2023 Project 52 by Geoff F - Part 3

Caterpillars have different strategies for the winter period. Some appear in mid summer then over winter as pupae. Others start their lives in autumn then spend the winter months in a state of semi hibernation under the leaf litter etc before reappearing in the following spring to continue feeding and growing to full size.

In cool locations, some caterpillars will spend a full year before pupating.

Week 46 - The Building Site. Across the valley, about a quarter of a mile from where I live, there is a building site on what was farm land

The overall scene

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...1/original.jpg

7D with Canon 70-200 lens. 1/400 F11 Iso 250. Merge of two bracketed exposures

And some zoomed in shots at 200 mm

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...2/original.jpg

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...3/original.jpg

Week 47. Looking towards Dartmoor. Some early sunshine tempted me to go out with my camera but it has been a day of sunshine with frequent cloudy spells and a few showers so I never got further than my garden

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...4/original.jpg

7D with Canon 70-200 lens. 1/800 F8 Iso 400. On reflection, I also tried shooting with less shutter speed and Iso but eventually decided this image was the best composition, although possibly a crop of the sky to create something around 16 x 9 widescreen might be worth trying.

Week 48 - Dartmouth. A few hours of sunshine on Wednesday tempted me outside with my camera, so I paid a visit to the coast near Dartmouth. But a difficult light, then it soon returned to being typical dull English weather.

Dartmouth Harbour with the Naval College in the background. A merge of two bracketed exposures but I still had problems with colour balance and an overly dark blue sea. This is the best of my balancing attempts.

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...0/original.jpg

7D with Canon 70-200 lens 1/1250 F9 iso 400

Looking in the opposite direction and attempting to photograph the castle in very extreme light levels. Another merge of two bracketed exposures plus quite a bit of extra tweaking.

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...9/original.jpg

Tamron 24-70 lens

Another very difficult attempt at shooting towards the dull light

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...3/original.jpg

Sigma 150-600 lens 1/250 F8 at 600 mm

But some other shots worked OK. They are here

https://pbase.com/crustacean/dartmouth_151123&page=1

Week 49 - From the bird hide. A calm and dry morning with some encouraging blue sky tempted me to try my first visit of the winter at a local bird hide, but the sky soon began clouding over.

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...0/original.jpg

7D with Canon 24-105 lens. 1/400 F9 Iso 400. Merge of two bracketed exposures.

The Kingfisher is the closest we can get in the UK to a Hummingbird. They are fast flying small birds which usually only settle for a few seconds.

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...1/original.jpg

Sigma 150-600 lens at 600 mm. 1/500 F8 Iso 500. It had clouded over by the time this bird settled on a wire fence close to the hide and I was shooting towards a brighter area. After three quick shots it was gone. This was the best of my attempts.

It seems strange to see Pheasants paddling on an estuary mudbank instead of being around grass or woodland countryside.

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...3/original.jpg

1/160 F10 Iso 500

Geoff, the castle photo in post #24 works very well. I spent some time looking at it. Part of its attraction may be the framing and possibly cropping you did to come up with the final image. Looking at where the light was apparently shining, my guess is that you had to do a lot of brightening the castle as well as the very dark shoreline rocks.

In post #25, I did a double take when I saw the pheasants in what appeared to be tidal water. Do you have any idea what they were doing – presumably, not fishing!

The pheasants were picking up bits of food from the mud and nearby grassy edges. There were three males and a female there.

A little further down the creek there is a shooting estate which has introduced many pheasants and partridges to the area so they are spreading around. This is a potential problem for a wildlife reserve because these imported birds are consuming a lot of natural prey species. Things like immature frogs and toads are particularly at risk of over exploitation.

Dartmouth Castle, from that angle, is certainly a difficult shot. Low angle rather yellowish light was coming from the opposite side and the area facing me was in deep shadow so some masking and blending was required to merge two bracketed shots; plus a few extra tweaks.

Well done on the Kingfisher! My personal score to date is kingfishers 3, photographer 0.

I regularly see Kingfishers but they usually just flash past. Sometimes they fly down the creek and perch on those moored boats but that makes them too far away for decent photography.

Week 50 - Low tide at Thurlestone Sands. It had been a bit breezy the previous evening so I was hoping for some surf; but the sea quickly flattened out with barely a ripple by the time I arrived.

Thurlestone Rock which shows how the area got this name. 'Rock with a hole'. Half an hour later that blue sky was covered by clouds.

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...9/original.jpg

7D with Canon 24-105 lens. 1/250 F11 Iso 320. Merge of two bracketed exposures.

Some Pied Wagtails and Rock Pipits were feeding among piles of washed up kelp.

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...1/original.jpg

Sigma 150-600 Sport lens. 1/800 F9 Iso 500

And this Rock Pipit has just caught itself a fly

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...4/original.jpg

1/500 F9 Iso 500

Well done on the Pipit with fly.

Thanks for the comment. It is a pity that bird is lacking legs and tail feathers. I had some 'better' shots of a whole bird but they lacked the fly.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Geoff F

It is a pity that bird is lacking legs and tail feathers. I had some 'better' shots of a whole bird but they lacked the fly.

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Nice capture.

I agree with the others, a good set of images particularly the pipit with a fly. Do you have any idea how they manage to swallow the fly without it escaping when they open their beak to move the fly further into their throat? Perhaps the pressure from the beak destroys the fly's ability to fly? Presumably this is the same issue when herons, cormorant's etc capture fish; they manage to do it.

I also enjoyed the Thurston Rock image. It reminded me of Marsden Rock in the northeast; according to Wikipedia it has undergone significant erosion since I saw it 50 years ago.

Most birds have quite strong beak muscles and that is a delicate fly. If you look at a bird attacking a peanut the beak strength becomes more obvious. Some birds have quite long tongues which are another aid to feeding. Some of the fish eaters, like Herons etc, will throw a fish into the air in order to get it facing head first down their gullet.

Here is a better image for identification purposes. It clearly shows the dark reddish legs which are different from the pink or black legs of similar looking species.

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...5/original.jpg

Week 51 - Hope Cove Beach. Just a little way along the coast from Thurlestone.

Looking at the village from the beach

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...0/original.jpg

7D with Canon 24-105 lens. 1/400 F11 Iso 250. Merge of three bracketed exposures.

And a different angle across the beach

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...1/original.jpg

1/200 F11 Iso 320. Merge of two bracketed exposures

The local playschool were having a walk across the beach; all tied together in a line.

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...2/original.jpg

1/320 F11 Iso 250. Merge of two bracketed exposures.

I have managed to get slightly ahead of myself regarding timing so now I only have to find one more subject over the next three weeks to finish off the year.

Week 52 - From the bird hide. I had hoped that as the ebb tide uncovered some mudbanks a few interesting birds would appear but I only saw the usual stuff and they kept their distance. So I tried a few landscapes instead.

Looking across the marsh on a day of sunshine with clouds

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...9/original.jpg

7D with Canon 24-105 lens. 1/500 F10 Iso 400. Merge of two bracketed exposures.

And looking across the creek

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...8/original.jpg

1/320 F11 Iso 400. Merge of two bracketed exposures.

That makes up my quota for the year but there are still a couple of weeks to go so I might add a few more images if anything interesting occurs.

What a super "Project 52" you have given us Geoff. Landscapes, macros and everything in-between and each with an interesting narrative. As someone who tried and failed "P52" a few years ago, it's a big "well done and thank you".

Thanks for your comments, Bill.

Being retired certainly helps with creating this type of project. Also having a sort of regular unpaid job, which is photographing and recording local entomology, gets me out and about in areas where there are opportunities for landscapes, farming scenes and various other options for photography.

And now an extra item. Another unpaid job is with my local history society. This entails a considerable amount of time scanning old photos and documents as well as attending our public shows to record the events. The public talks always make me nervous because they are in photographically tricky locations.

This is one of those occasions, a talk about the wartime Women's Land Army. A fascinating talk about how women from a wide variety of backgrounds became farm workers to feed the nation when supplies from overseas became restricted.

Introducing the speaker. A scene fraught with problems of difficult exposure and rebound from all that glass when using flash

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...0/original.jpg

7D with Tamron 24-70 lens 1/250 F8 Iso 400 manual settings. Flash used with some flash output compensation.

The speaker

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...1/original.jpg

I also tried shots without flash but the poor lighting meant having too high Iso or too slow shutter speed so all those attempts were ditched.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by billtils

What a super "Project 52" you have given us Geoff. Landscapes, macros and everything in-between and each with an interesting narrative. As someone who tried and failed "P52" a few years ago, it's a big "well done and thank you".

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Geoff, I want to echo Bill's comment. I've enjoyed your photos through the past year, as well as in previous years. There's always something interesting to look at or to enjoy or to think about specifically technical issues in achieving the image.

Definitely a job well done -- and I'm hoping that you'll continue with a similar project next year!

Geoff, in the second photo in post number 36, I'm curious about the boat in the background.

The boat in the foreground has its anchor line stretched out from the bow (the current/tide is presumablyflowing towards the right side of the picture). But the boat in the background has its bow down in the mud and looks like it may be tilted a bit to port;and as far as I could make out, its anchor line isgoing straight down from the bow. Is this something that occurs frequently when boats are left to rest on their keels when the tide goes out?