Male Tufted Duck

This is a shot of a male Tufted Duck on Ramworth Broad in Norfolk. This is the first time I have seen these ducks. They are very tame ducks, and didn't mind being approached. There must have been at least 40-50 ducks in the flock.

Trip on the Norfolk Broads

This is one of the shots I have got from our recent short break on the Norfolk Broads. I couldn't believe how many birds there are on the Broads, and was a little spoilt for choice. This shot is a Female Tufted duck.

Male Stonechat

A male Stonechat taken a East Mersea. This is the first time I have ever seen one of these birds before, and he was being a very good model for me.

Reed Bunting

Reed Bunting, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

Went back to East Mersea today in the afternoon. The light was pretty much perfect. These little Reed Buntings are so hard to capture, as most of the time they are in the bushes, so you cannot see them.

It is only when you walk past them that they fly up, most of the time they fly off in the distance, but this one decided to fly up and land on the top of the bushes. Managed to get off a good couple of shots.

Shutter Speed: 1/160Sec.
Aperture Value: F8.0
Metering Modes: Spot
Exposure Compensation: -1/3
ISO Speed: 200
Lens: Sigma 150-500mm
Focal Length: 500.0 mm

New Perch

This is my new perch, well not my perch, one for getting good Garden Bird shots. I know its got no bird on it at the moment, but I think it takes time for them to get used to it. Hopefully after a while they will start to come down.

Watch this space.

UPDATE: they have started to come down, but not managed to get a capture yet. As when I have got home from work the light is to dim to get a good shot.

Autumn is coming

Autumn is coming, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

As the title says, Autumn is just around the corner. I do like walking through woods when autumn is arriving, seeing all the leaves changing colours. I think this year will be great for the colours of autumn. Off on holiday in a couple of weeks time, and hopefully all the colours will be shining.

This was taken with the Sigma 150-500mm Lens. It is a good versatile lens, the light was not that bright in the woods, but pump up the ISO level on the 40D and it manages to produce a good shot.

I have a couple of excellent plugins for CS4, one being Define 2.0 from Nik Software, very good at detecting noise on a shot and smoothing it out. The other plugin is Nik software sharpener. That is a serious good plug in.

Swan

Swan, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

There were thousands of Swan at Abberton yesterday. I am thinking this was a male swan, he came swimming in with his wings all puffed out.

This was taken from inside one of the bird hides. I wasn't sure if there was any etiquette in a bird hide, and if the shutter noise would disturb the bird watchers. Well no one complained, so I guess it is ok :-)

Blue Tit

Blue Tit, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

Really liking my new Sigma lens. Today we went to Abberton reserve (Essex Wildlife Trust) This is actually captured through the visitors centre window. The light was pretty much perfect today.

Gull in Flight

Gull in Flight, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

Mode 2 of the OS on the sigma 150-500mm lens. This is used for panning shots. This is really is the first half decent shot I have done with this lens.

Hopefully I will be visiting a couple of wildlife centre tomorrow, and I will be able to practice some more.

Look out for some new shots soon.

Herring Gull

Herring Gull, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

Some fine detail captured from the Sigma 150-500mm lens. The light was pretty fantastic today, and the canon 40d and Sigma worked a treat to capture some very good details.

If anyone is thinking of purchasing this lens then GO FOR IT!

Black Headed Gull (Winter plumage)

Black Headed Gull (Winter plumage), originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

A blackheaded gull showing its winter plumage - yes I know it's only September.

Swimmer

Swimmer, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

This was taken with my new Sigma 150-500mm DG OS lens. Quite staggered in the details. The optical stabilization is amazing to see working. Totally worth the money and glad after much research buying the lens.

Butterfly

Butterfly, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

Another shot from our walk at Chest Woods. Still amazed of the amount of butterflies there that day.

I thought that scientists said that there was a big decline in butterflies this year, well I think they need to visit some other area's rather than their labs. OK, I might be being flippant and they are probably suggesting other species of butterfly.

Smoke Mark II

Smoke, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

This is another shot of the smoke session, expect to see some more. I think I will upload some with the black BG.

Would just like to mention that I was inspired by this:

http://gavtrain.blogspot.com/2009/07/smoke-photography-made-simple-week-62_23.html

Smoke

Smoke, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

I have been trying my hand at some Smoke Photography. Equipment used:
1 x Incense Stick
1 x Black Background
1 x Canon 40D with Sigma 28-70mm Lens
1 x Canon Speedlite 430II flash with an Elastic band and 2 pieces of Cardboard.
1 x Table light - to light the smoke for the auto focus on the camera

Ok I will describe the cardboard first. With the flash you do not want any spill over of the flash, so you strap to pieces of cardboard on the side of the flash head, so that you direct the flash towards the smoke.

Setting for the camera, F/9.0 Speed 1/160th. Flash was set to 1/2 power.

After shots were taken, I processed in PS CS4, inverting image and then adding another layer and blending in some colour.

This is the results.

Damselfly

Damselfly, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

Not sure what kind of Damselfly this is, but it was a remarkable blue colour. I am sure it was playing with me too, as I got close it would fly away.

Butterflies

While we were at Chest Wood we saw hundreds of butterflies all over the place, it was quiet an extrondanary site to see. Well here are a couple of shots.

Cactus Flower

This is a shot of my Cactus flower, it only last between 24 and 36 hours. I read on the internet how to get it to flower and thought I would try.

Basically you have to NOT water your cactus between November and end of March, none at all. It's now July and I have had success with this beautiful display.

Once the bud starts growing, it is so rapid, probably only took a week to get to this stage.

Apparently the flowers in the wild are pollinated by Bats. Hope you like the shot.

Colour Impact

When do you stop messing about with the colour in a photograph?

I pushed the colour saturation up on this one. To be honest, I think it really does portray the colours that I saw that day.

Very pleased with the details I have captured. The sky is pretty much perfect too.

Once again, thanks for looking.

Sinkhole

This is a shot of the Ladybower Reservoir in the Peak District. It shows the sinkhole for when the water levels are high. I think this is the lowest level I have seen the water at.

Last time, the water was flowing over the top of the sinkhole.

Enjoy!