2017 Project 52 - 1st Quarter by Geoff F

[Goldcoastgolfer]

With the golfers, I turned around after taking the seascape shots and realised a potential scene with the brightly clad golfers in the foreground and the large house plus the church tower as a background element to fill in the gap between the golfers. I also wanted to include the tree on the right side.

Which resulted in another frantic change of thinking from the seascape mode as those women were moving around and preparing to enter the putting stage. However in this case my first shot was a total disaster and only serves as a warning about how easy it is to break all the rules if you don't keep a clear head.

Sometimes opportunities don't give you a chance to think - you just have to react and hope for the best, particularly when it comes to action shots. If you get one good shot out of it, I think it's worth it

[skitterbug]

Geoff ~ I enjoy your photo work and I especially like wildlife so the pics of the birds on the beach drew my eye. The Rock Pipit shot is clever! I can see the caption - "Should I? Shouldn't I? What to do?"

Well done!

[Geoff F]

Thanks for the comments. And now . . .

Week 11. Once again it was volunteer day at the wildlife wood and another dull showery day so, for safety, I put my Fuji X20 camera inside a plastic bag before placing it into my backpack instead of taking better equipment; but in reality the rain never amounted to much.

One of my jobs was cleaning out the bird boxes. After I returned home I thought that I should have taken a photo of the other guy up a ladder doing the same thing as me; but when you are working you tend to forget about things like that. Anyway here are a couple of unusual things from the boxes.

Woodpecker attack. Sometimes the entrance holes get pecked about when a predator attempts to get inside but this was a more serious problem. The original entrance hole was half this size, and the wood is one inch in thickness!



Fuji X20 1/40 F5 Iso 200. I thought I was on Iso 400 but didn't check. Anyway, this just about works despite being handheld in poor light.

Hornets had constructed a nest inside another box. I managed to remove part of their old nest intact and placed it on the ground for a photo.



1/150 F6.4 Iso 200

[Shadowman]

Nice set.

[joebranko]

Nice shots. I particularly enjoyed the hornets' nest. Good thing no one was home!

[John 2]

Interesting shot of the Hornets nest Geoff. Nature is so clever. Perfectly formed hexagons without the need for an "O" Level in Maths. (might even be an "A" Level today).

[skitterbug]

Both pics tell the story! The first says nature is a tough place to live! And the second shows the determination of the hornets to create more life! Glad they weren't in there when you took the comb! I like the background in #2 because it shows deterioration too and yet there is bits of new fern life appearing. Well done.

[Cantab]

Thanks for the comments. And now . . .

Week 11. Once again it was volunteer day at the wildlife wood and another dull showery day so, for safety, I put my Fuji X20 camera inside a plastic bag before placing it into my backpack instead of taking better equipment; but in reality the rain never amounted to much.

One of my jobs was cleaning out the bird boxes. After I returned home I thought that I should have taken a photo of the other guy up a ladder doing the same thing as me; but when you are working you tend to forget about things like that. Anyway here are a couple of unusual things from the boxes.

Woodpecker attack. Sometimes the entrance holes get pecked about when a predator attempts to get inside but this was a more serious problem. The original entrance hole was half this size, and the wood is one inch in thickness!



Fuji X20 1/40 F5 Iso 200. I thought I was on Iso 400 but didn't check. Anyway, this just about works despite being handheld in poor light.

Hornets had constructed a nest inside another box. I managed to remove part of their old nest intact and placed it on the ground for a photo.



1/150 F6.4 Iso 200

Geoff, are there predatory squirrels in your area? I've seen crows chase squirrels away from a crow's nest (and a good many years ago, we had squirrels that gnawed their way into our attic).

[Geoff F]

I did try a couple of background areas for the hornet nest image and finally decided that a somewhat discarded scene of old leaves etc would look most natural without being too distracting.

Squirrels are something which I did consider but the bird experts all agreed on this being typical woodpecker damage.

Today I did a repair while I could hear woodpeckers drumming in the distance.



I also erected a couple of those ultra cheap boxes which are sold in garden centres as an experiment to see if they really do work. I'm doubtful but we will see what happens in due course.

And an experimental box of my own design.



A few years ago, someone created this experimental design for Treecreepers and it worked the first year but nothing has gone near the box since then.

[Cantab]

Geoff, I'm intrigued by the treecreeper box. There's a rectangular opening on the bottom. Is that the entrance hole or is there something between the two pieces of flashing?

[Geoff F]

The entrance hole is on the side. I suspect some of that synthetic black material which makes the side has ripped off so the hole has become too big and any nest would be vulnerable to attack. Which may explain the failure of this box.

There is a lid on the front, which is held in place by two turn buttons, that can be removed for cleaning the box.

Maybe a bit of effort should be employed in improving the side and entrance hole. I will have a closer look and think when I'm next in the area.

[Geoff F]

Week 12 - Moss. A rather dull weather week so when in the woods I had a go at some clumps of moss, which tends to photograph best without any sunshine. Even then, I found this to be a difficult task and was still getting some over exposure on the almost translucent growing tips. These are a merge of 4 focus points but I still had problems attempting to get what I wanted in focus while excluding some background areas. Consequently, there were several complete failures and these are the only keepers from the day.



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens. 1/80 F6.3 Iso 400. Not sure why but this merge of 4 focus points actually came out better than those where I used a narrower aperture.



1/125 F8 Iso 400. I could have reduced the Iso. In fact I did that for some attempts but ended up preferring this version.

[skitterbug]

Hi Geoff ~ You have moss, we have cold and snow.

I like both of these but the second is my choice because it seems so much more crisp and full of detail. There is pretty rock(?) included! The leaves are in various stages of decay with some showing the veining only! I really like this one!

[Cantab]

I agree with Sandy. The second photo turned out very well. But now there's the all important question about the identification of the mosses! But I believe we've previously discussed the fact that moss ID is difficult and a whole area of specialty by itself.

In the first photo, there's what looks like ivy. We have "English ivy" here. I don't have its Latin name at hand but it's invasive. Is there invasive ivy in England?

[Geoff F]

Yes, moss identification is somewhat of a specialist subject and I'm definitely a beginner; although I know someone who can identify most of the commoner species by eye.

My guess would be that the deeply cut feathery variety is Thuidium tamariscinum and the more compact form over that bit of rock could be Eurhynchium praelongum. I did also photograph a patch which looked like miniature fir trees but couldn't get an overall sharp focus. On reflection, I suspect it was more like a failure of the focus stacking software than my camera focus.

The normal wild ivy here is the Hedera helix which can appear in a number of variations and there are quite a number of decorative garden ivy species which are becoming popular. I have two types in my garden as well as the wild ivy which I tolerate until it becomes excessively dominant.

There is another form known as Atlantic Ivy which is becoming more apparent in some areas.

[Cantab]

The normal wild ivy here is the Hedera helix which can appear in a number of variations and there are quite a number of decorative garden ivy species which are becoming popular. I have two types in my garden as well as the wild ivy which I tolerate until it becomes excessively dominant.

There is another form known as Atlantic Ivy which is becoming more apparent in some areas.

Yes, hedera helix is the introduced and invasive ivy in probably many areas of North America and definitely in my little corner of the world: http://www.saanich.ca/EN/main/commun...ve-plants.html

[Cantab]

Yes, moss identification is somewhat of a specialist subject and I'm definitely a beginner; although I know someone who can identify most of the commoner species by eye.

My guess would be that the deeply cut feathery variety is Thuidium tamariscinum and the more compact form over that bit of rock could be Eurhynchium praelongum. I did also photograph a patch which looked like miniature fir trees but couldn't get an overall sharp focus. On reflection, I suspect it was more like a failure of the focus stacking software than my camera focus

It appears that Eurhynchium praelongum is relatively common in BC but the pictures I've seen look different from the moss I believe you're referring to over the rock. There appears to be no Thuidium tamariscinum in BC but we do have Thuidium recognitum, referred to on one website as the lesser tamarisk moss.

As you may have gathered, I'm fascinated by which plants (and birds) are common to both Britain and Western North America. Somehow they made the transatlantic journey, or some other very long route in order to be in both locations.

[Geoff F]

Week 13 and more scenes from the wood. I have been attempting to undertake a challenge which I keep putting off. Getting some old maps of the area which is now the wildlife reserve and comparing it to the 1840 Tithe Maps. It meant printing out sections of the area from an online map then scanning them and finally piecing the bits together to cover the entire area in sufficient detail. I couldn't do a simple download of the material. Overlaying the modern outline has proved to be a challenge and I started from completely the wrong place because of the differences between then and now.

Finally I have most of the field names in place, together with the type of farming which was undertaken in each field. All rather small fields. Then I took some photographs, with GPS data encoded, at critical points so I will have some reference points for the modern overlay.

Here are a few of those reference point images.

The wood from Monk's Marsh Field.



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens. 1/320 F11 Iso 400. A better sky would have been a help. Also, when I initially looked over the gate there was a Roe Deer in the field; but by the time I got my camera ready it had disappeared into the distance.

The path in Tongue Marsh.



1/500 F11 Iso 400

Looking north towards the boundary of Aspen Clearing.



1/640 F11 Iso 400

The old lane at the south east corner of Stanton Moor.



1/100 F11 Iso 400. A tricky angle shooting between foliage which meant a bit of pruning beforehand and twisting myself into a suitable position while standing on a slippery bank.

[Cantab]

Geoff, an interesting set of photos and text. I'd not previously heard of tithe maps but now know what they were. If my recollection is correct,, the first ordinance survey maps were not many years later?

I very much like the third photo. For the last photo, were you on the slippery bank of a stream?

[skitterbug]

Hi Geoff ~ It looks like you had a beautiful day for roaming! Your pictures make me want to get out my walking stick and set out to see what is beyond! All four are sharp but the 3rd and 4th stand out, with the 3rd one being my favorite! The gate is beckoning! The sky is beautiful and the trees are starting to green up! Nicely done!