http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums Wildlife photography tips and advice from digital cameras and landscape photographs to photo techniques and image editors. en Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:56:20 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/63168-more-from-wildlife-film.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:48:29 GMT Another addition to my wildlife video collection on Youtube - a remarkable close-up look at a tiny millipede outside my house as it crawls along the slabs - YouTube - A tiny millipede

View the rest of my wildife footage at YouTube - onlineWOF's Channel

Cheers
Gordon ]]> Wildlife Photography onlineWOF http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/63168-more-from-wildlife-film.html http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/63156-ethics-picking-fungi-photos.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:42:20 GMT I recently came a across a set of photos on flickr of some nice fungi but I noticed (quite quickly) that they had been picked and arranged. Now I understand that some folks like to pick fungi for food or in somecases to get a tricky ID confirmed but this photographer had picked lots (30+ in one)... I recently came a across a set of photos on flickr of some nice fungi but I noticed (quite quickly) that they had been picked and arranged.
Now I understand that some folks like to pick fungi for food or in somecases to get a tricky ID confirmed but this photographer had picked lots (30+ in one) and arranged them how he wanted.
Do others think this is ethically dodgy both in the photographic sense, there not in a natural arrangment and could be regarded as fake, and more importantly ecologically, having unnecessarily removed the fruiting body of some fungi, perhaps in numbers that could affect the population? Or am I overreacting? ]]> Wildlife Photography Ukwildlifeo http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/63156-ethics-picking-fungi-photos.html http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/63134-photography-sites-worcestershire.html Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:41:58 GMT Can anyone recommend any locations that would prove ideal wildlife photography sites In worcestershire or near at this time of year or any other? All subjects are welcome, birds, Fungi etc etc etc. Using a DSLR with 300mm + 1.4 converter if needed, 500m lens or 105mm marco. Can anyone recommend any locations that would prove ideal wildlife photography sites In worcestershire or near at this time of year or any other?
All subjects are welcome, birds, Fungi etc etc etc.

Using a DSLR with 300mm + 1.4 converter if needed, 500m lens or 105mm marco. ]]> Wildlife Photography jcurtis http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/63134-photography-sites-worcestershire.html http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/63015-backlit-fungus.html Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:47:13 GMT Hello all, grateful for input to these two, Jelly ear, backlit into the sun. They worked at the time, not sure now, dont know which one is best................. Cheers Ken Image: http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/archive/data/510/thumbs/jelly_ear_sun_2.JPG ... Hello all,
grateful for input to these two, Jelly ear, backlit into the sun.
They worked at the time, not sure now, dont know which one is best.................
Cheers
Ken
]]> Wildlife Photography diggleken http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/63015-backlit-fungus.html http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/62913-wab-image-requirements-completeley-bewildering.html Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:33:48 GMT About five times now I have thought to myself that I really should upload some of my photos to WAB. Every single time though, faced with the prospect of hours in front of the computer resizing, renaming, and re-keywording files that were never designed for this site, after about 20 minutes of... About five times now I have thought to myself that I really should upload some of my photos to WAB.

Every single time though, faced with the prospect of hours in front of the computer resizing, renaming, and re-keywording files that were never designed for this site, after about 20 minutes of head scratching, I just give up.

Does anyone else share my frustration? ]]> Wildlife Photography DrNickBurton http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/62913-wab-image-requirements-completeley-bewildering.html http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/62790-camera-good-close-ups-wildlife.html Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:13:42 GMT I've been delaying forever but now want to buy an easy to use camera that will provide me with good close up detail of such creatures as butterflies, amphibians, or anything I quickly spot when out and about. I have an ordinary Olympus digital and it provides me with general pictures and the wildlife pics end up as distant images. I want to spend £100-200 whether it be new , used or ebay. I would be pleased to hear from anyone who has bought and used such a camera and would like to genuinely recommend it.
Thanks all. ]]> Wildlife Photography GFM http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/62790-camera-good-close-ups-wildlife.html http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/62693-story-behind-shot.html Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:29:01 GMT I just posted this in the "Fungus of the Day" thread and FungiJus suggested a new thread for the "Story Behind the Shot". I think that's a great idea so I'm copying it here.

I'm sure lots of you will have photos with interesting or amusing stories about how or why they were taken so please share them here.

Anyway, to start the ball rolling, here's mine...

My fungus of the day is this one:



Not just because it's beautiful and still one of my favourite fungi, but also because of the story of how I came to be where it was and what happened when I photographed it. It's a fairly long story so make yourself comfy...

It starts on August the 19th. As I've mentioned before, and am not in the least ashamed to mention again, my wife, Angie, won the Havant Literary Festival's playwriting competition and part of the prize for this was to have her play performed at the Bench Theatre during the festival in September. So we were making numerous trips down to Havant during August for auditions, rehearsals, etc. I got involved with taking rehearsal and publicity photos but wasn't always needed. So on this particular night I dropped Angie at the theatre and headed into Portsmouth to take some sunset and night-time shots of the Spinnaker Tower.

The plan was that I would be back at the theatre to pick Angie up at 10pm but she phoned me at about 9:30 to say that they'd finished early and she was ready to go. I was still in Portsmouth a good twenty minutes away and wasn't too happy about her waiting outside in the dark - the theatre had been locked up for the night by then. I turns out I needn't have worried as one of the cast members - a true gent - stayed with her until I got there. But I didn't know that at the time so was rushing to get back and got flashed by a "safety camera" while doing 38 mph on a dual carriageway that I thought was a 40mph limit. The notion that firing a high-powered flash into oncoming traffic at night can be done in the name of "safety" is still not one I can get my head around but that's another story.

The upshot was that two weeks later I had a choice to make: a £60 fine and three penalty points or £70 for a half-day "Driver Awareness" course. Knowing that 3 points could add a bit more than £10 to my insurance premium I opted for the latter. So that's how I came to be at the Holiday Inn, Basingstoke today.

The course was due to start at 1:30 and there were dire warnings about what would happen to people arriving late. As my journey to basingstoke involves a considerable stretch of the M25 I set off much earlier than was necessary and packed my camera on the assumption that there was bound to be something worth photographing. I arrived about midday, parked up and went for a recce round the hotel.

There was a small copse of trees, mainly birch but one beech and one yew, with a few magpies hopping about beneath them. As I approached the magpies flew off but I could see that there were several different species of fungus growing there including quite a lot of fly agaric. As is usually the case most were quite beaten up but there was one freshly emerged one that looked the business. It was also in quite a good position at the top of a gentle slope so I could get a nice low angle on it. They don't call me "Horizontal Dave" for nothing so down I went!

After a number of shots at different apertures, varying exposure compensation, some with fill-flash and so on, I get up again. This is when I discovered why the magpies had been there. The evidence is all over my jeans and liberally spread across the front and arms of my jacket.

And that, your honour, is how I came to be locked in a disabled toilet, in my underwear, with my trousers on the baby-change table, trying to scrub magpie poo out of them with a damp towel pilfered from the chamber-maid's laundry basket.

All things considered, this is not a photograph that I'm going to forget in a hurry.

Was it worth it?

Oh yes!

Dave P. ]]> Wildlife Photography pressld2 http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/62693-story-behind-shot.html http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/62560-not-been-here-while.html Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:37:31 GMT Hi haven't been around for a while so thought I would post a couple of my recent images, to get back in to the forums..







John ]]> Wildlife Photography Realimage http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/62560-not-been-here-while.html http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/62446-reflections.html Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:35:01 GMT We had a thick fog on the marsh yesterday morning, the water on the creek was like a sheet of glass. As I passed the end of a reed bed a Heron jumped up and I took a quick pic of him. I always try to get the subject centred in the frame and did not give the reflection a thought. Not the best of... We had a thick fog on the marsh yesterday morning, the water on the creek was like a sheet of glass.
As I passed the end of a reed bed a Heron jumped up and I took a quick pic of him.
I always try to get the subject centred in the frame and did not give the reflection a thought.
Not the best of shots but I think this pic would have been a lot better if I had the full reflection in the picture.
A lesson learnt.

]]> Wildlife Photography snake http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/62446-reflections.html http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/62184-why-did-i-carry-wrong-equipment.html Sat, 24 Oct 2009 21:36:56 GMT I went on holiday to the Peak District last week... naturally I took my camera gear and carried it on long walks... well to cut to the chase I went to walk in Lathkill Dale near Youlgreave.. I wanted waterfall shots, so I had my 18-55mm attached and a circular polariser, AV mode F/22 (if I... I went on holiday to the Peak District last week...
naturally I took my camera gear and carried it on long walks...

well to cut to the chase I went to walk in Lathkill Dale near Youlgreave..
I wanted waterfall shots, so I had my 18-55mm attached and a circular polariser, AV mode F/22 (if I remember):p

I then spotted a few wagtails, I think grey wagtails, and of course wrong lens... changed lens quickly and quietly to a 150-500mm, bird flew away....:mad:

so I swapped back to short lens having missed a golden opportunity. (they were less than 4m away!!:eek:

I took some more pictures of a very dry waterfall, wiped them from my card pretty quickly.
But, as I was waiting for the card to wipe, a dipper wandered past in the stream nearby (apparently they are quite rare and recently scared away from this area by an over zealous snapper:mad:)

then I didnt see another bird for 10 mins... until i spotted a kingfisher....
which dived and then flew off with a fish... :D

swapped to big lens as i walked downstream and lo and behold, I got some blurry pictures of a kingfisher because my lens didn't quite focus right, and the OS didn't like 1/250th for some reason!! (I was resting on a fencepost):confused:

but I finally got some pictures of a heron.... so 1 out of 4 birds photographed!
and no decent pictures of waterfalls...:o

the moral of the story is when it has been a dry summer, photograph birds, not waterfalls!!:D

Will

PS heron pics coming soon!!! ]]> Wildlife Photography wrogers http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/62184-why-did-i-carry-wrong-equipment.html http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/62177-horizontal-dave-strikes-again.html Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:01:55 GMT I see Dave has got another pic in this months Outdoor Photographer, Runner Up in the Garden Macro Competition. Well done Dave. Image: http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/pictures/data/7/thumbs/tadpole-5.jpg (http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/pictures/showphoto.php/photo/80635) I see Dave has got another pic in this months Outdoor Photographer, Runner Up in the Garden Macro Competition. Well done Dave.

]]> Wildlife Photography Tormentil http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/62177-horizontal-dave-strikes-again.html http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/62113-etiquette.html Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:37:42 GMT Hi,
I am adding content to my website, links etc and need to find a link to the "do's and dont's of wildlife watching. Just lately I have been getting really miffed with the lack of etiquette of other when in a hide or just watching something specical! Any ideas where I can get the info I need.

Thanks to Nick for pointing out my stupid spelling mistake in my first attempt at the post!!! ]]> Wildlife Photography jcurtis http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/62113-etiquette.html http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/62108-edicate-calling-all-wabs.html Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:10:10 GMT Hi,
I am adding content to my website, links etc and need to find a link to the "do's and dont's of wildlife watching. Just lately I have been getting really miffed with the lack of edicate of other when in a hide or just watching something specical! Any ideas where I can get the info I need.

Thanks
Jason ]]> Wildlife Photography jcurtis http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/62108-edicate-calling-all-wabs.html http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/62101-wildlife-photographer-year-2009-winner-announced.html Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:48:59 GMT BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Leaping wolf snatches photo prize

The winners are up. The overall winner is a rather nice photo, although controversially it sounds like another motion sensor job.

Another thing to note - check out who took the amazing yellowhammer photo. Its WABs very own Fergus (Wolfhill) :) ]]> Wildlife Photography Ukwildlifeo http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/62101-wildlife-photographer-year-2009-winner-announced.html http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/62055-long-enough-safari.html Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:02:52 GMT Hi,

I'm guessing at least some of you guys will have been on a safari, and can help me!

I plan a safari next year. As usual, budget is limited (especially after paying for the safari!), so shelling out £7k for a 600mm f/4 is not an option.

At the moment I have a Nikon D300 + Sigma 100-300mm + 1.4TC combo (so a 210-630mm in 35mm money), which I find works great. I was in Bushy park at the weekend photographing deer, and found it to be plenty long enough for anything except portraits.

My question is simple, will this combo cut it (i.e. will it be long enough) for a safari, or would I just be wasting my time? I keep reading on certain websites comments like "500mm minimum on DX", "at least 400mm + 1.4 TC, otherwise forget it".

Nick ]]> Wildlife Photography DrNickBurton http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-photography/62055-long-enough-safari.html