Close By the River Gt. Ouse

               I am still scouring nearby areas close by the River Great Ouse in search of new spots from which to patiently capture images of Kingfishers, and to this end found myself down a lane leading to the fast-flowing waters of the river which meanders in oxbow manner through this county. It was certainly rushing by on this afternoon, and from the waterlogged grass and mud at the end of this lane  told that it had obviously exceeded the normal bounds of its banks very recently. However in reaching thus far, the other native birds were in noisy abundance in the bushes and gardens on either side of the lane, so I parked up, having turned the car around to allow me to leave later with ease.
               I did take a walk down the river's edge, but it was way too waterlogged to consider shooting from there. Also, the overall likelihood of this spot proving the ideal location from which to get shots of kingfishers was not good, as the far bank was open to fields beyond, offering no cover.
               However, the sounds and activity from the trees and bushes did offer a great opportunity of shots of numerous other birds; Great Tit, Bluetit, Dunnock, Goldfinch and Robin. This meant it was certainly worth erecting the tripod and mounting my EOS R with the 60-600mm Sigma Sports lens and 2x Converter. Interestingly the larger birds seemed less interested in feeding and stayed at a distance, but a couple of Collared Doves became silhoetted in a distant tree to extend the variety of species I was able to capture. I have normally found Robins with little fear of coming close to humans, but the lone one here was very wary of me.
               The light was flat and dull for most of my time spent shooting, which meant my only chances of crisp images was when the birds were calmly feeding or preparing to fly off, as I did not have the luxury of a fast shutter speed, but my patience was still well rewarded, and I will definitely return now I have found the spot.

Tring Reservoirs – Canalside Images

               In that iterregnum between Christmas Day and New Years Day, I decided to pay the Tring Reservoirs and Grand Union Canal a visit. It was surprisingly warm and the sky was clear; the birds on the water stayed clear of the banks, and those I sought were absent – the Kingfishers, Grebe and Herons. Numerous groups of friends, families and dog-walkers were making the most of the mild weather to enjoy the opportunity, and the hopeful anglers were few.
               I had my EOS R with the Sigma Sports lens and 2x Converter and a lightish tripod, but on this occasion, I was mainly using the wideangle end of the range, due to my hopeful subjects not making an appearance. I had come for relaxation, and so I was not overly disappointed, and had numerous brief conversations with other photographers, and simply imbibed the tranquility that pervaded.
               So, as a result the gallery of images is but a single page of pictures of personal observations of a quiet afternoon, in an unseasonably warm and windless December approaching the end of this decade. However, the end of the afternoon found several of those visitors stop along the path to witness a truly fabulous murmuration of Starlings perform, as the sun was setting – all that was missing was Music, as a growing gathering of people stopped to watch this almost silent display of massed birds, swooping and circling above the margins of the Lake.
               All of us watched in wonder and quiet conversation as the flying group was gaining ever more small groups of birds to swell their numbers as the light dwindled. Whilst we watched, after the overall size grew ever larger, it would separate for a while, then coalesce once more as the mass semed to be weaving like fine lace in a breeze.  This body of birds circled ever closer to a stand of trees beyond the far shore of the lake, and teased us by then climbing higher. As the light further faded, the straggling smaller groups still came; until the right hand edge of this body of birds, suddenly dived for the trees. But this was barely one third of their total number.
               The remaining group returned to their swirling display, and tantalised all the gathered assembly of people for a while longer before diving down again, but slightly to the left of where the earlier group were settling. This still left a sizeable number of birds in the air, as more stragglers had been absorbed into the mass. Then, the next group flew down to the trees. The remainder still circled for a couple of circuits before they dived for their place in the trees. But, even as they headed for their night's rest a smaller group circled and finally the display ended. All the assembled group of watchers   stood awhile to comment on what they had just witnessed in wonder, before breaking up and heading away. It had been a wonderful way to end the day.

25th Anniversary Concert – Aylesbury Concert Band

My younger daughter plays saxophone in the Aylesbury Concert Band, and I do my level best to join her for several reasons, I love listening to live music, I obviously enjoy the opportunity to join my daughter and share a part of her life involved in Music, and naturally it affords me the chance to keep in touch with my family, oh, and perhaps I forgot to mention, I love taking the opportunity to indulge in picture taking.

On this occasion which marks the 25th Anniversary of the Band, which was held at Trinity Church in Walton Street,, Aylesbury, I must apologise that I would have loved to be more informative in the narrative for the event’s images, but in the interests of ensuring the gallery of images makes it to the Web on the Monday evening, I am afraid that the pictures will largely have to tell their own story. Certainly it was a celebration of some of the past Band members and leaders, though one apology was read out from one such who for family reasons was unable to make it.

Fortunately for me, two of my grandchildren were able to make it as were my ex-wife and her husband, who had the joy of looking after them, whilst their father stayed at home doing maintenance work on their house uninterrupted.

On occasions such as this, I become a one-man roadie, as well as photographer and family member, the latter being far from a chore, it keeps my creative juices flowing as taking pictures and maintaining my expertise is an essential part of keeping the ‘little grey cells’ active. It keeps my eye in, a prerequisite for anyone determined to stay fresh and attuned to the capture of the many moments that occur. One point in this series of images is that the opportunity arose when processing the images for the gallery, for me to render one image in monochrome simply because of the nature of the lighting. On another occasion, the highly articulate display from one of the Conductors caught my eye, and in a quiet moment my daughter likewise caught my eye with the slightest of smiles.

Listening and foot-tapping to music, coupled with the joys of recording meaningful but mysterious moments in the lives of others’ lives is one of the pleasures of being a photographer — I may never know what transpired in some of the moments I witness, such as what was taking place between two of the Conductors, but should they see the image I captured they might well have a wry smile! What circumstances arose that triggered some of the smiles I captured I may never learn, but for such moments, I saw and recorded a meaningful moment in someone else’ s life, and those moments were fleeting, but I felt I was privileged to have seen it without ever knowing its meaning. It reminds of a black and while film I saw as a youngster, with a title that has remained with me ever since — ‘I am a Camera’.

0n this occasion as I mentioned at the start, there is little in the way of a description of the event, the taking of these pictures is simply to keep my sanity in a world that seems to be falling apart at the seams but I keep constantly reminding myself there is beauty and good humour to be found, and all I can do is hope that sanity ultimately prevails. I also hope that my words and pictures give others pleasure, it is rewarding to know that the blog’s hits have never gone below 350 per week for at least the last year, so someone is showing some interest! Surely they are not all robots.

In case anyone is interested only one camera, the EOS R was used throughout, and three different lenses from 24m to 300mm

Goodwood Revival Meeting 2019

The Duke of Richmond and Gordon seemingly has the Weather Gods in his favour, for in the more than ten years I have been lucky enough to be visiting his grounds to attend the Revival Meetings and the Festivals of Speed, I have only encountered inclement weather on two occasions, and only one of those was really a problem, but every last one has proved thoroughly enjoyable.

My early contact with Goodwood was through Peter Morley a neighbour of mine in Bromley, Kent. He was a Rally Driver and a Director of Tesco, who at the time was the Assistant Chief Pit Marshall at Brands Hatch, a role I later inherited jointly with a colleague Peter Melville, when Peter Morley became the Chief. The first occasion he invited me to Goodwood, it was a regular and fully functional race track, and a year or two before the fateful crash that brought Stirling Moss’ racing career to an end. On that occasion as we drove through some of the villages, people waved to us as we passed, and Peter told me that when he had come to a standstill for a longish time on some occasions, villagers had offered him cups of tea!

I cannot speak for all UK motorsport venues, but for an atmosphere of joyous camaraderie, Goodwood for me has been in a class of its own, followed closely by Brands Hatch, Oulton Park, Lydden, and Castle Coombe. Short of some major disaster befalling you, Goodwood never fails to deliver.

I always bring a camera, and on this occasion, I had decided to forego my superb Sigma 60-600mm and had brought my much earlier and far lighter Tamron 150-600mm on the mirrorless Canon EOS R body. I had one further ‘tweak’ — the 2x Converter — which meant I was actually using a 300-1200mm full-frame camera! Knowing There would also be opportunities for closer work, I also had the 24-70mm — which I used to get shots within the ‘Motor Show’ feature.

I will make an admission that despite my careful preparations there was one failure on my part; the one item which could have made my life far easier was still carefully nestling in the boot of my car — a monopod! However, that only surfaced once I was trackside, since to make the trek to the car would lose me too much time, I was going to have to rely on whatever support I could find, such as the top of fence posts, and my daughter’s willingness to provide her shoulder on one occasion! The sacrifices one’s family sometimes endure for their forgetful parents!

Goodwood as I mentioned is a friendly place and an example is a charming mother of two young children who was just in front of me at the banking, who opened a conversation wondering whether she was in my way whilst shooting, I assured her she had no need for concern. Later, she had insisted the boy and girl stayed together which was good advice, and later still when both were at the front fence, in return I suggested that they don’t watch from beneath the wire fencing as they were at that time, because they were unprotected. Somehow, interactions between strangers here at Goodwood is the norm.

I watched an old business colleague, Simon Diffey, do well in his race, and listened over the speakers to his delighted response to his good fortune whilst being interviewed. Later I briefly met up with him, still in high good humour. Another familiar face I spotted was photographer, Jeff Bloxham, but I failed to catch his eye as he was trackside at the Kids’ Pedal Car race and we were in the enclosure. Over the years visiting Goodwood rarely has there been a time when I have not come across old friends, but perhaps the clue is within the adjective ‘old’!

Also, most of my visits, I have bumped into Charles March during the course of the day, as in what I term my ‘former life’ he had been a client of the retouchers, The Colour Company with whom I had worked for many years — in fact it was through them that I had been twice invited to stay at the house to give him some Photoshop help. This day, I did listen to him over the Tannoy, give a moving tribute to his absent friend, Stirling Moss, and later watched him take Susie, Sterling’s wife around in one of the many cars he had driven to success over the last many years. I have tried since to find a recording of his piece, but thus far, in vain. It undoubtedly came from his heart and in his own words as a friend. Sadly, Sir Stirling was not up to travelling to be present.

The last pictures from our day were all taken on my handy 24-70mm, and this turned out to be one of the very few times when I never used its handy macro feature, but this lens if I ever am limited to just camera and one lens and weight, proves invaluable. Another, wonderful, warm, and welcoming day nears its end, just the journey home and the parting with my daughter Lizzy as she heads back to her husband and young family.

A Vast Nearby Lake

This area of Bedfordshire could well vie with the North of England for being a District of Lakes, due to the number of worked out Claypits, and I have made several trips to reconnoitred many to find ones that support varied wildlife habitats. On the Wednesday, I tried to trace one lake close by Stewartby, and found it appears to be totally enclosed and has become the site of an Incinerator very much against local opinion.

However, by the outskirts of the village is another lake, known as Quest Lake, and there do appear to be points of entry, with no signs displaying a lack of access, and so I decided to ascertain whether it might be a sanctuary for wildlife, or that it might be yet another potential characterless housing estate. I sincerely hope that it might be the former, and so entered and as I left the bordering woodland, my spirits rose as this was a place of natural beauty, although there were signs of the less thoughtful human activity of dumped bedding and discarded cans and beer bottles along a wide track encircling a beautifully undulating, steep-sloping bank to a blue expanse of lake. It certainly looked promising as the start point of a future gem. But I just hope that the abundance of hawthorn bushes is curtailed and a better choice of trees and bushes add to some of the ground cover.

One really pleasing observation I made was a scattering of Buddleia bushes. Whether this was by design or happenstance I have no way of discerning, but it was a welcome sight. Some of this expanse does need protection from the ravages of wind and sunshine and soon, before any dormant seeds are simply blown away.

Also, what was sad to see was that the earlier incumbents had strewn much of the landscape with failed brick residue, making it hard for it to support much in the way of plant life. It is certainly my opinion that Hanson should have been forced to replace this with better quality soil, so that the scars from their labours could heal, and live again. Some trees and bushes chosen carefully in relation to the nature of the soil, and the attraction of animals, birds and insects to repopulate this landscape.

The current canvas is a wonderful starting point, and the worst aspects of human behaviour of treating open spaces as litter dumps should be actively proscribed, by heavy fines and spells of litter removal at uncomfortably early hours to ensure that when responsible visitors arrive each day the area is once again pristine. All fines should be invested in providing sustenance for volunteers for any improvement initiatives undertaken.

I met a young lady undertaking an inventory of some of the current species that call this place home, apparently on behalf of Bedfordshire County Council, which was welcome news, as this area should be cherished, enjoyed, and above all preserved and protected. So I hope the Quest name defines a promising future for this jewel of a place to shine.

A Broglake Break with Foilers

There seemed enough wind to consider that there would be those who would take the opportunity to do some windsurfing, so I got together the camera, long lens and tripod and headed for the Lake at Brogborough — on arrival I was not sure my surmise was correct as the number of cars here were fewer than I had hoped.

I parked up and walked towards the shoreline, and I spotted a single sailor out on the water, but as I reached the trees, I realised there were a few more, and Sam was among the number, so I headed back to the car and opened the boot to get the camera onto the tripod. I had also noted that one of the sailors on the front was sporting an upturned board with a hydrofoil, and I recognised him as an experienced windsurfer that I had not seen before with one. After chatting with him as he began preparing his sail on the mast, I set the tripod up on the jetty ready for when  anyone took to the water.

Here was a chance to see more people taking to foiling on the lake and, with different types of hydrofoil; even Sam was on a different design from what I had seen before. It was not long before I was shooting, and watching Sam do his best to keep airborne whilst gybing despite a fickle wind. Since much of the activity took place a good distance out, it was fortunate that I had opted for using the additional 1.4x Converter on the Sigma 60-600mm Sports lens, and increasingly I was using the Acrotech Long Lens head in preference to a gimbal, which was smoother, but did require me to lock it firmly when not shooting.

Although I was not there for long, I was tending to attempt to get sequences, so the amount of shots taken soon mounted, and this coupled with the heat adversely affecting my computer has meant it has taken way longer to get these images up, which is a shame.

Sunshine! Marston Lake — Alive!

It was great to get another day to check out just what kit works best in a typical situation. I was assessing the use of the gimbal versus the Long Lens Head. Both require a leveller to avoid adjusting individual Benbo tripod legs. It is always better to be taking shots that are meaningful rather than just a theoretical test, hence my delight in good light after a dull week.

I have used a Manfrotto leveller, but it was never really smooth, whereas using the Acrotech version that I have recently purchased from Bob Rigby proves to be both lighter and far better, allowing me to adjust the tension separate from locking it fully, and this becomes obvious instantly by the tensioner being far smaller, so once set it can be ignored.

I drove to the opposite side of the lake to a swim fortunately not occupied by an Angler, to a spot where there are both reeds and two beds of lilies frequented by both damselflies and Dragonflies, with only the damselflies on the lily pads, whereas both landed on reeds. I set two of the tripod legs in the water.

Sunlight not only provides better lighting, but meant there was more birdsong to be heard, and the Swans were on the lake, but still no sign of the Grebe, but the departure of the Cormorants was welcome. There were sounds of cars circling the nearby Millbrook Testing Ground, but this was only sporadic on this afternoon.

I captured some odd behaviour of a male damselfly which was almost like fitting, in that it would arch its body then go rigid and straight, then double up again. There were a few coupled damselflies being mobbed by presumably jealous males, and similar activities amongst dragonflies where females were being chased in flight, mostly, though not exclusively by single males.

The dragonflies also landed in the shoreline bushes and even the ground for their rest, whereas the damselflies were most abundant amongst sunlit rushes. The banks slope steeply from the shore, but at this spot in sunshine the vegetation underwater was clearly visible beneath the surface, which added interest to some of the backgrounds beyond the lilies.

I managed to get a good shot of a dragonfly in flight which is always a challenge, especially when, as it was on this occasion, quite breezy. On several occasions I spotted a dragonfly land on a reed only for it to dip crazily due to its weight, or be suddenly tossed around in a sudden gust.

There were two distinct species of Dragonfly; gold-bodied and dusty blue, and the pair of swans were very independent on this visit to the lake, and one did come over towards my position to check me out.

Although most of my time was spent at two swims either side of the lilies I did go to two further ones beyond where my car was parked when activity slowed by the lilies as the sun cast its shadow over them. altogether a very satisfactory couple of hours spent lakeside, in the brightest day for some days.

Visit to a Stewartby Field Path

Using an OS Map of the Stewartby area, I located a field on the outskirts of Stewartby, just beyond the Railway bridge along the road leading to the Ampthill Road, that appeared to show a series of lakes. There was a lay-by opposite the entrance, so initially I parked the car and decided to investigate on foot without any cameras. The field was full of wild flowers, and though there was an information board to the left of a navigable strip, it was barely accessible without a scythe!

I took the easy route and the path widened to  the left of a hawthorn hedge, with several newly planted trees, with a bank on the left that overlooked a stand of reeds, and I suspect that beyond were the series of small lakes that were designated on the map, though I could see no sign of water. Unencumbered with photographic gear, I strode along till I reached a bridge over a brook that led into the adjacent field; I did investigate this, but it held no interest and continued along the field margin to the left for a distance to check it out, then returned the way I had come.

On my return trip I spotted a small trio of rabbits, but they promptly disappeared back into the thicket as I approached, so I took note of the spot for my return later with a camera. I decided it was definitely worth setting up the camera, so collected EOS R with the 60-600mm Sigma and 1.4x Converter and mounted it on my medium heavy tripod with the Acratech Long lens head and leveller which I could heft without too much strain. Access was very muddy, so I lifted the tripod over the gate and stood it on the solid concrete beyond then navigated to path avoiding the worst of the mud more easily unencumbered, then collected it once beyond and continued along the path. It was very muggy and when I stopped to capture some of the bees at work, I had to keep wiping my steamed-up glasses. I made my way slowly to the corner spot where earlier I had spied the rabbits, and did not have too long a wait before one broke cover gingerly, I waited patiently and was eventually rewarded by the appearance of two more. After a few shots from that spot, I moved a few steps closer over about fifteen minutes, before they decided I had come too close, and they took cover.

After that I took a few more shots before departing, I managed to get a shot of a butterfly and some bees, but I will return when the sun is out, and I will investigate the reeds to see whether there is water beyond, but in more suitable footwear.

An Interesting Visit to Tring Reservoirs

 

On my arrival at the Car Park at Tringford Reservoir,  I noted several cars already there, so rather than immediately set up the camera and tripod, I decided to check out who was at the lakeside. It was good to have a chat and one outcome was that I was treated to a privileged trip through the woods to visit one swan on her nest. Before that, I recorded the gathering of the circular bales from the now otherwise bare field, by tractor with twin spikes. These early shots were handheld on my EOS 5D MkII using the 24-70mm lens.

I then set up the Benbo tripod and Gimbal head and mounting the Sigma 60-600mm with the 1.4x Converter on the EOS R, and headed over the road to the Marsworth Lake, where I met up with a new young family of Greylag Geese. The new Season’s youngsters were in evidence for Swans, Geese and Ducks, which is always a welcome sight, and in the sky above the Lakes were black headed Gulls, Tern and Pigeons, and on the banks were luckless anglers, one of whom had put out bread and bait to attract fish, which only attracted the gulls which demolished every last scrap as if their lives depended upon it!

Much to my regret, I saw no sign of Kingfishers and precious few Grebe, though I spotted two Herons, they were at a distance, and as if to rub sand in the wound, upon my return to my car a lone heron was in the middle of the very field the car was in, but too distant even for my lens, but I did attempt to lessen the distance but in vain, for I had barely reduced the distance between us by five feet, it took off into the distance!

Another Marston Lake Visit – Dragonflies

Initially, I set off to consider another lake to find birdlife, but having got it surrounded, It became obvious the one I had been considering was a non-starter, as there was neither a handy car park nearby, nor did it seem to be publicly accessible. So, after twice parking up and taking short investigative walks to try to find ways to reach the lake, I turned back and headed for the nearer lake at Marston. On arrival, l keyed myself in, and sought out the Water Bailliff, so that I could show him the images I had of the Woodpecker that we had heard first from the farther shore of the lake.

I stopped off at the swim where I spotted his car, and hearing him on his phone, took the time to dig out the Woodpecker prints from the previous visit to let him take a look. When the call ended,  I showed him both the Grebe couple on the nest in the reeds and a couple of the Woodpecker, before moving further round the lake to see what I might come upon, though thus far the lake was both calm and with no sign of any aquatic birds, despite an abundance of birdsong from the surrounding trees.

I headed further around the lake, and initially, since the water was bereft of any birds, I simply put my long lens and EOS R on a monopod to take a look at far margins. I did find a lone coot, but almost as I was about to consider packing up and leaving I spotted a Grebe, so decided it might be worth putting up the Benbo tripod and the EOS R with the Sigma Sports 60-600mm and 1.4x Converter.

On my return to the bank, I spotted a lone dragonfly, so despite the challenges of a lone and elusive subject, I did at least have the prospect of capturing some of the life on this small area of water. In my favour also was the light which gave me a better chance of  getting the shot with the extra depth of field and a higher shutter speed. I thought for a moment the dragonfly might be doing a circuit around the reeds, but it only happened the once. Why that was something that I relished was that if that were to happen regularly enough, I might capture an image in flight, because there would be a chance to prefocus at a spot along its path, and pick it up and pan it. That was how I had succeeded much earlier, on the very first day I used my 300mm after its purchase, but the dragonfly did not oblige on this occasion!

I had several long gaps in shooting this day, so also went and got my DSLR and the 85mm f/1.8 lens to capture other shots, such as an unusual red-winged butterfly, or maybe daytime moth, some of the springtime blossom abundance, and also the mirrorless EOS R with the 60-600mm and 1.4x Converter atop the Benbo tripod and Sirui Gimbal head.

This gallery shows the main kit I was using, a daytime moth and a small butterfly that visited me from the tunnel of trees that led down to the Swim I was at.

Southill Visit – Millennium Wood

 

Having had the good luck to capture some shots of a woodpecker, albeit at quite a distance, it reminded me that the other location where I had caught sight of one was in a small wood in Southill which though at a greater distance from me, had one distinct advantage as where I had come across it was in a clearing within a clearing atop a mound at the Millennium Wood, so that was where I was headed, and also of note was a small secluded lake nearby. However, that turned out to be a non-starter as it was within private grounds, and clearly defined as such with signs displayed at its high hedge boundary.

Due to my somewhat laggy SatNav on the phone, I also managed to add several miles to the outward journey by passing the junction on the A421, and having to travel to the next one and retrace my path to the earlier junction!

As my visit was at a weekend, I was in luck with parking meaning there was no distance to walk from the car, and anyway I was travelling light with just one camera, the EOS R, and the 24-70mm lens with its macro facility which came into use on a couple of occasions. The Wood is in the midst of adding more trees, and the established ones still had the first leaves of the season so were looking very fresh. It was however very noticeable that there were a preponderance of very insistent flies, something I associate more with hotter climes, and in the time I was there, became very annoying, and considering the small lake was not too distant with a far more suited habitat, I cannot account for why they should be so abundant.

The light was good throughout, and I only encountered three other souls during the time I was there, and the sounds of birdsong was almost constant with one particularly loud and insistent bird giving it its all, though I never caught sight of it! Needless to say on this visit I never heard nor saw a woodpecker, but was treated to the lament: “My toe Hurts Betty” from wood pigeon or pigeons almost as continuously as the unnamed bird I first encountered upon entry. Considering it was a warm Sunday afternoon I was very surprised to find so few visitors to this haven of Peace and freshness, so alive to the sounds of birdsong.

Marston Lake – Grebe on Tamron 150-600mm–EOS R +1.5x

This week was not going to give me many chances for an early start to visit a lake, so Tuesday was one that allowed me that opportunity and it was fortunately not overly cold. There were two purposes for this visit, the obvious one was do my best to get some more shots of the resident Grebes, the second was get a further idea of how effective the lighter Tamron lens was, now it could be married effectively with the Canon EOS R mirrorless body. I knew it worked very effectively with the Sigma 60-600mm, and I knew there were times when a lighter lens was essential purely due to the distance I might have to travel with a long lens, and the Tamron had proved to be a good sharp lens before I had bought the early equivalent Sigma, what I was less sure was how it might perform overall with the EOS R.

This trip put my mind at rest on at least that score, but  I still have to master how to deal effectively with placing of the cursor on the screen speedily and consistently. Several times I have lost the focus square to the top edge of the screen when I need to place it more strategically to follow my subject, especially off-centre.

I am improving my success with panning, and living with the slightly stuttering movement as I follow a bird especially if in flight as opposed to on the water, The incentive to polish this aspect is because with the larger pixel count of the EOS R compared to my EOS 5D, if I get the shot it is definitely cleaner, lacking noise in comparison under similar circumstances when light is borderline.

I stayed only long enough to give me sufficient time thereafter in processing the images I managed to capture. I was unable to see a successful fishing foray with the Grebe, but did get a shot of a black-headed gull with a small fish it had just caught, and a lone Grebe, searching and calling for its mate, as it swam to every corner of the lake.

Brogborough Lake & Gusty, High Wind

Tamron have just updated their 150-600mm lens that I still own - so on this day I decided I would check it out by shooting with it on my EOS R now that I have it back with me and, I am very impressed!

A bit of back history — I have had this long focal length zoom for some time, and kept it, even after buying the later equivalent from Sigma, because of the weight difference; it is far lighter than the Sigma, and when later still, Sigma brought out the even longer range 60-600mm lens, I still hung onto it when deciding how to finance the Sigma purchase. After doing some testing with a sample kindly lent me by Sigma, it so impressed me, I sold their earlier version for the two reasons that it was largely duplicating the former Sigma and, two heavy similar lenses made no sense. The far lighter Tamron was no slouch in the quality stakes, and the clincher was selling the Sigma gave me the funds to buy its big brother! If the Tamron could benefit from the use of the EOS R and function fully when coupled with a 1.4x Converter, I would have a very handy, far lighter lens when having to carry it any distance.

Having had a dry run at home, the combo seemed just fine, but I needed a proper trial and Brogborough provided just what I needed, and I have not been disappointed, so I shall be passing on my further thanks to Tamron on Monday.

I arrived at the lake with a few sailors already on the lake and after a brief check on who was out there, I assembled the EOS R, the simple conversion ring for my earlier Canon lenses, but added the 1.4 Converter and the Tamron 150-600mm lens, and mounted the combo onto my weighty Benbo, and headed for the jetty, but after only a handful of shots, I decided that in the wind and on there, it was way too risky! Terra firma beckoned! I have already had one accident too many with my camera this year, and should disaster befall me whilst on grass, then the kit will survive.

I was hoping that on this visit despite the wind direction being less than ideal for jumps, some of the fearless amongst the sailors would at least give me a chance encounter. I was not to be disappointed except I missed one completely due to my focus point jumping to the side of the screen thereby meaning I missed the whole action, and what I viewed looked like the best and clear jump of the day. I am glad there were no ladies present, because. I admit I swore loudly! I have since washed my mouth out.

I stayed less long than normal as I knew it was going to be a lengthy time at the Mac’s screen, and I had other chores clamouring for my attention, so I may well have missed some of the later action for which I apologise for not being able to record any of those masterful manoeuvres that were performed in my absence. Another day, perhaps.

For anyone contemplating the use of  the Tamron 150-600mm in combo with or without a 1.4x Converter on an EOS R, or possibly the lesser RF, I can say it worked fine for me.

A New Lake to Visit — Weston Turville

On the last visit to my nearest lake, Marston Lake, I met a man who mentioned two others that may well be worth a visit, one at Clayton, and the one I chose to visit first, which was at Weston Turville, which looked very promising as parking close by seemed to be achievable. So on a very warm and sunny Good Friday, I set off in hope. My SatNav however, possibly due to an overload of families heading off for the Bank Holiday weekend, was definitely not being at its most helpful, and the lags meant that on several occasions, it was so slow in informing me of direction changes, I missed several vital turnings, resulting in various diversions to get back on course. It was not however a bad omen.

Initially, so that I had a good idea of the location, I took only one camera, the 7D MkII with the 24-70mm lens so that I could cover the ground speedily to get some idea of the layout, and I travelled a good distance to reach the farthest reach of the lake and to the canal beyond, which was the Wendover arm of the Grand Union Canal, at Halton.

This walk provided me with further signs of the new season, with its fresh young leaves emerging all around, after I had made various detours to reach the lakeside and get an indication of numerous possible vantage points, that might prove useful, I headed back to the car to get a tripod, the Benbo, and the longer lens, the Sigma 60-600mm Sports lens on the EOS R body. With the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, I should also have picked up the 1.4x Converter. Initially, I tried setting two the tripod’s legs in the water, hoping to remain really low, but there was no satisfactory way I could get a convenient height, so erected it on the Bank instead. For quite a while after having spotted a lone Grebe in the distance, he never came particularly close, which was a shame; had I taken along the Converter, it would have been a considerable advantage — next time!

It was good to wind down as for various reasons, the last couple of weeks have been stressful, so much of the time was spent observing and hoping, and my patience was rewarded by the Grebe coming very slightly closer, but the ‘pièce de resistence’ was the Swan making a noisy flapping from the far end of the lake and heading straight towards me! It alerted me, and I managed to twist around and fire off a few shots before he came in to land. I was so pleased, that it rounded off the afternoon, and I immediately packed everything up, and headed very happily back to the car. Once all the kit was safely packed, I headed home, very happy, and I hope what I captured makes anyone viewing the gallery equally as pleased with the end result.

Marston Lake Woods – Signs of Spring

I decided to take a look at Marston Lake in case there was some avian activity on the water, but all I saw were a few Coot and and a couple of Cormorant, but no sign of the Grebe pair I had seen on my last visit, and even those birds I saw were distant. The walk through the woods to the lakeside which last time had daffodils in bloom, now displayed withered flower heads atop their stems looking very sad. However, the new leaves on some trees were fresh and healthy, and despite the lack of sunshine were welcoming.

Presumably the lack of sunshine meant the few ladybirds I saw were lethargic and I may be mistaken but where hawthorn are in abundance, I rarely find much birdsong, and certainly on this afternoon, the only sounds were those of cars, bikes and vans passing along the lane beyond. My walk through the woods could not be described as silent, as with every step I was breaking branches noisily underfoot, so no chance of creeping closer to an unsuspecting bird unless it was deaf!

The early leaves of the Horse Chestnut were a luscious green, hanging as if wet before they gain strength and flatten out. Many of the trees I walked past were heavily covered with what I took to be forms of lichen, and where branches had broken and the wound healed they would often seem like eyes, and with imagination you could see faces, hence why I chose to capture these. On this occasion I did not take any shots of the numerous holes I spotted that I presumed were badger setts, because none looked in any attractive as some I have seen on occasion. There was a single clump of Primula which caught my eye as there were two twigs whose juxtaposition made the whole seem like a drawing of a tree, hence why I took that shot, and I promise I never moved anything; I simply took the shot from the angle that gave me the impression.

Undoubtedly sunshine would have improved the scene, but the purpose of my visit was to take advantage of the lower angles the EOS R offered due to having the flip screen, and to familiarise myself to the new way of working with a mirrorless camera, and every shot was taken with the one lens the 24-70mm with macro facility, and the flip-out screen allowed me use a low angle viewpoint.
I have an apology to make – I slipped up with this gallery earlier, and it failed to appear – IT DOES NOW – Sorry!

Brogborough Windsurfers – EOS R, 60-600mm Lens + 1.4x

For those windsurfers hoping to see what I had managed to capture, I apologise for the delay, but other priorities occurred, and also I learned a hard lesson, bigger files, especially without a fully compliant profile with which to process them, also adds to the delay. The files are now over twice the size, so when you also add into the mix that I have yet to be able to understand just the best way to process the subsequent files, it has taken me way longer to prepare the gallery.

In the recent past, I have used the smaller-chipped 7D MkII to both gain the extra throw of the lens, and to maintain a high burst rate when shooting the Brogborough windsurfers and the Stewartby powerboats. On this occasion, I was using the full-frame EOS R, and to give me extra focal length using the new much longer range of the 60-600mm Sigma Sports lens, I added the 1.4x Converter. It had the effect of making the 600mm become 840mm and in place of 60mm that was now increased to 84mm; which was not too bad a loss when the windsurfers came close – compared to the closest focus of my previous 150-600mm used alone which meant if my subjects came close the cropping was obvious. On this afternoon I had little difficulty keeping the whole sail in frame when I was approached closely, yet equally able to get a good size when they were a good distance away!

I still have to find an effective solution to placing the cursor where I need it for both autofocus and exposure, so that I can vary the focal length to achieve effective framing and composition. Getting the ring that provides in my instance the means by which I can make quick changes to exposure compensation was essential to give me the level of control I need to work efficiently and speedily.

I apologise to those who feel there were too many shots of Sam and the hydrofoil board, but I was trying to see whether he might complete a successful gybe aloft, and I was impressed he was getting close; I think it was as much due to the fickle wind conditions. I was pleased to have captured some shots of multiple sailors spanning the width of my frame, especially as now the quality details of the individuals in such frames is so much better. I did not stay as along as I might have, because I knew I had little available time to get this gallery up, and now it is late Tuesday as I write this narrative to get the gallery up tonight. I hope it was worth the wait.

EOS R at Bitterly Cold Marsworth

              I set off in sunshine and it was not desperately cold, but the sun soon hid behind cloud cover and the wind strengthened, and I began to wonder about the wisdom of continuing, but I wanted to attempt to take the EOS R body along to venues that will be where this body is put to work, even though reservoirs at this time of year are not at their most interesting.
              On this occasion I certainly was not going to lug around a really sturdy tripod and so settled upon the carbon fibre Silk Road tripod, since all my others are metal and weighty. Even as I crossed the road from Tringford Lake, the sleet and rain began, but having travelled this distance I was not going to wimp out. Having come out of the cover of the trees, the wind had ratcheted up and it was very unpleasant and several f-stops duller, meaning the likelihood of noise intruding on the quality of the images was now a lot higher, so the ISO speed would correspondingly rise and the depth of field would narrow, especially so as I was using the Canon 100-400mm lens and, adding the Sigma 1.4x Converter to give me the throw. This definitely real world testing, or perhaps I could describe it as typically British Weather! The reason for this lens selection was that in order to make the new full-frame Mirrorless Canon affordable, whilst also purchasing Sigma's new 60-600mm Sports lens, sadly my 150-600mm had to go – very bad timing as there are no 60-600s in the Country presently!
              Once I was on the pathway between Marsworth and Startops lakes, I took shelter from the wind and rain, as countless groups of people were heading in my direction at a brisk pace heading for home! Each one with whom I spoke lamenting the the same message "It was sunny when we first arrived!" I should add not everyone was heading away, or, perhaps their homes lay in the opposite direction?!
              After a short stay the sleet and rain thinned, and I ventured further, but soon took shelter  at the hide that faces Startops, though for the greater time I was there, I faced the Marsworth lake, as I had been visited by a Robin and a Dunnock, perhaps lured by my putting several small piles of seeds atop the fence posts, though for the most part both went for the more meagre scatterings I put on the ground. I was a little surprised that both considered this area home turf as Robins are notoriously territorial. I moved further along the path towards the T-Junction where the options of which lake's shoreline you walk, where there several cygnets and numerous Coots and Mallard ducks, and though I spotted a lone juvenile Grebe, it was too distant for my lens especially with such unfavourable light. There were also swooping Gulls, and Cormorants, and I returned to the hide and saw the Robin again, but after a fruitless further hour, I decided to admit defeat and returned to the car and headed home.
              I had learned that Autofocus worked poorly in these conditions, whether this was due to poor settings on my part, or the very low temperatures due to the biting wind, I was unsure, but nine-tenths of the shots that appear in the gallery were obtained manually, and my success rate was low! My hands and reflexes do not perform well when frozen; I did not suffer frostbite, but they took a long while to warm up on the journey back.
              I do hope I do not have to wait too long for Sigma to receive another batch of 60-600mm lenses! Lastly, once again I have done several pairs of images where the first is approximately full frame, and the second is a crop from the same image to indicate the quality obtained. ISO speed ranged from 5000˚ to 12,800˚ ISO, to give some indication of how low the light was, and most were shot at an aperture of f/7.1.