Lottery Winners only need to worry.

A few weeks ago we had a record Euro Lottery winner in the UK - over £160m if I recall correctly.

Now I heard people at the time say that that was too much and they wouldn't want it all.  Well you can never have too much - the only problems you have are what you are going to spend it on and the limit on your imagination.

Well for those doubters, Canon have solved that problem for you with their pricing structure, at least here in the UK they have.

Just take a look at the current prime lens prices here for the 500 and 600's - ridiculous - roughly 9 and 11 K in close round numbers.

Well the rumour mill is awash with a new 1Dsmark 4 - see this link, and this one.

Given that the current 1DSmark111 is at 5K, and when the 1Dmk4 came up it had a 50% price shift, it might be a reasonable bet to assume the price will be on the wrong side of at least 6K.

Not that I care - I haven't won the lottery.

No doubt all the would be spec generators that various photo forums gather will be telling us what must be included, what shouldn't be, and then how disappointed they will be when it isn't delivered.

Having been there a few years ago myself, to a degree, it is a pretty pointless position to take.

So it will be what it will be, whenever Canon get round to releasing it, whatever IT is, and dealers getting supplies eventually, at silly prices, that the beta testers will find the faults, for a couple of issues of firmware.   Cynical? - Yes but then I have has some experience to draw on.

Just chill on new kit guys - it ain't worth the stress.

And maybe just buy a ticket for Friday night and keep your fingers crossed :-)

Martin

British Birdwatching Fair - this weekend coming

Just a note, if you weren't aware already that this weekend sees the annual Bird Watchers extravaganza across at Rutland Water.

Details here if you are interested in going.

As I have spent all the money in the garden - see yesterdays blog, I will not be trekking across there, as my new Leica's I want are now slabs, gravel, furniture, timber and plants!!

If you were expecting a blog from Dave today ( I know I was  :-) ), he is busy packing up house, so good luck to him and Marian.  It is tiring work , but in the temperatures they have been experiencing over there, I cannot imagine how hard it must be.

So with luck normal service will resume soon

Cheers

Martin

Garden Update - Management time

For many weekends this year, I have been working in the 'formal' garden - building structures, laying slabs, painting walls, doors, building  and finishing furniture for the outdoors - which is why you have seen so few images from me.

Now it is looking fabulous but given the workload, I am glad that 60 %  of the garden area is made over to wildlife that pretty much manages itself.

Today was the start of the end of season 'management'.  I have started to cut back the grasses and flowers now that most of it is in the seed stage.  I use a petrol strimmer that is set up with cutting blades rather than the traditional string - this cuts rather than mashes the vegetation and leaves it as cut straw.

I will leave the 'straw' to dry and to drop any seeds for future years for next week or so.

I have cut about 1/3 of the area, so that the insects, butterflies and birds have a constant food source in the rest of the garden.  I will cut another 1/3 in about a months time and the rest a month later.  I have not been good at this management before so I am hoping that this will make a difference for later years.

While having a good tidy up around the pond, I was pleased to see dozens and dozens of frogs from the tiniest froglet to very large females who probably weren't too chuffed at me clearing so of their habitat.  Once again, I only cleared 1/2 of the vegetation around the sides to ensure that they have places to hide and feed.

It was delightful to see my first Common Darter of the year.  Usually, we have seen dozens by now but this year has been noticeable by the complete absence.  With plenty of warm sunshine, we had good numbers of butterflies as well.

I put the moth trap out last night and recorded probably the smallest catch ever - very few and nothing new or special.  Why so?  Well it was full moon and I think that a bright moon source is probably sufficient to overcome the lure of the moth trap lights.

Sightings of Sparrowhawk are increasing all the time - I guess we are seeing this years juveniles adding to the numbers.  As I type this, one has just flown by the window lit in beautiful orange sunset light.

Still no sightings of Wonky Wing, so I think my post of last week was correct - sadly.

Martin

Things are looking up

You will have to forgive this quicky as we now have the keys to our new apartment and are currently moving our gear over, There is nothing worse than moving, I got my driving license yesterday so the chains have gone and i once again have freedom, Infact things have gone from crap to great Everything is coming together and we even had some unexpected good financial news so if a new camear is announced in the next couple of weeks as the rumour mill is stating i may be able to get one, I cant see me wanting to upgrade the D3s this year but if an upgrade to the D300 is announced i would be very interested or maybe even the D700 upgrade depending on the specs, The specs for Sonys A77 are slipping out as are the images of the camera and it will set the middle weight camera arena on fire-24mp and 10fps and knowing sony it will be a bargain, I am guessing that the D400 will be using the same sensor, I will wait for a few months for tests etc as i am unsure that 24mp on a cropped sensor will give good high ISO, I am in no rush as i have 2 great camera bodies
Ok back to the grind

Dave

Glorious 12th?

It doesn`t seem that it was 5 months ago that Jac and I were tying the knot in Scotland ~ the time has flown by. It is against pleasant thoughts of that time and day that brings me to the less pleasant thoughts that once again the Grouse shooting season starts in the UK today.

While putting my thoughts about this blogpost together this morning on my train journey to work, my concens about today were centred not upon the poor Grouse that are shot for expensive sport but on the `cost` that our UK raptors have to pay for this `sport`

I have written many times about the illegal persecution of raptors on this blog before, which I find saddening and depressing, but I found one story today that sums up all of those thoughts very well and so I have linked to it to share with you.

It is
written by Mark Avery, the previous Chief Executive of the RSPB and is here

Martin

Breaking down and packing up

In the last couple of days i have started to break stuff down, The hide/blind that has been in my garden for over a year is down and packed, It bleached so much by the sun that parts of the camo pattern is just about gone, I am not a believer that camo make that much difference and once a hide has been up a couple of weeks the animals are used to it whatever the colour, I think that camo clothing is more about having confidence than anything else and if that's good for you then so be it, I wear camo clothing as i kneel around in the mud and it doesn't show the grass and mud stains, Apart from that camo here is going out clothing, We may be going to a red neck wedding soon and i have been told that the bridesmaids dresses are a mix of camo and orange-i kid you not, Just google 'redneck wedding' and see for yourselves, I slowed the food going out for the night animals about a month ago and although the raccoons sometimes raid the bird feeders they are now rarely seen, I will certainly miss those guys, All of my paperwork for the visas arrived yesterday so i can now get my license and start living again, But apart from that my life seems to be packing and making phone calls, Its strange to think that in one weeks time this house will no longer be ours, But we have moved many times in the last 20 years so its just another step in life and a new beginning,
On a wildlife note i was walking down the street yesterday morning when i spotted something flying directly at me, At first i thought it was a bird,about the size of a sparrow but as it neared the wings looked wrong, It flew straight over me and landed on a nearby house, It was a lune moth, The first i have seen in real life-Huge would be an understatement, I never realized that they were so big ,A real stunner to see-now on my photographic wants life

Dave

New moth species

Each time I put the moth trap out, I am getting a number of new species in.  Last weekends efforts bought in a total of seven new species of macro moths.

This delightful Canary Shouldered Thorn being one such colourful example that I am pleased to be able to share with you.

Only a quickie tonight as I have only just got back from a day in London with work.

One of the best bits of the journey was passing through 'Kite country' as the train travelled through the Chilterns.  It always makes me put down whatever I am reading or working on to enjoy seeing them dancing on the breeze

Martin

Some Good News

We got confirmation that our visas have been approved and that we should have them shortly, That means i should soon be able to sort my car test out and be mobile again,
Other good news is that my tree frog image made it to image of the week on the naturescapes site, Naturescapes for me is THE best wildlife site on the web, The standard of photography on there is extremely high so i was just a bit chuffed to say the least, It does prove one thing and that is you do not need to go to far flung exotic places to get good images, I didnt even have to leave my house for this one
Word must have got out as over the last couple of days i have had all kinds of bugs on my glass storm door including a very accommodating cricket, Which stayed on there for over an hour until i started to use flash and then he decided he did not want the fame and left, I was getting on in the day and the light was way to my right, I started outside and had to use the pop up flash to add some fill light as the cricket was silhouetting against the bright glass,The flash made all the difference I tried hand-holding the D7000 with Sigma 150 macro but the shutter speed was low and the images blurred, I tried to set the tripod up but the door way was cramped and i ended up with little more then a monopod but it did the trick, I tried taking a normal shot but the cricket needed some lightening up on the underside, I tried using a reflector but the light was not bright enough so i put the SB900 on a cord and used the built in reflector and diffuser to add some light, I held the flashgun at an angle so as not to get the reflection in the glass and  worked pretty good, The problem with using a flashgun with glass is that it shows every piece of dirt and dust

Dave