Canada Geese landing at Lackford Lakes

Not so much synchronised swimming as synchronised landing. This group of Canada Geese were startled from their spot at the far end of the Plover Lake at Lackford Lakes, and flew straight towards our hide, landing perfectly together. I counted over 70 Canada Geese and 50 Mute Swans on the lake that day.

My Canon 60D was mounted on the digiscope at this time, so I caught this on my old Canon 450D. After being dropped, it only focuses on the centre spot, but it did a good enough job here!

Canon 450D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 50mm, 1/400 sec at f/10, ISO 400

Last Poppy standing

The poppies at Cambridge Botanic Gardens were just going over, but this one was still giving a good show. You can see that it has dropped its stamens as the seed head takes over. The petals would follow soon after.

Digital cameras can struggle with high colour saturation. In order to preserve any texture in the petals, I had to turn the red saturation down quite a long way in Lightroom.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 200mm, 1/250 sec at f/11, ISO 320

Palmate Newts

This pair of Palmate Newts were in the Fenland Pond at the Botanic Gardens, here in Cambridge. I'm pretty sure there were Smooth Newts in there, too.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 200mm, 1/80 sec at f/5.6, ISO 320

Dragonfly surprise

Here's another case of serendipity. I went to Cambridge Botanic Gardens this week, and spent most of the time at the Fenland pond. This dragonfly was laying eggs. It would land on a lily pad, dip its tail over the edge and feel around for a stem to lay an egg on, then move on. I took several pictues of it, and this is not the best, by any means - it's a bit blurred and out of focus. But it is the most interesting. Because it was only when I veiwed it at home later that I noticed something on the twig in the top right of the picture, behind the dragonfly's wing. If I'm not mistaken, it's a dragonfly larva, just crawled out of the water, ready to shed its underwater skin!

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 200mm, 1/160 sec at f/8, ISO 320

Here come the gang!

This family of Mallard ducklings were both cute and well-disciplined. They paddled along in a row chasing insects on the surface of the water, with Mum at the rear keeping a close eye. By spreading out, they each had a chance of making a catch.

The light was pretty good, but I still needed to push the ISO a little to allow me to both stop down (for depth of focus) and shorten the exposure (to freeze the action).

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 110mm, 1/320 sec at f/16, ISO 400

Dragonfly

Here's a Four-spot Chaser Dragonfly, which landed straight in front of our hide when we visited Lackford Lakes recently.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 200mm, 1/1600 sec at f/8, ISO 500

An unusual view of the London Eye

Here's the proof that we were inside the Houses of Parliament! From the room the Reception was in, you could see across the Thames to St Thomas's Hospital, and round the corner (just) to the London Eye.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 50mm, 1/100 sec at f/11, ISO 400

Trip to London

We took an evening trip down to London to a reception at the House of Commons celebrating 400 years of Bible translation last week. Unfortunately, photography is forbidden in the actual chamber, but here is a shot of the evening light catching the top of the tower at the opposite end to Big Ben. Very patriotic!

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 70mm, 1/1600 sec at f/14, ISO 200

Red Kite at Fermyn Woods

Was this after the mouse? It was circling over the play area and car park, quite oblivious of the crowds of people there that day.

One tricky thing photographing birds in flight is getting anything other than a silhouette. For one thing, the camera tries to average out the exposure, and the sky is very bright, plus the bird is often between you and the sun. But on this occasion, the sun shining through the feathers actually makes the shot for me.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 200mm, 1/4000 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200

Baby mouse

Not sure if this is a Field Mouse or a Wood Mouse, but it was very cute, and seemed quite unafraid. It hopped out of the undergrowth as we were having a picnic at Fermyn Woods.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 200mm, 1/125 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200

Muntjac at Lackford Lakes

Here's a change - a deer! This Muntjac wandered out in broad daylight onto the banks of the lake where the geese graze the grass short. Maybe it likes the fresh growth there.

Probably my crispest digiscope shot so far.

Canon 60D with Celestron Ultima 80 at 1/200 sec at f/6.3 (fixed), ISO 400

A rather damp nesting site

These Great-Crested Grebe were on the Plover Lake at Lackford Lakes recently. They had found a very shallow spot about 20 metres off shore, and were piling it up with weed, apparently to see if they could build a nest there. They only did this for a while, so maybe they decided it would not work, or perhaps they just called it a day.

This is another digiscope shot. The Grebe were about 50 metres from the hide, and filled the frame at minimum zoom on the scope. There is pretty obvious softness at the edges of the frame at this setting.

Canon 60D with Celestron Ultima 80 at 1/400 sec at f/6.3 (fixed), ISO 320

Ely Cathedral - the Ship of the Fens

Here's why Ely Cathedral is sometimes called the "ship of the Fens". It stands tall above the lakes and wetlands, for all the world looking like a great ship docked beyond the trees. Here it is beyond the Fishing Lake at Roswell Pits.

This is a High Dynamic Range (HDR) picture, made with the assistance of Photomatix Pro. It is built from three shots at different exposures (+- 2EV on this occasion, as it was extremely contrasty into the evening sun). The software then combines the images, adjusting brightness levels in different parts of the picture, and preserving detail in both highlight and shadow areas.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 18mm, 1/100, 1/200 and 1/400 sec at f/23, ISO 200

Bird spotting, train spotting

This Grey Heron seemed to be looking for somewhere to settle down for the night on the edge of the Sailing Lake at Roswell Pits. It stood here for a while, but when a train went by on the nearby Ely to Peterborough line, it stood tall and watched the train go by. It soon decided this was perhaps not the best spot, and moved off to the corner of the lake.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 200mm, 1/320 sec at f/5.6, ISO 250

Hungry Grebes at Roswell Pits

First visit at the weekend to Roswell Pits, on the edge of Ely. All seemed quiet at first, but in the far corner of third lake, we spotted a Great-Crested Grebe with a couple of young. And not only that, but the adult was fishing and feeding them. They would hang around when the parent dived, and then race to be first to get the fish when they popped up again.

This is my first "digiscope" blog image, taken through a telescope with the camera attached to the eyepiece. A tripod is a must, and even then it is really hard to get a steady image. These birds were over 100 metres away, so it's pretty good for a first attempt.

Canon 60D with Celestron Ultima 80, 1/320 sec at f/6.3 (fixed), ISO 400

Rural idyll

Peeping through the treetops is the parish church at Aldwincle, the village nearest to the Titchmarsh nature reserve. The pair of Mute Swans obligingly gave me an interesting middle-ground.

I stopped this one down to f/14 to get better depth of focus.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 40mm, 1/200 sec at f/14, ISO 320

Marsh Warbler

We had a slightly frustrating time at the Titchmarsh bird hide. The only birds close to us were warblers well hidden in the reed beds. I got a couple of blurred and partially obscured shots. But as we were leaving the hide to walk back, we could hear this fellow singing in the undergrowth, and I managed a quick shot before he saw us. By the heavy eye stripes, this is a Marsh Warbler.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 200mm, 1/500 sec at f/9, ISO 320

Catch of the day

This Common Tern was fishing in the lakes and streams at Titchmarsh. And it was obviously finding success!

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 200mm, 1/4000 sec at f/5.6, ISO 320

Is it a Swift? No, it's a Hobby!

A visit today to Fowlmere RSPB reserve. At one point, I was trying to catch a good shot of Swifts in flight, low over the lake at the Reed Bed Hide. I tracked this one and got off just the one shot, thinking "That was a large Swift." Checking the LCD screen, I realised that was no Swift, that was a Hobby! What a piece of luck.

BTW I thought for a while this was a Peregrine Falcon, from the face markings, before we realised that Hobbies have much the same markings, and were far more likely in this area.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 200mm, 1/1250 sec at f/7.1, ISO 3200

House Martin

The House Martins were out in force at Titchmarsh, flying low as temperatures started to fall in the evening and their insect prey descended. Their delightful chatter was the background music on our walk.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 200mm, 1/2000 sec at f/5.6, ISO 320

Buzzard over Titchmarsh

We visited Titchmarsh lakes for the first time recently. It's just off the A14 near Corby. This Buzzard went gliding by as we were walking round to the hides.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 200mm, 1/2600 sec at f/5.6, ISO 320

Common Tern

This lovely Tern was fishing at Stanwick Lakes in Northants.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 200mm, 1/3200 sec at f/8, ISO 320

Blackcap

Caught in full flow, this Blackcap was singing its heart out at Barnwell Nature Reserve.

Another case of shoot first, think later, this little warbler saw me and was gone just a second after taking this one shot.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 185mm, 1/3200 sec at f/5.6, ISO 320

Kestrel, or Hobby?

Kestrels are much more common, but the markings on this fine bird of prey look very much like a Hobby to me - more stripes than dots of black. It soared by into a stiff breeze as I was walking round the Cherry Hinton Chalk Pits reserve, and I was lucky to catch this shot between the trees before it was gone again.

The camera exposed for the sky, so this shot needed three whole stops of extra brightness in Lightroom. It's a good job I shoot in RAW mode!

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 200mm, 1/6400 sec at f/5.6, ISO 320

Orange Tip Butterfly

This Orange Tip was enjoying the midday sun at the Cherry Hinton Chalk Pits reserve.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 200mm, 1/2500 sec at f/5.6, ISO 320

Nesting Goldfinch

I spotted this goldfinch in a neighbour's guttering, and only realised when I saw the photo on the computer that it had nesting material in its beak. It's one way to get your gutters cleared!

I just managed to get a couple of shots before it was gone. Sometimes you can't wait to get the best shot or the right settings, you just have to catch the moment.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 200mm, 1/640 sec at f/5.6, ISO 320

Buttercups

Down by the River Cam near Fen Ditton, the meadows are full of buttercups.

I wanted the nearest buttercups in focus, and I wanted the sky in focus. To get maximum depth of focus, I needed a wide angle, and a narrow (high number) aperture.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 18mm, 1/60 sec at f/22, ISO 320

Hawthorn blossom

Some hawthorns are white, some are pink, and some are both! This tree was in the Barnwell Nature Reserve. I caught it on a sunny day, which meant the deep blue sky set the blossoms off perfectly.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 60mm, 1/200 sec at f/22, ISO 320

Heron in flight at Lackford Lakes

Seen on the ground, herons look quite sleek, even dainty. But in flight you see just how huge their wings are.

When the heron took off, it took me a bit by surprise and I had no time to increase my shutter speed. Even with image stabilisation, this shot is noticeably blurred. Still, it was such an impressive sight that I love this image.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 200mm, 1/250 sec at f/5.6, ISO 400

Reed Warbler at Lackford Lakes

We really had a treat at Lackford Lakes. Not only getting really close to the Heron, but then a pair of Reed Warblers showed up. We think they are nesting right there, as they were to and fro continually. This shot is a tiny crop from the centre of the shot, and in fading light I was up to ISO 2000. Still, Lightroom and Topaz have done a great job of delivering all the available detail without the noise. This is the session that made up my mind for me to have a try at "digiscoping" - attaching the camera to a small telescope to get in really close. Just waitiing for delivery of the adapter now!

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 200mm, 1/400 sec at f/5.6, ISO 2000

Heron at Lackford Lakes

We dropped by at Lackford Lakes, near Bury St Edmunds, for the first time this week, and I think it won't be the last. It was the evening, and we almost had the place to ourselves. No sooner had we settled into one of the hides than this heron swooped in to go fishing. It made several catches, working its way very obligingly closer and closer to us. In fading light, it finally moved away from the trees straight in front of us for this shot.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 200mm, 1/250 sec at f/5.6, ISO 250

Tadpole time

The tadpoles are thriving in the pond at Barnwell Nature Reserve. There must have been hundreds of them there. The odd thing was, they were all swimming in the same direction...

It's hard getting good focus and exposure shooting into a murky pond. This image has had its contrast levels boosted big time.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 200mm, 1/250 sec at f/9.0, ISO 500

Bewick Swan at Welney

This Bewick was one of the braver birds, paddling serenely in front of our hide, making this one of the easier shots of the day. Note the black tip to the bill which distinguishes it from the common Mute Swan. These birds will likely be on their way back to Russia shortly.

Canon 60D with Tamron 70-300mm at 300mm, 1/1000 sec at f/7.1, ISO 200

Every drop

In contrast to my earlier post of waves breaking at Felixstowe, this shot was made with a fast shutter speed to freeze ever water droplet in place - just 1/1600th of a second. This creates a very different effect from the slow shutter speed, of course. Our own eyes can't freeze motion like this, and so, at the opposite end of the exposure range, it again doesn't look like a wave splash we are familiar with. Which is part of the fun.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 140mm, 1/1600 sec at f/9, ISO 250

Ringed Plover at Landguard Point

This plucky Ringed Plover was probably nesting. As we were walking along, it scurried away, then back to us, most likely in an attempt to distract us away from the nest. But that did mean we got a good look at it, up fairly close.

Despite being the closest I've ever got to a Ringed Plover, this is still a very small crop from the centre of the frame!

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 28-200 at 70mm, 1/640 sec at f/13, ISO 500

Coming up roses

This beautiful Etoile d'Hollande rose was decorating the facade of Anglesey Abbey today. It's an old-fashioned climbing rose, and it looks like it needs a big building to climb up, too. The scent was lovely as well. A pity there isn't a way to capture that yet.

The issue here was that something had made a meal of most of the leaves around the flower, so I tried to line the shot up to make the best of it, throwing the background out of focus deliberately whilst stopping it down enough to keep the whole flower in focus. It was a bit of a dull day, so I ended up on 1/40 sec exposure, hand held, but the image stabilization took care of keeping the image sharp. I then cropped it tight in Lightroom, and tried to get the depth of colour that I remembered.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200mm at 150mm, 1/40 sec at f/7.1, ISO 400

Perching Linnet at Landguard Point

These tiny birds were all around us, but stayed a good distance away, and were well camouflaged against the ground. So when one flew up to a perch on some brambles, I got my clearest shot of the day.

A tight crop from the centre of the image, then out to Topaz Detail to bring out the feathers and colouring more clearly.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 28-200 at 200mm, 1/160 sec at f/8, ISO 100

Flower on shingle heath at Landguard Point

I must look up what kind of flower it is! I thought the really low viewpoint worked best, setting the bright flowers against the sky, despite them only being a few inches tall.

Apart from a slight re-crop, this image came out of the camera pretty much as I wanted it, for once!

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 28-200 at 20mm, 1/640 sec at f/16, ISO 500

Big East Anglian sky

The view over the River Orwell from Levington Marina, towards Felixstowe docks.

This image was tricky to process - high contrast, but some noise despite the high ISO setting. In the end, I used Topaz de-noise rather than Lightroom's built in noise suppression, as it did a better job on this occasion.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 28-200 at 18mm, 1/400 sec at f/16, ISO 100

Danger in the skies

This shot is awful. It's out of focus. It's badly composed. So why am I including it here? It was one of those amazing moments finding an "Easter egg" in a picture, that balance out the more frequent disappointments of checking what you've taken and finding you've missed the moment, or it was out of focus, or something else spoiled the shot. I spotted some sudden movement, and I thought I would get some shots of widfowl in the air, so I started snapping. But I was in manual focus, and it took me a couple of shots to get it adjusted right. Fortunately, I didn't go back and delete the out of focus shots immediately, because when I viewed this one back home on the computer, I saw for the first time why the birds had taken off - there at the top of the frame, is a Marsh Harrier.

No amount of processing, in Lightroom or any other package, could compensate for this shot being so out of focus, so I didn't even try. I just re-cropped it to juxtapose the Harrier with the startled wildfowl, and left it at that.

Canon 60D with Tamron 70-300mm at 300mm, 1/1000 sec at f/7.1, ISO 320

A wave exploding onto the beach at Felixstowe

We've all probably seen long exposure images of the sea which smooth out all the waves to a blur. On this occasion I didn't have all the necessary equipment to attempt something like that, so I was experimenting. How long an exposure could I take, hand-held, on a bright sunny day? About 1/10 second, as it turned out. And what would a wave look like at different exposures? This is my favourite image from that session. Taken just as the wave broke, the spray looks like a firework explosion onto the beach.

Treatment in Lightroom included Fill light, high Clarity, and increasing the contrast in the spray by careful Tone curve settings.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 28-200 at 70mm, 1/10 sec at f/32, ISO 100

Something Stoatally different

Here's another shot from Welney Wildfowl Reserve. Just as we were leaving the hide, I saw movement on the opposite bank of the ditch that runs the length of the reserve. Fortunately, I still had my camera to hand, lined up a shot and caught a stoat looking straight at me! I know it's a stoat, because the next shot I took of it running along the bank included its tail, which had a dark tip, whereas a weasel's tail is plain brown. Stoatally amazing ;-)

My settings were a bit of a mess for this shot. I generally shoot in Manual mode, but with Auto ISO. This means I control both the shutter speed and the aperture, but the camera sets the ISO to end up with a reasonable overall exposure. I would normally check all three values are where I want them, but I didn't have time to change anything from shooting birds from the hide, so I ended up with ISO 1000, and therefore more noise than I would like. Still, I'm glad the shot came out at all!

Canon 60D with Tamron 70-300mm at 168mm, 1/1000 sec at f/7.1, ISO 1000

Mating Avocets at Welney

Spring was definitely in the air at Welney Wildfowl Reserve today! We were delighted how many Avocets there were - we must have seen about two dozen close to the hides, and this bird was extremely rare until recently. I noticed this pair were dancing, the male circling the female, and no sooner had I got them in focus than they were mating. It only lasted about two seconds, so I was really lucky to catch the moment.

This is a small crop, as even though they seemed close to the hide, they must have been over 50 metres away. I was using my non-Canon zoom lens, as it goes to 300mm, but that meant I had to remove quite a bit of purple fringing manually (by de-saturating purples in Lightroom's HSL section). I also used Topaz Detail to optimize the final image. I had to use a fast shutter speed (and a tripod) to avoid camera shake, as this lens has no optical stabilzation, but it was a bright sunny day, so I could still avoid the softness associated with a fully wide aperture, and keep to a good ISO speed. I'm trying out Canon's "Highlight Priority Mode", so ISO 200 is as fast as it goes, but I should keep more detail in the highlights by default - an important consideration when photographing white birds ;-)

Canon 60D with Tamron 70-300mm at 300mm, 1/1000 sec at f/7.1, ISO 200

Felixstowe floral display

These tulips made a stunning display in the Easter week sunshine.

I wanted just enough depth of field to keep the tulips in focus, but allow the background to go out of focus. I pretty much achieved that, but I did exaggerate it a little by applying a graduated filter in Lightroom, set to reduce the clarity and sharpness of the upper part of the image.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 28-200 at 40mm, 1/800 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100

Cormorant

This cormorant was on its way back to the nesting colony by Levington Lagoon.

With birds in flight, it's really tricky to keep everything in focus and sharp. I could have done with upping the shutter speed a little to freeze the wings, but sometimes a little motion blur actually gives a more life-like impression. At least, that' my excuse ;-) This image got some detail enhancement in Topaz Detail, as Lightroom Clarity seems to actually throw away detail in the wings when turned up high.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 28-200 at 200mm, 1/400 sec at f/16, ISO 200

Sail boat on the Orwell

This boat sailed by down the River Orwell as we got back from our walk round Levington Lagoon the other day. I had to dash to the end of the quay to catch it, framed by the low tide mudflats in the foreground and the big blue sky above.

This was a very contrasty scene, so I added quite a bit of Fill Light in Lightroom, and also boosted the colour of the sails back up to how I remembered them.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 28-200 at 35mm, 1/640 sec at f/16, ISO 160

Heavy weathering

Here's another image from Landguard Point, this time looking across to Harwich. I noticed that the huge logs embedded between the concrete sections of the quay at this point had weathered in this fascinating gnarled way. To try and capture the feel of it, I put the camera on the end of the log, and set the aperture as small as possible. This, combined with using maximum wide angle, gave me almost infinite depth of focus. A square crop seemed to frame the scene best, and the image was finished off with the Topaz Detail plug-in for Lightroom to bring out the wood grain as clearly as possible.

HINT: If you click on any of the pictures in my blog, your browser should bring up the full size image, which you can then zoom into to see all the detail. It's really worth doing that for this one!

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 28-200 at 18mm, 1/125 sec at f/20, ISO 200

Wheatear at Landguard Point

We went back to Languard Point this morning, but to the nature reserve which lies on the very seafront. It's a rare shingle heath environment, with whole areas fenced off to protect nesting birds. But there were plenty of birds around in the accessible areas, including this male Wheatear - the first time I have seen this species.

Canon 60D with canon EF-S 28-200 at 200mm, 1/640 sec at f/13, ISO 640

Baby Canada Goose goslings

A trip today to the Levington Lagoon, on the river between Ipswich and Felixstowe. This lagoon was created to compensate for wetlands reclaimed to extend the Felixstowe docks. There's a cormorant colony there, and a wide variety of ducks and geese. These Canada Goose goslings were unbelievably cute and fluffy! The lovely bright sunshine allowed me to select both a quck shutter speed, freezing the geese and the water, and a small aperture, helping it all stay in focus, while still using the maximum ISO for best colour saturation. Lightroom easily compensated for the high contrast by applying a quantity of "Fill Light". However, the bright reflections off the water, and being at full zoom (and then cropped in Lightroom), mean some loss of detail, especially in the outlines.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200 at 200mm, 1/250 sec at F/14, ISO 100

Sunset over Harwich

This image was made from the Landguard Fort seafront at Felixstowe, looking over to Harwich. It wasn't quite sunset, but this was the last of the sun for the evening as it dipped behind cloud. This is actually one of a set of exposures which will make an HDR* shot, when I get round to processing them, but I'll have to wait and see which version I prefer. It is "under-exposed" by 2 stops, which preserved the colour and detail in the sky. I rather like the high contrast in this version. I've boosted the colour saturation to bring it back up to how it looked to me at the time.

Canon 60D with Canon EF-S 18-200 at 28mm, 1/320 sec at F/16, ISO 200

*HDR=High dynamic range, when you combine several exposures at different settings to bring out the detail in both the highlights and shadows.