Monday 5th May
We are still learning how to make the best use of the features in our new cameras. My bird photos from yesterday were just about OK, but Vanessa was disappointed with all hers. So this morning we watched some OM-System videos as to the best practices to take bird photos. I then let Vanessa use the long lens and left her to try again, whilst I looked around the site for other opportunities. Here’s what I took…
Meanwhile Vanessa managed to take some marvellous images…
So how did Vanessa get such an improved set of images – so here’s the techy bit…
The OM-1 MK2 camera has a burst shutter mode called ‘ProCAP’ (meaning professional capture) and this is totally configurable but basically when the shutter button is partially pressed (which enables focusing) it also records a stream of images into a preset size of buffer. If the shutter is then fully depressed it saves the pre-buffer images as well as the next set of images until the shutter is released. The camera is capable of 120 frames per second, but we’ve set ours to 20fps. If you fancy understanding more, then open this tutorial link which shows a video from OM SYSTEM Ambassador Jari Peltomaki.
Here’s a few more stills from Vanessa before we headed back to the car.
It was still chilly today and the sky remained mostly cloudy so we headed off to the site of an old mine before searching for another waterfall at Padley Gorge
The Magpie Mine which used to produce Lead.
Padley Gorge wasn’t a straight forward trek. Firstly it was poorly signposted and Google froze completely when we were just a few miles away. We parked up and got our camera gear ready and put Holly’s dog coat on her, but she wasn’t keen on the walk – we think she had reached the ‘knackered’ point and just wanted to rest. Looking at the challenging rocky incline up the gorge, Vanessa agreed to take her back to the car whilst I continued. I wish I hadn’t as there were multiple paths and none were clearly marked. After about 15 minutes I gave up and returned as close to the stream as possible taking a few photos along route.
I couldn’t really recommend this walk to many people, especially those of an elderly age like me. So I returned to the car with one more stop-off planned at the Ladybower Reservoir.
It would be better with some sunlight, but we can’t always have perfect conditions.
Bateson's Travel log 