Tennis
The month kicked off with an incredibly wet trip up to Birmingham for a concert. I took my trusty X100v along to get a couple of pics of the evening from my seat. I was luckily only a few rows back so was able to do some isolation images when the acts were spot-lit.
My street photography options in Birmingham was cut short by the deluge, but I did grab a quick shot of an amusement park ride as I loved its lit up neon colours against the rainy night sky.
Meanwhile back in my own garden I have still been using my bird identification app on my phone to call in birds. Last month it had worked wonders on getting a coal tit to come down closer to me, so I attempted it again when I heard the call of Europe’s smallest bird - the gold crest high up in the conifer tree at the bottom of my garden. The call to my surprise immediately brought down one inquisitive little guy who flitted around my head and near bushes trying to work out where the noise was coming from. He came so close in fact my lens was unable to focus half the time so I managed to get just one clear shot through the branches as he stopped to listen to the call before darting off to the next bush. Despite it being a dull, overcast morning with a very low shutter speed (1/200th of a second) in order to get a correctly exploded image, I was amazed how well this did come out. It’s not perfect but il take that.
My attempt to use it on a robin however just ended in me having what seemed to be a sing off as it sat unmoved in the darkness of an evergreen tree.
I also managed a trip over to my local park which always seems to deliver with its surprisingly rich and varied bird life. This time was no exception with my very first tawny owl sighting. Sat in an owl box in the middle of the parks lake sat a sleeping owl. I was able to catch it looking around a couple of times but for the most part it just sat on the lip of the owl box dozing in the winter sunshine.
As well as the tawny owl sighting, the cormorants always make for great photos as they dried their wings or hunted for small fish around the lake.
And to top things off I was able to get some more photos of the local kingfishers that do love to sit in the darkest parts of the river, just out of reach of a great photo. The photo below attests to the usual image I can get but this time around I was able to sneak up a little closer and get some more up close shots of the kingfisher as it sat on the banks of the river.
With a lot going on the last few months I have really not had the chance to do very much photography at all so hopefully as we wind down 2025 next year will bring a few more photo options and the chance to take the Nikon out a little more frequently.
FIN
