It can be frustrating to find yourself in front of a good picture, but without the kit that would render it to best advantage. This has often happened to me, as I have always preferred to walk about with as little impedimenta as possible. I've never been one of those guys with a hundredweight of "just in case" gear slung over a shoulder, and increasingly I find I'm inclined to take just one lightweight fixed-lens camera out with me on speculative walks, which in my case usually means a wide-angle "28mm" equivalent. Inevitably, this means missing (or at any rate having to "re-see") any shot where a longer lens would be more appropriate. Too bad: my hit-rate is high enough to live with it.
These two are typical examples. In both cases, a bird was sitting on top of a gravestone, a crow and a magpie, about five yards away. Corvids are bold birds, but also cautious: get much closer than that, and they're off. In fact, the magpie was up and in the air even before I pressed the shutter. What you see here are both major crops from a much larger frame. Which is a pity, as it means that although they're fine for blog purposes they'd never enlarge satisfactorily as a full-sized print. At "native" 300 dpi resolution these are 20x15cm prints at best.
But I like them, nonetheless, and I'm sure I'll find some use for them. I particularly like the bold blur of the magpie flashing through the scene, and can you see the carved olive (?) branch next to the real vegetation on the crow's headstone? No? Try this, then:
It may be a tiny crop (about a 5x5cm section of a 42x28cm image at 300dpi) but I have no complaints about the resolution. In fact, hmm, I wonder if that might be a young rook, rather than a crow: fully-fledged, but before the characteristic "rook pattern baldness" has set in around the bill? Next time I'll remember to ask.
4 comments:
The wildlife photo i missed was also in a cemetery. I used to cycle to work through a cemetery and one morning a few minutes early a took the long way through and spotted a brown owl having its breakfast on top of one of the graves and I paused to watch. At that moment two of your corvid mates spotted him as well and descended to try and steal the poor rodent. The brown owl took off clutching its breakfast and in the ensuing dogfight, which was won by the owl, the poor rodents entrails were scattered about the place. Needless to say I didn't have a camera about me but the episode did enliven "quiet trip to work this morning?" conversation once I got to work
Gavin,
Not so much a photo as an entire segment of "Springwatch"!
Southampton Old Cemetery is the best/worst place for rats I've ever known. They just run all over the place. There is a permanent kestrel nest up in the trees, but I don't think they're up to rats. The owls and buzzards living on the Common just over the wall, OTOH, must be living high on the hog (whatever that means).
Mike
I haven't seen any buzzards over the parks of Morden (we do however have peregrine falcons ) only owls and Sparrow hawks not sure if a brown owl is bulky enough to take on a rat though. Its surprising what does make a living in an amongst the suburban landscape. I'm no great nature watcher I just manage to spend a few minutes here and there watching but people are always surprised when you mention what's on their doorstep
Gavin,
Peregrines are definitely becoming more widespread. I was amazed to see some flying around the Houses of Parliament when I walked past last year, and we had a pair nest on the Vodaphone mast situated within the university a few years ago -- because they can't be disturbed this shut down the signal to most of north Southampton... Hard to know who was more inconvenienced, Vodaphone users or the local pigeons.
Mike
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