Photography – Page 5

Back From Vienna

03. February 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Comedy, Culture, Photography, Travel

I've just spent a pleasant long weekend in Vienna, Austria. A scenic detour through Belgium was required, to get us back to Blighty, EasyJet having forsaken us, but we did manage to get back whilst there's still some snow on the ground. I'm still going through the photographs (which are generally disappointing frankly) but I thought I'd stick this one up as a comedy teaser.

This shop's much bigger than it looks you know…

Random Photo: Cable Car, Wellington

22. January 2009 · 1 comment · Categories: Photography, Travel

This is a tight crop of the front of the 'cable car' that runs up the hill in Wellington, New Zealand. It was absolutely bucketing it down, and windy too, so we never got to walk back down through the botanical gardens as we planned.

If you ever go to Wellington and look for the cable car, be aware that it's not a cable car in the sense that you might think. I think 'cable car', I think gondola's hanging from an overhead cable strung over pylons. Reality: funicular railway in tunnel. We spent ages walking the streets trying to find it, looking up in the air on the assumption that we could hardly miss it. The street map in the Rough Guide was wrong too, which didn't help.

Long-tailed Tit and Brown Rat

18. January 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Culture, Nature, Photography

Look at this little fella – isn't he cute! Taken this morning amid preparations for wassailing in the orchard.

I tried my luck standing in plain sight only 3 metres from the feeder, with honking great 400mm lens, and after about ten minutes stood motionless, the braver birds starter coming back. It's particularly nice to see long-tailed tits because they're so small and neat.

I also saw this less welcome visitor, on the ground underneath:

Random Photo: Another Autumn Wood

16. January 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Nature, Photography, Travel

Another miscellaneous photo from a walk in Sherwood forest in the autumn, to remind us of days when the sky wasn't just dull and grey.

Random Photo: Leaf Drops

14. January 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Nature, Photography

This is one of those occasions where I had accidentally left the ISO high having been shooting in the dark previously. So this was f8, 1/2000s at ISO 1600, quite unnecessarily!

Getting Twitchy

11. January 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Nature, Photography

I was stumbling along in the gloom of another grey day at the WWA. And at 3:30pm it was starting to get dark. Very poor conditions for wildlife photography! Then I noticed a small blue bird on a branch and bingo, there was one of the kingfishers in a spot I'd never seen it before, and handy for me to rest my camera on the rail of a bridge only about 8m away. Here are the best couple of shots I got (the first was actually entirely handheld).

These are the best shots I've ever managed to get of kingfishers so I'm very pleased. They're a long way from decent by any professional standards (the things I see on TV or in magazines make me sick with envy and incredulity) but the opportunity was fleeting and the light dim, with my kit and technique straining at their very limits: 400mm, ISO 3200, f5.6, 1/100s. To top it all, the elusive water rail then walked along beneath it, though I didn't manage to get a shot of that, and still never have.

Kingfisher Dive

02. January 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Nature, Photography

I took this sequence of shots of a kingfisher fishing (unsuccessfully this time) at the WWA – the very local nature reserve down the road. It's taken from about 40 yards away with a 400mm lens, and significantly cropped for this montage. Not great, but still rather pleasing!

Do click for the full-size version with a bit more detail.

Random Photo: NZ Beach

08. December 2008 · Write a comment · Categories: Photography, Travel

I really like this photo – even though there's really not much to it. It's the atmospheric sense of space and wild ocean I think. Taken on honeymoon in New Zealand.

Robins Limbering up for Xmas

02. December 2008 · Write a comment · Categories: Nature, Photography

The Robins were posing for me today, for a succession of Xmas card shots. All they need is some snow. And less noise – these are all crops of ISO 1600 shots with 400mm lens, so they're pushing my kit to the limits. I think the top one is best, personally. Click for bigger versions.