Photography – Page 16 – David Bradley

Find your selfie gallery doppelganger

To find your doppelgÃ¤nger in an art gallery, download the Google iPhone or Android app Arts & Culture. If you’re not in the US, you might have to use a VPN to pretend you are. Scroll down to the “Search with your selfie” section, tap “Get Started”…take the requisite selfie and let the app do its work. It will pull back several portraits from the world’s art galleries and museums that it thinks you resemble in your selfie.

Apparently, my selfie resembles portraits of Jan Bart, Sir Wyndham Natchbull-Whyndham, Karel Stuart, Jacobus Frans Eduard, Lodewijk XVI, and William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford…and not Russ Abbott, Jasper Carrott, nor Sir Bruce Forsyth, thank you very much Mick Snell. To be honest, I can’t understand why the app didn’t bring up portraits of Bruce Willis, Woody Harrelson, Mark Strong, or even Jason Statham…yeah, I know what it is…eye colour…nothing else…haha.

Stiffkey Marshes

There are two schools of thought and how to pronounce the name of the North Norfolk village Stiffkey, some people pronounce it almost phonetically, “stiff-kee”, but others (older locals often) pronounce it “stoo-kee”. The origins of the name lie in a form of clay known as Norfolk “stew” and this is village was the site of a quay for transporting that product, so Stew Quay…anyway, wildlife in and around?

On a recent visit (20th January 2018), several hares (Lepus europaeus), active and boxing, which seems far too early as it’s only January and they don’t usually go “mad” for courtship until March.

Lots of Brent Geese (Branta bernicla) on the Stiffkey Marshes

Lots of Curlew (Numenius arquata), Redshank, Little Egret, occasional Skylark, possibly Meadow Pipit, Blue and Long-tailed Tit, Linnet, Wigeon, Chaffinch, Mallard, Teal, Black-tailed Godwit (on floodwater further inland).

Reed Bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus) in winter plumage

Blackbird (Turdus merulea)

You will have to trust me on this one as my camera lens barely stretches this far, but these are grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) and their pups on Blakeney Point. Incidentally, their scientific name means “hook-nosed sea pig”.

Argumentative goldfinches

At one time, garden feeders would be swamped by Greenfinches (as well as the usual House Sparrows and Starlings). You might see a few Blue Tits and Great Tits too, and Nuthatches, and more besides. Next weekend (27-29th January 2018) it’s the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, a national survey of our feathered friends. Recent stats suggest that Goldfinches have become the more common sight on feeders in recent years and I’d agree with that in our garden, at least. It will be interesting to see how they add up this year.

Meanwhile, I’ve photographed and now videoed a flock of Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) that spend their mornings on our nijer seed feeder, arguing about who gets to sit on one of the four perches on the feeder. There are probably 8 or 9 Goldfinches in the garden at any one time, so obviously not enough perches. Their aggression and arguments are quite amusing, take a look at this short video clip I recorded on the morning of 17th Jan 2018.

There’s a Youtube version of Argumentative Goldfinches here if you prefer.

Coal tit photos – there’s an app for that

I’ve been hearing and catching occasional glimpses of a coal tit (Periparus ater) in our garden for several months. I have managed to get some awful snatched photos of it, but usually with its face turned away from the camera or flitting into the shrubage. Anyway, on a whim, I decided to put my camera on a tripod in the middle of the garden and point it out that mixed seed feed dangling from our beech tree, resplendent in its bronze winter plumage foliage.

I’d enabled Wi-Fi on the camera and went back indoors to a comfortable chair and fired up the EOS app on my phone, luckily the camera’s Wi-Fi signal was strong enough to cope with the distance between chilly tripod and comfortable armchair. No sooner had I sat down than the coal tit appeared by pure chance. So tapping away on the app, I grabbed a few before it darted back into the aforemention shrubage and did not re-emerge.

The coal tit eats insects, seeds, and nuts and will cache food to eat later. They’re well known as flocking with blue tits and great tits in winter woodland and gardens. We do have blue tits and great tits that visit our feeders but I’ve not seen any evidence of any of them flocking as such.

Long-eared owl in a box

I took a photo of an owl box from about 60 metres away standing on the dirt track on the dry side of the higher embankment of the Hundred Foot Drain about a kilometre from the bridge into Earith.

I was not imagining that I’d be able to see anything in the owl box. I just wanted to know what the label said “Sutton and Mepal I.D.B…”

However, when I opened the photo and zoomed in a bit…I could see there was a face staring back at me…presumably (given the tufts above the eyes, this is a long-eared owl (Asio otus) although Mrs Sciencebase is not convinced.

Hunting and hovering, common kestrel

The common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) is the native raptor (bird of prey) you’re most likely to see hovering over countryside in the British Isles. Other raptors like the buzzard (Buteo buteo) can also hover, but they’re usually hanging on the wind or thermals rather than pitching their wings and tails to actively stay in single position for a prolonged period above the ground where prey might be moving around.

It was a gloomy day today so not great, bright shots, but I did catch a male kestrel diving on a vole or mouse and taking it up high on a telegraph post and then a tree to devour it before flying off with the remains of the kill in its talons.

Photographing the Orion Nebula

UPDATE: Revisited the photos I took early in 2018 of the Orion Nebula and did some “levels” adjustments to get a better view. This particular shot was snapped at 600mm zoom (Sigma 150-600 lens) on a Canon 6D. F/6.3, 0.8 seconds exposure, ISO 3200.

The constellation of Orion is best visible in the Northern hemisphere during crisp and clear winter nights. It’s very prominent with its four “corner” stars (top two Orion, the hunter’s shoulders, bottom two the hem of his skirt) around the three-in-a-line belt and the dangling sword.

With the camera on a tripod and various lenses set to shutter speeds based on the rule of 500 I mentioned previously (precludes star trails), I had a go at photographing this constellation and then zooming in on that sword of his, which harbours the Orion Nebula. You will have to read the earlier post if you want more details about what settings to use for stellar photography.

It was a clear night last night and the moon had not yet risen, so I switched off all the house lights and ventured into our back garden with camera, tripod and shutter release. I didn’t quite get a low-noise sharp photo even with my Sigma 600mm zoom, but I did get something. I will try again on the next clear night while Orion is still riding high.

Constellation of Orion, sword showing nebula

That splodge in the middle of Orion’s sword is a glowing cloud of gas and dust some 1,344 lightyears from Earth (give or take 20 ly). It is the brightest nebula in the night sky and visible to the naked eye and the closest region of mass star formation. It is a star nursery where gravity pulls together that dust and gas over the course of millions of years into new stars.

A close look at filthy lucre

Money is dirty, filthy in fact, take a close look at these British coins. Lucre from the Latin lucrum meaning riches, as in lucrative. See also cash, dosh, bread (bread and honey, Cockney rhyming slang), moolah, dough, loot, lolly, loose change, coppers, coins, shrapnel, spondulix (from either the spondulox shell or spondylo- meaning spine/vertebrae for how a pile of coins looks, …etc.

The New Bedford River

The New Bedford River is a near-straight drainage channel between Earith and Denver Sluices. It is also known as the Hundred Foot Drain because of the distance between the tops of the two embankments on either side of the river.

New Year’s Day 2018, one bank was cut short and you could only walk so far along it before you’re wading into the water. It happens every year, nothing unusual. The man-made cut-off, bypass, channel for the River Great Ouse in the Fens of Cambridgeshire, allows water from the land to drain into the sea (at The Wash). The drain itself is tidal and you can see the ebb and flow at Welney, which is more than 30 km from the coast.

There was lots of bird activity along the Drain: pied wagtail, grey wagtail, redwing, grey heron, starling, robin, coal tit, great tit, blue tit, long-tailed tit, chaffinch, meadow pipit, goldfinch, buzzard, wren, kestrel, mute swan, black-headed gull…

How to take photographs in the snow

When photographing snow you have to pretty much ignore what your camera thinks the scene looks like otherwise you will get an underexposed, grey shot. Conversely, if it’s sunny there will likely be a blue cast over the photo and the snow whites will be blown out.

So, if it’s dull and snowing take your meter readings, but then notch up your exposure compensation (EV) a couple of thirds to compensate for what the camera thought the light levels were. If you want to do it properly, zoom into a bright patch of snow, dial in an EV of between +2/3 to 1 and a 1/3 and note the shutter speed and aperture the camera’s meter obtained (or get the measurements from an external light meter). Now, go to manual mode and dial those in with the EV reset to 0. This will overexpose the snow, but give you the right effect.

If it’s sunny, use a neutral white balance card (a grey card or a patch of uncovered wall that’s grey, rocks whatever and test white balance, adjust accordingly to warm the image and avoid the blue cast. You might have to nudge down the EV 1/3 or 2/3.

Useful tips on photographing in the snow here and here and here.