Ian Bateson

Having another go at bird photography

The Autumn colours have finished without us getting any real opportunity to get out more as we have grand children duties and our aging dog has had two bouts of Vertigo which made her very unstable and couldn’t walk far. So we’ve put any more motorhome trips and days out on hold. So we aim to grab a few hours when we can and ventured out yesterday to Denny Wood in the New Forest.

At least we could see the birds in the trees with the leaf canopy gone, but the challenge was bringing them down to our level, so we found a few tree stumps and baited the area with seeds and waited patiently.

While we waited I took a few shots with the Infrared (IR) camera which I had previously packed away for the winter. I attended a talk earlier in the week by Paul Mitchell (www.paulmitchellphotography.co.uk) on Infrared photography who took excellent images throughout the whole year, so I thought I’d do the same. The images below definitely show off the impact with IR on the sky even though the trees are bare.

After 30 minutes the birds started to appear, initially in 1’s and 2’s then sometimes 4 or five at a time.

I was using a shutter speed between 1/1600 and 1/2500 with apertures between F5.6 and 7.1. The light level wasn’t great so the ISO setting was always quite high which resulted in noisy images which had to be recovered during post processing.

As soon as multiple birds appear the difficulty is getting them all in focus with a narrow depth of field. So I was shooting at 50 frames a second and searching for images where the birds are in a similar focal plane. I ended up keeping 120 images from about 9000 taken in the 90 minutes photo shoot.

I was surprised with the variation of species which included Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Marsh Tit and a Nut Catcher. Robins where in the trees, but didn’t want to be photographed.

Ideally we would have liked more light, so may try again when the light improves. For the technically minded, I was using the ‘pre-capture’ facility of the OM-1 Mk2 with a pre-cap2 setting. With the shutter button half depressed the camera buffers a preset number of images but doesn’t save them to the SD card until the shutter is fully depressed. Once the shutter is fully pressed the camera saves the pre-capture frames and continues to capture until the shutter is released. This feature gives the photographer a greater chance of capturing the inflight images.

Autumn

Until now I’ve only posted on this blog with our holiday trips, but why stop there I thought. We are trying to spend a little more time outside with the cameras, so when there is an opportunity I decided to broadcast through this blog. Apologies now if these occasional extra posts don’t interest you.

It’s autumn and the colours in the New Forest still don’t quite seem intense enough, so we headed off to Stourhead which is managed by the National Trust. On arrival we discovered that they were opening earlier than 10 am for amateur photographers for a few days (but you need to book). We arrived at 10 am and ventured into the gardens. If you’ve not been there then this is the time to go as the first image you are presented with is this….

You do need the sun on the tree canopy to make the most of the colours together with a minor amount of post processing modification. I also had a polariser fitted to the lens which helps manage reflections and saturate the colours.

As a comparison, we did visit Stourhead in the middle of summer for an entirely different experience. Although the landscape was similar the strong lighting required an entirely different treatment – infrared.

Back to Autumn – you need strong lighting from a low angle for the best images of the canopy and today was a good day, although there was a risk of showers. The low angle of the sun will also introduce larger areas of shade, so some additional post processing manipulation is required as in the image below taken from the opposite side of the lake.

The exposure in the central area needed lifting with the church and bridge brightening a little. But it still lacks the impact of the first image. So back to the other side and walking anti-clockwise around the lake.

The large golden tree in the centre is actually on an island, so moving further round the lake gives us another perspective. But for comparison I’ve presented the image without post-processing followed by a processed image

Firstly I used a polariser and a 6 stop filter to saturate the colours and soften the water with a 1.6 second exposure, then masked out the Pantheon building and softened the trees by reducing the clarity slider in Lightroom, which has introduced a different effect to the image.

Continuing around the lake to the chapel and waiting for most of the people to move out of the way (as there were a lot) we have…

There were 2 extra people sitting on the bench and other objects that needed removing with the Lightroom Ai removal tool – so I can’t really claim all the credit for the cleaner image.

Finally one last image as we walked back towards the bridge

This was taken not far from the Pantheon and out of curiosity I used my Sun Surveyor app and checked the time the sun would have cleared the trees to the east and I’d estimate about 0900 to 0930, so no real need to book for the early morning photo experience.

Hopefully you’ve enjoyed the images and make the journey to Stourhead (near Warminster) at a future date. For us we headed a few miles down the road to see Vanessa’s sister and husband and ended the day in the pub. So a great day.

The Last Two Beaches on our List

Friday 10th October

When we set out on this recent short break of 10 days we had a list of locations to visit. These were the last two on that list, but first Vanessa wanted to try to capture a few more birds. So before lunch we went out to try our luck again.

After lunch we headed off to Trebarwith Strand, but a very quick survey of the beach revealed that low tide wasn’t going to work and a high tide could provide some dramatic images, so we would return later.

So we headed off Crackington Haven which would have also been good at high tide, but as we can’t be in two places at once we captured what we could with the conditions available.

After a coffee we returned back to the motorhome to give Holly her dinner and start to prepare the motorhome for tomorrow’s journey home. The plan was to head back to Trebarwith and hope we get a sunset this time (as luck hasn’t been with us during this trip).

As we expected the conditions were much better and the incoming tide was making for some great images.

Finally the sun appeared on the horizon, but not enough to give us the warm light we wanted.

You have to look carefully, but there was a narrow gap in the clouds for the sun to peak through. However, we were happy with the results we got today and headed off for our own evening meal.

Tomorrow we head home, so this will be the last post until our next trip.

Another Day on the Coast

Thursday 9th October

We are now into our last few days, so headed west to the Bedruthan Steps which we last visited 2 years ago on a high tide. Today the tide would be out and so we hoped for some different images, although the forecast was not hopeful for any sunshine.

We arrived at the National Trust carpark (free for members) just before 12, so thought we’d have a coffee and some lunch. The menu board listed bacon butties available before 11:45. Time on my watch was 11:46, so I dashed in and ordered 2 and thankfully they accepted the order; lunch was sorted.

The weather hadn’t improved, but at least it was still dry, so we headed down the path towards the beach. Unfortunately the access to the beach was closed due to dangerous rock falls.

The sun did appear briefly as we walked along the cliff and the water had a Mediterranean turquoise colour which would have made this image much better. These rocks did make we feel that Black & White would look good, so I had a go at changing another image:-

We continued along the cliff, but the view from the other end wasn’t as good. Vanessa meanwhile was wandering around with a long lens looking for bird images. We arrived back at the café 3 hours after we left it and stopped for more refreshments. The cream tea was wonderful!

From here we headed off to Trevose Head to photograph the lighthouse across Stincking Cove. There is another National Trust carpark at the top of the hill adjacent to the lighthouse, so not too far to walk this time.

Luckily, there was a glimmer of sunshine in this image, but most of the time it remained overcast. So I thought I’d try another B&W conversion.

We’d tethered Holly to my camera bag whilst Vanessa and I wandered across the rocks for the best view of the cove and lighthouse. We soon heard her crying as her eye sight is poor and she couldn’t see us, plus with her being old and deaf it was too stressful, so I packed away my camera and sat with her while Vanessa continued. Just my luck, the early evening sun appeared, so I took out the camera and quickly grabbed a few handheld shots from where I stood.

It looks OK, but Vanessa was in a better position and this was her viewpoint.

Time to head back for our evening meal. Hopefully we’ll have a little more sunshine tomorrow.

A Grey Day at Tintagel

Wednesday 8th October

This morning we woke up to drizzle which lasted all morning, but we already had on-line tickets for Tintagel Castle so we set off in the car. The castle is roughly level with the village of Tintagel, but you have to walk down a steep path before a climb back to enter the castle.

You enter the castle across a relatively new foot bridge (designed and manufactured by our son’s company in Southampton.

The views from the rock are pretty good and would have been better with a little sunlight. But we had to make the best of what we are presented with.

There isn’t a great deal on the rock to see, but the views are OK. Here’s a few of those images.

We walked down some pretty steep steps which takes us to the beach and café which was made more scary as I had to carry Holly as well. The café was worth the visit and the cakes were superb – highly recommended. Fortunately there was a minibus ride back up the hill, so we took the opportunity and paid the £2 each, but it didn’t take us up the steepest part of the hill. So we still had a struggle for the last 150m – so be warned. Don’t go down if you have real health issues.

From here we returned to the motorhome to collect our long lenses to head out for some bird photography (as the weather hadn’t improved much).

We were hoping for some shots of the Peregrine Falcons which are in the area as well as buzzards, but what we saw was totally different.

Images show male and female Stonechats.

The three images above are of the same Robin.

A less arduous day

Tuesday 7th October

This morning we left our camera bags behind and travelled light with a single camera and lens. We walked east along the coast towards the Ladies Window which was about a mile away. The path wasn’t too difficult although I still carried Holly across the difficult patches.

The view east from the cliffs was towards Boscastle with Vanessa enjoying the view.

On the return journey Vanessa spotted a large caterpillar so we spent a little time trying to photograph it.

Haven’t a clue, what variety of moth this may be, but the caterpillar was about 6cm long.

So back to the motorhome for lunch and then off in the car to revisit a couple of coves. Port Isaac where Doc Martin was filmed was the first which we visited and photographed 2 years ago. Then headed to Port Quin just missing a group of canoeists who were packing away. But took this image in the late evening sunlight.

After this we headed off for some shopping and then return back to the motorhome. Tomorrow we will visit the Castle at Tintagel.

Excursion across the border into North Devon

Monday 6th October

Waking this morning the forecast looked good and the scene in front of our motorhome confirmed the day ahead looked good.

Our intention was to visit the Blackchurch Rock, but I realised while on the road that it would have required a 2.5 mile walk from the car. This was too much for Holly to manage, so we went onto our second planned destination at Clovelly

The history of this harbour village dates back to William the Conqueror, King of England and today remains privately owned. It is well worth a visit, but you need to be warned – it’s a steep walk down and a more challenging walk back.

The path down to the harbour is on cobblestones, so only visit during dry weather as I suspect it might be slippery in the wet.

Eventually the harbour comes into view…

The journey down through the houses was almost as steep as the remainder looks to reach the harbour. The building on the left is a hotel, so a welcome watering hole while we contemplate the return trip.

Fortunately for the unadventurous there is an alternative and easier way back to the top – behind the hotel is a road and for £3.75 you can get a lift in a Land Rover back to the top. So Vanessa took Holly back in the Land Rover which saved me the challenge of carrying her (Holly that is). I wanted to take a few more photos, so opted to walk back up the hill. My smart watch informed me I’d travelled up 47 flights of stairs.

Of interest, these houses are lived in and the residents have to transport groceries etc from the upper carpark to their houses. We noticed many sledges lying around and the clue to their use is in this photo.

After the Everest climb back to the reception hall I met Vanessa in the café to enjoy a well deserved cream tea.

The entrance ticket includes entry to the gardens nearby, but we found these unimpressive. On the walk through the woods we came across a few fungi.

Leaving Clovelly, we headed over to Hartland Quay which was a location we visited about 20 years ago when I was photographing with slide film. The additional trip to the Clovelly gardens meant that we missed an opportunity of a lower tide, which would have been more ideal.

We decided to stay here to catch the late afternoon sun and then retired the the adjacent pub for a very tasty curry and chicken and chorizo pasta bake.

Camp change over day

Up the coast to Tintagel

After a great bacon and egg breakfast, we headed up the coast to Tintagel and what a view from the camp site.

As you can see the weather today was clear and dry, so we decided to get out and headed to Boscastle. The last visit here was 2 years ago on a very grey day, so hopefully we would get more interesting photos.

We headed back for a coffee, but forgot it was Sunday and everywhere shuts early, so instead we headed north for Bude. Well we were very surprised with the sea state when we arrived and headed to a viewpoint on the Levee.

There were 3 fishermen on the rock which joined to the mainland via a breakwater, which couldn’t be crossed safely at high tide. This image was taken at high tide.

Finally a long exposure image to calm down the sea state, which produces quite a pleasing image.

The really good news was that Holly has continued to improve, so hopefully if the weather remains good, we’ll be out again.

A wonderful stormy day – worth waiting for

Saturday 4th October

Last night wasn’t great as the motorhome was rocking all night and we had a sick dog. So I needed to take her out 6 times during the night. In the morning the repetitive rain showers subsided and was replaced by sandblasting with the sand blown over from the nearby dunes.

The forecast improved during the morning so we set off to a small fishing port on the south coast – Porthleven. We had to dodge a few short showers in between taking photos of the port.

Two oldies having a chat before lunch with the town hall and terraced houses in the background. We fancied a coffee and a piece of cake for lunch so headed back to a nearby café, but on arrival a lady on the next table was eating a bacon butty – so guess what we ordered…

The actual plan for the day was to end up at the Botollack tin mines for the late afternoon and evening light. We visited this location back in 2021 and I always wanted to capture it again in better light. Compare the 2 images below and conditions were definitely better the second time around.

The sea was very rough and together with the late afternoon, early evening light we had a much better series of images.

I wasn’t expecting infrared to be successful, but I thought I’d try anyway.

Tomorrow we head to our next campsite.

Storm Amy keeps us under cover (mostly)

Friday 3rd October

As anticipated, the day started wet and windy and continued for most of the day, so we both resorted to reading our books. After lunch we had a small window of opportunity to get out for some air, so we headed of to Trevaunance Cove for a view along the coast.

Luckily where we were standing was completely sheltered from the wind which also meant the sea was relatively calm in the bay. We had hoped for more significant waves. At least it meant Vanessa was safe from being blow into the sea.

As you can see, it was a very grey day with absolutely no decent light. So I tried to make something of the images in post processing, but it wasn’t really a successful day but we did manage to stay dry.

At the end of a bad day we retired for a coffee and cake at a nearby surfers café.

Let’s hope tomorrow gives us more opportunities.