Lost In The World
I have been waiting for an opportunity to get out and take some pictures now for a little while. Sadly this has not been possible due to work commitments and what I can only describe as awful weather. Its not so much that it's been raining , it's that the clouds have been so low the sun has not been seen since the beginning of the month. Finally i was able to get out today when i looked out my window on a day off and i could see some blue sky....
I packed up my gear, including my macro and new ring flash, and headed off to bushy park for the day. I was hoping the weather would hold as i wanted to go further into bushy park, to an area i hoped would be good for macro.
Literally as I got to the park the weather closed in, the sun disappeared and I was left with overcast grey skies. I was going to turn back but decided to push on anyway and maybe get lucky with a couple of shots.
The shots I did get were not perfect by any means. The 400mm lens struggles in this kind of light even on a tripod, as 1/1000+ of a second was hard to achieve when the light was so low, and you needed to bump up the iso. Having said that I tried my best, and if anything it was great to be out and about, instead of spending the day indoors.
Male fallow deer, hiding in the dead ferns
Right away I managed to get this great image of this Fallow deer in the dry, dead fern leaves. I didn't even see him until I was almost past him but caught him sitting there out of the corner of my eye. he let me setup my tripod and shoot away. I had to still use an iso of 1250 which is not something I would usually do on a tripod, but the light was so poor even at 11 am in the morning. This became a bit of a sticking point as the day went on as i needed to use the high iso again and again to get a shot.
I moved on from the lake to the middle of bushy park. in this area there is a large circular lake with a statue in the middle, topped with a gold statue. Sat on top of this was a cormorant. I was behind the statue (which was where the worst light was) so was taking images from the back. I decided if the bird was going to stay there I would walk around to the front to see if I could get any better shots. As you can see the light was much better front on.
from behind the statue
again from the back - poor light
from the front the light was better.
I carried on into the park to the birch woodland area to test out the flash ring I had gotten for christmas. this ring fits onto the front of my 100mm macro lens and will hopefully get me sharp images in poor light. it will also get a low key macro look with the background black with only the subject lit.
Witch-Hazel: example of low key lighting with flash ring
as can be seen in the image above, the flash ring totally darkens out the surrounding and only lights the subject. this gives a very striking look to the image. As I have found with macro, depth of field is very small even at a low aperture but I was happy with how this image turned out.
The only real issue I had was finding anything to photograph. this is clearly going to get a lot more use in the spring and summer as everything around me today was dead or decaying. fingers crossed that in a few weeks time the snow drops and other flowers will begin to come out so I have more to photograph.
Carrying on with my walk I decided to head on back for home. the weather was getting worse and the cloud cover was now total. I travelled back the way I came, making short stops to attempt to get a good shot of a Jay or a thrush but the light was just not there to get a useable shot.
I was trying to take a picture of a thrush by a river when I saw a flash of white up ahead of me. I instantly knew that it was a little egret that was on the banks of the small river I was next to. I had by this point put my tripod away but decided that I would get it out one last time and try to get a picture of the egret. as I followed it up the bank it seemed to know when I was getting close as it would take off and travel further down the river away from me. I finally got it as it slunk away from the river bank behind some long grass, watching me all the time. I got two images, one I have done in black and white, and the other I have kept in colour. I could not decide which I liked better.
Little egret
I was very lucky to get these images as it was off as soon as i tried to get closer. I would have loved for the light to be better so the image was sharper, and of course gotten closer but for a cold, overcast day in England, I will take these images any day.
Heron fishing
The final image of the day was right after the little egret had left. I managed to get very close to this fishing heron who was so focused on what he was doing I could set up and snap away. this actually gave me the best/sharpest image of the day (while being closely watched by an old woman and her dog)
overall I managed a few good images on this cold grey day so not a total waste of time as I thought it may be. Fingers crossed next time the weather will be better. On a side note I have noticed I have been a bit wildlife heavy so hopefully I will get a blog in of something a little different soon. Maybe a trip to the city is in order for some architectural or more street shots. Lets just hope that the weather picks up soon.
FIN
