Kicking off this year's odds and sods with Starlings in a rainbow on that extreme rarity: sunshine.
It was early morning, with the sun barely cresting the tree line. We were able to get out for our morning walk as it wasn't raining. This photo is my trusty Canon 80D and Sigma 18-300mm lens zoomed in at 300mm.
Pulling back a bit.
And finally all the way back.
Oh, 2024 got off to a good start with this.
So far my cat, perhaps two neighbouring cats visiting our garden, a local fox and Tawny owl, and this trap have accounted for at least five of the beasties. Sightings of rats in our garden are getting rarer, so I think I'm winning. Two rather timid and wary rats, that I know of, are proving more elusive to catch. I've resorted to buying a lethal trap. The trap was triggered, yesterday, but no rat, sadly. Though a mouse might have triggered it, and was small enough to be within the kill bar.
90% luck, 5% field craft, 5% camera skills.
So you coppered up and took the plunge Angus! Good for you, I'm sure you wil love it, I do mine. Several years ago I had one stolen out of my car, so I bought another straight away, I like it so much. Your second photo in your latest post is excellent - shows what the lens can do with half decent light. As for lens caps on/off, I tend to go with cap off when I start shooting and replace it if I stop for a while. I don't usually use a lens hood, although I should really to avoid lens flare and rain spots. I just think it makes the lens rather long for general carrying. I also have a Hoya Pro UV filter on which I feel protects the glass, but they are rather contravertial as to whether they affect picture quality or not. I don't find the weight heavy, you just get used to it, I carry mine for hours just over my shoulder. I don't take a kit bag on my walks, just if I go somewhere in the car, so I have lenses available if required. That's probably why I always have the wrong lens on ... . You will be surprised how good the 70-300 is on close ups too, like butterflies and insects. I find minimum focusing is about a metre or so. Enjoy ...
Yep, took the plunge, so did bank balance. Exceedingly please with the lens so far. Lightening fast autofocus without hardly any hunting on my R7, even in low contrast conditions. Ultra clear image, right the way to 300mm, it appears.
I am being very unfair comparing the Canon 70-300mm EF L series lens with the Sigma 18-300mm EF lens. It's like comparing a top of the range Audi or BMW with a Ford Focus. My Sigma 18-300mm lens has served me very well over the years, and I've managed some brilliant photos. But I knew the lens was always going to struggle at 300mm, which is what us nutty wildlife photographers will almost always have the lens at. The Sigma lens also had to incorporate design compromises going from 18 to 300mm, which the Canon engineers didn't have to contend with going from 70 to 300mm
The Sigma lens really struggled with my R7, particularly autofocusing in low contrast conditions. Strangely, the lens always worked well with my 80D. However, that is straight EF to EF. Whereas the R7 is EF to RF. OK, so is the Canon lens, but I suspect there are a couple of tricks the Canon engineers knew about their EF and RF interfaces that the Sigma engineers didn't. That way Canon EF lenses would always work better than Sigma lenses on Canon cameras.
Lovely to meet a Dunnock today, to brighten up a gloomy morning The other photo isn’t strictly Odds and Sods but in my defence, I did go to The Malverns to find a Stonechat or two. The cloud inversion was a bonus
I took my Canon R7 and 70-300mm L series lens out for an extended test run, covering some 6 miles along the Thames path and Chiltern Way, Berkshire loop around Henley on Thames. I intended have that hated lens cap off, but felt very nervous about not protecting the lens glass in some manner. So I cast around for a temporary solution before we set off.
I decided on a lens hood condom. Here it is.
The 'condom' is a Mountain Warehouse pouch/bag for a waterproof cagoule. It just fitted the lens hood. I used a plastic twist wrap to shorten it a bit so it didn't slip too far down the lens hood. I also tied it to the lens barrel. This meant I could whip off the 'condom' and let go of it. The thing just hung loosely from the lens barrel. Incidentally, I've used this trick on both my Sigma lenses. Drill a small hole in the side of the lens cap. Then tie a string to the lens cap and then to either the lens barrel or camera. It saves so much time when removing the lens cap as you don't have to put it in a pocket.
Now on to today's saga. Both the Beeb and Met office had been predicting sunny intervals for today. Indeed, the late evening news forecaster said mist and fog would lift on Sunday morning.
Hmmm. Someone forget to tell the weather the current narrative.
All photos tweaked a tiny amount in FastStone. No denoise, though.
This photo more or less sums up what we encountered. We're approaching Henley, roughly 45% into our walk. The photo is slightly out of focus due to it being so misty the Canon couldn't really focus on anything.
About 20 minutes earlier and slightly downstream, conditions were a little better, but not much.
Getting almost to Henley on Thames, I spotted this bird of prey on a post some 200 yards away. The Canon did very well picking this bird up at 300mm with no hunting.
Cropping out...A very depressed Red Kite. Though the detail is pretty good, I'd say.
Henley on Thames wasn't too bad. Heat from buildings and disturbances from traffic and people caused the mist to stir up and lift a little.
Hoping for better weather as we reached the apex of our walk at the Little Angel pub and started our way back along the Chiltern path, Berkshire loop towards the Flowerpot hotel, we were sadly disappointed.
Walking along Remenham hill(?) looking down on the Thames.
Further on.
The fog was so bad at this point my R7 had difficulty finding something to focus on.
Enough whingeing about a little mist and fog effecting virtually everyone. How did the R7 and 70-300mm combo fare. Very well, actually.
Let's start with what I feel are the best photos first. We started our return leg at about 11:15am. Joining the Chiltern path just past a cricket club ground, we started across a field. I noticed a Red Kite being mobbed by two crows. They settled in an old tree trunk on the opposite side of the field. As we got closer (say about 40 yards), I clicked away and got these...
I do like the shape of the tree. Still bloody manky weather.
Copping out the Red Kite, reveals this...
Yep, it has a kill or piece of scavenge, upon which it feasted. No idea what it is, except it is avian.
I managed to get a little closer and photograph this, before some walkers spooked it. The bird, followed by the crows (Carrion, I feel) flew off to another tree on the edge of the next field we went through, only in the opposite direction we were headed.
Early on in the walk (about 10 minutes in at 10:05am) I spied this across a field...
A little white egret was close by.
Which took off.
I was and am very impressed with how the Canon and lens combo picked out the Little white egret from all the background clutter - and with no hunting for focus!
However, I then thought this was exceedingly impressive, picking out a Cormorant from background clutter and low contrast conditions.
Although I managed to photograph more birds, they were mainly on the opposite shore of the Thames, at least 80-100m away. I now was desperate to photograph something of quality, without all that infernal mist, even if it meant something close, brave and relatively tame. Like this gull, sat on a post, on the water's edge about 10 feet from us.
Rather fine detail, even without sunlight.
OK, weather aside, this was the least frustrating outing I've had with my R7. I wasn't continually turning the air blue moaning about the lack of autofocusing capabilities of the R7; and being totally frustrated at yet another missed shot due to the Sigma lens hunting around the focus spot. That being said, pairing an L series Canon lens (even a secondhand one) with a Canon camera was bound to produce good results and alleviate focus hunting. Autofocus isn't perfect. It still has to contend with eye tracking, etc, but the combo copes miles better than with my Sigma lens.
However, in staunch defense of my trust Sigma 18-300mm EF lens, it works very, very well with my Canon 80D with its EF mount.
More photos tomorrow, I hope.
I love the 3rd shot Kevin, very atmospheric. It reminds me of one of those films where after some disaster everyone is missing presumed dead, then they start to appear from the mist ... . It was kinda like that at my sister's in Buxton the other day. I went a walk up into the hills and could see a clear blue sky, with the town below not visible at all for mist.
Thank you - it was cold but surreal, as you say. Something I've only experienced in the Alps before Buxton must have looked amazing, too. ️
Great shots of the Dunnock Kevin but the cloud inversion is really good, love it. I took a few shots from the garden when it was foggy and you can just see the tops of the trees the bottom half just fog.
Thank you - the Dunnock was very accommodating I’d seen photos of the cloud inversion on Facebook for two days and was certain I’d missed it. It was only visible at the very top of the Worcestershire Beacon. Very nice, but cold
We reached the end of our walk with an hour to spare before our lunch reservation at the Flowerpot hotel. My old girl had factored time for a six mile walk (the original route) and me taking loads and loads and loads of photos. In the event the walk was five miles (truncated due to starting in a different place), and as I only took a few photos, we completed it in 2 hours. We decided to press on further to the east to see what lay there.
Well, Culham court lay there, with a deer park. That makes life interesting for me and my camera.
Expecting the usual herds of Fallow deer, we were astonished to see herds of these...
Yep. They are, from what I can discern, white Fallow deer. Not albinos, but sports. This colouration is normally a disadvantage in the wild, meaning the deer are quickly removed from breeding stock. However, protected in this park, I guess the deer were able to continue breeding white.
A nice bucolic scene.
I guess this is a stag starting its new growth of horns. If these really are Fallow deer then it might be an idea to return later on in the year to see if stags have nice large antlers.
First time I've ever seen a Ha-Ha
Earlier on in the walk, as we approached Henley, we thought this a laugh. Imagine being the one having to clear up all the gull poop.
Back to Culham court, there were a lot of Egyptian geese on the Thames. This lot came gliding in and gave me an opportunity to test our my camera gear.
So endeth a magnificent, relaxing walk; if a little frustrating for me due to mist and cloud. We retired to the Flowerpot hotel for an equally magnificent lunch.
I'll exit what has been a rather eventful 2024 (in a nice way) with a smile on my face.
Every now and again, Gods of various denominations smile on me.
On this morning's walk, I saw and photographed this, flitting in a holly bush on the side of a byway. I only managed one shot, before this Goldcrest was gone. But what a coy pose!
Redwing are back. Managed these, yesterday, when light conditions were less kind, but better than Sunday.
My R7 and 70-300mm L lens continues to work wonders. All I need do is point them in the right direction and remember to press shutter release.
And with that, a wonderful new year to you all.