"Summer Wanted" please send to Cornwall

Well left work at 5pm on Thursday so thought I would pay a quick visit to Marazion. Clouded over so crap for photography and signs of life on the marsh were little.  Next day (Friday) thought I would take the afternoon off. A trip to the North coast was on the agenda to photograph Peregrine if I could spot any. Got as far as Hayle and the heavens opened, bugger!!! Stayed in the hide at Hayle for half an hour, nothing doing here!!!! Skies looked brighter over Marazion so off over there. On the plus side it wasn't raining but still not enough light. And some smart alec said "only six weeks until the days start getting shorter" So here are some off the pictures from another couple of days of pants weather.

Wheatear at Marazion

Waders on the beach (Dunlin?)

Ringed Plover

Greylag on the marsh

Heron feeding time, must be leaving soon??

Canada Goose (Hybrid)

Grey Heron that did a nice slow flypast.

Lizard Point Cornwall

A morning visit to The Lizard paid off this time with some close views of Choughs. Not brilliant pictures but this was about my fifth visit and finally I have some shots. From there I visited Hells Mouth, Carnsew Pool and Hayle.  It was almost impossible to photograph at these locations due to the wind, and it wasn't a warm wind either! Decided to head back to the South coast got to Marazion but the wind was unabating. There was also about 2 million people here for some reason. So I called it a day and drove home to do the blog.  So here are todays images:

Pair of Choughs at Lizard Point, all the images shown here were taken of these two birds at various points during the morning.

Jackdaw sharing the area withthe Choughs

Rock Pipit also from The Lizard

Shag with Chicks taken at Hells Mouth, North Cornwall Coast

Better Things to Come????

Sometimes it is frustrating and a real pain lugging around all the camera gear for little reward in the way of good pictures. It felt like this for the month of April and today the 1st of May I continue in the same trend. I drove around the Brew farm area looking for the Brew pool and Sewage works, true to form I drove past it, without seeing any bird/wildlife, only a lot of fat cows. Onto Lands End, RN ID card at the ready to get my free entry and I was robbed, a pay and display is now in operation.  Paid my £3 and this seemed to encourage the rain clouds in, what a bargain coincidence or what! With poor light and rain inbound I stayed fairly close to the car park.  Just walked down passed the white house to the area of gorse/bushes, here there seemed to be a lot of Whitethroats, Swallows, Linnets etc, making the area full of song with few birds showing.  Thirty minutes in and the rain came. On the way back I stopped at Longrock and Marazion.  Monday when the weather is better I shall likely do a repeat of the same circuit!! (sucker or what?) Dripping over onto todays pictures.

Whitethroat at Lands End 

The Heron's nest at Marazion

Looks like their ready to leave soon

Jackdaw enjoying a dip

Busy Week Equals One Picture

After a hectic week at work, house viewings and buying, weekend appointments and burglar alarm repairs; I only managed one photograph. I had an 1 1/2 spare on Saturday morning so I raced of to Marazion to see whats around.  Answer nothing apart from grey cloud, the marsh was virtually lifeless early am apart from two Gulls keeping each other warm!!!

RPS Nature Group 2010 Exibition

For the first time this year I entered images for selection in the RPS Nature Group Exhibition 2010. The image below was selected to be part of the exhibition later this year. Didn't get any awards but selection is an ok start. The exibition will be featured at various locations later this year, I will post dates, venues etc when known. 

Canon 7D Settings

Hi,

I have had several requests for information regarding the settings I use on the 7D. I will gladly detail them here but please bear in mind that what works for me may not for you. Also most of my images are taken with a tripod mounted camera/lens. I have arranged my three custom buttons  as follows:

Custom 1: Birds in Flight with a Cluttered Background
Image Quality: RAW produces the highest quality file.
Single Point AF Manual Selection (If you can keep one point on the bird the AF will not be confused by the background)
Focus Mode: AI Servo AF (for moving subjects)
ISO 400 (just my most common used ISO setting in UK lighting)
Drive Mode: H (High Speed Continuos Drive)
White Balance: AWB ( I just leave in on auto as WB is hardly constant)
Exposure Compensation: + 2/3 (normally the subject is on average darker than the background so this is my starting point, can vary and be adjusted accordinly)
Mode: AV
Metering Mode: Evaluative
Picture Style: Neutral (ideal for processing images on computer)
Custom Settings which I have applied to the Custom 1 position as follows:

Red Menu 1
Quality: RAW
Review Time: OFF
Red Menu 2
Exposure Comp/AEB:  +2/3
Clour Space: Adobe RGB
Blue Menu 2
Highlight Alert: Enable
AF Point Display: Enable
Histogram: RGB
Yellow Menu 1
Auto Power OFF: 1 min
Auto Rotate: On
File Numbering: Continuos

Orange Menu

CFn I: Exposure
4 Exposure Bracketing auto cancel 1: Off

CFn III: Autofocus/Drive AI servo tracking sensitivity

1: Mid position between 0 and Fast
3: 1 continuos AF track priority
4: 1 Focus search off
6: Enabled the following AF Modes, Single Point AF Manual Selection, Manual Select Zone AF and Manual Select Spot AF
7: 1 Continuous
9: Autofocus/drive/ display all AF points: 1 Enable
11: 2 Enable External Flash only
12: 1 Select different AF points

CFn IV: Operations Others
1: I have changed the metering (* Button) to be the AF start/stop button enabling me to start/stop the AF with my thumb


Green Menu:

Histogram: RGB
Quality: RAW
Live View Shoot: Enable
AF mode: Live Mode
My Menu Selection: Histogram, Quality, Live View Shoot, Format, AF Mode and Battery Info

Birds in Flight with a Cluttered Background

Ok so that was the custom setting and details for the custom 1 postion I am now going on to the Custom 2 position this position I use for static subject; ie perched slow moving birds/animals. I am not going to list the whole lot again but only the changes from the custom 1 postion settings.

Custom 2: Static slow/moving birds/animals

Focus Mode: One Shot AF for static subjects
ISO 200 (dropped to ISO 200 )
Drive Mode: L (Low Speed Continuos Drive)
Exposure Compensation: Set to 0 adjust as required
Metering Mode: Spot (handy for focusing on the eye of static subjects)

Custom Settings which I have applied to the Custom 2 position as follows:

Orange Menu

CFn III: Autofocus/Drive AI servo tracking sensitivity
1: Mid position between 0 and Fast
4: 1 Focus search on
6: Enabled the following AF Modes, Single Point AF Manual Selection, AF point expansion (Manual Selection) and Manual Select Spot AF

Example using Settings on Custom 2

Now on to the final set for the custom 3 position I use this for Birds in Flight with a clean background. Again I will only list the changes from the settings at Customs 1 Position

Custom 3: Birds in Flight with a Clean Background

Metering Mode: Manual Select Zone AF

Example Bird in Flight Clean Background

Ok so that is my input, these are the settings I use at present. I welcome feedback and suggestions to changes I could make to my settings hopefully this will be of use to some off you.