More fun at Alverstone

I was back at Alverstone Mead last weekend and paid a flying visit to my red squirrel buddies. Unfortunately, owing to a poorly grandmother, we couldn't visit early morning as we had planned and so this time ended up visiting at about midday. Predictably, the squirrels were not really showing their faces and so I only shot about a dozen pictures, of which the above is my favourite.

Photo shoot with friends

With our first baby on the way, I took the opportunity of turning the would be nursery into a white room studio for two weeks. I've invited friends and family to come over for some photo shoots so that I can have some practice and they can have some photos!

Today my friends Dave, Helen, Noah and baby Freya came over and we had lots of fun! Boy was it hard work but great fun. I didn't realise quite how hard it would be but it was really worth it. A childs smile is worth ten from a grown up.

Bluebells

I had a go this week at photographing a landscape type scenic shot of bluebells. We have two small coppiced woods where I live and both are abundant with blues this time of year.

I chose to do an early shoot (about 5:30am) as I wanted to capture a scene with mist and sun beams. I got the mist but no sun which has sadly meant that my photos are quite dull and lifeless. I'm not happy with them. The other thing I struggled with was not having a strong enough line through the picture, e.g. a well walked path or a broken down tree. The pictures I took lack life and impact. They're a bit bland.

What I really wanted was a dramatic sunlit misty scene with the bluebells punching through with their lilac colours. I shall try again before the season is out and might try shooting later in the morning and hope for some sun beams!

Anyone else got any good suggestions?

Alverstone Mead Hide

Hey there photography peeps.

As you can see, I've had some fun recently photographing red squirrels. It all came about from a holiday in Center Parcs where a forest ranger there told me about how abundant red squirrels are on the Isle of Wight.

We all as my father-in-law lives there and I knew I would be going there soon, I did a bit of research and found a hide at Alverstone Mead that apparently had an abundance of red squirrels using the feeders. The hide has a wooden walkway to it and as I was walking to it, red squirrels started popping their heads up to greet me!

They were tricky to photograph as they wouldn't stay still for that long and ended up coming so close to you that you would struggle to get all of them into the picture! My big problem was getting the images sharp. Photographing on a cropped sensor using a 70-200mm lens meant I had to use an f-stop of around 11 in order to get the animals sufficiently sharp. That was tricky considering it was an overcast day. I had to boost the ISO to 800 in the end and got some satisfactory shutter speeds.

My personal criticisms of my photos of these squirrels are: 1) the backgrounds aren't focus enough and 2) I crop my photos too tight missing off bits of the squirrel like its ears or tail! You can see more of my squirrel photos at: www.flickr.com/photos/danlayphotos. Please go on to the photos and leave any constructive comments you like. I appreciate honest feedback.

The hide is a wonderful place to go to so make sure you visit it if you are ever on the island. Type Alverstone Mead Hide into Google and you should get a location map of where it is. Otherwise, just send me an email and I'll send you more info!

Image stabiliser really works

Well, as you can imagine, I have been trying my hand with my new Canon 70-200mm lens and it is prooving to be a real gem. The one thing I had some doubts over was the image stabilisation. I have heard lots of people say good things about it but wanted to see for myself how good it was. So I tried taking a picture of a neighbours car alloy wheel from a standing position. I extended the zoom to 200mm and took the picture with a shutter speed of only 1/50secs.
The results are shown below.

Image without stabilisation (200mm f5.0 1/50)

Image with stabilisation (200mm f5.0 1/50)

I am amazed at the difference and all the extra cost for this lens makes it worth it! The extra sharpness I can get at these low shutter speeds is just wonderful. I can't wait to see what kind of photos I can now get from events, sports matches, family and friend gatherings and weddings! This is truly an amazing lens!

New Lens - Canon 70-200 F2.8 IS L

How cool is this! I am the proud owner of a spanking new Canon 70-200 F2.8 IS L lens! Very happy chappy indeed! All I need now is the weather to brighten up a bit and i'm in business!

My main purpose for this lens will be people and animal photography. In time I shall get some extension tubes so that it will convert to a macro lens and I shall also possibly get an extender to increase the reach for better bird close ups!

My first impressions of the lens is how well built it feels. I get the feeling this will outlive my camera body several fold (indeed I have heard that some people have outstripped six EOS 1D bodies with this lens! Not bad going). With the flash unit attached, it makes my camera look so small! But its the glass and the flash that are the most important thing my more educated photographers tell me so that's where i've spent my money so far!

My second impression of the lens is how amazingly quiet the motor is. I could bearly hear it when I started using it! So quiet. That should stop scaring the birds away then!

My only gripe is that it's white! Why? Why? Why? Just make it black Canon! No need for white.. honestly.

Will hope to post some more photos soon!

My lens is bust

Bad news folks. I had a lovely weekend of photography planned only to find that my lens is no longer working in the autofocus department. I contacted Sigma and they are happy to fix it under warranty but I'm a bit gutted. I had lots of photo opportunities spoiled. Ho hum. To be honest, it makes me wonder about whether to go for Sigma lenses in the future. I have a 70-200mm lens in mind next and despite the £500 price difference between Canon's L version and Sigmas EX version, I might still opt for the tank like build quality of the Canon.
Your thoughts friends?