2023 Project 52 by Geoff F - Part 1

[Geoff F]

Once again I am attempting to post at least one image each week. No general theme, just a random selection of things which I have seen in each week.

After so much wet and windy weather, yesterday was a pleasant change to calm and sunny conditions so I had a walk around part of the harbour as part of the New Year Plant Hunt which is collecting information about wildflowers which are flowing out of season.

Week 01 - Salcombe Harbour. Saltstone and Frogmore Creek from the Snapes Point path.



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens. 1/250 F10 Iso 250. Merge of two bracketed exposures.



And the Fish Quay area

[Cantab]

Hi Geoff, Happy New Year!

First of all, I'm glad that your continuing your Project 52.

For me the first photo works particularly well.This is probably because of the more distance piece of land being sandwiched between the sky and the water. It almost gave an impression that I was looking at an island.

In the second photo, I wonder whether some minor localized brightening might be helpful. I had difficulty making out what's in the water to the right of the blue hulled sailboat.

[Geoff F]

I tried to brighten the shadows a little while reducing the highlights but maybe the midtones could be fractionally lightened without losing too much contrast.

Week 02 - Birds. Today was a mixture of sunshine and clouds so I tried to make the best of some sunny periods by visiting a local bird hide, for the first time this winter. But although there were plenty of distant birds the only ones to come close enough for a photo were a few Mallard and a Swan.

[Cantab]

The mallards and mute swan turned out well. We have a few resident mute swans in my area. They're an introduced species but have been around as far back as my childhood memories go. I was at a nearby bird sanctuary last week. Lots of waterfowl and shorebirds but no swans easily visible. Several years ago there was a pair that nested not far from my home.

What lens were you using? The resolution in your photos looks decent so you presumably did not have to do a lot of cropping.

[Geoff F]

For birds I use a 150-600 Sigma Sport lens which is quite sharp right up to the 600 size, although possibly a fraction soft on the 150 end.

I did move the right hand male Mallard a bit closer to the bottom edge and nearer to the female

[Geoff F]

Week 03 - South Efford Marsh. I returned to the same site which I visited last week to do a bit of foliage cutting back around the bird hide. No birds of any interest while I was there.

Looking across the marsh from the access path.



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens. 1/320 F8 Iso 400. Merge of two bracketed exposures

A view from the bird hide.



1/400 F8 Iso 400. Merge of two bracketed exposures

And looking across the creek to an old lime kiln. Those posts mark the edge of a tidal roadway.



1/320 F9 Iso 400. Merge of two bracketed exposures. Rather difficult light angle.

[Geoff F]

Week 04 - Charleton Marsh - Another bird site. I wanted to visit a local hardware and garden store and this site is only half a mile away. But patchy and hazy light with most birds keeping their distance from the hide



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens 1/200 F9 Iso 400. Merge of two bracketed exposures

Heron



Sigma 150-600 Sport lens at 600 mm. 1/640 F8 Iso 640

Little Grebe among the reeds. If only I had pressed the shutter one second earlier.



1/500 F10 iso 640

Teal (male)



1/800 F10 Iso 640

[Cantab]

The reflection of the teals head in the mirror like surface of the water works very well.

In the first photo, what is the tree with more or less in the middle of the picture on the far side of the water? It has leaves near its top and appears to have very contorted branches/trunk.

[Geoff F]

I'm not sure, Bruce, but we do have a few trees around here that I know as Macracarpa (I don't have any idea of the correct spelling) which were popular with the Victorians. Imported as seeds from northern India.

They aren't planted nowadays and those which are still around are getting a bit weathered. Sometimes grown alongside Monkey-puzzle trees (and I don't remember their correct name either). Both types can become a problem due to their size and were often planted in unsuitable situations.

[billtils]

Nice set Geoff, the heron being the pick for me.

[Geoff F]

Thanks Bill.

Week 05 - Slapton Ley and Torcross. The old traditional style butchers shop is about to be demolished after standing empty for some time.



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens. 1/80 mF8 Iso 400. Merge of two bracketed exposures. Dull light.

The other end of Slapton Ley but still a dull day.



1/125 F9 Iso 640. Merge of two bracketed exposures.

[Geoff F]

A unique design plane landing at the local 'airport'. Just a bit of messing about.

[Geoff F]

Week 06 - The Coast Path between Bolt Head and Bolt Tail. Nicely sunny when I left home then some clouds arrived but they were starting to clear by the time I took this shot.



7D with Tamron 24-70. 1/400 F10 Iso 320. Merge of two bracketed exposures.

Which way does the wind blow?



1/500 F10 Iso 320

Some members of the Coast Path Grass Cutting Team



1/320 F10 Iso 400

[Geoff F]

Week 07 - Dredging for scallops in Salcombe Harbour. Went for a walk around part of the harbour where a couple of small boats were fishing for scallops. I struggled because of the light angle but had a go and these were my best attempts.



7D with Canon 70-200 lens. 1/400 F9 Iso 400

Hauling the dredges.



And a little bit further up the estuary is a boatyard (owned by Winters Marine)



24-70 Tamron lens. 1/400 F11 Iso 320. Merge of two bracketed exposures.

[Cantab]

A unique design plane landing at the local 'airport'. Just a bit of messing about.

is this a carefully folded paper plane created by you? A new type of stealth RAF plane?

In any event, it makes for an interesting photo!

[Cantab]

Geoff, in post #12 I thought the two landscape shots worked really well.

In post #14, are the fisher people pulling up cages that are have dredged the bottom for crabs?

[Geoff F]

Many years ago, Bruce, I purchased a discounted book about paper plane design. It included instructions for several designs including the world record flight time plane.

The one in my just for fun photo is basically a standard dart shape but there is a slight tuck in the nose to give extra weight. This gives them a stable and reasonably long flight although not quite as long as the record flight design. That was a somewhat bland looking squarish looking plane with a lot of nose weight which produced a longer flight but at the expense of accuracy.

That boat was hauling their scallop dredges. Their dredges are a bit higher in the mouth width than the normal design. This may catch any which 'jump' upwards as the dredge approaches but has the disadvantage of also catching more seaweed and heavy stones

[Geoff F]

Week 08 - Birds from my garden. A nice bit bit of sunshine on Sunday, but it was half term weekend so I stayed in my garden and avoided the crowds.

7D with Sigma 150-600 Sport lens





Birds on a feeder are relatively easy but I find photographing them when they are flitting about in the hedge to be far more demanding.



And a Blue Tit with a deformed beak, but it seemed to be feeding OK. Although it may well struggle outside the protected environment of my garden.

[Cantab]

Geoff, a good set of bird photos, particularly the robin in the hedge. I'm curious about what particular type of black bird is in the second photo.

[Geoff F]

It is a Carrion Crow, I think. We also get Jackdaws here which are very similar although smaller. But there is a bit of overlap in size between a small juvenile Crow and a large Jackdaw. However, going by the bill length, I would say this is one of the smaller sized crows.

Incidentally, I found an interesting Greenshank at a wildlife reserve today. It has coloured tags on its legs so obviously it has been 'persuaded' to join a bird tracking scheme, but at the moment I don't have any details of why it is being monitored.



Difficult angle and it was running so this shot isn't totally sharp but it was the best one for showing the tag reference.