Morning At Penryn Estuary

Up at 7am to see the sunrise while all you other lucky people lay in you nice warm beds. But boy was it worth it, a beautify clear sky, maybe not the dramatic colors that I was hoping for but still worth while.

After the sun had risen I walked around to the northern side path around the estuary where I found a large patch of Snowdrops and captured this image.

While I was out and about I captured 36 images using a Nikon FM2 (35mm Film camera) which I hope to develop next week. Fingers crossed they come out okay!

Kennall Vale + Godrevy

My filters came today!! A Hitech ND8 (0.9) and a Cokin P164 filter along with a P Series Holder to take them and on the perfect day, clear blue skies and the odd cloud to add interest too them by not effect the lighting, a day of shooting at 100 ISO I think!!

Back to Kennall Vale I go, in the hope to capture the Dippers but upon arrival I noticed that there was more water gushing down the river meaning the water level has risen and the rocks the dippers normally stand on were all underwater. I was able to capture some images of the water pouring down the sides of the rocks faces that line the valley.

After my visit to Kennall Vale I headed over to Godrevy to see if I could capture the sunset. Having arrived around 3pm the first thing I noticed was the high winds the second was the beautiful skies. I had plenty of time before the sunset so I decided to had a walk around the area and see how the high winds were affecting the area. Throughout the trip I had to constantly clean my lens and filter due spray off the sea hitting my lens. This caused a constant problem as any spec on the filter or lens ruined every photo, and the problem got worse and worse until I had to call it a night.

Here are a few of the images I was able to capture:

Trebah

Earlier I headed over to Trebah Gardens, having not been there since late last year I was interested to see how it had changed the most obvious of these was the hydrangea flowers which had now lost all their color and died. This left the floor scattered with plant matter which was a similar case throughout the garden with all the leafs having fallen off the trees.

Below are a few of the images I took from today.

Alice's Seat

View Of the Gardens

Alice's Seat Panoramic

Although not a great image I did mange to capture this shot of a Great Northern Diver/Loon that I saw off the beach in Trebah.

Kennall Vale

After an Early start and heading down to the point I decided to go to Kennall Vale and see how it had changed since last year and when I last visisted. Being the middle of Winter the trees had now lots all their leaves and the floor was covered in them, there was however no sign of any fungi which probally got killed of from the resent frost and snow. I did see my first Dipper and although not a great photo it still proves I saw one.

Here is one of the shots I took of the lake, I will be uploading more later or tomorrow.

Making use of a gorilla pod

How I set up one of the images at Kennall Vale using the gorilla pod, I don't suggest you put 100% faith in it. What you can't see is the strap round my neck !!

Pendennis Point

Been down to Pendennis this morning to capture the sunrise, surprisingly not the only one there, although not my best sunrise I wanted to take a more traditional sunrise shot looking out to sea, with the rocks in the foreground  After taking the shot I headed over too Swanpool to see what was there, although I didn't take any photos I did spot one of the Water Rails and 4/5 little Grebes (Dabchicks) and the Great Crested Grebe was back on the lake.

SNOW!!

Yes you heard me right, SNOW, we have snow in Cornwall!! A full inch of it never the less the first thing that went through my head was where to go take photos first? The plan was to go to my lecture at 9am and then go and take photos after but this was soon changed as in the 2 hours I was in the lecture room 90% of the snow was gone, only leaving enough for a quick snowball fight and then that was it Cornwalls Snow for 2013.

Later on in the day I decided to get some Neutral Density filters from the stores and travel down to Swanpool beach in the hope to capture it at Twilight. Below are two of the images from the shoot, hope you like them!!

Swanpool

Back at Swanpool in the afternoon, although the sun is out and there is clear blue skies it feels just as cold as it did 8am this morning! The main focus was to get some of the species that I hadn't captured so far and to looks at what flora I could find and photograph.

Swanpool

This morning been at Swanpool, getting there just before 8 in time to catch the lake at first light. Although the clouds were blocking my view of the sun, a quick dash to the top of the lake created a interesting shot looking back at the car park.

While I was there I was filming the lake from different locations which I will combine to show the lake. So for anyone who is thinking about going but isn't sure, or if you have been and want to know where I go, take a look here, although not massive the lake does have some key spots which I suggest everyone visits!

On my walk round I was followed by a set of Long Tailed Tits, although due to the little light and they wouldnt stop moving I was unable to capture any shot it was nice to seen them flying in between all the bare twigs in the trees. On my way round it although threw up some surprises, first was a pair of Bullfinch who were sat up on top of one of the trees in the wooded area, my first ones for Swanpool and although not the best shots never the less my first ever photographs the these beautify birds.

The next surprise was just round the corner when I stopped to try and warm up, after standing still for a few minutes I looked down and right in front of me was a Water rail, so I quickly switched onto my 400mm lens and started snapping away, but suddenly it ran off, thinking it was me I stayed still in the hope it would come but then it did running across to the other side but this time being chased by another. After the dispute was over one went right and the other was back to feeding in front of me. 

Tuesday 15th January to Now

Sorry for the lack of post to but been cracking down and getting some work down, plus tried to calbrate my laptop screen which was causing more problems then it was solving.

Anyway so what have I been up to, lets start on Tuesday 15th January, Today I went to Swanpool Nature Reserve to carry on with a University project on the habitat there and too see is I could capture any species which I hadn't seen there before. In doing so I found a very friendly Robin, here he is:

In the same area of Swanpool (Around by the wooded area) I also saw a pair of Jays, Great Tits and Goldcreast all in a small area of woodland. This just shows how standing in the same place even for only a few minutes you notice things you may not have seen otherwise.


Thursday 17th January

While I was at Swanpool I took some samples of the habitat to take some shots in a "Studio" environment  Where I was able to control the lighting using a dedicated flash. Unlike the samples I took of Trebah with this shoot I did it in my room, to take these image I used a piece of black card to create a black background to my image and then a dedicated flashgun ( Canon 430EXII ) connected to a wireless trigger so I could move it around without any cords getting in the way.

Here you can see a flower that I found laying on the floor ( I didn't pick it promise ) and after a closer look I found that it was covered in pollen.

You can see how the black piece of card has created this back background which has blackened it. This draws the attention to the flower and by using a wide aperture I was able to capture just a individual flower in focus.

Friday 18th January (Today)

Back on the Microscope and this time equipped with a Canon mount and a 60D and the samples that I took from Swanpool on Tuesday and photographed yesterday, although starting to die they were still interesting once put under the microscope. My main subject was the pollen off of the flower that I found, this once spread onto a slide and a wet mounted created an interesting effect. My favorite of the image although "technically" incorrect as they are being held together by a air bubble which shouldn't be there, as my lecturer suggested. This creates the effect of it being a cloud and sun symbol off of a weather forecast.

I'm back in there next week to capture some new images of new samples, so keep your eyes out theres plenty more to come!!

Microscopy

Had my first attempt at microscopy yesterday, and after getting frustrated with numerous hard drives and trying to back up images I can finally look at them all. I have no idea what this is but it was my first attempt, hopefully will improve in weeks to come and will work out what this was too!!

Swanpool 09-01-2013

The first shoot since being back in Falmouth, back t my normal spot at Swanpool lake. I have attached the short Time-lapse that I captured over an hour period, taking an image every 5 seconds. This totaled 749 image and created a 29 seconds Time-lapse  This will now be combine with other Time-lapse videos to show Swanpool and it beauty. Also attached is a image of a coot taken looking down into the water. After just having a Territorial fight with another, the coots breeding season isn't till March/April but the fights had already began. This fella had just won one but a few minutes later another broke out, and he was back to having his few minutes rest on this branch.

UPDATE

Hi Everyone,
Sorry for the lack of post over the last few days, I have been completely distracted doing Uni work. I will be back on later with a full update of all the images I've been taking, in the mean time here is an image that I have created using 13 different images I found on Google, just for reference I have no copyright to these images and none are mine and so I have also uploaded a image with each image and a link to where each image can be found.

Back In Falmouth

I'm back in Falmouth now, so will be back to going out on shoots most days within no time, hopefully the weather will brighten up. Today is a day to unpack, relax and then get my head down and get all the project work done that is needed for my course. But hopefully will do a shoot later!! Will keep you all up to date about all that's going on!!

Warnham LNR 03-12-2012

Today I went again to Warnham LNR, much like Waltham Brooks the reserve had been affected by the recent rains meaning that the lake and the rivers flowing into it were all raised in water level. Instead of going the normal route through Warnham LNR I first headed for the Walnut Plantation  here I didn't find any deer which was the main reason for my visit to this part of the reserve but as I walked around I stopped and listened and watched to see what I could see and on one occasion a Goldcrest appeared out of no where on a tree close by. Below is one of the images I captured before he disappeared into the wood.

After my walk around the plantation I went into Heron Hide to see if I could see the Goosander which had been spotted there for he last few days, after a while I slowly started to think that maybe that it had moved on, but all of a sudden as I watched a heron fly off I noticed a small white blob which it flew over. After a closer look through my camera I realized that was it the Goosander, a lovely male all alone on the other side of the lake. Below is one of the images, however it is quite heavily cropped as the bird was quite far away.

Crystal Palace Park

Although I have come down with the cold I wanted to see image of the yawning fox which won the BWPA photographic competition 2011 (Youth Awards) up on display in the Hornimans Museum and while I was there my Dad wanted to show me the dinosaurs at crystal palace park. The looked amazing especially when you taken into account they had been there since 1854!! Although once in a glass building which sadly burnt down they now reside in the large lake that covers most of the park.

Waltham Brooks - 01-01-2013

Today I traveled to Waltham Brooks in the hope to see some Barn Owls or Short Eared Owls which have been spotted there earlier in December 2012. This was however before the recent heavy rains which has now flooded the area. Once I arrived my first problem was finding somewhere to park, as the car park had flooded, once finding somewhere to park I had to get into the reserve without getting too wet!

Because of the flooding there was very little to see, a few Tuffed ducks and Shellducks out on the lake too far to photograph and a Kestrel flying overhead. Below is one of the few images I took of the sunset over the river showing the increase in river level to anyone who has been there before.