Couple of Books worth getting

I was out in the centre of Birmingham at lunchtime today and needed to get hold of an OS map.  The main Waterstones in the City is great and I often enjoy a browse at the the books while I am there.

I spotted a couple that I though our blog readers might be interested in, and that I have now ordered for myself

Firstly, from a great photographer who does some fabulous wildlife and landscape work by the name of Guy Edwardes.  The link to his book is below and well worth buying.  great photography, but more importantly great tips and techniques or where when and how to do it.

Secondly, while I struggle to get to grips with the epic Martin Evening tome on CS5, I found another great guide for both CS5 and Lightroom 3 that I can recommend.  Much more skinned down and very relevant to the needs of photographers.

I shall look forward to my copies coming from Amazon, and much better rates than I saw today I hasten to add

So here are the links.

Martin

ISO-Low or High

Traditionally ISO's have always been in full stops i.e 100,200,400,800 etc, But now we have 1/3 stops as well so now we have 100,125,160,200,250,320,400 etc, I personally always use full stops but i know others that use the 'in between' ISO's, So say that you are using ISO 400 and feel that you could use a slightly lower ISO and change to 320 thats going to help with image quality right? well not really as the 'in between' ISO's are not real ISO's, What happens is ISO 200 is a real ISO but ISO 250 is an over exposed 200 and 320 is an under exposed 400 and so on and so on, We know that over exposing is good for IQ as in exposing to the right but under exposure is bad for IQ, So in reality ISO 320 can give a grainier image that 400-Food for thought when choosing what ISO to use

Dave

Autumn Spectaculars

Dave recently mentioned that with fall comes some great opportunities for the autumn colours.

Here is the UK, one such location that is always wonderful in October is the arboretum at Westonbirt.  This year they have a great little photo blog so you can keep an eye on the colours yourself and judge when to go.  It will probably be in a couple of weeks time when they are at their best.  I usually try to go for early doors first thing, and get there before the crowds and if you can make it a weekday then even better.

On the other side of the country in North Norfolk, this coming weekend is one of the best for the Knot Spectacular at RSPB Snettisham.  I am quite happy to tell you all about this, as I will not be heading that way as I have other plans.  The Knot Spectacular only happens a few times a year and is dependant on the highest tides pushing thousands of birds off the tidal estuary of the Wash and onto the land.  There used to be a special photographers hide there for two people set very low.  It was closed at the end of 2008 due to some photographers not abiding by the rules to go in and out at certain times/states of the tides, resulting in the disturbance of the birds, and spoiling the day for the other watchers in the main hides.  Once again, a few spoiling it for the majority, which is a sad state of affairs, but not untypical of some photographers of wildlife, rather than wildlife photographers who will always consider their subject before the photograph.

As for my plans? - well you will have to wait and see what I write about and post next week.

Martin

Nothing new

I haven't picked up my camera since returning from the mountains as i have been ill, I am still under the weather but have had lots of tests at the doctors which showed there was nothing to worry about-just one of those things i guess, I have kept baiting areas and the other night i had deer,fox,opossum and raccoon in my garden and that's the first time i have seen the big '4' in my garden in one evening, I take it as a sign that tougher weather is on its way and today i awake to 47 degrees which is about 20 degrees less than last week although the days are lovely, I am back to the private land tonight and will start with some different set ups for birds so that i can get consistent images over the autumn and winter, I also stupidly promised the wife that i would decorate the house once the weather cooled off so guess what i am doing now-me and my big mouth, So nothing really to report except that consistant baiting is very important and even if you are ill or on holiday its very important to keep it going even if you have to ask your wife or neighbour to do it
Dave

A few from the woods

Well the weather curtailed most of my photo plans yesterday, right from the word go.

So one of my options was to process the fungi shots from Saturday.  As I mentioned, it is a great year this year so here are a few from my first session of the year.

Single Mycena, natural light

Clitocybe, natural light

Clitocybe, with fill flash, now with detail

Nice little group of Mycena

Same group, with a little bit of sunlight breaking through

Now using a little bit of uplight flash reflected with aluminium kitchen foil from below

Slightly lower point of view improves the background

Again with reflected flash to provide uplight

What style do you prefer and why?

All taken with the 1Dmk3 and either Canon 100 macro or 180 macro.  So why use the 1D? - simple - Liveview.  My old 5D doesn't have it and it is dead easy to use on this type of work, where the subject doesn't move

Martin

Coming and Going

Well the Fall is here and the summer is gone, The lower temperatures have made the hummingbirds migrate-when i say lower temperatures i did get slightly burnt today, The disappearance of the hummingbirds coincided with the reappearance of the opossum, Now i know that opossums do not migrate but i haven't seen one for months and considering we had about 6 around every night i have no idea what they have been doing or where they have been eating, We have now had one visit our garden for the last few nights and i am very pleased to have them return as i find them very endearing and extremely photogenic, I want to shoot them in snow and hopefully this winter it will happen, The bird feeders are starting to get busy and the squirrels have returned, the did a disappearing act last summer and again this summer, I wasn't sure of the local hawks had taken them but back they are and today i watched them taking sunflower seeds from the feeders and bury them in the garden ready for the winter, The winter is always a great time for wildlife photography as food gets harder to find, Its a good time to get the bird feeders filled and kept filled and start a baiting programme for fox etc, As soon as the first frosts come the ground will get very hard and foxes will find digging for worms very difficult , Get your hide up and in place and get some nice perches set up, As always the more effort you put in now the more results you will get over the winter period

Dave

Fungi season is well and truly here

I took a walk out in my local woods this morning.  It was bright, but very very wet under foot after a day of torrential rain yesterday.  But as I was hoping, this year is a good season for fungi.  There was so much about from tiny mycena to many much larger clumps of them on logs, and a lot of earth based fungi.

I took my 1Dmk3 and a couple of macro lenses, and will bring you some images on my next post when I have had a chance to process them.

In other local wildlife news and sightings, it was great to see a Grey Wagtail in the middle of Stratford on Thursday morning when I walked to the train station.

I noted some high up House Martins over the house about thirty minutes ago - the last of the migrants?, while at lower level a group of Starlings were harrying a cruising Sparrowhawk out of their airspace.

I am hoping to get out and about with the bigger lens tomorrow, but we will have to see what the weather brings.  the forecast is not looking good at the moment............again.

Well if I get stuck at home I can get some of those images processed to share with you.

Martin

Fall/Autumn Photography

The winter of 2009 was a long one here on the East Coast USA as it was in Europe, Winter gave way to summer-we seemed to miss spring and boy what a summer, Here in NC it was a record breaker with nearly 90 days over 90 degrees and many of those were either high 90's or low 100's, I am not complaining unlike some locals-it was a stunning summer and although the long hours in a hide were uncomfortable and the hummingbird photography just didn't really happen due to heat i enjoyed the whole time and got some reasonable results which is the main thing, It doesn't seem that long since i was in the Smoky Mountains shooting Fall/Autumn colours but once again the weather has changed and the Fall is here, The leaves on the trees have a tinge of colour on the edges and its time to get ready to make the most of the short time when the colours are at their best, So what do we need to do to make the best of the Fall/Autumn landscapes, Well the first is to research the area in which you want to shoot as time is of the essence, So take in as many big landscapes as well as waterfalls and old buildings as you can, Here in NC where we have the Great Smoky Mountains with hundreds of waterfalls, Mills and just beautiful landscapes we are spoilt for choice so do some home work, There are lots of books on what's around, Where and when to shoot, i have booked motels in Tennessee and NC to take in Landscapes and wildlife and for the first time landscapes are top of the pile with wildlife taking a back step and with the wildlife i want to have them small in the frame showing them in habitat, So what kit will give some good results? I think a wide angle like a 24-70 on a full frame sensor and a mid zoom like a 70-200 will cope with most instances and the 200-400 range will cover most wildlife needs, The Smoky's will be busy and last year i got some Fly Fisherman in the rivers with the fall colours so drive around and keep your eyes open for photo opportunities, For the landscapes i will have some grad ND filters from 1-3 stops and most importantly a poloriser filter, Not only will the polariser boost the colours and take any glare off of the leaves and water it will act like a 2 stop ND filter slowing the shutter speed down which can be great when shooting moving water like waterfalls, I find the best conditions to shoot is when its overcast and rain can be a benefit as it really makes the colours sing-Don't be a baby and worry about your camera gear as you can easily keep it dryish with some care and thought and your images will just jump out of the screen-plus there wont be so many people around which really is a bonus, Low light will be the order of the day so a good tripod and head along with a cable or remote release are the a must to get nice sharp images, take your time and be methodical and it will all come good, Look around for some nice coloured leaves and don't be worried about moving a few around to give nice foreground interest

Dave