Day at the Beach

Well still struggling to get any decent light for photography (not happy) I went in search of some surf pictures today.  That wasn't happening either! So after a quick stop at Carnsew and Hayle I headed for Marazion. With a Southerly swell there was lots of weed etc being churned up on the beach and the local birds were making the most of it.

On a seperate note I was toying with the idea of getting a new Canon 1D MKIV or 7D, sense won for a change I couldn't justify the 1D MKIV price so a 7D is inbound. I will test on the wild birds etc once it arrives (light and birdlife permitting)  Todays images are below:

Gull: Just caught this gull as it splashed down onto the water.

Black Headed Gull: This one sort of stuck out so I had to get a shot.

Turnstone: Having been disturbed by the incoming tide, these turnstone were on the march to see what was newly deposited on the beach.

Sanderling:  Bit of patience required to get this by itself and for it to stay still for a second.

Snipe over the Marsh: Ok this one is a victim of the poor light, however I posted it so you can see what I will be aiming for when conditions improve. These are a bit tricky to track through the air.

Gull:  Just enjoying the surf.

Low Light Persists, However Some more Images from Hayle

With a forecast of cloud and rain followed by sunshine (the latter never appeared, now there's a shock)  I set off to Hayle RSPB hide for about one hour.  I actually stayed for two due to the poor weather. Golden Plover, King Fisher, Teal, Lapwing, Egret, Heron, Sanderling, Redshank and Gulls were all viewed.  However due to low light 90% of the time it was almost impossible to photo anything that moved. Results as usual are below.

Redshank:  A few were feeding around the water's edge.  This one came closest to the hide.

Gull with Crab:  This Gull picked himself a crab a despite dropping it twice, the Gull made it to shore and gobbled it down in about one minute.

Gull without Crab:  The gull deposits the crab on the shore before eating it.

Kingfisher: I first seen him right next to the hide hovering, but light was to low so a picture was impossible. Next he was on the cables above the water and then on to one of the sticks in front of the hide where I finally got a record shot.

Lapwing:  The Lapwings were doing circuits all afternoon failing to settle down for some reason

My Favourite images from 2009

Hi,

I have added my favourite images for 2009 (1 from each month) in slideshow format at this link.  Whilst not technically perfect in some cases I hope to show the diversity of our wildlife in behavior, colour and action.  Hope you enjoy the images http://www.bobsharplesphotography.co.uk/sslrweb/index.html

Christmas Lunch in Cornwall

Hi Happy Xmas to you all.  A fairly sunny day in Cornwall so the pub lost out and I went to Marazion and Newlyn.  The first images are the reason for the title. Hope you like the pictures. Double clicking to enlarge will enable best views of the images.

Grey Heron with Xmas Lunch.  I think he has done better than me. Two ham salad rolls for lunch. Last week I thought I had my best Heron fishing shots. How wrong I was! Check out the next two also.

Grey Heron again. In this image the sun has luckily caught the fish for me and lit it up with some superb lighting

Grey Heron (last one) slightly closer view to emphasise the detail more.

Stonechat, enjoying the afternoon sun at Marazion

Teal flying around Marazion Marsh after been disturbed by a Heron

St Michael's Mount. I went to Newlyn but nothing about in the Harbour but a good view of St Michael's from there via the 600mm lens. (Shame the sky wasn't blue at the time)

Not a great day!!!!!

Bad light stopped play, well photography anyway.  Got to St Gothian Sands about 10am sun was out for a while.  Got some shots and spotted a female shoveler, but to far away for a good shot. Sun went and hid so I went to Carnsew Pool and Hayle very little here and nothing in the way of good light. So headed South to Marazion where the Cornwall cloud anchored itself for the afternoon. (typical).  On arrival a Kestrel hovered over the van about 5ft above (long enough to pose and then clear off before the camera comes out, winding me up). Part of the Marsh was frozen so I thought I would look for a Water Rail, did get a shot but again unusable. So waited but then the dreaded dog walker who couldn't control his dog was behind me and at the same time some human imbecile jumped over the wall to smash some ice to clean their wellies. So with dark cloud and being surrounded by idiots I decided it wasn't my day.  On arrival home I slipped on the steps and added a small scrape to the 5D (arrgh).  So despite the good pictures that appear from time to time you can see I get bad days also!!! So good days ahead??? Whinge over onto the images:

Mallard at St Gothian Sands

Chiff Chaff at St Gothian Sands

Curlew at Hayle

January-February 2009 (Before the Blog)

Hi, due to yesterday being to dark for photography I have looked back on 2009 before the blog commenced in March. Here is a selection of images from that period, some may of appeared on my web site and one was originally used in the header of the blog. I will be following this up shortly with my favourite/best 12  images of the year.

BITTERN

GADWALL

GREY PHALEROPE

GREY SHRIKE

HONEY BUZZARD

LONG TAILED TIT

MALLARD

MARSH TIT

OYSTER CATCHER

SANDERLING

SWAN

Sunlight returns to the Marsh

At long last some sun and blue sky. I only had a couple of hours so I went down the local Marazion Marsh. Took out the 300mm lens hoping to find some Goldcrest.  First thing I spotted was a Water Rail in the open on top of a gorse bush to far away for the 300mm.  Then a GS Woodpecker again to far away.  Next up was the Carrion Crow or Raven? (picture below) I didn't have time to change the camera settings but a combination of blue sky, the low winter sun lighting the underside of the bird meant I got the image.  As the light was good I again tried out the 2x converter on the 600mm first thing I came across was the Heron fishing, this one is a master three attempts and three fish caught!! I managed to compose the image and get one sequence the other two he just gulped down instantly. This is the closest I have been to a Heron and the shots are hardly cropped. Next a Mallard in flight again lit nicely by the sun and a Song Thrush.  A step down to the 1.4x converter as the light faded for an Oyster Catcher flying low accross the marsh.  Whilst packing up I met Keith Hargreaves another local photographer, so good to meet up. His blog/site can be found here. http://keithhargreaves.blogspot.com/.  Starting next year I will not be listing all of the Camera Exif information but more detailed information on conditions, set up equipment used, as necessary etc.  Today 21st December is looking pretty rubbish lighting wise so I may post some images from earlier this year until the blog commenced in March.  I will then follow this up a some stage with my top image from each month in one post.  Well enough of the future and back to todays images. All these a worth enlarging to full size.

Carrion Crow/Raven: Exif: Canon 1D Mk111, 300mm F2.8 lens, Aperture Priority, F9, 1/500 sec,  ISO 400, +/- 0 stop

Grey Heron with Fish: Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 600mm lens with 2x teleconverter (1200mm), Aperture Priority, F8, 1/800 sec, ISO 400, +/- 0 stop

Grey Heron: Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 600mm lens with 2x teleconverter (1200mm), Aperture Priority, F8, 1/1250 sec, ISO 400, + 0.7 stop

Grey Heron: Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 600mm lens with 2x teleconverter (1200mm), Aperture Priority, F8, 1/1000 sec, ISO 400, + 0.7 stop

Song Thrush: Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 600mm lens with 2x teleconverter (1200mm), Aperture Priority, F8, 1/800 sec, ISO 400, +/- 0 stop

Mallard: Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 600mm lens with 2x teleconverter (1200mm), Aperture Priority, F8, 1/500 sec, ISO 400, +/- 0 stop

Oyster Catcher: Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 600mm lens with 1.4x teleconverter (840mm), Aperture Priority, F5.6, 1/160 sec, ISO 400, + 0.7 stop  (Panning the camera withthe bird was the only way to get a sharp exposure here)

Frozen Stith's

Called in at Stithians today, first hide I visited was the Southern Cut off. The path was hardened by frost and the Southern cut off was frozen over apart from a couple of isolated spots.  So nothing on the water.  The promised long sunny spells failed to appear but we did get a mixture of rain and sleet showers to make up for it!! As what is fast becoming the norm, changeable conditions weren't in favour of photography.  From the main hide the weather was slightly improved and the main lake wasn't frozen.  So here are a selection of todays pictures below:

View from the Southern Cut Off Hide: Exif: Canon 5D MK1, 17-40mm F4 lens, (set at 20mm), Aperture Priority, F7.1, 1/160 sec, ISO 200, +0.7 stop

Bird Table: Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 600mm lens with 1.4x teleconverter (840mm), Aperture Priority F5.6, 1/500 sec, ISO 400, +0.7 stop  The Blackbird seemed to take offence to the Woodpecker, but he stood his ground.

Reed Bunting: Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 600mm lens with 1.4x teleconverter (840mm), Aperture Priority F5.6, 1/320 sec, ISO 400, +0.7 stop

GS Woodpecker: Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 600mm lens with 1.4x teleconverter (840mm), Aperture Priority F5.6, 1/2000 sec, ISO 400, +/-0 stop

Bullfinch: Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 600mm lens with 1.4x teleconverter (840mm), Aperture Priority F5.6, 1/320 sec, ISO 400, +/-0 stop

Wren on Ice: Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 600mm lens with 1.4x teleconverter (840mm), Aperture Priority F5.6, 1/1000 sec, ISO 400, +/-0 stop This Wren was rather amusing skating around on the ice.

Goldeneye: Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 600mm lens with 2x teleconverter (1200mm), Aperture Priority F8, 1/640 sec, ISO 400, +0.3 stop

M/F Goldeneye: Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 600mm lens with 2x teleconverter (1200mm), Aperture Priority F8, 1/800 sec, ISO 400, +0.3 stop .  Looks like the Female Goldeneye know's who is the boss!!

Today at the Beach

I ended up today on Marazion beach opposite the marsh. Well it wasn't exactly beach weather with cold temperatures and a freezing northly wind mean't it was going to be cold out there, and I was not  disappointed it was freezing!  There were some birds however that  appeared to be enjoying it or maybe they were so hungry they had to endure it also to feed.  Lot of birds were feeding and foraging on the seaweed on the beach. The low position of the winter sun made photography awkward, but I persevered and here are the results below, not my best photos but conditions were pants!!! I am not sure on a couple so I have left them blank, please ID them if you want.  Even with a guide I still can't get some of them.

                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

                                                                                                         Black Redstart:  Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 300mm lens with 1.4x teleconverter (420mm), Aperture Priority, F4, 1/400 sec, ISO 400, +0.7 stop

Sanderling: Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 300mm lens with 1.4x teleconverter (420mm), Aperture Priority, F4, 1/1250 sec, ISO 400, +/-0 stop

Wagtail: Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 300mm lens with 1.4x teleconverter (420mm), Aperture Priority, F4, 1/800 sec, ISO 400, +0.7 stop
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sanderling: Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 300mm lens with 1.4x teleconverter (420mm), Aperture Priority, F4, 1/500 sec, ISO 400, +/-0 stop

Sanderling and Turnstone: Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 300mm lens with 1.4x teleconverter (420mm), Aperture Priority, F4, 1/200 sec, ISO 400, +/-0 stop

                                                                                                       Dunlin and Sanderling: Exif: Canon 1D MK111, 300mm lens with 1.4x teleconverter (420mm), Aperture Priority, F4, 1/250 sec, ISO 400, +/-0 stop