September 28th 2024 – Hayling Island
First stop was pub car park at the start of the bridge which takes you off the mainland onto the island. I left rather lot of water in the foreground, but wanted to keep the standard 3×3 dimensions, keep all the cloud and capture all the reflection in the water.
I quite like this image, the clouds have a nice grey base, the trees haven’t lost all their leaves yet, and if you look carefully you can see seagulls flying low over the water.
This area is tidal, a couple of hours later and there was not water at all, just mud.
Displayed full screen this is quite nice. I was stood too far up the beach though, had I moved down the green triangle would have moved closer to horizon, compressing the sea and reducing all the negative space. I liked because it kept all the boats close the horizon.
This suffers from the same problem most of my image do. They look good on my 32 inch monitor with 40mp of resolution, but once I’ve scaled the image down to suite the internet, it just doesn’t look the same.
This took a few minutes of waiting. I wanted a pigeon facing towards me, but the they insisted on facing the other way. I could have move my feet to the other side, but I nice stone to sit on, and thus a pigeon looking to the side is the nearest I could get.
After taking this I was watching this Youtube video where at 3:45 he shows his own image of a flag. Next time I see a flag I’ll remember to try the same technique. A slow shutter speed on a tripod, it worked really well for him.
I kind of like this, but also kind of think it doesn’t work. The cloud points into empty space pm the right, and the foreground draws the eye left.
Finally I have a bird in flight image that’s not too blurred or muddy. This was taken at 1/2500s, f5.6, iso 200 at 300mm. At 300mm one the problems I have is getting the bird into frame and keeping it there, it only take a very small movement of the lens for it to disappear.
This lenses loses focus as your zoom, so the traditional technique of zooming out you get the bird in frame and then zooming in doesn’t work too well, as the bird has gone by the time the lens and re-focused.
This is solvable by spending money and a better long lens for the 100-400 and 150-600 are both in the region of £1800. They are also big and heavy, not the sort of lens you carry around just in case.
Why do all seagulls insist on facing the wrong way!
What do you think?
Some other images from the day….
September 21st 2024 – In the Garden
For one reason or another I couldn’t get out to take any photographs, so a few minutes in the garden would have to do.
I like the colours in this image of an Oak tree. Greens, browns, yellow and blue sky in the background.
This was pleasing simply because I got the exposure right myself, all taken manually. I exposed for the light on the leaf which is why the background is nice and dark.
Had this been taken in aperture priority, the background would have been more exposed but that would not have worked as well.
A close up on the under side of Oak leaf. The trees are all turning and the autumnal colours are everywhere.
September 13th 2024 – Frensham Little Pond
This was an early evening walk around the pond. Normally there are plenty of people around, especially dog walkers but this was a quiet evening.
This Heron was a surprise, I was stood my the shore in a place which is normally very popular but on this occasion I was the only person around. So, I assumed that Heron’s would not be in this area as its too popular, and to my surprise this Heron walked out of the reeds and paid no attention to me at all, even as I moved closer.
It spent several minutes just 6 feet away from me. Though what you can’t see in the images is that I’m stood behind a 4 foot fence used to keep people back from the reeds.
Another Heron. This was sat on a wooden box put out on the pond for birds to purch on.
This is a tight crop of an image taken at 300mm hand held and heavily sharpened.
My 70-300 lens is a bit soft at 300mm and a better or longer lends is tooo much money right now.
Another long shot at 300mm. It always take me a moment to get the bird in frame and the camera to focus, so invariably they are flying away from me…
There are always a couple of swans on the pond.
Some other shots I took that evening….
September 8th 2024 – Basingstoke Canal
I took these from the banks of the Basingstoke Canel.
As you can see, the water is pretty dull around this Mallard.
Eventually I figured that standing on the opposite bank brought nice reflections into the water. Much better.
This is a Pekin duck.
I even took some video of coots feeding.
Some other images from that afternoon…
September 7th 2024 – West Wittering
I think this is my favourite image of the day. Click on the image to see it full size.
The tide was out and the beach felt very large and hardly anyone was their. This image just seems to capture the feeling of it.
I have consumed a lot of youtube videos about street photography lately, and this reminded me of that. You haves layers, reflections and almost a sense of isolation with the lone figure.
This is an 18 second exposure to smooth our the sea. I quite like it, might be better in black and white though.
The inevitable seagulls shot…
Its not as easy as it looks to get a sharp image of fast moving bird.
I like this one.
Other images taken that day…
September 5th 2024 – Birdworld
This image of a Parrot, like many of the images from Birdworld is complicated by the cage.
You can see the wire mesh in the top of this image, so getting focus and the cage sufficiently out of focus to effectively disappear took from careful positioning.
Everybody loves a Penguin. I spent quite a long time sat watching them enjoy swimming around their pool.
I’m not sure a Robin was meant to be in this enclosure but it got it somehow….
These must be the mother in laws, lined up keeping an eye on everyone else…
What is this…
Some other images taken that day….
September 3rd 2024 – Waverley Abbey
Lots of Mallards.
Don’t forget you can click on these images to expand them.
Common Moorhen.
I can decide whether this is better as is, with the reflection or should be a tight crop.
Might be better as a tight crop though.
Some other images from the day…
September 1st 2024 – Alice Holt Forest
A dead tree with some character but whilst it’s OK as images go, I now think that perhaps a wider shot showing its isolation might have had more impact.
Alice Holt has plenty of dead trees to choose form.
Lots of paths to follow…
