Wildlife 2007

[Anthony Darby]

I was once called a bottomless pit, but I suspect that was a reference to my eating habits (my nickname at primary school was 'Dustbin').

[Paddy Tobin]

Cliff,

A great sequence of photographs. Would you mind saying what equipment you used when taking them? What lens type, for example? Automatic or manual focusing?

Paddy

[Lesley Cox]

What super pics Cliff. I'm not a mouse fan but that little striped guy is very cute. Gorgeous butterflies too.

The duck's name must qualify for the months ago thread about long and complex names. One to be practised regularly.

[ranunculus]

Thanks Paddy and Lesley,
They were all taken with the Nikon D80 - AF-S NIKKOR 18-135mm lens combination....all hand-held (not EVEN my usual belly rest with this camera), though I do tend to utilise walls, trees, fences, etc. whenever possible. I use auto focus as much as possible, but tend to override it if I'm trying (manfully) to be what might loosely be termed 'artistic'.
Quite pleased with the camera, so much so that I have purchased the 70-300mm lens as well....but, as I have already mentioned, I wouldn't do without my trusty Nikon 995 for close-ups at the shows.
As a guide I took 54 shots today at Tropical World....I felt 24 were suitable for posting, another 15 could possibly have made the grade, 10 were just average and certainly not good enough to post and 5 were deleted during checking. Hope this helps?

[shelagh]

An artistic Booker, surely an oxymoron!!! Has anyone posted one of those on this link yet?

Shelagh

[ranunculus]

I once had a friend called Shelagh....


....but I suspect she just called me a 'cow-like moron'?   


....unless she is simply suggesting that I am a rhetorical figure in which an epigrammatic effect is created by the conjunction of incongruous or contradictory terms!!!

....Doh!

[Paddy Tobin]

Cliff,

Many thanks for the technical information. The camera is certainly doing its work for you with or without belly support.

Isn't it the great advantage of the digital camera that one can afford to take the extra shots and later discard them without any thought of it being waste.

Paddy

[ranunculus]

Millions more shots being taken around the world Paddy....millions more people enjoying this 'affordable' photography. Wonderful.

[Paddy Tobin]

Cliff,

Yes, I remember poorer days when my photography was almost exclusively in B & W. I did manage to economise by buying bulk rolls of 35mm film and only printing those photographs I really liked. At that time I did my own developing and printing, great fun but digital photography beats it all. The one drawback I see is that when I worked with film I always took great care with each shot to ensure good photographs, taking more care with lighting, framing, composition etc. With digital there is the temptation to shoot away with a certain assurance that some of them will turn out well and anyway much can be done on the computer now also.

Paddy

[ranunculus]

I agree Paddy, but I still believe there is still an element of image selection in any kind of photography (and every artistic endeavor for that matter) that comes quite naturally to some people and not perhaps as readily to others?  Perhaps a 'photographic eye' is an apt description?  I'm sure that digital media and computer manipulation can't always make a purse out of a sow's ear.
I still TRY to make every shot count, but even in the bad (good) old days of transparencies I would only achieve satisfying results with two thirds of my shots.

[TC]

A picture of a Painted Lady enjoying the late summer sun

[mark smyth]

Small Tortoiseshell TC!

In my garden today were Small Tortoiseshells, Red Admirals, a Painted Lady.

[John Forrest]

I do exterminate many pests in the garden but always try a more humane approach if possible eg. teaching snails to fly across the main road to rough but new pastures.

Mice I trap in a humane trap and let them go at soe distance from the house. I was told that they have homing instincts and so I got to thinking that perhaps I was catching the same ones over and again. I decided to start marking them and so far have not caught the same mouse twice over the past 2 months.

One poor little baby was trapped in the night and we had a downpour. When I opened the trap into the waste bin (for the marking process) it was almost dead with cold so I spent about half an hour warming it gently with a hair drier until it revived.

Especially for Lesley 

Here are the pictures of the marking process.

[mark smyth]

ahh little meeces

[TC]

Small Tortoiseshell TC!

Thanks Mark,

When naming the thumbnails on the computer I crossed the names between Small Tortoiseshell and Painted Lady !
This female Sparrowhawk has been haunting my garden, trying unsuccessfully to catch some of our Sparrows who live in a thick cotoneaster hedge.  She is so tame that I can approach within 10 feet and she doesn't pay any attention to me.