It's only farm equipment.....

Well the weather in the UK has been grim to say the least. I know other countries too are suffering with there own problems with the weather.

So while it's not raining it's probably best to go outside and enjoy walking in the countryside. After I finished work today (which luckly for me is 1pm on a Friday) we decided to go for a walk, instead of going to th gym. Afterall the weather forecast for the weekend is pretty dire to say the least.

We went for a walk over a place called Abotts Hall, which is the headquarters of the Essex Wildlife Trust. Camera in tow we found some old farm equipment, so took this little shot. It's actually a HDR image, hopefully I haven't done to much processing of the shot.

Anyway I hope you enjoy the photo.

 

Posted with Blogsy

A snowy path.

Another shot from Mersea Island....

This was taken a while back, probably around 2012, but as with any photographer you tend to take many photographs and not get around to looking at them.

As you progress as a photographer, your post processing techniques change and improve so, its a nice exercise to go back through your old work and see what you can get out of an old photograph.

Anyway I do hope you enjoy looking at this shot.

Original photo can be found here. http://www.mhdigital.co.uk/Landscapes/Essex/i-GvwPcnQ/A

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

White Echinacea

This is a simple shot I took with the Canon 100mm f/2.8 IS USM L Macro lens. This lens give a beautiful blurred background enabling you to put the focus where you need it. I upgraded my macro lens this year from the Sigma 105mm lens. I was in two minds to spend the money as I had been very pleased with the sigma lens, but after reading reviews, and seeing what other people had achieved with the Canon lens, I bit the bullet and bought it....... So glad I did.

A little Common Blue

 

 This is a picture of a Common Blue butterfly which I took in my garden this morning. I'd actually been gardening and not planned to take any photographs. We normally just have cabbage white butterflies in the garden so I was a little excited when I saw this little fellow. It crossed my mind if he would still be there once I returned with my camera. Luckily it was still there although on another bush in the garden. So I fired off a couple of shots and chased him around for a few minutes. This is the result, I hope you like it. 

  MHDigital

Very bad at keeping it updated

As you can see from the title, I have not updated this blog page for a long time. Well now I will start again. So lets start with a couple of recent images.

Spring it in full swing in the UK and we are having a very warm one at that. Today the temperature has been up to 19 degrees, and the plants and wildlife seem to be using the suns warmth to flourish. As you can see from the images all the spring blossom is out and its looking glorious.

Sanderling

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Another trip down to East Mersea to photograph the shore and wading birds. I would love to get a real good close up of these little birds, but they are just to skittish.

I just love watching them fly in their flocks all synchronised, very beautiful.

Seed Heads

seed-head, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

Well, not sure at all what these are from, but I thought they were most eye catching. Again taken at Mark's Hall in Essex.

It's a great place in the autumn for the nature photographer.

There are Fallow Deer around the area too, only saw a very small glimpse of one yesterday, before it ran off through the woods.

Mark's Hall has a good visitor centre/Coffee shop, which sell some nice home made cakes :-)

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.

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.