Seals, Stubby and a gap-toothed idiot
Looking at that photo I have to say that my Facebook friends may have a point after all.
Will you keep still?
Gimme!
That Happy Jack’s not one for sitting still. He’s due to be christened on Saturday but goodness knows whether I’ll get anything other than Jack-shaped blurs in photos. As you can see above, I did try my best to get a photo without using the flash but he’s just far to fast. You’ve got to admire the anti-redeye flash on the Ixus, though, haven’t you?
Anyway, after 16 failures I finally got a decent snap - thank goodness for digital!
On second thoughts
Do you remember this post where I was looking for help identifying an old photo?
It’s taken three months to verify things but I can confirm that the slide
not Tintagel
is NOT Tintagel.
Tintagel
Bollocks.
Any other suggestions?
[Update: Croila's put forward Dunottar Castle as the location and I think she's onto something there]
Tintagel Castle is, in fact, a bit of a disappointment - there’s so little of it remaining. It’s not the easiest location to reach, either - just look at those steps!
From Tintagel I headed south as far as Saint Agnes, looking for the definitive photo of Cornwall - a tin mine high on a rugged clifftop - at Wheal Coates. The photos are going to need a lot of work in PhotoShop, though. It seemed a lot brighter at the time and I’ve had to tweak these quite a lot to get them as “good” as this.
More kudos
I’m being very generous with my kudos at the moment, aren’t I? Never mind - they’re well deserved.
Today’s “Jolly good show, chaps” goes to those fine folk at Baader Planetarium for their Microstage 6030.
Just to remind you, here are the best results I got from holding my Canon 850 up to the eyepiece of the fieldscope, taken last weekend at Minsmere:
Rather nasty vignetting, eh?
We move on, then, to the rear garden of Chateau Pops. Pictured below are the resized view from my position just inside the kitchen door and a cropped, 1:1 snippet from that photo to show the nest box (top right) and the frying pan cum birdbath (bottom left).
Now let’s see how I got on with the camera being held in place by the MicroStage 6030.
Minsmere
Minsmere was brilliant - it’s the first time I’d been there (although I’d passed close by when I went to Dunwich last year) and it’s a shame. Well worth a whole day out in the future.
I’d left Aaalburgh under a glorious blue sky but as I headed east (and slightly to the south) the sky gradually clouded over and by the time I arrived it was a dull, overcast day. Fine for watching birds. Not so good for photographing them through a scope (especially as it’s going to take me a while to find out how best to do so).
From a bird watching point of view it was a resounding success. The scope was great for anything that was stationary (the field of view’s just too small to find something that’s moving - but that’s just as expected) and I’m delighted with my “present”.
I saw my first hobby, my first bittern, my first reed warbler. I could go on (and on) but I shalln’t. I just wish I could show you photos to prove this.
All I can offer you are the rather poor results from my snapping. They’ll improve … I hope.
In my defence I feel that I should point out that the marsh harrier must have been at least 80 yards away.
On my way back to the car I re-entered an area with mobile phone coverage and caught up with some twitters which had been sent my way. I took Alan’s advice, called in to the visitor centre and picked up a bag of nyjer seeds plus a nyjer seed feeder then headed home via the garden centre (as I now needed a bracket from which to hang said feeder.
I rearranged and topped up the food station, set up the camera and sat and waited for the flocks of goldfinches to arrive.
And waited.
And waited for any bird to arrive.
And waited.
Eventually I was visited by collared doves (hoovering up the finch seed that I’d spilled when refilling the finch’s feeders), a blackbird (checking on the contents of the ground feeder) and a starling (who got confused by my having moved the fat balls to the other end of the garden - I’m sure the ruckus they create when feeding is scaring off more timid birds).
No goldfinches, though. Not yet.
I sat there until seven o’clock but then had to choose between waiting for the goldfinches and going in to watch Doctor Who. Who won.
I mean “Who” won.
There’ll be finches tomorrow (I hope) and I’ll be ready (I hope).
Exciting, isn’t it?
Happy Birthday to me (just a few days late)
There are benefits to being diagnosed bipolar. I won’t go into them all now, but one is that Happy Me can buy Sad Me birthday presents … or is it the other way around? It doesn’t matter. Whichever it was that made the purchase had splashed out on a Kenko field scope kit (70mm scope with x20 and x20-50 eyepieces plus tripod) from Ace Optics in Bath and the Kenko photo adapter from WarehouseExpress.
8:45 this morning saw Mr Citylink arrive with - fortunately - both packages. Excellent - no need to hang around for a second delivery chap.
Sp let’s set the scene:
The Back Hundred at rARsh Manor
Take a special note of the position of the feeders and of the roses at the base of that (wind-damaged) trellis-type-thing in the background.
While I was waiting for the first delivery (or so I thought), I was sitting at my post n the sitooterie, snapping away at whatever visitors there were to the feeders. Here are the best of the photos, both reduced from full size and cropped to 1600 pixels or so.
1. A young starling is faced with the dreaded suet, seeds or nuts decision:
2. This female greenfinch was stocking up on seeds:
3. An adult starling chooses to nibble on my nuts:
Once the scope had arrived it was time to try it out. I was faced immediately with a slight problem - with the 400D, the minimum focussing distance is way past the feeding station. If I’m going to use the scope+400D combination at home, I’m going to have to move the feeders further back in the garden. Much further back.
With the feeders too close, my first test pic of scope+400D was of the roses I mentioned earlier
The photo adapter sits on top of the eyepiece and connects to the 400D body via a T-mount. Unfortunately the adapter doesn’t screw onto the scope and just sits there with a fairly loose fit so I’m a little concerned about the possibility of the camera simply falling off - especially as the battery pack adds a fair bit of weight to the 400’s body. I’ll clearly have to be very, very careful. Another unexpected effect of this set up is that the Canon reports an aperture of 0.0. From the digiscoping calculator, though, it would appear that the 400 plus scope combination gives me the equivalent of 1600mm/f14 lens. I may have miscalculated, though, as I’m not sure what value to enter for the camera’s focal length given that there’s no lens attached.
I then decided to take a photo to compare the possible results of the scope with my pocket Canon against the 400D in its Beast configuration:
left: Canon 400D w/Tamron 200-500 lens (@500mm)
right: Canon 850is (@ x3 zoom) through Kenko scope (x20 eyepiece)
Both photos are uncropped, just reduced in size
right: Canon 850is (@ x3 zoom) through Kenko scope (x20 eyepiece)
Both photos are uncropped, just reduced in size
Finally here’s a shot to show the relative sizes (and portability) of the two setups:
A size comparison pic
It’s a surprisingly pleasant day, though, so I’m off to play with the scope and pocket Canon in the wild. To Minsmere!