My Studio

I've got this plush studio to work in at the moment. It's got a window, a roof and a howling NE wind, but at least its under cover. I've been learning how to draw with gloves on (not easy).

Bought a Moleskine Watercolour sketchbook and its the best I've ever used.

The reserve my studio window looks out on is part of a country park in Wakefield. It's been graced with a Ring-necked Duck for a few weeks now. This yank bird is a bit of a 'Jack the Lad' with the ladies but got his come-uppance yesterday when he displayed to a female Pochard who instantly jumped on him and gave him a good beating-up!!

Pugneys hobble

Managed to hobble to Pugneys Country Park hide now and spend a lot of time sketching any bird thst comes into view. We have been blesses with a drake Ring-necked Duck for a few weeks now and managed to sketch it a time or two.

The Goldeneye have started their fantastic display but remain at range. I love drawing what I see through the scope but it's not easy as the birds have a habit of moving!! I used to draw from my photos but I now find that sketching and painting from real life is more rewarding - and harder.

What's afoot!

Since damaging my foot I've been unable to carry the heavy photography kit so I've got the sketching kit and telescope out again until it gets better.

I fastened the hide clamp onto the windowsill and can sketch birds at the garden feeders. Not done much drawing for a year or so so I'm very rusty.

The view from my garden includes an ash tree and it's surprising the different birds that land on it . 50x magnification gets me into the tree with them That's the beauty of a telescope.

Laid up

After damaging my foot in the summer I've been unable to carry the photo gear at all. Put my foot down a rabbit hole while carrying the full monty - 50lb+ of gear and a 10lb tripod- ouch. The ligaments did not take too kindly to this treatment and trying to walk or drive is very painful and will take a long time to recover. Never mind, I've re-discovered my sketchbook and will use my time productively sketching through a telescope which I love.

Squirrel Time

Just come back from the Lake district with some nice shots of wild Red Squirrel. Had to use my old camera as my normal one developed a loose strap lug. First Nikon fault in 40 years!! It took them 13 days over Easter to get it back to me - well done Nikon!

One Flash Good, Two Can be Better

I've been experimenting with flight shots this winter and as the light is so poor I've used balanced fill-flash to improve things. This shot used a Nikon D3 with 600mm f4 lens and two Nikon SB800's with the main flash to the Left of the bird and the fill flash on the camera. Getting the right balance of flash to background light was interesting and seems to have worked. Photographing birds in flight is not easy. Wait untill the Swifts arrive!!!

Let There be Flight

At last the light is picking up, 2 whole stops better for photography than in December. Nice to be able to get a few flight shots at long last.

All the birds are in new plumage and beginning to display and sort out their territories. The Robins are battling it out, this time for feeding rights on the peanut butter and other food I and another two photographers have been leaving for them all winter.

Here's a nice flight shot of one of the tough guys. Taken with fill-flash to lift the shadows. Had to use a high ISO of 1600 and a shutter speed 1/3200s to freeze the wings. Luckily, my Nikon flash will synchronise with the shutter up to 1/8000s instead of the usual 1/250s of other makes which helps with fill-flash at high speeds.