20 November 2009

I ventured to Fleetwood Marshes Nature Park today, to be greeted by foul weather. Did a little recon, should be a good place to get wading birds at low tide, but I get the impression I'll need to wait it out for them. Hopefully will get some shots from there in the near future.

I moved on to Stanley Park and tested out my new toy - a Canon 400mm f/5.6 L, I'll be selling my 300mm to pay for this. I was very impressed with it - extremely sharp at f/5.6, but being this long, can't be used freehand without cranking the shutter speed past 1/500sec.

Tufted Duck at 400mm, 1/400sec, f/5.6, ISO 200. Uncropped.

Grey squirrel at 400mm, 1/160sec, f/5.6, ISO 800. Cropped vertically.

16 November 2009

Fairhaven lake once more, trying frantically to get close to the Mergansers - not really succeeding. I was taking pictures of some geese and witnessed a flock of pigeons turning, backlit by full sunlight against dark rainclouds, I tried to recreate the shot for half an hour or so, but they didn't return and then the clouds went. The wind was pretty intense, I was shooting the Mergansers and they resembled tiny ships in a tempest.

Merganser at 300mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/400sec, f/5.6, ISO 400. Vertically cropped.

Wood Pigeon at 300mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/1250sec, f/5.6, ISO 400, Slightly cropped.

11 November 2009

I returned to Leighton Moss with my classmates Glenn and Mike. It was a bit disappointing, very difficult to get close to anything, the reserve is designed more with bird watching in mind. Anyway I got a couple of shots.

Robin at 300mm, 1/640sec, f/5.6, ISO 400. Uncropped.

Swan in flight at 300mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/320sec, f/6.3, ISO 200. Slightly cropped.

Teal at 300mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/125sec, f/6.3, ISO 640. Cropped vertically. Desaturated using the channel mixer.

09 November 2009

Yet another visit to Fairhaven Lake and the Lytham salt marshes. This time with fellow classmate Glenn. This visit was more fruitful than the last couple of times. Right away I spotted 2 Cormorants and a juvenile Shag in the spot where I usually position myself to photograph them. Approaching slowly I was able to get closer than my lens' minimum focus distance (only 2.5m!) to the Shag. We then went to the marshes and Glenn spotted 4 Herons wading in 50cm deep seawater. I tried to approach them by sea and got extremely wet. The Heron's soon spotted us and moved 50m further down the beach. We then decided to wait for the tide to bring them closer to us and lurk in the grasses for them. Unfortunately we learnt that the tide doesn't come all the way in, but it did succeed in pushing them slightly closer to our lenses. Just not close enough.

Adult Cormorant at 300mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/200sec, f/6.3, ISO 400. Uncropped.

Juvenile Shag at 300mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/200sec, f/6.3, ISO 400. Slightly cropped.

Juvenile Shag at 300mm, 1/160sec, f/5.6, ISO 200. Uncropped.

3 Herons wading with Redshanks at 300mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/160sec, f/6.3, ISO 400. Cropped vertically.

08 November 2009

Another visit to Fairhaven Lake, this time extending to the shoreline along Lytham and into the Ribble estuary. The salt marshes and mud flats are a bit treacherous but I soon learnt how to traverse them. I was stalking various groups of small birds along the water's edge with some good results. I got one stunning shot of a flock of Redshanks in flight, marred slightly by fringing.

Redshank flock at 300mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/800sec, f/6.3, ISO 200. Slightly cropped.

Gull in flight at 300mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/800sec, f/6.3, ISO 200. Slightly cropped.

05 November 2009

Visited Leighton Moss RSPB reserve. Again, the weather wasn't ideal (lots of showers and no direct sunlight), but I was at least able to scope the place out and appreciate it. I got a few decent shots of a Pheasant and some practice shooting other birds, nothing mind blowing.

Pheasant at 300mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/160sec, f/5.6, ISO 640.

Gulls at 300mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/200sec, f/5.6, ISO 200. Has been cropped.

3 Cormorants at 300mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/250sec, f/5.6, ISO 200. Has been cropped vertically.

04 November 2009

Visited Stanley Park hoping to get some interesting shots but was let down by the weather, there would have been plenty of opportunities to get shots, lots of Cormorants flying close by, but my efforts were scuppered by heavy rain.

This is the only shot that I kept, 2 Cormorants in flight. It is moderately cropped.

2 Cormorants at 300mm, 1-1600sec, f/5.6, ISO 200.