Thanks. The foster parent bit concerns me though - children have a habit of returning and expecting to be fed!!

It was an interesting photographic experience. When the gull appeared, I didn't expect it to say long so quickly grabbed the camera and put on the DA*300mm + 1.4 TC - well, that's what you use for birds, isn't it? It never crossed my mind that it might not be ideal for an almost fully grown herring gull that wasn't afraid of getting close to humans. Those head and shoulder portraits were not cropped vertically. I never managed to get a shot with the entire bird in the frame. Should have put the 55-300mm in the pocket when I grabbed the camera. It's also that first time I've wished I had a 150-450mm, it's still too heavy a beast for me but for these shots I was sitting down .

Steve

Did anyone try using their camera yesterday? My K3 manual says the temperature range for camera use is -10 deg C to 40 deg C (14 deg F to 104 deg F) and not to charge the battery if the temperature is above 40 deg C. That upper limit used to seem pretty high . Perhaps it's a point in favour of silver rather than black cameras.

Vic - My brother in Northampton resorted to sleeping in the living room with a fan on, their dormer bedrooms were impossibly hot. He also told me that a local delivery man for a building firm was not happy that he'd had to take the day off because building sites were not working. The reason for his unhappiness? The cab of his lorry has air conditioning, his home doesn't .

Steve

Centiheit or Fahrengrade?

Rain and thunder down here this afternoon. Not much, soon passed, but a bit cooler now.

Steve

Thanks for looking - and for your concern for the gull. It was around first thing this morning, looking quite concerned that the tray of water we had put out for it was dry (Mrs L did then fill it up). It hasn't been seen or heard since mid-morning. However, later in the morning Mrs L saw a young 'un on our guttering being fed by an adult. Presumably it has learned that continuing to flap its wings brings big rewards and is now up, up and away.

Steve

The first two - nothing wrong with them but they look like ... well, many other beach photos I've seen (and taken...) over the years.

The last two - these are strikingly good IMHO.

Steve

It's still here! Turned out it had spent the night trapped between my chain-link garden fence and the solid wooden fence erected by a neighbour about 9 inches inside their territory. I managed to get it out this morning without any damage to the bird or me. So it's back to wandering around the garden exchanging squarks with parents...

Steve

Has any forum member from the UK melted yet?

Anyone remember the long, hot, dry summer of 1976 with its plague of ladybirds, judges sitting without their wigs on and a government Minister for Drought?

Any suggestions for how to store the current heat and use it in the winter to keep heating bills down?

And does any non-UK forum member from a hot country have any advice for heat-challenged UK folk? Or are you just smiling at how we Brits always find something weather-related to moan about, be it hot, cold, wet, dry or even just the normal, variable mess that the north Atlantic throws at us?

Steve

One of the young herring gulls that were born behind the chimney of nextdoor-but-one dropped in this afternoon. Literally. It clearly knew that it was meant to fly, but having done the downward bit into our back garden, it didn't have the ability to take off and fly well enough to clear the surrounding fences and shrubs. So it spent most of the afternoon in the garden alternately:
- Crying for its parents, who knew where offspring was and screamed at it loudly and often.
- Exploring, including the veg patch, pond/wildlife area, nettles (for wildlife of course), inside the greenhouse and the depths of a blackcurrant bush (a result of the bird trying to fly and perch on top if it).
- Looking, but not quite daring to go through an open doorway into the covered passage between the house and garage.
- Looking very puzzled at a bloke with a real camera and his wife with a phone camera.
- Having a quick nap.
It didn't seem worried by my presence, just curious. Several times it was within a couple of yards of me. Perhaps it now regards me as an honorary member of its family . It seems to have managed to leave the garden now, or at least it's being very quiet - we were beginning to think that the night might be noisy as well as very hot .

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the not-so-little thing. Not exactly award winning photography. And definitely not 'bird in flight' - well, how can you when the bird itself can't work out how to do it?? And yes, that is a tripod in the last picture, the camera trap for the hedgehogs is on it.

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Steve

A good example of putting an old, no longer used item into service again - photographic upcycling at its best!

There's nothing wrong with macros and close-ups with a tube on a wide open lens (as the 100mm macro must surely have been with such a shallow DOF). I'm partial to a bit of it myself, as it happens. You've just got to pick the right subject and think creatively and artistically. Try focussing on different bits of a flower, see what happens. Getting the tips of a ring of stamens in focus with the rest of the flower out of focus can be quite striking.

By f32 diffraction will have set in, softening the image. Laws of physics, can't avoid 'em. Beyond about f11, it's a trade-off between depth of field and slight softness. Actually, I rather like the slightly soft feel of the picture, it seems to suit the flower.

Steve

Steve

An interesting carving. It looks like there are many possibilities for photogenic close-ups, if that sort of thing is permitted in the cathedral.

You're a brave man...

Steve