Plants, flowers, bits of plants and flowers and anything that takes my fancy. I've even done dried paint on a stirrer. Lichen is on the agenda. But I don't do dead insects, eyes of flies, that sort of thing.

Steve

Sounds like what my dog can be like when he gets excited. 30+ Kg of rambunctiousness is not something you want to encounter when on a peaceful walk, which is one reason why he is always on a lead. The other reasons are to stop him eating things he shouldn't (he knows where the dead and decaying deer is! ) and because he has absolutely no recall whatsoever so we could lose him for days or more.

Steve

No travels or holidays for me, thanks to Mrs L's health (or lack thereof). But I haven't done any serious macro for a while so the macro rig is being rebuilt (it has to be dismantled when a visitor needs to use the bedroom ) with the aim of doing some interesting things during the summer. And I might just think about getting a substantial tripod (cheap and used) for macro work outside because the Benbo Trekker can get horribly unstable when there are focus racks and a geared head on it.

Steve

The first public appearance of this year's herring gull chick took place today. And here is the little darling in the safety of its nest two houses away, carefully guarded by a parent which is now never far away from its offspring. A few hours earlier it had taken a few tentative steps along the ridge, but was back in the nest before I could get the camera. Whatever you think about herring gulls, they are on the red list so every birth deserves to be celebrated. Taken with K3iii + DA*300mm f4 + 1.4TC. Best viewed large.

Thoughts, comments, admiration for the wonders of nature etc. welcome as usual.




Steve

Would 10-20 metres be about right for the distance to the water you were focusing on and therefore to the bird? Just a rough estimate based on the angular diameter of the sun (about half a degree) and guessing the size of the bird.

A few possibilities for not seeing any wings:
1. They are half way through a flap and aligned with the body.
2. The wings are momentarily closed as part of a deliberate manoeuvre.
3. The bird is one of those species which flies by alternating a burst of flapping with a short period of not flapping, typically undulating flight.

A wild guess - the bird is hunting insects low over the water, it swooped down, flew around, then pointed upwards and flapped furiously to gain height and is now letting gravity slow it down with wings closed before levelling out and doing another powered swoop for more insects. Just a guess, though, which could be way off the mark.

And it isn't just birds which appear unannounced in photos. There's a thread in the other forum about insects appearing on shots link. And I've had dogs which would also insert parts of their anatomy into shots when I was sure they were well out of it.

Steve

Another vote for those railings!

I think that what the sets of photos from your wanderings is showing is the value of getting to know an area really, really well and going back to the same places in different lights, different weather, different times of day, different seasons, different lenses... You're almost forced to look for something different in the familiar and that leads to insight, creativity etc. Much as I used to find a few years ago when walking the fields with dog and camera and may yet find again with the new dog.

Keep going back, keep seeing something different in the same old things!

Steve

Thanks. We've had him for about 6 weeks, he's almost 7 years old but had to be rehomed. So we've basically taken on a middle-aged bloke who is set in his ways. And as we've discovered, one of those ways is sleep!

Steve

Stunning! A fine example of what that little camera is capable of when in the right hands. And all the more impressive for having been taken with the 02 lens, which many people didn't regard very highly when it first appeared (undeserved IMHO).
Did you go the whole hog and put a black cloth over your head and camera to make the rear screen easier to see? Both are very good optically. But it's worth trying to get a lightly used 6 as it does have a record of failing fatally and unrepairably, which appears to be due to a tiny cable breaking after a lot of flexing. If you want to have some fun, get a K - Q adapter and put a high quality K mount lens on it. There's a thread link on the other forum devoted to how the Q series performs with adapted lenses.

Steve

Wot?? No parrots on shoulders, no hooks instead of hands, no wooden legs?? They can't be real pirates, you've been conned!!

Looks like a lot of fun, though!

Steve

Me too...

Steve