The Begwns is an area of upland, common land owned by the National Trust. It’s a favourite place of mine and I want to show you a selection of photos I took there a few evenings ago.

I used  a Nikon D7000 with a 300mm f4 lens for all the shots, all hand held. All photos were taken with the exposure compensation set at -1/2 stop. I find this setting works best in the evening light.

Click on photos to enlarge.

Reeds on a pond on The Begwns. ISO 400, 1/250 second, f8.

The Nikon 300mm f4 lens doesn’t have a close-up setting but can still focus pretty close as you can see from the next shot.

Insect and gorse. ISO 400. 1/1000sec, f6.7.

The Nikon 300mm doesn’t have vibration reduction and is pretty hard to hold steady, hence the fast shutter speeds.

Coot in a flap. ISO 400. 1/1500sec, f5.6.

Where mum goes I will follow. ISO 400. 1/1500sec, f5.6.

Refection of trees in pond. Taken in colour and converted to black and white. ISO 400. 1/1500sec, f8.

Two cuckoos. ISO 800. 1/750sec, f4. Cropped and sharpened.

I was just leaving The Begwns when I heard ‘cuckoo’. It was 8-30pm and the light was getting a bit dim, hence the highish ISO.

A tip for anyone wanting to see a cuckoo: if you can hear it you should be able to see it. They usually perch in the top of a tree but they don’t stay in one spot for long as they get mobbed by other birds – look out for agitated small birds.

One lens, one location, one hour. The Begwns, an amazing place.

If you would like to contact me my email address is will@phonecoop.coop or if you would like to join me on a photography course to The Begwns or other areas of Mid Wales take a look at my website www.photographytuition.co.uk

 

 

The 2012 Hay on Wye Walking Festival runs from 11th to 15th October. In addition to the 45 guided walks, many of them themed – geology, archaeology, map reading etc – they’ll be a pub quiz, bands and a ceilidh.

Click on photos to enlarge.

Under the rainbow, Hergest Ridge. Hay Walking Festival 2011.

Last year was the first Hay Walking Festival and I accompanied a walk from Kington as a photography guide. Basically people were invited to bring along their cameras and I helped them and gave them tips as we went along.

Setting off from the outskirts of Kington.

The walks start from Hay and surrounding villages. They’re graded according to difficulty and length.

Walking on Offas Dyke.

The walk leader pointing out a thing or two.

Offas Dyke and the view westwards to the Welsh hills.

Walk, talk and enjoy the scenery.

To find out more about the Hay on Wye Walking Festival see www.haywalking.org

If you would like to contact me email will@phonecoop.coop or if you are interested in improving your camera skills join me on one of my photography courses. See www.photographytuition.co.uk

To get the silky effect of water moving you need to use a very slow shutter speed. And to be able to use a slow shutter speed you need either very dark conditions or neutral density filters to make it seem dark. But supposing it isn’t dark and you haven’t got neutral density filters? An alternative way of achieving silky water is by using the multiple exposure facility. Not all cameras have this – check your handbook.

Multi exposure photo. Nikon D7000 with 16-85mm lens at 30mm. ISO 100. 3 exposures on Auto Gain at 1/8th second, f16. Exposure at +1 1/2 stops.

I’d never tried this technique before. The camera obviously needs to be on a tripod but the rest was guesswork – I took pictures and adjusted exposures accordingly. Auto Gain – what’s that! Tried it with it on and off – this seemed to be the best result.

Nikon D7000 with 16-85mm at 25mm. ISO 100. 1/4sec f27.

The above shot was hand held. Silly I know, but it was windy, rainy and I was cold!

Nikon D 7000 with 16-85mm at 16mm. ISO 100. 1 sec at f22 using neutral density filters.

Nikon D7000 with 16-85mm at 20mm. ISO 100. 3secs at f22 using neutral density filters.

Original in colour and converted to black and white for a change – not sure if it works.

All photographs taken in the Elan Valley area of mid Wales.

If you would like to contact me: will@phonecoop.coop

If you would like to go to these waterfalls take a look at my website: www.photographytuition.co.uk

I’ve been very busy with photography tuition courses over Easter and got a bit behind with my blog. Rainy day today so a good time to catch up.

Bell tower and church, Pembridge. Nikon D7000 with 16-85mm lens at 19mm. ISO 400, 1/750 sec f8.

Most of the courses I run involve going to the hills, lakes, reservoirs, waterfalls and wildlife of mid Wales but I also have the famous ‘black and white’ villages of Herefordshire on my doorstep. This ‘snap’ is of an unusual church in Pembridge. It is said that they built the bell tower first as a temporary measure but when they got around to completing the church they ran out of money or energy to build it into the church!

Old swallows nest now converted to a wrens nest. Nikon D7000 with 16-85mm lens at 58mm. ISO 800, 1/60sec f5.3.

I like the way the wren has used the old swallows nest but I wonder what the swallow is going to say about it. Incidentally I saw my first swallow and heard my first cuckoo of the year over the weekend. I tried using the flash on the camera for the photo but it was much less clear than without – I’m not a great lover of flash photography except for use as a gentle, very gentle fill-in.

Female Sparrow Hawk. Nikon D7000 with Nikon 300mm f4 lens. ISO 800, 1/2000 sec f4.

I saw this Sparrow Hawk in my garden last night – quickly grabbed my camera and took some useless shots through my dirty windows. I managed to get this one shot before it flew off as I opened the back door.  There was no time for setting up the monopod and the light was poor. The photo is heavily sharpened and the shadows are lightened a bit – basically it’s not a very good shot!

If you would like to contact me email will@phonecoop.coop or if you are interested in coming on one of my courses see www.photographytuition.co.uk

I regularly go to Gigrin Farm Red Kite Feeding Station in mid Wales where you can see as many as 600 kites a day!

In the £4.50 hide at Gigrin Farm.

As fast shutter speeds are essential it’s vital to go on a sunny day.

Red Kite. Nikon D80 with Nikon 300mm f2.8G ED VR II. ISO 250, 1/3000 sec f4.

You can photograph the kites from a variety of hides. The basic hides with rather narrow views are £4.50 per person – these are perfectly good for a first time visit. The next hide up is the Gateway hide at £10 which gives you a much wider opening and so is easier to photograph the kites when they are overhead. The hides for the wealthy and ultra keen are the photography towers at £15 and £20. I’ve never tried these as I’ve always felt happy in the other hides.

Red Kite. Nikon D80 with 300mm f2.8. ISO 250, 1/3000 sec f4.

I’ve found the best lens to use on a DSLR is a 300mm lens – preferably a fixed focal length 300mm but a zoom lens is fine. Any longer than 300mm and it gets extremely difficult to follow the birds.

My method of photographing  any birds or animals is to get an idea of how they behave first – try to work out their movements and that way you can anticipate where they are going to go.

All kites are different! It’s best to pick a large, well-marked kite without a plastic wing tag. Follow this bird as it circles and try to anticipate when it’s going to be in a good position to photograph. A good position being when the light is on the wings so it’s not just a silhouette against the sky.

Red Kite. Nikon D80 with 300mm f2.8. ISO 250. 1/4000 sec f2.8.

When you follow the birds around you’ll notice that at some point they’ll dive for the food. The trick is to frame your bird so that it is always at the top of your viewfinder so when it dives it moves into the centre of the picture. This isn’t easy and everything happens very quickly.

Red Kite. Nikon D80 with 300mm f2.8. ISO 250, 1/4000 sec f2.8.

I must emphasise that any wildlife photography is quite tricky – don’t expect to get great results first time as it takes years and years of practise.

If you would like to contact me my email is will@phonecoop.coop 

Or if you are interested in learning more about photographing Red Kites or improving your photography skills generally take a look at www.photographytuition.co.uk

One of my students asked me recently why their wildlife photos weren’t as good as the ones in magazines.

It seems pretty obvious but I pointed out that what he was seeing were the best, the very best photos – not the failures, not the OK shots but the tip of the iceberg, the very rare brilliant shots. That made him feel a bit better about his attempts.

At this point I’d like to show you a photo of an adder. I’ve spent 3 full days, driving hundreds of miles, going to perfect locations, searching in vain for an adder. Guess what? No adder , no photo.

Common Lizard. Nikon D7000 with 16-85mm lens at 78mm. ISO 400, 1/750 sec f8.

The best I can manage is a picture of a lizard!

You don’t usually hear of the failures but I admit I failed – this won’t stop me trying though and before this year is out I’m determined to get a picture of an adder.

It won’t be a cheat photo either. An adder in a cage, a tame adder or one I’ve been feeding or paid someone to feed for the last 6 months to get reliant on the food and become semi tame.

I explained to my student that not all ‘wildlife’ shots are always quite what they seem!

Grey Seal. Nikon D70 wth 70-300mm lens at 300mm. ISO 400, 1/500 sec, f8.

The above photo is of a genuine wild Grey Seal – honest!

How does a zoom lens compare against a fixed focal length lens?

It’s more difficult to make a lens that works well at a number of focal lengths than one that just needs to get it right at one focal length – but just how big is the difference?

Nikon 70-300mm f4.5/5.6 VR and Nikon 300mm f4 AF-S compared.

The set-up used for the test.

Both lenses were tested at 300mm – obviously!

The camera, a D7000, was set on a sturdy tripod and the photos taken with the mirror up using a remote release to minimise  camera shake. The VR on the 70-300mm was switched off.

A section of the book was then enlarged.

Nikon 70-300mm f4.5-f5.6 VR at 300MM f5.6.

Nikon 300mm f4 AF-S at f5.6.

Both photos were taken at 5.6 as this is the largest aperture available on the 70-300mm lens at 300mm. These images are straight from the camera – apart from cropping nothing has been altered.

Clearly the 300mm f4 wins and it’s interesting to see exactly how much better it is.

The zoom lens performed better at f8 but was still a good way behind the 300mm f4 even at it’s widest open setting of f4.

Conclusion.

This isn’t as straight forward as it may seem!

70-300mm = £430

300mm f4  = £950

The 70-300mm is a VR lens – Vibration Reduction – and is roughly half the size and weight of the 300mm f4 and is consequently much easier to hand hold. In the real world, ie not using a tripod, the 300mm f4 is quite hard to hold steady and camera shake is likely to be an issue, evening up the differences in the lenses.

I use both these lenses. The 70-300mm is great for carrying around all day and covers a usefully wide focal length range but for ultimate quality, for example photographing birds from a hide, I take the 300mm f4.

I hope you found this helpful.

If you have any questions please email me: will@phonecoop.coop or if you would like to join me on a photography course and try out these lenses for free take a look at my website: www.photographytuition.co.uk

I love photographing Welsh ponies. Around here there are wild ones roaming the hills and lots of pony trekking ponies in the fields.

Aaah! Nikon D80 with 16-85mm lens at 68mm. ISO 400, 1/250 sec f8. Exposure at -1/2 stop.

By reducing the exposure by 1/2 stop I’ve managed to get deeper, richer tones in the ponies coats.

As in all my photographs I do the absolute minimum of photo editing and definitely no Photoshop – I don’t even have it!

Sunset pony. Nikon D80 with 16-85mm lens at 48mm. ISO 200, 1/500 sec f5.6. Picture quality set to vivid.

This photo above was taken on a very cold but beautiful winters evening as the sun was going down. The pony stood in this position for quite a while and actually seemed to enjoying the sunset.

Autumn on the hills. Nikon D80 with 16-85mm lens at 85mm. ISO 200, 1/250 sec f8. Picture quality set to vivid.

In the photo above I put the camera on a vivid setting. This is to enhance the autumn colours and make the ponies stand out a bit more. I actually think the vivid setting is a bit too strong but equally the default setting is a bit too dull.

I’m not a great lover of the millions of options available on my new Nikon D7000 but it does allow me to set precisely the colour settings I want.

Same ponies, different view. Nikon D80 with 16-85mm lens at 30mm. ISO 200, 1/250 sec f8. Exposure +1/2 stop to keep the mist looking bright.

 

Nikon D7000 with 16-85mm lens at 52mm. ISO 200, 1/350 sec f8. Exposure +1/2 stop.

Snow can often look a bit grey if you leave it up to the exposure meter hence the + 1/2 stop in the above photo.

If you would like to photograph wild Welsh ponies why not join me on one of my courses.

See  www.photographytuition.co.uk  or email me : will@phonecoop.coop

Skomer is a small, beautiful island in  Pembrokeshire, West Wales. It’s a haven for hundreds of thousands of seabirds and a photographers delight.

Puffin. Scanned from 35mm slide film using an Epson perfection V330 photo scanner.

I’ve been going there for over 30 years and was a volunteer assistant warden for a while. I’ve visited many beautiful islands around the world but Skomer is still one of my favourites.

Best time to visit?

Spring and early summer – basically the time when the seabirds arrive to make their nests and have their young. It’s also a good time for the wild flowers – catch the fantastic bluebells in May.

Razorbill. Scanned from 35mm.

What can you see?

Huge colonies of Kittiwakes, Razorbills, Guillemots and Puffins. Also gulls, owls, choughs etc. There are also hundreds of thousands of Shearwater but these only come out at night – overnight stays on Skomer are possible and highly recommended. Google ‘Skomer’ for further information.

Puffin. Scanned from 35mm.

It’s also possible to see seals and a surprising number of porpoises around Skomer. I’ve also seen a few dustbin lid shaped fish called Sunfish.

Shag. Scanned from 35mm.

What camera gear will you need?

A 70-300mm lens is probably the most useful if you’re hoping to photograph puffins. They nest in old rabbit burrows which are often very close to the footpath giving you good, close up views. For cliff nesting birds like the Kittiwakes, Guillemots  and  Razorbills a much longer lens is necessary.

Note on the photographs.

All the photos were taken on 35mm transparency film and then scanned into digital using an Epson perfection V330 photo scanner (price around £85). The results are poor – maybe I should have used a specialist scanning company or spent a bit more on the scanner.

If  you would like to talk to me about bird photography email will@phonecoop.coop or if you are interested in learning the techniques for photographing birds and would like to go on a photography course see www.photographytuition.co.uk

I’ve photographed the green flash but I’ve never seen it!

In fact I used to think it was a bit of a myth until one day I was sorting through a heap of sunset photographs and there it was. What a brilliant surprise!

Click on the photo to enlarge.

The green flash. Nikon D80 with 70-300mm at 195mm. ISO 320. 1/750, f8.

The photograph above was taken at sunset January 2011 during very clear conditions.

Clear, haze free conditions usually occur in Britain when the wind is from the north.

The camera was set on vivid to get a punchier sunset. The photo is cropped a little but apart from that it’s unedited and unmodified in any way.

I didn’t take many photos of the sunset and was totally unaware I’d captured the green flash.

This photo is particularly unusual in that it shows part of a normal sunset at the same time as the green flash.

What is the green flash?

It’s all to do with the refraction or bending of light. Wikipedia gives a very good account of it.

When can you see it?

At sunset or sunrise. It occurs just above the sun as it disappears/appears from below the horizon. Clearly it’s much easier to photograph the sun setting than trying to guess exactly where the sun will rise from.

Where can you see it?

Anywhere. It doesn’t have to be over the sea. My photo was taken from 1,500 feet with the sun setting behind the highest mountain in the Brecon Beacons at nearly 3,000 feet.

There’s loads of advice online about photographing the green flash – using filters, tripods, focal length etc – my advice: just give it a go and, like me, you might be lucky.

If you would like to contact me email will@phonecoop.coop or take a look at my website www.photographytuition.co.uk . I run courses in the Brecon Beacons for photographers of all abilities. Green flash sunsets a possibility!