Day Before Nikon Gigrin Farm Visit

Monday was scheduled for a trip to Gigrin Farm near Rhayader in Wales, and I was lucky enough to be joining the organiser of the trip, Wildlife Photographer Chris Gomersall. Although this is under the auspices of Nikon UK, I had learned that the trips are camera-type agnostic, so sporting Canon equipment did not place me at a disadvantage or any additional cost burden. The red kite do not have any prejudices either, and they are not the only species of birds that attend the feeding station as I was to learn.

I set off with a clear GPS SatNav route to follow to meet up with Chris, but it did not account for a road closure close to my first destination, Potton – a bridge is being repaired, and this meant I had to phone Chris to find an alternative route to reach him. I arrived only five minutes later than we had arranged and we loaded the car with my camera gear and clothes and set off for Wales avoiding the motorway roadworks, breaking the journey at Telford. Along the way we both got the chance to know each other better and discuss a wide range of topics, not all related to what lay ahead at Gigrin Farm. One surprising incident was when Chris spotted a buzzard sitting happily on a road sign on our side of the road, he mentioned it to me and had I had a camera to hand it was so close I could have filled the frame using a wide angle lens!

We met rain and numerous light-controlled sections of roadworks even on these lesser roads, but arrived well in time to get our gear into the Brynafon Hotel and have some time at the afternoon feeding up at the farm where we took up station in the high hide. We were really lucky with the changing weather as during this ‘bonus’ time we were blessed with a rainbow that stayed for quite a while whilst the birds were still feeding.

We met up with one of the morrow’s delegates at the hide and learned he had seen a spectacular display at Aberystwyth of a Starling Murmuration, which decided us on the hour’s drive to coast to see whether we might be so lucky, but though they appeared briefly it was a very small flock that visited us! But the high tide and the skies still invited us to take pictures.

We joined up again with Daan and his wife at the hotel and suppered together enjoyably, all of us eager to repeat and improve upon that day’s shooting.

Canon CPS+ Wildlife Day – Lingfield

     

There are four galleries of images:

General Observations

The Otters

The Foxes

The Squirrels, a Wildcat and Owls 

This was THE trip I had been waiting for in the series of CPS+ Days Canon has been organising, and the tribulations of the M25 disappeared as soon as I arrived at the venue, knowing the forecast for the weather was good and certainly the trip down had not suggested otherwise. Although I felt I had arrived reasonably early, the Registration area was already thronged with photographers in the de rigeur camouflage jackets with long wide aperture lenses equally camouflaged slung over shoulders all chatting in animated conversation. The only faces I recognised all belonged to Canon, I saw no familiar faces amongst the photographers themselves, but that may in fact due to my failing memory!

Upon registration we acquired wristbands designating groups to make the managing of the numbers work smoothly; we also each were given a timetable and a handy notebook and pencil, though with many of us toting either large bulky lenses, monopods/tripods and in some instances more than one camera body, the opportunity to also take notes was slim, but would certainly come in handy in the future.

The initial Introduction was given by Canon’s Frankie Jim who explained how the day was to be organised; a background to the CPS+ scheme and to let us know that the ‘Toy Shop’ was there to provide us with the full range of bodies and lenses with several staff members there to offer any technical help we might need.

      

My group were the first to set off for live action – the first port of call being the otters followed by followed by the foxes, red and black squirrels and a wild cat, after which we returned to the meeting area for coffee, tea and biscuits and the first of two talks by the speakers for the day, Danny Green and Mark Sisson.

The first talk was given by Mark with some excellent images and the stories behind them taken from his travels around the globe. Here was a man versed in the need to create images that could be used by designers with areas of background that were uncluttered by distracting detail to allow for headlines and paragraphs of copy to fill the pages of magazines.

We then broke for a sandwich lunch before going out to the fields to shoot birds; owls, both static and in flight, returning after this to another talk this time from Danny Green, both notably very different in their styles, and both stressed how much care needs to be taken in preparation, and how sometimes getting the shots they needed may have needed several trips before they were satisfied. Both speakers definitely engaged with their audience with much humour and great interest from the audience.

Altogether, a thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding day that was deservedly appreciated by all who attended – my thanks and compliments to Canon for working so hard to make the day successful.

Canon Pro Solutions Show

I travelled to London to go to the Canon Pro Solutions show at the Islington Business Design Centre. What drew me to this event? I needed to gain an assessment of my damaged EOS 5D MkII, I also wanted to take a look for a replacement Compact Flash Card Reader, and meet up with colleagues from my past working with Adobe.

Ironically, it was someone from UCL (University College London) that I soon found myself standing alongside as he was listening intently to Andy Johnstone from Calumet, this was Ram, who I had not seen for at least six years, and he had also recognised me! We were both interested in the Certon drive enclosures Andy was demonstrating, so we concentrated on this before re-introducing ourselves.

In the ensuing chat I mentioned my recent construction of a time lapse movie for Jarvis and a planned meeting with Steve Cook, the managing director, when he told me that Jarvis are the contractors involved in the MacMillan Cancer building belonging to UCL, and he may be able to get me an introduction there. This will be a useful tidbit to take along to my appointment next week. I met Ram and his colleague from the Mortuary several more times, fortuitously at Philip Bloom’s talk about time lapse shooting!

The show provided me with the opportunity to introduce Andy to someone on the RKC stand with a handy piece of control equipment for doing moving time lapse shooting with a DSLR camera, that I considered ideal for hiring. Others I met were Ray Fitchett of Sigma, Steve Newberry of Adobe, Geoff Dann, professional photographer from Clerkenwell, Richard West and Kevin Dobbs from Nik Software and Andy Campbell from On One Software, Nick Millen from Canon, and several other familiar faces to whom I can never put names. It was heartening to be asked whether I was there working, but that seems to have passed, although Steve asked to confirm my details, as he may just have some one-to-one training possibilities.

Speaking to a Canon mechanic, it looks as if I can get my camera repaired which rounds off a good day.

SRB-Griturn – Precision Engineers

I visited a small Precision Engineering company in Bedfordshire that proves that manufacturing can still take place in the UK. This company formed from two others some seven or so years ago is well-known in the photographic industry for supplying filters, step-up and down rings, and other photographic components. It is less known possibly for the other products it produces, often for other companies.

Even I did not know it produced specialist motor bike parts – it makes products that prevent a bike from flipping over in the case of an accident; if the bike goes down it stays down, which can save the rider from serious injury, whilst also lessening damage to the fairings. I did however know that they produce almost the whole of some high quality bows for the serious archer. They have several products either under development or in small scale production for the new breed of videographer working with movies using the latest crop of digital SLRs from Canon and Nikon.

In the accompanying gallery of images taken during a quick visit to the works, I show the solid block of aluminium from which are manufactured the components of a gearbox in a follow-focus system for Shoot35 Limited, and an intermediate stage of a bow part, and the finished anodised piece.

Not only do they have sophisticated CNC machines and skilled engineers to operate them, but they also have an anodising plant so that components can be finished to a high degree. I am very grateful to Director Terry Fogden for giving me some time to see some of the work he and his team are working on currently. This is a small company that is not standing still in this time of economic difficulty; it is diversifying and by producing a range of quality products and services. Since they are working on something for me, I am hoping that I can continue to capture some of what they do in images and words to show others what a small British company can produce – it is not all gloom and doom!