And Now For Your Viewing Entertainment...

Backward Birding's Dreadful Photography!!


Firstly the disclaimer...
All photographs were taken using an ancient* manual** film*** camera, with a dodgy lens of uncertain origin. As such they will offend the senses of those spoiled by digital to such an extent that various effects**** may ensue. All who view said pictures do therefore entirely at their own risk.


Also. Since the shiny new version of blogger came out, it seems that I can't make photos get bigger when you click on them. I'm sure there's a way to do it, but I'm buggered if I know how.. I will keep trying, though.
EDIT: Got it! Photos now work properly. Woo.


On with the fun!
First up, we have some pretty flowers;

From the meadow at Bystock Reserve. Aren't they purdy? Purple Orchid sp.


Next we have the Obligatory Record Shot Of What We Went To See;

Please compare and contrast with the photo Karen took of the same species at the same site last year. In my defence, it was annoyingly gusty, and the stem was swaying right through my focal plane and out the other side... New lens still needs getting used to, I think. But you can see what it is, at least.

Now for a bird!

  Here purely because I finally found a Redstart willing to sit still enough close enough for me to get! I'm still over the moon! :D Again with the new lens, which is why it isn't a pin-sharp photoscope shot - I was using said scope as a rest, but didn't have the other lenses which I can use with it. Oh well.
I got a Redstart!

Ahem.

Back to the dragons, and this one from Aylesbeare; a reprise of pathetic failures in the past to get a hand-held fly-past shot of an Emperor;

Actually worked!!!
I've left this fairly uncropped, as I think it works better than a tight close up.


Last and definitely least, an example of how my record shots usually come out. I took this one in a rush, from a bad light angle [to get a side view] while it was staying still. It turned out I had good reason to rush, as within 20 seconds of my taking this - while I was lining up a better picture - it took off [due to a low-flying Peregrine] and didn't come back! My attempt at a flight shot caught it with wings exactly side-on, naturally...

Th-th-th-th-that's all folks!






Wait, you want to know what that little blurred thing is?? It's a tern. Beyond that, I'm not certain myself...*

If you think you know, or have an interesting theory [other than Lord Lucan, we all know the nose is wrong], please feel free to Comment!



[[*I got it second-hand. 14 years ago.]]
[[**This means you set the aperture and exposure and so on yourself. And do the focussing. Stone Age technology. ;) ]]
[[***This is how people used to do things, with light-sensitive chemicals on a roll, which you wind on {by hand} to expose images one at a time.]]
[[****May include but not limited to; blindness, drooling, vomiting, mild nausea, hair loss, scrofula, moderate nerve degeneration, low level hallucinations.]]
*To be more specific, it's a juv. marsh tern; it looked like a White-winged. Which is impossibly early.. So I don't know.