stories

.......that caught my eye.

Great news - Great Bustard chicks hatched - the first for 177 years in the UK. Story here.

Worrying news - for the Ospreys at Loch Garten. Both adults troubled by fishing line. Story here.

Good news - loads of Painted Lady Butterflies have invaded the UK. One of the few migrants that we have. I have been watching these for a couple of weeks now and you will have seen the image here.

Bad news - the Red list numbers continue to increase for the UK bird species.

Finally - dubious news?? - I would welcome your views on this story about the re-introduction of beavers in the UK.

Personally, I am never happy about messing with nature. However, I compromise my own views there as I support the work with White Tailed Sea Eagles in Scotland - so a tricky one to rationalise.

Martin

Trip Report-Colorado

Sorry for the late post-out at dawn and its now gone 6pm here and i have just returned-Knackered doesn't even come near-we were shooting past 14000 feet-yes that's right and the air was extremely thin-making each breathe a struggle and giving me a blinding headache-all part of altitude photography-we worked hard and walked as far as i could go without passing out-all in all a success, We managed to shoot a mountain goat along with Pica and Marmot of which there were a few-hoping to have some good stuff after i have downloaded them and will post some next time, the weather was great this morning but clouded over in the afternoon and we had some snow fall just to make life a little harder-i should certainly loose some weight this week-no comments please-its been a couple of years since i seriously did some mountain work and today it really showed

Dave