I see my camera as a sort of amplifier for my eyes; all the time that I have had an interest in photography I have been acutely aware that I am stimulated to look and see much more intensly than I would otherwise, this is noticable to some degree even when I do not have a camera with me.
Photography is not about what you see, but its all about how you see, so I like to work from veiwpoints that we maybe do not look from on a usual day to day basis.
A fantastic morning in a Bluebell carpeted wood led to some different images to what most would shoot; they were not easy to compose or set-up, so I had a good few duds, but the ones that worked made me very happy with the session, (just one shown here) the others are a bit more standard "Stock" images.
Four shots from a reasonably productive day at Bempton cliffs; however I shall be paying Canon pro services a visit today as I had a few focusing problems with the 1DsMkIII that got worse throughout the day! That aside I was quite happy with several images I got during the day with my other MkIII and the MkII.
Another species that I have a liking for because they seem to display individual characteristics, and are usually quite approachable; the ones at Salthouse have become very used to people and I wanted them in summer plumage, but I also got some nice behavioral images on my visit this week. It was surprising that there were so few people on the coast, it was also surprising to get a very tame Avocet on the pools too!
Its been a happy week this week, Nightingales performing, at long last my new LCD screen for the 1DsMkII has arrived and been fitted, a long wait for the part to arrive but Mark at Norfolk Camera Centre fitted it within two hours of it being delivered, so I'm now back to 3 bodies again. The 1Ds MkII is the one I use on the remote set-up (my mini video assist fits it and not the different sized viewfinder on the MkIII) I can now get back to doing some more extreme wide-angle bird shots; so a big thanks to the guys at Dereham. Hanging about for the Nightingales has not been in vain either as I have topped up my Warbler images too, Chiifchaff, Blackcap and especially Willow Warbler. After collecting the mended camera I headed up to the Norfolk coast and spent a couple of hours with the fastest tyre fitter in Fakenham, Major Gilbert, photographing Avocets and then Marsh Harriers at sunset.........
It is another of my favourite times of year, the arrival of spring and increasing numbers of summer migrants fills one with excitement about all the possible images that are waiting to be shot.Nightingales have always been a high priority songster both as a photographic subject and just as a bird to be experienced, its amazing how close you can be to one and still not see it, deep in cover, belting out an astonishing array of notes.So far this year I have only spent two days working on them and already I've got shots I am happy with (I've already got loads of images from previous years) but I have a dream image in my mind's eye that I want to try to achieve so I'll be working on them some more yet.
