'Every Cloud an' All'

Well of late I have engaged my hidden talent of moaning my adolecent face off at the state of my hard drive. However, it is through this blog that the situation has been kept in check. I have, on this blog, uploaded a great many of my shots and whilst you've seen most I keep some 'reserve' posts for when i'm dying from withdrawal symptoms. You'll see these posts as they tend not to fit the season and are a bit aimless. Still, there's one post I kept back, and i'm so glad I did...

...Andalucia! I went to the Costa Del Sol! Officially the most unemployed district of Spain, 30 years ago it had 50% illiteracy rates and the temperature gets to 43 degrees every day. Perfect for wildlife. However, one fact I should disclose is that my best shots were of Spotted Flycatchers and were never saved so what you have here is the dregs. Still, they're quite good for 'dregs'. Let's start off with this young Spanish Sparrow...

...that last shot's an interesting one. That bird isn't calling. Or eating. Its panting, the birds here genuinely go round with their mouths open to lose heat. Its a bit surreal to see all these gaping sparrows, but not as surreal as seeing these birds. Before this holiday i'd seen Bee Eaters only in the Pyrenees, but never got close enough for a good shot. That's still true, but got some passable images of a perched distant one..

...a truly beautiful creature, I wish I could aquaint myself with these birds on a more regular basis. I did get a little closer, but the angle's not great. Grrr...

But I am a gambler. My wildlife kit weighs in at about 5kg and sits on the small of my back. It has, in its short existence, climbed about 10,000ft, accended the world famous Tourmalet on a bike, has been in a river (thankfully for a short period), visited Shetland and has now been to the tourists sites of Southern Spain. Why am I a gambler? That's an awful dead weight as you're wandering round the Alhambra (yes I thought it was in Bradford too), but I was (for the first time ever) rewarded for my exertions with this...

This shot's Exif:

1/400
f7.1
ISO 3200

It was taken on our only dull day, and in dense coniferous woodland I found shutter speeds a real struggle. Still, an absolute gem of a bird, as was my next Alhambra find...

You have no idea how much i've wanted to see one of these up close, then there's one outside the gift shop! Amazing stuff...

Another bird i've always wanted to photograph is the Griffon Vulture, this was not my lucky trip in the end. However, it was the end of a wait for another species; the Rock Bunting. Its not an easy subject, they're tricky to locate, but fairly accomodating (even if they stick to the shade from the ferrocious midday sun!)...

Perhaps my experience of the trip was pulling over to watch a Booted Eagle, whereupon it stooped into the olive grove near to me, whereupon it rose up and circled me. At midday the shots clearly aren't the best but i've never had anything like that happen, truly memorable...

But its not just birds in this cradle of life, the invertibrae front is good too (even if the ID of this fella escapes me)...

...but I say with as much certainty as a vegan cheetah that this is certainly a Scarce Swallowtail...

....not bad for the oul' sigma at 400mm! And a good trip for me too! I have to say that the lifestyle's quite agreeable, as is the food and the birding! Perhaps one day i'll return without my family in toe, get up at 3am and look for these creatures in the golden hours. Perhaps I won't. But for a 2 week family holiday cut short by a music festival it wasn't half bad. I think there's one more summer post to conclude the last 4 months, but I think that shall wait.

'That's Soooooo Last Season!'- Waders in the autumn

Hilbre Island is a small sandstone outcrop off the Wirral coast. It was at one point a spindly prominentary, but has since fallen foul of erosion and consequently is now a tidal island. It is home to a bird observatory and one of the UK's best wader roosts, mainly because of the lack of disturbance from the general public. It really is one of my favourite places on earth.

Still, as I looked across the sea from west kirby towards the island I looked with aprehension. This was mainly because i'd arrived by train from Liverpool and noticed I wasn't wearing a pair of wellies. Or walking boots. I was wearing a pair of trainers. So as I stared across the sands I had the unappealing prospect of soggy feet all day. So like the sensible person I am I took them off and tied them to the bag and crossed Croagh Patrick style. It was only as I reached Hilbre I did a headcount and found i'd lost a shoe. I was informed by someone crossing that the absent shoe was half way back to the mainland, and so ensued a race against the tide to retrieve the shoe before it did. I won. Just.

But this was all worth it, for as I sat and had my lunch a Pomerine Skua passed north-south along the island. This was followed by the wader roost, as it circled the island looking for suitable rocks. I caught up with them as they landed on the usual ledges, precariously placed below the cliff edge. This meant that into the equation I had to place both getting those killer shots AND staying alive. They say that if you wriggle towards waders they tolerate you on the grounds you look like a seal. I thought I looked more like a tit.

Still, some cracking individuals to look at, although sadly the bestest ones were lower down and out'a  reach. To kick off here's a moulting Turnstone, taken looking down on it...

...here's a more wintery individual on the very recognisable sandstone island...

...its comical watching them try and move around on one foot, they refuse to put the second one down...!

...one of the finer looking birds...

...but roosting waders present a problem of bokeh. As they rest they like to be hard up against the rocks, so when you're trying to get close to them you have to try and angle yourself so as you get some depth of field. This one was well placed...

...a sleepy one...

...Peekaboo...!

...but its not just Turnstone on Hilbre. As I scanned them I located a small group of Dunlin, not as respledecant as they were when I watched them on Shetland, but still stunning wee birds...!

...this one's a bit over the top...!

...and the obligatory portrait...

...and after I informed the bird observatory of my wader counts and seawatch bounty I set off over the sands, sun setting behind and wader massing in front, reflecting for the umpteenth time this holiday, its not so bad being off.

Flashes of Inspiration

Of late I have pondered the perrenial problem of insolvency, a problem that's as old as photography itself. Light. There's never the right quantity is there? Overexposure, underexposure, a lack of detail, a lack of contrast. This, when coupled to my innate capacity to misjudge things, means that most of my photos are imperfect in some small but regrettably important aspect, and this is no more evident than in my macro work.

Some may not have seen my macro rig (I think most people would be in that category. Poor them!), but I can try and describe it. Basically, its an 18-55mm kit lens bolted to somewhere between 12mm and 100mm of extender tubes with my increasingly indispensible 50D on the back. This is, for what I paid for it, the best combo for macro. Don't get me wrong, i'm not moaning (did that last post!), but there isn't a lot of light down with so much crap between the lens and body. This is even more pronounced when looking into the sun. I needed a solution to this problem that ideally didn't involve shelling out on a special macro flash, something simple.

 But I actually have a pop-up-built-in flash on the 50D, its not a question of have and have not, its just having it in the wrong place. After some experimentation I added 2 pieces of milk bottle to the rig, one next to the flash (to diffuse it), and another at the end of the lens. This second one was angled downward, so as the already diffused flash hit it the light would be directed downward to the subject in front of the lens. With the addition of bluetak this rig was shipshape and ready for a field test. The location would be Dunham Massey: the subjects Dragonflies.

I've found (with help!) a log where the animals landed regularly to sun themselves. They're predominantly Common Darter, though i've had both Brown Hawker and Emeralds here too. This biased was evident in my photography, where I only got the Commons, but hey ho the flash worked. Not so sure about the hues, bit unnatural, but a good start...!

...as the sun comes out the wings go up...

...and a little closer...

...portrait...

 

 

...and the female, drabber (and for me prettier!)...

 



...Up close and rather too personal...!

...a nice couple hours, slightly marred by being stung to buggery by nettles but as they say, we all 'suffer for our art'. But rarely in such a physical way.

The Steepest of Learning Curves

First it was fine. Then it wasn't. Then the Bios loaded. Then the OS didn't. Some will recognise the symptoms of hard drive failure there, some (like me!) won't. But alas, as I booted up after some macro in the garden that was exactly what happened. I've tried numerous methods to retrieve the content of the hard drive, but it is, to use a technical term, absolutely f***ed. I've lost all my photos from last November.  Bit of a blow, but my camera's OK so its just an incentive to get out there and get some more images!

Still, since the hard drive is thought (by the bloke at the shop) to be fully recoverable in some guise or another. That is at considerable expense though, so it'll have to wait until I start working. However, this incident has taught me a valuable lesson, and one that i'll not be forgetting any time soon:

BACK IT UP!