Welcome

I am Rod Wynne-Powell, and this is my way to pass on snippets either of a technical nature, or related to what I am currently doing or hope to be doing in the near future.

A third-person description follows:
Professional photographer, Lightroom and Photoshop Workflow trainer, Consultant, digital image retoucher, author, and tech-editor for Martin Evening's many 'Photoshop for Photographers' books.

For over twenty years, Rod has had a client list of large and small companies, which reads like the ‘who’s who’ of the imaging, advertising and software industries. He has a background in Commercial/Industrial Photography, was Sales Manager for a leading London-based colour laboratory and has trained many digital photographers on a one-to-one basis, in the UK and Europe.
Still a pre-release tester for Adobe in the US, for Photoshop, he is also very much involved in the taking of a wide range of photographs, as can be seen in the galleries.

See his broad range of training and creative services, available NOW. Take advantage of them and ensure an unfair advantage over your competitors…


View any Gallery by Clicking the relevant TEXT Headline

Friday 9 November 2018

An Autumn Afternoon in Bedfordshire and a Kestrel

Grabbing the kit I headed northwards to the A421 to go East towards Sandy on the A603, (a number familiar to my late father whose first Squadron in the RAF was the eponymous 603 University Air Squadron); I stopped along the way at Eyeworth where soon after I parked my car I spotted a Kestrel atop a chimney pot at a farm. However, I had very specifically only got the 5D MkIII with the 24-70mm and 100mm with me, my 100-400mm was stinside the car a hundred plus yards back down the lane!
I did quickly take a few shots using the zoom at its longest but headed back to the car in the vain hope of the bird remaining atop its viewing platform. It took a few moments, and I was rewarded with it staying there just long enough before it flew off, to capture a mere handful of pictures. A little later I got some of it on the telegraph lines, but as I stealthily tried to move beyond it for better lighting, it duly moved the same distance I had managed, to keep the same angle relationship from the sun – birds and numerous other animals know precisely what a photographer's need and which focal lengths they are using, to thwart us in our endeavours. To illustrate this, on one occasion, I had been shooting a kingfisher at some distance with a maximum 400mm lens and twice (in the very same timeframe) it has flown so close that only a lens capable of focussing to less than four feet could have focussed, and it settled for twenty seconds just beyond arm's length, then flew closer still in an arc then disappered into the far distance!
A couple of years ago when in the same spot at Marsworth, a heron landed around fifteen feet from me, where it was largely shielded by intervening branches, so I silently removed the camera from the quick-release plate and tried to move to my right to clear the majority of intervening branches, and I hung precariously from a spindly piece of adjoining bush and almost fell into the water, but on this occasion I managed to grab three shots before my strength and dodgy standing meant I had to return to safety – it was close, I did slip but fortunately I did avoid falling!
A screenshot of where that item is on my blog for those who might be interested:
On this afternoon I only managed a mere handful of images, but it gave me a further insight into the surrounding countryside that is close around me, and I shall certainly venture into this area again. The hydrangeas close by to where I parked were in the shade and looked very fresh, possibly due to the woods close by, the narrowness of the road and shielding from the buildings, and most obviously due to the care afforded by the house owner.

No comments:

Post a Comment