My Weekly Photos during 2015 - Part 1

[Shadowman]

Nice bird series.

[IzzieK]

I love #2 and the last one Geoff. It is a rare shot. #3 the Oystercatcher's reflection made it really good. The last one, the Swans whites against the green bg got it.

Week 04 - Seabirds

Had a try at some birds from a hide beside an estuary. Fortunately I was the only person there so I was able to open two 'windows' and had a choice of marsh to the east and estuary when facing west; but the light angle wasn't too good whichever option I tried. And brambles had grown up around the estuary side which limited my view.

Started with a tripod but had to go handheld for in flight shots. It was also easier to get quick shots around the brambles without having to move the tripod around; but I had to go up to Iso 800 to get sufficient shutter speed, which did produce some noise in the shadows.

Black-headed Gull in winter colours.



7D with Sigma 150-500 lens. 1/1250 F8 Iso 800

Something tasty to eat - If only I can get down to it!



1/1600 F8 Iso 400

An Oystercatcher.



1/3200 F8 Iso 800. Could have dropped the Iso but I was following this bird and the exposure kept changing.

Digging for food.



1/2000 F8 Iso 800

And going even deeper.



Managed to get on the tripod and decrease Iso to 400 but that produced a shutter of 1/400 which was on the slow side for a moving subject.

When these swans flew past I had to move quickly without any thinking time. Almost there but a poor background and not totally sharp focus.



1/1600 F8 Iso 800

[Cantab]

Geoff, I very much enjoyed this set of bird photos, particularly the second one (head submerged)!

Are mute swans native to England? There are some in my part of the world but they were introduced but long since established in the wild.

[Kaye Leggett]

Geoff, I very much enjoyed this set of bird photos, particularly the second one (head submerged)!

, Me too.

[Geoff F]

That, as so often happens, was just one of those quick snaps. No thinking time, so just point and shoot. Luckily I already had some suitable settings on the camera.

Mute Swans are resident and usually fairly common. They seem to be doing well in that estuary but numbers can be variable in some locations. A few others like the Whooper and Bewick Swans are occasional winter visitors to just a few locations further north than where I live.

[Geoff F]

Bantham - where the River Avon meets the sea. (Yes I know there are many River Avons and this is probably one of the lesser known varieties).

The Boathouse. Tried several shots from different angles, and a mixture of exposures. This one shows more of the surroundings on the left.



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens. 1/320 F11 Iso 200.

Alternative angle showing more of the right side. I can't decide between them; and there are a few 'inbetweens' as well.

[Geoff F]

Looking seawards to Burgh Island



A merge of 3 exposures.

Burgh Island from a different angle.



And a closer view of the hotel.



Switched to my Canon 70-200 lens this time.

Looking upstream



Back to the Tamron 24-70, 1/640 F11 Iso 200

And around that distant corner.

[IzzieK]

Looking seawards to Burgh Island



A merge of 3 exposures.

Burgh Island from a different angle.



And a closer view of the hotel.



Switched to my Canon 70-200 lens this time.

Looking upstream



Back to the Tamron 24-70, 1/640 F11 Iso 200

And around that distant corner.

I like all of these second part more than the first series, especially the first shot...thank you for taking me (us) to this part of your journey.

[Shadowman]

Nice series, only standout is the hotel shot, less contrast and too much water.

[Kaye Leggett]

Bantham - where the River Avon meets the sea. (Yes I know there are many River Avons and this is probably one of the lesser known varieties).

The Boathouse. Tried several shots from different angles, and a mixture of exposures. This one shows more of the surroundings on the left.



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens. 1/320 F11 Iso 200.

Alternative angle showing more of the right side. I can't decide between them; and there are a few 'inbetweens' as well.

I wonder about one of the inbetweens...... the first one here has an annoying bear branch but some how I would like to see more boats in the second. Lovely reflections in both and beautiful colours

[Kaye Leggett]

Switched to my Canon 70-200 lens this time.

Looking upstream



Back to the Tamron 24-70, 1/640 F11 Iso 200

And around that distant corner.

Love these two and your titles work perfectly

[Geoff F]

I did wonder about whether to leave that dead tree branch beside the boathouse or attempt to clone it out. Here is another angle which is inbetween.



And that shot looking south to Burgh Island seems to have gone rather dark. It should look like this.



The closer view of the hotel was always going to be something of a non starter due to the light angle and distance. I really just included it to show the general scene of a fairly famous UK location.

Whatever I did was going to have too much plain sea and/or sky. Maybe cropping to a different size ratio would be an option but I wanted to create a set of photos with the same size ratio. Alternatively something would have to be cropped away and I wanted to retain the whole 'waterfront'.

But here is a slight alternative. I have tried to selectively raise the highlight brightness slightly; however there will always be some murky shadows.

[Kaye Leggett]

I'm with you on presenting a 'set' of photos needing some continuity and size ratio is one of those tools. The second Burgh Island is better although still more of a snapshot as you intend.
Ironically, I prefer the first set of the boathouse, albeit without that annoying branch, as you have more foreground which gives the image some balance.

[Shadowman]

I did wonder about whether to leave that dead tree branch beside the boathouse or attempt to clone it out. Here is another angle which is inbetween.



And that shot looking south to Burgh Island seems to have gone rather dark. It should look like this.



The closer view of the hotel was always going to be something of a non starter due to the light angle and distance. I really just included it to show the general scene of a fairly famous UK location.

Whatever I did was going to have too much plain sea and/or sky. Maybe cropping to a different size ratio would be an option but I wanted to create a set of photos with the same size ratio. Alternatively something would have to be cropped away and I wanted to retain the whole 'waterfront'.

But here is a slight alternative. I have tried to selectively raise the highlight brightness slightly; however there will always be some murky shadows.

I can understand your desire to keep the inn on the right in the image, but I think the structures on the left are more interesting, I'd crop out the Pilchard Inn and concentrate on the main structure and the house on the shore.

[Geoff F]

I returned to the earlier boathouse image and cloned out the dead branch.



And now . . .

Week 06 - Talking About Bats

Lunchtime at a wildlife reserve where maintenance volunteers were entertained by a talk about Horseshoe Bats.



40D with Canon 24-105 lens. 1/250 F9 Iso 800. Poor light so I had to increase the Iso a bit and risk noise to keep a suitable shutter speed and aperture.

[Nicola]

I returned to the earlier boathouse image and cloned out the dead branch.

Nice one Geoff,
I was wondering if there is a time in the day when the sun lights this scenario from the right side, quite low on the horizon: shadows should add some strength to this picture.

[Kaye Leggett]

I returned to the earlier boathouse image and cloned out the dead branch.

Perfect.

And I like the lunch scene, very eclectic

[Cantab]

I returned to the earlier boathouse image and cloned out the dead branch.

Geoff, I'll belatedly join the chorus of those who like this photo!

[Geoff F]

Thanks for the comments.

That shot was taken looking towards the south west, Nicola. So the sun , around 10 am, was from the left. The evening sun is behind the hill on the right although summer sun should still create a bit of shadow. But that would mean finding another shooting position to avoid shooting into the sun. Maybe possible from the other side of the river? Not many available positions though.

I did try another angle which was more 'square on' to the sun but that caused too much of a washed out look on the front of the boathouse.

[flashback]

And now . . .

Week 06 - Talking About Bats

Lunchtime at a wildlife reserve where maintenance volunteers were entertained by a talk about Horseshoe Bats.



40D with Canon 24-105 lens. 1/250 F9 Iso 800. Poor light so I had to increase the Iso a bit and risk noise to keep a suitable shutter speed and aperture.

I like this one but maybe not for the reason you took or posted it. Everyone seems interested in the person giving the talk, sitting or kneeling on the ground...and then there is the couple in the RHS background, facing the other direction and sitting in chairs. Looks like they were given a time out for misbehaving I particularly like this shot!