Gillies

I'm stil very scared of the wasps, was amazed I had courage to go that 3-4 foot up to one. Bumble Bees I have a new found admiration for. N4lly - its quite a well known one, dpreview.com - you just find the forum that the camera you have belongs to, some are specially for certain cameras ... best bit is seen photos other people have taken, and learning how they did it, then posting your attempts and been told where you went wrong. Wasps - one insect we could do with out. Gillies

There is no real talent involved- just spent a few pennies on a good camera, joined a Photography forum and learned basics on how to use it. Got ripped apart with every photo I posted, blatantly told how bad my photos were and how to improve them ... best thing was looking at impressive photos other people posted, and what settings they used, and how they shot it. Taking photos of people, and trying to make them look good ... thats what you need real talent for I think. Also is very large element of luck involved when taking photos, guess the main talent is improving your luck by learning how to use the camera. Gillies

Took some shots of this stingy fellows over lunch today. Was a wee bit on edge when photoing this one. Bit cleaner than ones on Sunday. Honey Bee or Hover Fly? Gillies

Its unreal the amount of Spam now - on my work email addresses I am flooded with it, so much Ive had to give up some addresses. the info@ ones get hit the worst - and I make sure thats not the catch-all address. Spammers should be really hard, it cant be that hard to trace them, with a little bit of work. I dont get it on my AOL - but all my work ones I do, blame the ISP I use to an extent. Have cut down to an average of 3 per day from around 120. Its sooooo annoying. Gillies

http://www.madblast.com/funpages/view.cfm/11687

Thanks for all the info guys !!! I never knew until I took these shots that that they carried Mites, I wonder do they eventually kill the Bee ... will do some reading online. Rabster, shot them with a Canon 20D, 300mm Lens in Macro mode, External 550ex Flash with Omnibounce. Vagabond - you know your Bumble Bees , sounds like a good fly - I sometimes have some success with a Size 6 black and orange mudler on loch with a slight wave. Gillies

Sat out the back in the sun today, and took a few shots of Bumble Bees that were buzzing around - I noticed one or two funny wee white bumps on some of the Bees when I checked over the shots on the computer. Anyone got any idea what those bumps are? You can see two wee bumps on this one. Lots of wee bumps on this one, even a wee beastie climing over it. I didnt want to get to close to this fellow - I have a pretty big Wasp phobia .... only over the last few years, have I got over my Bumble Bee one. Gillies

Thanks, I thought it was ... just wasnt 100% sure. The colour and the white, and the give away against other birds of that type. Here is another one, anyone got any ideas of this one? Again a very poor photo as the Lens wasn't up to it, and it was around 20 meters away. Gillies [ 24. April 2005, 01:33 PM: Message edited by: Gillies ]

Was out yesterday for a walk with my mate along the shoreline, I wish I had my eyes open properly as this big bird was sitting on a fence post 10 meters away - by time I got camera up to my eye it was of though. Im saying a Buzzard, but markings on the wings are kind of throwing me off ... so I'm not sure. I could not focus fast enough on it as it flew off, so pictures are absolutely "terrible"! Just after it took of, infront of me. Flying of at quite a speed. Perched around 800 meters away. Any suggestions on which bird it is? really wish I had a proper lens on, could of got nice shots. Gillies

Fish Scotland have a good list of available boats. www.fishsea.co.uk/pages/boatdirecto...om=FishScotland

Daiwa SLX50HV - Just got from USA, not tried it yet Daiwa SL30SH - Good all rounder Abu 12 - Good work horse, better than todays Abu reels Abu 7700 Morrum - Lovely smooth reel Abu 6600 LD - "Worst" reel I've ever had, great when working - but away getting repaired far to often Abu Nine - Nice Smooth reel Abu 7500 CT C3 - Lovely reel, but needs repaired Penn 535 - Sorry, not a fan of this reel, ok for shore use, but as a boat reel not hardy enough - unless looked after Gillies

I use a Canon 20D Digi SLR - the lens I used for that photos is a Sigma 70-300, a reletavily cheap lens, but for the money gives pretty good shots up to around 200mm. Wide open at 300mm, the results are very very poor, and very soft. Here is a 100% crop of a 300mm example I took of the Thrush. Pretty poor quality, to soft. I'm trying to talk myself into getting a Canon 400mm prime lens sometime over the next few months for telephoto shots, results from that should be impressive. If you are really close to an object, ie a foot or two, switch to Macro mode on your digi, you ca get some great shots. Gillies [ 20. April 2005, 11:00 PM: Message edited by: Gillies ]

Thanks for ID'ing the bird Be nice if could train one to pick worms for me, for loch fishing. Gillies

I am useless at identifying smaller birds - so when seen this one outside took a quick snapshot of it. Can anyone tell me what it is? is it some kind of Thrush? Also, seen this fly on a bench - so stuck into Macro and took shot handheld. So glad weather is getting nicer Gillies

Incidentally, had around 10-12 Pollack on the lures before loosing them. For the day I had 40 Pollack, and 12 Coalfish (though only 5 Coalies count in our competitions). Thanks Snatcher! Gillies

Had a very stiff cold wind today, but we finally ventured out to fish our April Club Match - the venue a set of islands that is full of Pollack, so spinning rods and slow retrieve was the order of the day. Conditions were against us with a very jabbly sea, so we could not fish marks we wanted to at all - but tried our best - I hooked a good number of fish on Snatchers lures he sent me , before embedding them in kelp/rocks. From a boat Snatches lures, fished on a long flowing trace (depending on drift speed) with a slow retrieve can catch Pollack. Gillies [ 17. April 2005, 09:37 AM: Message edited by: Gillies ]

Im not bothered about who goes through to the final. Though, possibly maybe would prefer Chelsea ... just to see Mourinho shake hands with UEFA guys When Liverpool had a good team in 80s full of Scotsmen I could not see past them. Now though, they are just like every other "best of the rest" (outwith Chelsea, Man U, Arsenal) Premiership team. I think it should be top 2-3 that get into Champions League Gillies

One mark up here in Lewis, just of Stornoway produced lots of Cuckoos the other week, when other species were been targeted. Gillies

Very smart site Kendo !!! I got 9/10. Gillies

I'll be up in Scrabster on 29th April for match on 30th and 1st - if anyones around and fancies saying hello, I'll no doubt be in the Weigh-in sipping on a bottle of water. Will be travelling up with a guy who looks distinctly like Father Ted Gillies [ 11. April 2005, 03:21 PM: Message edited by: Gillies ]

I get fishing gear/photography equipment from the USA quite a lot, what I do is get it delivered to my friends house over there, and they mail it to me as a Gift - so I dont end up paying crazy import tax of shipping. Just the other week got a Daiwa 50HV reel and around $150 worth of lures from the states. Arrives in the mail, no charges apart from the postage my pal paid. Though when I order fishing gear for my club, since orders are usually pretty large I just get sent direct to me, and usually have to pay the import duty on that, for around £200 to £300 order usually around £30. Last order though I somehow managed to get sneaked through without paying. Gillies

Well done Shaun - great catch, beautiful fish. You'll be smiling for a long time after that catch! Gillies

Shown that picture to my girl-friend ... said to her, she can cook the eggs and I'll find a girl with a nice bum like girl in photo to fry them on ... my joke didnt go down to well Gillies

Have no clue about the horses, but usually put one on, on the National - after years of going for horses with men jockeys and winning nothing, going this year for the horse with the woman jockey. Gillies

I use an AOL broadband connection at 2Mb, and have 4, sometimes 5 machines running of it through a router ... and am adding a server to run of it also over the next couple of days. Have had no problems with AOL Broadband, and their tech support is free. Gillies