The clock is ticking

The forums have been buzzing for weeks in the hope of new cameras from Sony, Nikon and Canon, The date of Aug 24th from both Sony and Nikon have been released for announcements-well there are press conferences then, Its strange that apart from Sony who leaked a few pictures of their A77 theres been no leaks from Nikon which is very unusual, In fact people are backing away from the idea that there will be a new D800,D4 or D400 and that it may be just the compacts and new mirror less camera that everybody for some reason is after, So only 24hrs to wait and see, As i said not long ago i am not overly fussed as i dont see me getting rid of the D3s for some time and i have only had the D7000 for a year, My intention for the D7000 was only to keep it a year until the D400 comes out so i guess if the specs match what i would like then i may pull the plug in a few months once the prices drop and firmware is updated but i have been so impressed by the D7000 that i may keep it a bit longer, I would like a bigger pro type body and a bigger buffer but can and have lived happily without that, The only reason that i have been upgrading is for pixels and thats just for agency use, These days when stock images sales are at rock bottom and will not get any better i wonder of its money well spent or not, I have always liked to have the best and latest in everything but cameras these days are amazing, even the base models blow film away, more pixels mean more storage problems-bigger cards and hard drives and the need for more powerful computers which i now have, I do wonder what people who shoot casually-family and friends with the odd holiday feel when they down load and their 6 year old pc comes to a grinding halt and that they have to go and buy 4 gig cards minimum, Its getting an expensive hobby thats for sure and there does not seem to be an end to it,More pixels also mean that you need better glass and thats the biggest cost of all, In the days of film/slide things didnt change that much and cameras were released every 10 years and still held their money,These days as soon as a new body is released your 2-4 year old body is all but worthless no matter how good a condition its in, Canon had always marketed itself on more pixels whereas Nikon has not followed that route, I hope that that remains, One problem is that Nikon still buys most of its sensors from Sony semiconductors who also make sensors for both Sony and Pentax, Both especially Sony want to make big inroads into the camera market and i am sure will follow Canon in the Mega Pixel war which will drag Nikon along with them, The new Sony A77 is reported to have a 24mp cropped sensor, Canons already has the 18mp senor in the 7D so when thats replaced it will be again competing to be better than the Sony so if Nikon bring the D400 out with say the D7000 sensor all but tweeked will it be competetive in the customers eyes-probably not even though its probably a much better sensor and will give better quality image, I still remember a guy asking me about my D3s and asked how many pixels it had, when i told him that it has 12mp his face dropped and he said 'thats the same as my phone'-Thats the mentality the camera manufactures are up against and probably caused if thruth were known, So another 24 hours and we will see if there are any breakthroughs in Dslr technology or just a handful of compacts, I personally would be surprised to see a new Dslr  after all the problems in Japan certainly from Nikon who in the last few months have moved most of their pro plant from Japan to Malaysia as well as staff but maybe thats just what they need, Maybe there will be an announcement and like the Canon telephotos thats all they will be and there will be a long wait to get anything-just wet the customers mouths-time will tell

Dave

Crop Format - Portrait or Landscape?

With a lovely sunny warm Sunday, I grabbed a  few quick images from the garden yesterday.  This Common Blue was quite obliging for me - unlike the Red Admiral and Gatekeepers that I was hoping to get some decent images of.

This image came out reasonably well in the breezy conditions, resting on dead Knapweed.

I thought I would crop in the two formats from the same image and get your take on it.

Which do you prefer?  and why?

The landscape falls most comfortably on the eye to me, but as Dave has said many times before it is always worth getting your subject in both formats.

For the purposes of this image, the original was taken in landscape, and I have cropped accordingly.

Martin

USB 3 Speed Test

Now that i have everything in the new apartment i decided it was time to back up my main photography hard drive onto my 3TB hard drive in my new PC, The last time that i backed up 2 external USB2 hard drives on my old Dell it took 27 hours, I then tried the same on my new PC with 2 external USB3 drives on my new PC and it took around 11 hours if my memory serves me correct, This time it took under 7 hours-way faster and very impressive, So i took a SD card from my D7000 with 223 images on it and downloaded using a USB2 device, It took 14 minutes, I then downloaded the same card with a Delkin USB3 device and it took 2 mins 15 secs, You've gotta love technology

Dave

New Toy coming

I decided to treat the wife and get her a new camera, She has had a compact point and shoot Panasonic for the last couple of years and really likes it, It is very good in bright sun light but once the light dims so does the image quality, I read a review on the latest waterproof compacts on Dpreview and again the Panasonic Lumix came out tops in every thing so checking it out on BH photovideo i see that the cost was a very reasonable $299 so i decided to order one and test it out underwater, Now BH as per usual was shut for business until Saturday night which is just plain crazy so they lost the sale to Amazon along with a spare battery and floating strap, It should arrive on Wednesday, If it performs as it should i will take it to shoot some manatees near to Xmas, I will keep you posted


Dave

Couple of Stories for you today

Firstly, I was hoping to bring you a couple of images of some moth species that I have not shared or shown before.  Sadly, it helps if your subject stays put.  Clearly there is something about yellow moths that mean that they want to get into hiding as quick as possible.  I guess if you are yellow though, you do tend to stand out a bit to the hungry birds.

The two species were Brimstone, which I have captured in the trap many times, but never got an image.  The second was a Yellow Shell, which is a new species to the Dyer garden.

The good news was that I got six new species to the garden - these being the Yellow Shell as mentioned, along with the Marbled Beauty, Garden Pebble (nice to i/d a micro moth for a change) Rustic, Lychnis and Mouse Moth.  Sadly, none are these are particular stunning photographically so no images to share.

Last nights session also confirmed the theory that full moon conditions don't help trapping.

The last time I put the trap out I got hardly any subjects in, whereas last night I got 79 separate macro moths from 18 different species, plus numerous micros when the moon was much less bright. 

I had some further sightings of Swifts last night as I was setting the trap out - guess they were passage birds passing through.  Delightful though to see them, albeit briefly. 

The second story links in to my earlier posts this week about raptors and persecution.  The story is mostly bad news.

A local man to Stratford (Shipston on Stour) was caught on camera shooting a Sparrowhawk..  It seems that he shot the bird and left it die.  The attack was witnessed by a photographer who was photographing the bird at the time.  The bird was taken to the local wildlife centre but the bird was too badly damaged and had to euthanized.  A prosecution was made and the perpetrator was fined £615 and ordered to pay £986 costs and forfeit his gun for destruction.  It is understood that the perpetrator was a keeper of racing pigeons and was culling the sparrowhawk as he was alleged to have lost some of his birds.

Sad news for yet another raptor - good news the guy was caught and found guilty.

Martin

A near miss

Yesterday i went back to the house as i had left the pond until last, I have to say its been a huge success and its going to be the first thing that i put into my new garden although i probably will not put a frame pond in and try to make a natural looking woodland pond by making a shallow scrape and using a pond liner, I have to say that i didn't realize how much pond life was still in there until i emptied it, Dozens of Tadpoles and dragonfly larvae along with lots of other bugs and skaters, I managed to get most into a nearby pond but am sure that there were a few fatalities, All in all worth the effort and shows that were there is water there is life, When i made the frame for the pond i had to add bits of wood to level the whole set up, I then put the pond liner in and then put soil around the pond to make it look cleaner and more natural, When taking it apart i grabbed the ledge made by the joined planks and gave it a good tug, On one piece i grabbed the ledge and felt my fingers go into a cobweb, I was concerned about Brown Recluse but when i felt the web something else went through my mind, I carefully turned the plank over and yes there was a huge Black widow female about 2 inches from my finger, I carefully put the plank down, She didn't move and i had a good close look at her, She was a stunner, I am not into spiders but Black Widows are a very cool looking spider with their shiny black and red bodies, She was the biggest i have seen and i was very very lucky that i didn't get bitten-now that would have hurt. Being a Brit you tend to forget the dangers of living abroad and sometimes let your guard down, I am sure i will have alot in my new garden as well as some snakes but i will be more cautious, It was a real shame that i didnt have my D7000 and Sigma Macro lens with me as she was very quite and did not move until i left.
Here is a black widow that was nesting on the side of my house a couple of years ago

Dave

Bird of Prey Breeding Successes - Some good news

While I recently reported on desperately bad news for the Hen Harrier in the UK here, it has been a different story for our fish eating raptors.

In Scotland, the release programme of White Tailed Eagles on the East Coast has been considered to be successful this year, with details reported here.  Let's hope these survive those who won't be pleased to see them, and that they cross populate with the ever increasing numbers on the West Coast.

Meanwhile, away from Scotland, Ospreys have done well at Rutland, Wales for the first time in 400 years at Dyfi, that you may have sen on this years Springwatch and also in the Lake District.

Lets hope this years chicks survive the gauntlet of hazards on their first migration and we see them back in coming years.

It makes a pleasant change to share good news with you on our raptors from the usual desperate news I seem to find.

Just one other quickie - if you didn't see Heligan on BBC2 last night, make sure you look out for the repeats or iPlayer it - it was reported to be fabulous, so I will be checking it out later

Martin

Home not so sweet home

What a week and its only Tuesday, It seems to have taken forever to move, We started on Saturday, I over estimated just how much furniture etc we have accumulated since moving states side, Now we have gone from 2800 feet 3 story house down to a 2 bed apartment so most of our gear is now in storage, The last few days i have moved over the bare essentials which is mainly camera gear, Again i didn't realize how much i have until it was all in one place in front of me, I have about 8-10 tripods, Time Warner have been their usual useless selves, I went to their offices the other day, I had to take some kit back, I asked if we could transfer the number-no i was told, Now i used to work with phones so i knew she was being lazy and just could not be bothered, I found that the apartment did not have dial tone so i called them, I explained the situation and the guy asked if i wanted to have my number transferred-voila, Then was told that as she had turned the old number off it was now not possible-think teeth grinding, Whilst i was at Time Warner i picked up a new modem for the new place so we could access the internet-well the modem was a well used and thrown about piece of crap and of course when i got home it would not work and after an hour with tech support they confirmed it was faulty-back to TW which is a 20 mile round trip and now we have internet-no apologies either, The phone will not be on for over a week either, Anyways the feeders in the garden have been taken down and today i watched as the cardinals lined up on the fence and the hummingbirds were circling where the hummer feeder used to be-feel guilty? you betcha, No sign of getting the camera out yet as tomorrow the carpet guy comes and the we final walk around Thursday before we sign the house over Friday and the bank account will look very nice indeed, So next week i will have some bird feeders up here and hope that it will not take to long for our feathered friends to find it, No chance of night time foragers i wouldnt think but you never know-at least we have a ground floor pad so i may drop some bait out and see what happens, Now to start going through 200 e- mails and seeing whats what in the photography world

Dave