Another visit to the Farne islands to see the breeding seabirds. I decided to try to get some images with movement blur on the wings of the puffins and terns as they flew in, so whilst I shot some images with shutter speeds in the thousandths of a second for sharp frozen-mid-flight images, I also used some slower shutter speeds in the realms of 1/200-1/400th second to get movement blur, both in the wings of the bird, and also in the camera movement as I panned with the flight. Results below:
Some flower photos taken at home using a light tent and a reflective tile.
Photographing a goosander yesterday, I was fascinated by the colours and patterns reflected in the water around the bird. The bird itself was beautiful to see, but the varying reflections meant that I could create a huge variety of different images. In some the picture is about the goosander, but in others the story is more about the abstract patterns the reflections created.
I spent some time last week photographing the spring flowers appearing at the Yorkshire Arboretum.
There are a small number of red squirrels living in the Yorkshire Dales in isolated pockets of woodland where the grey squirrels haven’t yet invaded. I spent a few days photographing them this autumn.
Some photos from a weekend watching wildlife. We went to Studley Royal for dawn to watch the deer there. This fallow stag silhouetted against the dawn sky was my favourite deer shot.
Fallow stag at dawn, Studley Royal
Early mornings in autumn often bring mists over the lake here and the swans are also beautiful to capture reflected in the lake, as well as the reflections of the autumn colours in the water.
Canada Goose in autumn reflections, Studley Royal
Swan reflections, Studley Royal
Swan reflections, Studley Royal
Another interesting place to visit at this time of year is Spurn point and the surrounding area for autumn migrants, and other birds. Late afternoon I spotted this barn owl hunting in the low sun, with the light shining through its feathers.
Barn owl hunting at dusk, East Yorkshire
This little egret flying across the low sun was my last photo of the day.
Little egret flying
I’ve added some new pages to my website giving a bit of information about some of the places I visit for my photography. So far I’ve written about Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal, Bempton Cliffs, the Farne islands, Donna Nook, Forge Valley and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, but I’ll be adding more about both local sites in Yorkshire, and some of the longer journeys we make to Northumberland or Scotland, and some of the sites we visit there.
Forge Valley woods, North Yorkshire
Studley Royal, North Yorkshire
Farne islands, Northumberland
Bempton cliffs, East Yorkshire
Donna Nook, Lincolnshire
North Yorkshire Moors Railway
Some beautiful birds in Forge Valley, North Yorkshire. It was a dull snowy day, but I felt that made the lovely colours of their plumage even brighter.
We’ve had plenty of birds on the feeders and plants in our garden with the recent snow. The goldfinches are always very photogenic, but particularly so when perched on the snow covered teasels in our garden. We also had four fieldfares visiting for the rosehips we left on our roses, and it was lovely to see these beautiful winter visitors.
