Wandering thoughts and musings.

Late May is the anniversary of my take up of digital photography after I discovered the existence of digital mirrorless cameras in May 2023. As a total novice my first year was spent learning the basics of photography and working out what sort of gear worked for me. I started my journey with the Lumix FZ82 bridge camera which I highly recommend for anyone trying our wildlife photography for the first time. Bitten by the bug, and thanks to MPB buying my "old" kit at a good

Spring is finally springing in North Yorkshire with even the sun making an occasional appearance. Happily this means an increased food supply for the local wildlife, even if some of the wildlife fall victim to becoming a meal. Their energy is needed to start build nests and then to start "building" more wildlife 😊 A chaffinch having a breakfast snack. Merganser duck feeding on a fish. I am slightly concerned about the local frog population after this heron breakfasted on two

The biggest first achieved this month is one that I do not want to experience again, namely 16 consecutive days with complete cloud cover. Steel grey skies for that amount of time is obviously not conducive to wildlife photography, but they did push me to scout out some new locations. My first Otter on land My first "perched" Buzzard Visiting the Ben Rhydding Nature Reserve the lack of light caused me to have an ISO of 25600 for my first picture of an otter on land, but qui

Having studied Jan Wegener's excellent Youtube videos on bird flight photography I decided to put a few of his tips into practice. Looking through a zoom lens to find an in-flight bird has always been a problem me, and a priority to solve. The suggestion was to first follow the bird with the lens without using the view finder, then putting the camera to your eye when you think you are on target. It requires practice to get it right, but well worth the effort. Incoming! In t

Although I have been practising nature photography for the last 18 months, and owned some sort of tripod for that entire time, this Xmas was the first time that I tried to use one in anger. My first attempt at the Ben Rhydding Nature Reserve was a total disaster which had me swearing never to use one ever again. I was trying to capture a "decent" picture of a red Kite. However I felt constrained by the tripod and missed several other "targets of opportunity" due to the came

As with the most of the UK we have been very short on sunshine, especially on the days I have available for photography. Imagine my delight when the weather app predicted a sunny Saturday, and my absolute amazement when they turned out to be correct! Staveley nature reserve looks glorious at sunrise and the wetlands attract a wide variety of bird life. It is certainly the place to practice capturing birds in flight and, if you walk the full perimeter, get some good exercise

In the month of November I discovered the Yorkshire Wildlife Trusts Staveley Nature Reserve located between Harrogate and Ripon. It is easily accessible and looks stunning in the rare Yorkshire sunlight, both at dawn and dusk. My visits to date have found it full of potential photo opportunities with with roe deer, photogenic farm stock, and a wide variety of bird life in evidence. The combination of hides, and a good circular 2 mile walk if you choose, has made it my new

One of the few disadvantages of photography in North Yorkshire is that you are often operating under steel grey skies just after dawn. In my case I am also usually under a canopy of trees. Although not ideal, this does bring the low light capabilities of the Canon R6 Mk2 come to the fore. Hen Pheasant (ISO 25600) Robin (ISO 25600) Grey Squirrel (ISO 16000) This weekends experiments showed that images at 25600 were struggling with a pixelated background, but that images at IS

Now that the leaves are starting to fall it is time for one of my favourite games, searching for some of JRR Tolkiens "Ents". The two from "last season" were taken on my Canon R10 with a 100-400mm lens. This seasons starts as it means to continue using my new Canon R6 Mk 2. The lens is the Canon L f/4 24-105mm. An Ent enjoying the morning sun. 31st Dec 2023 Leaning into the wind. 4th Feb 2024 Caught in the afternoon sun. 19th Oct 2024

Old harness. Cotton carrier harness in use. New cotton carrier G3 harness. One of the shocks of buying a 150-600mm Sigma zoom lens is how the heck do you carry it when scrambling around the countryside. After nearly falling 20ft into the river Nidd at Nidd gorge , I decided that a camera harness which allows both hands to be free was an essential safety item! Although aware of the cotton carrier range, as a new photographer I could not justify their "expensive" prices at the

Long tail tit. A landing great tit. A grey heron. Another upgrade to the website and hopefully the last for a while 😆. The main changes are behind the scenes but allow for much quicker updates and a more diverse page layout. Moving into Autumn (I think I missed summer when adjusting a setting on my camera) I am hoping for some nice fresh days and clear skies for photography. Having added the wonderful High Batts reserve to my list of regular haunts I will be looking for ev

A big first for me, whilst sitting in a hide at the High Batts Nature Reserve , was seeing a stationary Kingfisher. The almost monochromatic background was all in camera, and caused by a combination of a steel grey sky with shards of sunlight coming through. The resulting grey reflections in the river caused chaos with the auto-focus, but gave a magnificent contrast to the colourful Kingfisher.