I Taught I Taw a Puddy Tat

[Colin Southern]

Just a little something (in fact the ONLY keeper) from yesterday's airfield walk.

[Donald]

One of the interesting things about this (apart from the mightily impressive image) is your comment, Colin, about it coming from "yesterday's airfield walk". The point being, I suggest, that we don't all need to travel miles and miles to 1000's of locations to make good images. I think you walk round Nelson airfield very regularly and have made many pictures from doing so.

It's a good lesson for many of us to take on board. Get to know a few locations well. Have we looked closely enough at the variety of opportuntities they might offer and not just concentrated on the 'obvious' shots? Have we visited our favourite locations at all times of day to see how they looks in different lights?

I know I sometimes get frustrated with myself for being indecisive about where I want to go for a day. Sometimes I've got to remind myself to go to where I've been before - knowing it will be different.

[Dave Humphries]

There is a lot to be said for this idea, I do it.

I even know which (of my 4 regular) places are better in morning or evening for sun angles, etc.

I try to do each at least every two weeks - 3 out of 4 involves driving and of course I am usually limited to weekend visits.

For wildlife of course, you get to know 'the regulars' and can see how things change over the seasons.

[Colin Southern]

Hi Guys,

Donald - thanks for the kind words! It's just one of those shots that I'll stick on the website and then forget about it. I set the camera up in "quick draw" mode (my name for it); 1/2000th - Max aperture of F5.6, and auto ISO - Servo focus & 5 FPS and then "give me a reason to use it" (so it's good for birds in flight etc). On this occasion I only had the EF 70-200 with a EF1.4x TC - so what you see is pretty heavily cropped (not quite 100% crop, but about 50%).

Dave - yeah - The view remains kinda the same, but different times of day - different tides - different aircraft - different birds doing different things all make for different photo opportunities. I'm amazed at how I can also drive past a spot for years ... and then one day see a shot there eg my "I've seen the light shot" -- I've driven past it LITERALLY thousands of times, and then one day I get what I think is THE best shot I've ever taken (and Yan and Donald STILL beat me - I'm depressed!).