Odds & Sods 2024

Thank you, all. Quite a lot of luck involved.

Yes, the 'new' extender is working out well. A bit more learning required to figure how best to use it. My god it does add a bit of weight to an already heavy set up. I'll need some serious weight training.

Speaking of luck...

A single shot. No burst.

This Grey heron is a regular visitor to Kingfisher pond, as I've christened it. We see it a fair amount, flying away from us and the pond. It is very, very, very wary.

I got lucky. I was behind some trees when it flew in. It didn't see me. Also my camera was already on my monopod, no faffing around setting it up. I simply continued to lurk, photographing between tree trunks.

This is the uncropped version, with tree trunks in shade. I'm torn as to which is the better photo. The first has loads of detail. The second has atmosphere.

Both very nice photos.

I bought, a few days back, a used Canon 1.4x EF extender II.

Whilst the results were good, they were, shall we say, a bit lacking. I was expecting this, as there is now an extra piece of glass in front of my camera. What I didn't expect was how dull the photos looked.

The photos looked liked the ones I take through our manky kitchen window. Slightly misty.

I was a little disappointed.

Until this morning.

I had a thunk.

A bit of a brainwave.

A flash of inspiration. A cosmic ray hit my brain cell and knocked it into action.

Yep, you guessed it. The rear of the extender was filthy, smeared with finger prints.

I had cleaned the front of the extender, but not the back. I rectified this sad situation.

Hallelujah! No misty photos. Apart from when I shoot through our manky kitchen window.

Nice timing Angus

Angus M said:

I bought, a few days back, a used Canon 1.4x EF extender II.

Whilst the results were good, they were, shall we say, a bit lacking. I was expecting this, as there is now an extra piece of glass in front of my camera. What I didn't expect was how dull the photos looked.

I like the way the heron was 'framed' by the tree.

As for the dull image, that could be due to the extender increasing the widest aperture. With my 2x extender, it increases from f6.5 to f11, and is very noticable, especially on dull days.

What you will also observe is, the field of view is respectively narrower, which can make birds in flight photos harder to capture.

With having my brother and family over from Australia for the last 5 weeks, I haven't had much time to contribute here or catch up properly.     On Monday we did pop in to WWT Martin Mere en-route home and was thrilled to see 6 cattle egrets ....

was often hard to see them in the long meadow grass. !! 

I cleaned the extender lens glass and took whole lot out for a photoshoot.  Not much around. Caught these two winged objects, who were quite some way off.

This Red Kite flew over me at a fair old altitude.

Approaching final turn west of Reading for landing approach to Heathrow airport.

Nice and clear, rather than as if looking through filthy, grease smeared glasses.

Now I'll take some IPA (not the beer!) and clean the contacts between lenses and camera.

At first I couldn't work out why three adult looking Moorhens were feeding a single chick ........ but then it dawned on me that earlier siblings help feed the young of subsequent broods   !!   Mum and Dad are above, courtship bonding and the older juvenile is feeding its sibling.    

What a great capture of this behaviour aitch!