Wandering thoughts and musings.

The weekend just gone was a glorious weekend in terms of weather and I used it to scout out a nature reserve that is new to me. The High Batts Nature Reserve is a members only reserve situated within a private estate. As a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) it has a wide variety of flora and fauna, with access being managed for the benefit of both. Operating as a charity with an annual membership fee of £11.00 for individuals, it is a fantastic resource for anyone w

Taken on a grey overcast morning under tree cover I was amazed to get these "action" pictures of a white throated dipper hunting on the river Wharfe. Given that these were taken hand-held from the riverbank, using a full 600mm zoom with a f/6.3 aperture and a 12800 ISO, I am delighted that this actually worked. The images are the result of some very heavy cropping so try not to pixel peep.

Whilst walking alongside the river Wharfe at 6AM one grey and muggy morning I encountered this guy coming the other way in search of breakfast. As he was approximately 10 feet from where I had previously seen an otter swimming, and much bigger than a ferret type animal, I assumed it was a "dry" otter. However others seeing some of these images on Instagram disagree. Consulting articles on the internet (a good one is here ), the colour and the face do suggest a mink. However

An early morning stint at the Ben Rhydding Nature Reserve provided a good learning experience with my new canon r6 mk2. Given that I am most often trying to shoot under a steel grey Yorkshire sky, and under heavy tree cover, a full frame camera was the logical next step for me. This morning was hot and humid even at 6am, and had a heavily overcast sky. However this did not impact the wildlife having a good time. I was particularly pleased with the picture of the Durrock whi

Inspired by Duade Paton's youtube video I have been attempting to get to grips with the variable priority mode (Fv) on my Canon R6 Mk2. As you can see I have some way to go. The mode is extremely powerful and once you are used to it you will have total control of all the main variables with just two dials. In my case I missed several shots in my first excursion as the settings defaulted back to their originals every time the camera automatically went into its power down mod

They say that "necessity is the mother of all invention". In my case accidental dumb luck is also a major factor! Whilst playing with the settings on my new Canon r6 mk2, and using the flexible priority mode (Fv) for the first time ever, I accidentally fixed the iso at 125 when shooting f6.3 @ 1/640s for a zoom of 531mm. The stylistic "black" image of the greylag goose was the result. It will be interesting to see if I can recreate this effect on purpose next time. Other acci

Having been working on some careful exercises over the last few weeks I rashly decided to test them out in my photography by lying on the ground to get a slugs perspective of the wild flowers. In addition to getting myself very wet I also got some nice wild flower pictures from the new viewpoint.. I think the slug was giving me the cold shoulder as I had almost stepped on "him" a few minutes before. ☺️ More importantly, thanks to a few regular exercises i was able to get back

Approximately 1 year ago I took my first "wildlife" picture using the amazing Lumix FZ82 bridge camera . It was of a lapwing which landed nearby when I was trying to compose a landscape shot. Last Sunday I took another lapwing picture at the same site, using my new Canon r6 Mk2 with a Sigma 150-600 contemporary lens. Whilst the full frame sensor r6 obviously provides orders of magnitude more dynamic range etc, the phone-like sensor of the FZ82 provided a perfectly usable ima

On the first anniversary of getting into nature photography with the outstanding Lumix FZ-82 bridge camera I am now the proud owner of a new Canon r6 mark 2 full frame camera body. Although I had not come close to hitting the limits of its excellent predecessor, my crop sensor Canon r10 body, the recent drop in r6 prices made this a "no brainer". I was also able to offset the cost of this purchase by selling my r10 and its kit lens to MPB for a very good price. Having

Although I have continued to publish in Instagram I have been quiet on the blog for the last few months. This gave me the time to upgrade the hosting software to a service that has more optimisation for photographers. These few months have been very exciting because a) we have moved into spring, b) I saw and photographed by first otter in the wild, and c) I have upgraded to a full frame Canon R6 MkII camera. I am looking forward to using this in combination with my Sigma 150-

Hard working blue tits A performing mallard An inquisitive roe deer A fun long Easter weekend which, unusually for the UK, included some sunshine. Having really been bitten by the photography bug over the last 11 months I decided to see if I could make the most of the golden hour by getting "into the mud" before sunrise. This entailed getting up at 4am on Friday and Saturday, whilst technically at 5am on Sunday as the clocks went forward. Although a killer on the first mornin

Having recently discovered how effective some lens adapters are, I quickly succumbed to the temptation to add a Sigma 150-600mm contemporary lens to my Canon R10 camera.. After taking a week to work out how to carry it "in the field" I tried it at one of my favourite locations the Ben Rhydding Nature Reserve. For once I got to the site very early but still managed to miss most of the golden hour. However I did bump into a birder who was good enough to demonstrate the Merlin