More fave images of last year - Part 7

It was my first day back to work today after a long Christmas and New Year break, so at the end of a tiring day, it is just a quickie tonight. But one that on looking back brings me a lot of pleasure, as all of the images below were taken in my back garden last year during the months of july, August and September

So no driving around, no spending lots of money on expensive fuel, just the peace and tranquillity of my 'own patch'.

After the horrendous gales of last night, a bit of quiet reflection is just the tonic...oh yes and a glass of Jura Malt Whisky helps too

I still have some more images from my last trip out to bring, but they need processing so will have to wait a little longer.

martin

Thoughts for 2012

Following on from Martins last post it too was a very lean year for me photographically, The year started with a bang with a fantastic trip to Japan which was made extra special in that i shared the experience with a great friend, It really was the best and most enjoyable trip i have had and i have had a lot, I also had a great trip to California, I have been many times before but this time everything came together from the weather, The amount of wildlife and spring flowers, I am back to California in a couple of weeks and this will be the first time that i have been there at this time of year,My hopes are that the elephant bull seals are still there and that i can spend some time with them, A new species for me so my hopes are high, Last year we sold our house and thats when things tended to come to a grinding halt as did my photography, Getting into our new home was like a breathe of fresh air, A good size garden gives me room for creativity so my photography will only be limited by my imagination, I have lots of ideas but it will take time to get the animals coming into the garden on a very regular basis, I am currently writing an article on my garden photography so its apt to talk about it here,, I am currently siiting in my living room writing this and watching the Joe McNally DVD that santa dropped down the chimney, I have to say that if you like to shoot portraits and just use a normal flashgun it will help tremendously, This year i will be concentrating on my local area, I live fairly rural so theres plenty of opportunities close by, I will have 1 or 2 trips to California and hope to get down to Florida at least once,
This is THE time to get a plan together for the coming year and stick by it, Work hard now if you are looking for fox and badger setts, The trees are bare so there is plenty of light in the woodland, The ferns have yet to grow and the foliage is low so with some wet weather you have a great opportunity to do some tracking and follow the animals footprints back to the sett or den or just to find and area where they are feeding or criss crossing,
I hope you all have a great year with your photography, To get success think all the time about what you want and how to go about getting it, Once you have some images in the bag start to experiment with slow shutter speeds etc to get something original but most of all have fun, If you are not having fun then whats the point??
If you need any help we are here so just post a question or send a mail and we will do our best to help

Dave

Happy New Year to our readers

Just a short blog to wish all of you a very happy New Year, and hope that all your hopes and aspirations work out for you all.

Looking quickly back at the blog, as we enter our fourth year of blogging. We posted a total of 426 times in 2012, so as well as maintaining our 100% daily post record, we managed to squeeze in an extra 75 or so posts as well.

Photographically for me, it was by my usual standards quite a lean year as other life priorities got in the way.

Dave will not doubt fill you in with his thoughts, but I absolutely loved all of his posts from his Japanese trip in the early part of 2011. Fantastic subjects and fantastic images from a great photographer, and seeing those posts made me feel privileged to share this blog platform with him.

It would be good to have some feedback from our readers to see if tere are any areas that you would like us to cover, if we can, as it is always worthwhile being able to share things that are of use.

Look forward to hearing from you all.

Best wishes for 2012

Martin

Happy to be back

We arrived back from NY last night, The journeys were a nightmare, We had torrential rain most of the way up and the normally 9 hour trip took over 14, At times there was 6'' plus of water on the roads which meant plenty of crashes and tail backs, The funeral was the most colourful i have ever been to with thousands of dollars worth of flowers, I was asked if i would take a few pictures which i would normally shy away from but the scene was so colourful and peaceful that i did not hesitate, There is a growing market here for funeral photograhers and i have personally been asked to do it and have always refused but of they were like this funeral with a beautiful wake and then pipers at the church which in itself was like the sistine chapel i could see that capturing the day tastefully would be worth doing, My wife's aunt was truly loved and around 400-500 people turned up at the wake and the police even supplied 8 cars to see us unstopped through the NY traffic, So a sad end to the year and we know of 3 people who passed over the Xmas period, I hope that 2012 is clear as far as funerals go as i seem to have at least 1 a year at the moment
I hope that you have a great and safe new years night and that 2012 is a good one both photographically and personally,
I can now get down to do some serious processing so that the next blogs can be somewhat more colourful

Dave

More fave images from 2011 - Part 6

And so on to June, and it is a time of year for me when the 7D and 500 is given a bit of a rest, and the 5Dmk2 and 180 macro get busy, and this last year was no different. Taken either in my garden or on my local patch a couple of miles away, little Co2 was generated in the production of these images

Marbled White on Ox Eye Daisy in the garden

Pyramid Orchid (local patch)

A small group of Common Spotted Orchids

Bee Orchid on local pacth

Mating 5 spot burnet moths (local patch but also had them in the garden too)

Back next time with the last images from my recent day out

Martin

Some more from yesterday

Yesterday's trip started out in the Forest of Dean at a site where I was fortunate enough to photograph Crossbills in February 2010, and posted them on the blog at the time.

Well we went back and we did see them, half a dozen of them but sadly at too great a distance for any images. It was a delight to watch them through the binos though.

The first image was as close as I got, with a test image. It is a shame as the conifers where at a better height this year to get nice diffuse non sky backgrounds.

Male Crossbill from Feb 2010 from the archives

Female Crossbill from Feb 2010 from the archives

Moving on to the next location, this friendly Robin was not at all camera shy. I was after Nuthatch at the time, but you take what you are given and be happy

At a third location, I had been photographing Nuthatch and Pied Wagtail, which you will have to wait for a later blog, when this Buzzard flew quite close by, and was lit well with the early afternoon sun.

Martin

Some photos at last !!!

As mentioned on yesterdays blog, Jac and I took a trip out to some old haunts today, and some new ones as well. The forecast was looking good, although with quite a strong breeze, of which more in later blogs.

So here are just a few images of one delightful little male Kestrel who was hovering nicely in the afternoon sun for me. The first is quite a large crop, but after the hover, or more of a wind hang than wing beat, it came closer to me so I was able to get the second and third shots. What a stunning falcon shape it demonstrates in the last image, definitely worth a click to enlarge - beautiful bird.

Fave Images of the Year - Part 5

With thoughts and sympathies to Dave's wife Marian as they deal with family loss at this time of year.

Tonight's blog is just a quickie with a few images of mine from May of this year. Many are nothing special photographically and are mere record shots, but they were significant for me as many were firsts for me in knowingly seeing and recognising them.

Small Blue Butterfly (1st)

Green Hairstreak

Duke of Burgundy (1st)

Wood Tiger Moth (1st)

Mullein Moth Catepiller in the garden (1st)

Cinnabar Moth, first time in the garden

Common Spotted Orchid from the local patch, first one of the season

Burnet Moth Caterpiller

Brown Argus butterfly (1st)

All being well, if the weather behaves itself, I will be out with the cameras tomorrow and see if I can remember how to use them.

Martin