About Me

My photo
Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales, United Kingdom
Bit of a long tooth IT Manager - been and had a few hobbies, as for the title, I make glass beads, its Called Lampwork, I brew my own Beer, its called fun and I take photos, thats the oldest hobby, since I was 16 or so. My first camera was a Zenith E - then a Pentax KR to go digital after a long stint with a Pentax Super A. Now a Nikon D5200 and a D7100 with a Sigma 150 f2.8 macro lens to play with amongst others. Please note all photos used are my own and I retain full copyright to all of them. Thank you for respecting digital ownership

Sunday 25 May 2014

So Plan B then


Been thinking and decided that as I don’t like my work but I have bills to pay, daughter to get through University etc. there is not much I can do about it at the moment, but that’s the key – at the moment. So Plan B, I have just over 2 years to get it together and develop a business I do like and can see myself doing sufficiently well to pay the bills.

I ‘like’ photography, I always have done since I was about 16, it dropped of my radar for a while, came back in about 27 years ago and dropped off again about 20 yrs ago and was picked back up about 4 years ago – a bit chequered but covered pretty much all sides of it Portrait, Wildlife, Landscape, Architectural, had a Hasselblad for a while, done Colour neg, Black & White, Slide, Cibachrome – for anyone who remembers that, developing, printing, competition, had a slide in the Welsh National Salon, even did a Wedding, never again, way too stressful.

Anyway, after the thought came the action, much research and thought and consideration, a new camera and a couple of very specific lenses later I start ‘Plan B’ Given that my youngest is doing a degree in Natural History photography and has a Nikon, and given that the Bank of Dad is limited, the decision for the camera body was simple, a Nikon D5200, the lenses were another matter, its mainly macro and natural history that we both do so Sigma 150 EX macro to fit a Nikon was a clear winner in the macro lens category, its the Mutts dooda’s in macro lenses and a prime Nikon 50mm as a start to the prime lens set. My aim is to avoid zoom lenses, necessity (and the bank) will ensure there will be one or two, but where possible I will use prime lenses.

I could not publish this previously as I wanted to surprise said youngest with the new kit when we went down last week to pick up a load of her stuff prior to term end so while I have had the kit for two weeks its only now I am admitting it and showing photos from it. Could not let here see anything on my blog to give the game away!

The Sigma is awesome, it is however going to take some getting used to and I expect a low hit rate on photos initially but it will be worth it once I get used to it, the Nikon is very different from my Pentax. That is a good backup camera for now and is finding some use with my eldest who is also interested in doing more photography.

A few photos below, an up and coming competition is macro and close up of insects and small creatures so kinda fits what I like doing, these are .jpg files so while they are good they are not the top draw  – the entry photos for the comp will be from the .raw files to maximise the final picture. In effect if you think the .jpg is a ‘print’ of the picture as you would get from the chemist in the old days – the .raw file is the negative, you can do a lot more with it to create the final picture than you can the .jpg. Now all I have to do is spend the next two years getting good enough to get shots I can sell and make a living from along with selling cards/prints/ hosting workshops, training sessions etc and any commission work etc. 

Easy really! (oh, and that was sarcasm in case you did not notice) 

So anyway - heres a few photos from the new kit

Ragged Robin

Brimstone on Red Campion

  Soldier Beetle - Cantharis rustica

Large Red Damselfly - Pyrrhosoma nymphula

Crane Fly -Tipula oleracea

Darter - Libellula depressa emerged

Fly - Phaonia viarum

Common Lizards - Lacerta vivipara

Finally - this lady was on the ground and wet, trying hard to climb up but all the grass stalks she climbed up bent over as she is not exactly small for a bee, so I put my finger down in front of her, she climbed on and I put her on a Flag Iris to feed and dry off, hopefully she lived. I will always help bees if I can and as a bonus it gave me an opportunity to get a photo of her feeding 

Bumblebee - Bombus lapidarius

Most of these were hand held or on a monopod, it was a cloudy day so the light was not brilliant and limited the depth of field but at least it was not too contrasty so good colours and not a lot blown out or clipped so not much touching up on the computer - I do prefer to do it all in camera if at all possible but must admit to some work done in Elements, especially the Crane Fly







Tuesday 13 May 2014

Spider alert - leave now if you dont like them


It was a funny weekend, we went to Malvern for the Spring show on Sunday, it was nice, a bit overcast and windy and it did rain in the end. We got a few plants we wanted and had a nice day though; it is really well worth the visit a huge range of stalls for everything gardening, and then some.

I took Monday off and it was a better day – decided to go and do a bit of macro photography – a splendid magazine I get 

My thanks to my lady for the subscription as a birthday present. It has a monthly competition and this month is macro insect photography. My kind of photography, so off I went to  a local nature reserve called Aberthaw, initial view was to get pictures of damselflies and dragonflies, given the competition and time of year my expectation is that lots of people will go for the ‘pretty’ ones butterflies, dragons etc. 

So I decided to go for some of them to see what was about, to see what I could get and to record them for the British Dragonfly Society,

But also I wanted a few other insect groups not so favoured – so Spiders and Beetles!

They really are fantastic and the few I found to photograph were really interesting
In all a nice day and the weather was sunny if a bit breezy – that made close up shots ‘interesting’! but it was a great day out and a really nice day off


Hairy Dragonfly Brachytron pratense
This one is quite variable in the Thorax colour
Blue-tailed Damselfly Ischnura elegans
as you can see here - the top one is the 'normal' thorax colour the lower is a pink variation
Blue-tailed Damselfly Ischnura elegans

Common Blue female Polyommatus icarus
This lady was so busy feeding she ignored me totally - she is on Hawthorn
Holly Blue female 1st brood Celastrina argiolus

spider on the web - not identified
Look at the legs on this one - but dont worry the spider is only 7 - 11 mm
Orb web spider Tetragnatha extensa

This one is from below the web - I think it is a really lovely spider
Tetragnatha extensa

This is sweet - its a buttercup so you can see how small it is dont think it has a common name
Theridion sisyphium
And finally a Green tiger beetle - this is a fast predator, awsome colours on it
Green Tiger Beetle Cicindela campestris
overall a great day with some good photos to put into a folder to review and then finally at the end of the month select a few to enter into the competition















Monday 5 May 2014

And back to the waterfalls, then on to Cosmeston

Decided to take Yoke to the 4 waterfalls walk, so after a fab day out we got two new ‘ticks’ in the flower book, had an invigorating walk and found waterfall number 5 !





Yoke at the 2nd waterfall









The 5th waterfall - actually one of a series of waterfalls - small but nice

 a few flower shots - well you know me a sucker for a pretty flower  -






 The first one is the humble daisy - I really liked the juxaposition with the water
 





This was a new tick for us meadow saxafrage Saxifraga granulata

















This is I think Wood Speedwell Veronica chamaedrys







I liked the dead stump in amongst the 'live' fir trees - the  shape of things to come











 And finally to make a change from Dipper - a yellow wagtail


So far I have not found any aspect of nature I don’t want to photograph, its silly but true – I love all of it and struggle to do a walk in any reasonable time as I will stop to photograph everything and when you are using a Benbo tripod and a macro lens that takes time, the tripod is awesome for wildlife macro work but putting one into place to use has been described as trying to keep an octopus in a string bag.

Decided one area I really like is Dragons and Damsels, nope not computer games but insects - so joined BDS , http://www.british-dragonflies.org.uk/
 
Have to say best £20 spent for a long time. Went to Cosmeston lakes to do a bit of photography, not only damsels but spiders as well, okay not everyone’s friend but I like them – they eat flies !
can not id this one at the moment

but this one is Pisaura mirabilis - no common name 

Got a lot of learning to do on all these beauties but willing to put the time in, got a long way to go with the photography as well !

This is a shot of a damsel that has just emerged and is described as teneral,




they do not have their full colour and so given I photographed them side on are almost impossible to identify at this point, fair to say they are ‘common’ as there were a quite a few dry ‘cases’ on the reeds around this area.

Thursday 1 May 2014

Just a few Bluebells then



As many know I work over in Swindon, a friend and work colleague in a conversation at work said he had gone to a Bluebell wood in Swindon and it was really pretty and the best he had seen it
Well always up for a photo opportunity so I asked where it was – its called Hagbourne Copse and it is just off the Swindon junction of the M4 by a Holiday Inn Hotel. So off I went after work, and after warning my lady I would be a bit late home, it’s a 2 hr drive from work to get home so a side trip will make it a late night, to see ‘some’ Bluebells.

Well I found it easy enough and while I have seen what are often described as Bluebell woods before I was sort of bowled over with this one. I have honestly never in all my life seen so many Bluebells in one wood. I was really happy to note they are all British Bluebells – the native variety and not the Spanish invaders. 

See for your self  - it was like this no matter where you were in of the woods.

I make no apology for the number of pictures of Bluebells ! it was stunning and the fragrance was fantastic, normally you can't really smell Bluebells but with this many and a warm evening Wow you really could smell them.