Invertebrates in the garden this afternoon

Zo Clark said:

Hi Mike because I was away for a week I decided to do 3 parts. before I was haveing trouble with copying and pasteing but have managed to send all 3 parts of my holiday now. Because I have 8 dogs we went on dog walks 3 times a day, one in the morning, second one in the afternoon and 3rd one is usually before It gets dark. We take them out separately we walk 2 or 3 in the morning then the others in the afternoon and the last ones before it gets dark when I have Alfie off the lead in between that time I can take photos but i took lots of photos when I stayed for the night in Yarley so I wasn’t able to until the Saturday cause my devices wouldnt let me open the camara app. But I still got lots of photos from my holidays. Flikr can only let you send a limited amount of Photos unless you pay for pro and I dont have the money cause im saving up for a Nikon camara and iv already reached the limit and Mum and Dad won’t pay for more I cloud storage at the moment on my phone cause they don’t have the money at the moment  they said there in debt. Also I had to help look after dogs most of the time so I couldn’t make much use of my Telescope but I did still look out for Wildlife.

Most people think my photos about my trips and holidays are just for photos but if you want to let me know what you think of them or what I been doing while I was away both at Yarley and in Hucclecote other than what iv written on the posts feell free to comment on them there gone into much detail about Yarly here just in case. I hope you enjoyed Christmas aswell

I had a lovely, and quiet Christmas with my wife, though our son did pop up to see us Boxing Day. He couldn't see us Christmas Day, he has a new lady in his life, so hopefully we'll meet her soon.

So it was a lovely Christmas, and I hope you had a lovely one as well, along with pleasant week away.

While I can't comment on your family's finances, I think I can safely say, most families are having a tough time financially, in too many ways. Mortgages, general bills and the extortion being exerted on gas and electric bills, is just beyond publishable words in my book.

I've seen inflation before with some very nasty price hikes, likewise anyone else who has lived through the 1970's will have, but this is not even beyond reason, it is beyond extortion. As a parent, I can sympathise with your parents and trying hard to balance the books. I no longer have a mortgage, and it's suddenly become tough for me, and I know I'm not alone.

Photo storage, I find is another area of extortion, because we are being encouraged and with many smart devices today, forced to store online because they will not accommodate additional memory via card slots. That then means you either have to dump older photos, or pay for extra storage.

I use a desktop computer for virtually all my photos, though I do use a laptop, which is very handy when away from home.

Personally, I use external hard drives, and currently, they're not too expensive, and store all my photos, on those. I even back them all up on a second external hard drive, should one fail, I have a back up. it's a one off payment, and external drives today have plenty of storage space even for modern cameras.

Flickr without the benefits of Pro, does have limitations. At one time, I think before Smugmug took it over, used to limit to 200 photos, no matter what the size was, whereas today I think it is overall size. So perhaps reducing the number of pixels on the uploaded photos will give you the ability to share more publically.

I have a friend who uses Flickr, but not Flickr pro, because he has a family and the same overhead issues that all families have, but he manages to get close on 800 photos before he has to delete some to make space for the next batch. The trick for him, after I shown him how, was to reduce the over photo size using a photo editing program.

That can bring down the file size considerably depending on how much you reduce the pixels, and therefore allow more photos to be stored. like me, he keeps all his originals on an external hard drive, which he can access any time.

Flickr without the benefits of Pro, isn't cheap, they did have quite a price hike a year or two after Smugmug took it over from Yahoo, so I can understand the affordability issues when you already have Cloud storage, and that's not taking into the current extortionate situation. Incidentally, from what I understand Yahoo didn't run Flickr to make a profit whereas Smugmug want to make a profit, so that could explain why a sudden price hike.

As for photos, they are a journal of your life, your outings and holidays, memories to treasure and share, but they are not just photos for the sake of taking photos. So if you want to take a photo, or even video, then why not.

They can also be educational, informative, whatever you want them to be.

I personally have no problem with what you post, the photos and info that accompanies them, though I will confess that I currently do not look as far back on the forum index page as I used to. That is down to my hospital and nurse visit times and days being all over the place, so guilty as charged for those I may have missed, also not helped by only very recently being able to sit at a computer for prolonged periods without undue discomfort.

Progress is there, albeit very slow with my leg.

As for saving up for a Nikon camera, Nikon is a trusted brand with a good reputation. I'm not sure which model or format you have in mind, what I can say is you can't go wrong with any of the main camera brands, and you don't need to spend a vast amount of money.

It can be very disheartening when you strive to get something, and just as you get close, it seems like it's been taken as far away as when you first started saving for it, be it a camera or something else. Heaven knows, I've been there many times, and a great many others have as well.

My humble apologies for the essay, but keep taking those photos and/or videos, and enjoy what you do.

Photo storage, I find is another area of extortion, because we are being encouraged and with many smart devices today, forced to store online because they will not accommodate additional memory via card slots. That then means you either have to dump older photos, or pay for extra storage.

Sorry for the late reply. yes there are apps that are made to help people store there photos but the apps take up data and memory then online the downside is that with storing things online it is safe but if you don’t hsve Wi fi or internet or mobile signal you can’t access them and also if you store things online just like when you store photos in apps they can still be deleated if something were to go wrong with whatever your useing. And also I find there’s still limitations on how many you can store. Iv pretty much sorted all the photos so all I’m left with is good photos and some of my best ones aswell which I don’t want to deleate cause there good ones so I need somewhere to store them. Iv only got 81,187 photos on my phone cause there all from 2018, 2019,  2020,  2021,  2022. And on my I pad I got 12,810 photos.   I use my devices to record bird calls aswell which have recordings of different types of bird calls going back to 2021. even though a phone and I pad can take photos and store photos they can only store so much until your unable to take any more but even if you do deleate a certain amount of photos say 100 when you take more photos you then have to delete as much as you deleted. So you end up taking photos only to have to delete photos to make room for photos that will need to be deleted to make room to take photos again. 

I use a desktop computer for virtually all my photos, though I do use a laptop, which is very handy when away from home.

Yes they can be good for photo storage.  i have a laptop but my laptop stored so much photos I couldn’t send anymore and even though I deleted them if I added the same amount  I deleated It wouldn’t let me add anymore and laptop started slowing down so it took a long time to do things. Eventually I started getting glitches or malfunctions where it wont deleate photos you want to delete or it will crash. In 2020 and 2021 it took an hour to come on. I started putting photos onto disks or trying to send them to my devices in order to save them in case anything happens to it then in 2022 It stopped working. I wasn’t able to import all of them to my devices so some are still on there but I managed to save some of them. without a laptop it makes things more difficult cause I can’t store my photos or put things onto dvd or use helpful things for storing photos like a memory stick or any other things like that 

As for saving up for a Nikon camera, Nikon is a trusted brand with a good reputation. I'm not sure which model or format you have in mind, what I can say is you can't go wrong with any of the main camera brands, and you don't need to spend a vast amount of money.

It can be very disheartening when you strive to get something, and just as you get close, it seems like it's been taken as far away as when you first started saving for it, be it a camera or something else. Heaven knows, I've been there many times, and a great many others have as well.

Personally, I use external hard drives, and currently, they're not too expensive, and store all my photos, on those. I even back them all up on a second external hard drive, should one fail, I have a back up. it's a one off payment, and external drives today have plenty of storage space even for modern cameras.

Thanks. I think that a camara like Nikon is the way to go my RSPB Wildlife Photography book by David Tipling sugested Nikon and he goes into what to look for for Wildlife photography when buying one which I’m going to try to do. At the moment iv managed to save up to 90 pounds so far 

Zo Clark said:

Thanks. I think that a camara like Nikon is the way to go my RSPB Wildlife Photography book by David Tipling sugested Nikon and he goes into what to look for for Wildlife photography when buying one which I’m going to try to do. At the moment iv managed to save up to 90 pounds so far 

Again I do apologise for being late replying I havnt been very active cause There’s been a lot going on in the house and I havnt been able to get out and about much except stay local but at the moment I havnt been able to take any photos so Iv done some drawings but I can’t send them at the moment because I can’t take photos. For me I started Photography when I was 12. I started off with compact camaras that print photos without you haveing to go and get them printed then As I got older I started useing proper Compact camaras. When I went to College I started useing an I pad. It wasn’t Wildlife photography cause I had a phobia of both Wildlife and domestic animals I completely avoided any places I could potentially come across any and if I ever encountered a dog or a wild animal I’d panic and freeze or panic then run as far away as possible and hide so hadn’t overcome my fear of Wildlife the only animals I was ok with was zoos cause they were behind things and not Free and walking about so if I took photos of animals it would of been zoo animals. 7 years later after I decided to face and overcome my fear it took a year or 2 to overcome my fear of dogs. So my photography started to include dogs .  Overcomeing my fear of dogs and domestic and farm animals gave me the confidence to face and overcome my fear of Wildlife. It took 2 years to overcome them all so after I overcome my fear of Wildlife My photography started to include Wildlife aswell. Then most of my photos were mainly of Wildlife rather than a variety of other things aswell. In 2020 I got myself an I phone. But now I have found that camaras are more designed for photography and I would prefer a camara like Nikon. Yes Iv looked into some of the Nikon camaras on Amazon uk and they can be up to 100 pounds and other Nikon Camaras can be even higher yesterday I found some around 90 which was lucky but it’s not just about the price it’s about the camara so Iv written down all the details if I can get 100 pounds I’m hopping I can get a more recent Nikon camara rather than an older one. I’m thinking of getting the camara then getting the lens after 

No apology required, we all have busy lives, and it's also good that you get out when you can.

You would probably be surprised how many people are frightened of wildlife, and dogs, and there are a lot I've come across, with probably a lot more who won't admit to their fears.

A great many people live in their nice cosy little world, almost sterile, devoid of wildlife, which is probably why nature is under such a great threat, among many other reasons.

Online is good to get an idea of the specifications and prices, but can be fraught with problems if something goes wrong.

While I'm sure there are some good deals to be had online, my advice would be to use a reputable photographic shop, go in and talk to the staff there. You can then handle the cameras, and lenses with the advice on what you will need and around your budget, plus the raport you build up with the shop, if there are any problems, you can go in and talk the problem through.

While I know you are keen on a DSLR, something to consider, there are some very good bridge cameras around that will give you many of the benefits, but not all, of a DSLR, and often for less money.

A bridge camera could be a good stepping stone, and when the time is right and you have the money, then you can exchange the bridge camera for a DSLR or whatever is available at the time.

Iv still got my mind set on the DSLR but Iv been looking into the bridge Camara but I havnt had enough time to look into it properly cause theres been a lot going on in the house but I was wondering if you can tell me about the bridge camara like what it’s best for in Wildlife photography and what it’s like in your experience compared to DSLR and things like that to help me make a decision

Zo Clark said:

Iv still got my mind set on the DSLR but Iv been looking into the bridge Camara but I havnt had enough time to look into it properly cause theres been a lot going on in the house but I was wondering if you can tell me about the bridge camara like what it’s best for in Wildlife photography and what it’s like in your experience compared to DSLR and things like that to help me make a decision

I can't advise on the best bridge or DSLR camera, a lot depends on you, your budget and with the ever changing market, what was good last year may have changed. There's a good old saying; "Never work with animals", because they can be so unpredictable, and rarely where you want them to be to get that perfect photo, as I know you are already aware of. So wildlife photography can be very challenging and push the boundaries.

The best thing to do is visit a trusted camera retailer, have a look at what's there, handle them and talk to the sales person, who should be able to find the right camera for you within your budget and what type of photography you are into.

Also, you can look at used, and often they are well looked after cameras, as well as new, and then make an informed choice, based on budget, how the camera feels to you. It really is a very big wide world out there.

There are lots of good cameras, DSLR and bridge cameras, from the main names, too many to mention individually, which you can't go wrong with them.

While I understand the burning desire to get a DSLR asap, and yes, I'm guilty of that as I'm sure many others will admit to, if you can hold out and keep a steady watch on prices, offers etc, that way you'll get to see when a good offer comes up, not just on DSLR's but also bridge cameras as well. There are often good starter offers, or bundles worth looking into. That's how I got back into using DSLR's.

There is one benefit with a bridge camera over a DSLR, no messing around with changing lenses.

I've had some very good results using a bridge camera, some better than using a DSLR, or even my R5!

The last bridge camera I had was a Kodak Z650, a 6Mpxl bridge camera, and very basic compared to todays cameras, however, there are some on the forum using a bridge camera, with good results, prior to that, it was a FUJI S3000, a 3Mpxl bridge camera.

https://www.flickr.com/cameras/kodak/z650_zoom/

https://www.flickr.com/cameras/fujifilm/finepix_s3000/

An after thought, you can do a search on Flickr for photos where a specific camera is used, and a quick search has brought up some using both those two bridge cameras, with some very good results.

That means you can also search for more up-to-date bridge and DSLR cameras to see what results are possible.

Thanks

Zo Clark said:

Thanks

You're welcome.

There is one piece of advice I will strongly recommend, when you do go to have a look, take one or both parents with you, or an adult you know and trust.

It's always good to have a second pair of eyes, to ask a question that you may not think of, and to help keep a balanced perspective on the purchase. Even if they know nothing about cameras, sometimes that on its own is a big bonus.

We've all gone in and made a purchase blinkered to the dream.