Snatcher

Here we go Fred ERRMM Two different species !!!! OOPS Well it was 2 years ago after all John

Here we are got the fellah I bet your bird check off list for oz must be quite substantial as well John

WOW Dave,an awesome list !!!!!! Talking of Kookaburras did manage to hand feed one in the wild when we were in Australia. Funny thing was it was standing on a bird identification plaque that had a picture of a kookaburra on it John

Have you got plans to move Fred? John

Nice photo Fred looks similar to one I photographed in Sydney in the Chinese Garden Or was mine a water dragon?? Will have to dig out the photo to compare the two. Are they fairly rare Fred? John

:bigemo_harabe_net-163: :bigemo_harabe_net-163: Nice one Fred. Its fishing gear away for me at this time of the year. Let the younguns brave the snowstorms on Whitley Bay beach at daft o,clock in the morning I am a true "fair weather" fisherman now and not ashamed to own up to it. Still tramp around with my camera gear on a nice sunny winters day though May be out your way again in 2011 for a 3 month "walkabout". Would be nice to meet up with you Fred and also see Hellbelly again You still in the Adelaide area? Hopefully hook up with Bobj in Queensland and my cousins and friends out there. Keep the faith John

Best looking tit I have seen for ages Ayjay Nice short eared owl as well. Seen one flying around on the moors above Stranraer during the summer. John

Took this shot two weeks ago in the Galloway Forest. Red kites are beautiful birds. You can see this one has been tagged John

How drunk is drunk?? this guy is off the map See here :bigemo_harabe_net-163: John

Really enjoyed the lastest episode. I know it involved netting and spearing but it just showed how those Amazonian folk scratch out a living. You got to love the guy,even the wife comments on his casting abilty !!!! Roll on next weeks episode John

Dee catching a Polo mint off the end of its nose See here Blink and you miss it !!! John

Like that canal shot and love those Autumn colours Ayjay The wife and I have now returned to Whitley Bay for the winter. We have shut down our caravan on the Mull of Galloway but what a summer we have had in a wonderful area. Check out this sunrise from our veranda on our last morning. Quite a few of the Cumbrian peaks are visible on the horizon. Still got hundreds of images from our summer over there still to sort. I am sure more will follow John

Well I did go to Kirkmaiden churchyard for my "star trail" attempt and after a few trial shots was astonished to find there was still light pollution present. The next day I had a drive around the Mull peninsular and decided on this remote spot for an another attempt that night. From this spot you can see well into mainland Scotland looking north up the peninsular I returned later that night at about 10.30pm and set up my tripod. I set up on manual ISO1600,lens wide open and I was aiming for a bulb exposure of 60 minutes. I focussed on Jupiter using AF and then carefully switched over to Manual. I aimed at approximately Polaris hoping for a "circular effect" !!! This is what I got Whilst I was reviewing the exposure just happened to glance north and seen the Aurora Borealis,a first time sighting for me WOW. The display lasted about 20 minutes and I was taking 30 second exposures of it. Tragically I had not noticed that the lens was totally fogged with condensation. If only I had zoomed in when reviewing that first one I would have noticed it was terribly blurred. I will NEVER make that error again. I just hope I will get another chance to photograph it. I even appear to have got a shooting star in this shot John

I too short in Jpeg+Raw ie two files for each shot. The Canon RAW file is named CR2. I open this in Photoshop CS4 where you have the option on an initial screen to adjust various paramers eg white balance,temperature,exposure etc. When I am happy with that I then take the open image option again and am then taken into the normal Photoshop screen that we are all used to. I do not know if this is the preferred method but it works for me. I thought that RAW was a gereric format just that they are all the files are named differently for different manufacturers eg ORF is Olympus CR2 is Canon NEF is Nikon BAY is Casio etc Does this help or cloud the issue? John

There is a bit light pollution on our caravan park but you can still see the Milky Way quite clearly Thats our caravan top left Just a general star shot I took from the caravan park Still busy trying to sort loads of photos out from our last trip over to Drummore. More photos to follow John

Hi all my AN marras still over here in our Drummore caravan retreat. Plan to "winterise" the van next Monday and then head back on over Hadrians Wall to Whitley Bay for the winter. Have had a few more goes at night/star photography and even managed to see and photograph the Aurora Borealis(blurred) but at least that is now ticked off my list My Internet connection is very slow over here,photo transfer via a dongle in our caravan - forget it!!! Will show you how I got on when I get back John

Aye Fred in the "dead centre" of Drummore John

Setting offf over to Drummore this Monday for our last stint of the year. Will be staying 2/3 weeks then shutting the caravan for the winter. I do intend having another go at "star photography" if I get a clear night. This is where I am going to set up Kirkmaiden churchyard. It lies in the middle of the narrow Mull peninsular with views of the Irish sea to the west and Luce Bay to the east. Light pollution is zero I am after two shots,the first one I am after is the Milky Way. It is very visible with the naked eye on a clear night. Was thinking of using a 30sec exposure for this one with cable release. Will start at ISO 1600 and then work down to see which setting is the best. Want to include some of the church in the shot as a reference point so F No and focussing ??? will just have to play around. The other thing I want to have a go at is "star trails" I intend to have Polaris near the middle of the screen and intend putting the tripod in approx this spot,possibly a pace or two back. I was thinking about a 30 minute exposure for this one,ISO 200. Its all new territory to me so all input more than welcome. Really looking forward to having a go. May even try a bit "light painting" if it seems required for the longer exposures John

What you after Elton? got thousands of high quality images in my portfolio covering a lot of countries and subjets !! PM me mate,will barter in beer John

Playing catch up with loads of my pictures last night Made a start on my Chatsworth House folder. Went there with the wife and was well impressed. The house itself is well worth a visit,full of valuable and interesting subjects. What pulled my string was the grounds and its modern art sculptures. Now I am not really a fan of most "modern art" and cannot understand a lot of it These sculptures were different,what do you think? any good? Will keep adding a few on as I work through the folder. John

Just to prove that the "old man" is still about A couple of recent fishing shots of me over Luce Bay way 60 today and well monged!!! catch ya later Hold the boat me and my bairns Reet offski cos I now officially smell of ammonia

Never dropped in for a while,been too busy enjoying my retirement over in Drummore,Mull of Galloway. There have been some great photos put on here during my absence. Here are a couple of my last sunrise shots from Drummore. Need to get some fresh ones under my belt John

I resemble that remark Fred John

Hi Fred I have just had my first real go at star photography over at our summer retreat in Drummore. Jupiter is very prominent in the northern hemisphere at the moment so this is my attempt to photograph it. Jupiter is top centre,Drummore seafront is at the bottom and on the right you can see our neighbours veranda. Used Canon 400D,Sigma 18-200 lens,tripod. Think the settings were ISO400 F3.5 30secs with remote release. This next was of the "Plough". Back over in a week or so and intend to have a real good go at it if the conditions are ok. All hints taken on board team John

Thats cute Fred John