Tag: fpj-photo-challenge

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Tuesday Photo Challenge

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Return

I had a couple of ideas for the Tuesday Photo Challenge – Return.

I was thinking of some of the locations I have returned to multiple times. There was quite a list between England and Canada. However, that seemed a little obvious and I have written about some of them previously.

Then I thought about last summer when I was testing various lenses adapted to a mirrorless camera. There was a couple of local details that I returned to. One of them, some Ivy growing up a tree trunk, I have been photographing with various cameras and lenses for over two years.

 

Ivy leaves and Lichen.

A patch of evening sunlight illuminates a section of the Ivy. A photo from the summer of 2018 and part of the 52 week photo project I did that year.

 

Tree trunk detail.

A photo from last summer taken shortly after getting out of rehab after an accident. I was testing a small, light Olympus mirrorless camera with the kit lens due to the condition of my right shoulder and arm.

 

Weekly Prompts: Sepia Ivy Leaves.

A sepia toned monochrome conversion from last summer. I was testing a 25mm CCTV lens adapted to a small Olympus mirrorless camera.

 

Wordless Wednesday: 12th February 2020

A photo from last winter. I was testing my Rokinon 85mm lens on a Sony mirrorless camera.

 

Silent Sunday:10th May 2020

A photo from a couple of weeks ago. I used my 7artisans 35mm f/1.2 lens on a small Olympus mirrorless camera.

 

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Tuesday Photo Challenge

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Animals

This is my contribution to the Tuesday Photo Challenge – Animals.

Having been digitising my slide archives I had various options so I needed to come up with a theme.

In the end I decided to keep it simple and go with one photo from my time in Cheshire, England, one from my time in Saskatchewan, Canada and one from my time in Ontario, Canada.

 

Cosmic Photo Challenge: Through an Opening

A Red Fox in a hay field at Faddiley, Cheshire, England. A favourite and an easy choice after the photo was used in a field guide to garden wildlife. Rather amusing as it’s fairly obviously in a hay field.

 

Friendly Friday Photo Challenge: Funny Furry Friends

A Striped Skunk on the Middle Quill Lake shoreline, Saskatchewan, Canada in the spring. This was also a relatively easy pick despite having a few animals to select from. I went with this Skunk because a lot of people’s reaction to the photo. I was never concerned about being sprayed. Skunks have very poor eyesight so my trick is to talk calmly to them. That way they know you’re there and you aren’t going to surprise them.

 

Tuesday Photo Challenge - Animals

An American Red Squirrel in dappled sunlight on the South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario, Canada. This shot was the hardest to select, in the end I went with this photo because it was used in a calendar. I also like the effect of the dappled sunlight filtering through the trees which is why I had set up in that location.

 

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Tuesday Photo Challenge

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Travel

This is my contribution to the Tuesday Photo Challenge – Travel.

As it’s spring and we are seeing a few summer migrants on their way north for the summer my idea for this challenge was bird migration. I have a few species in my files that make very impressive migrations.

So I thought a small selection of birds that are part way through their long distance migrations.

 

Friendly Friday Photo Challenge: Odd Couples

This is an adult White-crowned Sparrow with an immature White-crowned Sparrow in the background. These birds are on autumn migration and were photographed in my yard. The immature bird would have hatched from an egg in northern Canada in the summer. Some White-crowned Sparrows breed as far north as the edge of the tree line in Arctic Canada and some will winter as far south as central Mexico.

 

Tuesday Photo Challenge - Travel

This is a female Northern Wheatear on autumn migration. Photographed on the bank of Hurleston Reservoir near Nantwich in southern Cheshire, England. This bird will have spent the summer in either Greenland or Arctic Canada. It has crossed the Atlantic Ocean either by flying directly to Britain or by travelling via Iceland. After resting and feeding on the reservoir bank for a while it will continue its migration to spend the winter in Sub-Saharan Africa.

 

One Word Sunday: Knot

This is a juvenile Red Knot on autumn migration. Photographed on the Lake Huron shoreline in Southampton, Ontario at sunrise. This bird will have hatched from an egg in the Canadian Arctic in the summer. After feeding and resting it will continue to head south to spend the winter on the southern tip of South America. That’s 15,000 kilometers or 9,000 miles. One bird, banded (ringed) in South America in 1995 was recorded in the Canadian Arctic in 2014 by which time its total flight distance exceeded the distance to the moon. There’s more information on B95, nicknamed Moonbird here.

 

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Tuesday Photo Challenge

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Connect

I had a couple of ideas for the Tuesday Photo Challenge – Connect.

I went with the following idea because there’s two types of connection involved.

The first is a channel connecting a marsh to a section of the Last Mountain Lake National Wildlife Area in Saskatchewan, Canada.

The second is the connection between the birds and the photographer. It was a hot summer afternoon and my options were to lie in the hot sun on the edge of the channel or sit in the water with the birds. After I had been sitting in the water for a while the birds got used to me being there and pretty much ignored me. That’s the sort of connection you want, the birds behaving naturally as if you weren’t there.

 

Tuesday Photo Challenge - Connect

The reason for me sitting in the water, a flock of American White Pelicans fishing in a channel where a marsh drains into a section of the lake.

 

Tuesday Photo Challenge - Connect

I noticed that I was also sharing the channel with a Red-necked Grebe.

 

Tuesday Photo Challenge - Connect

After a while the Pelicans would swim out of the current in the channel and paddle past me back to the start.

 

Tuesday Photo Challenge - Connect

The Grebe also got used to my presence in the water and would surface anywhere around me after a dive.

 

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Tuesday Photo Challenge

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Spread

This is my contribution to the Tuesday Photo Challenge – Spread.

When I read the prompt I thought of wide angle landscapes that take in a spread of view wider than the human eye can see without moving. I had actually started editing photos for the post before thinking of birds with spread wings.

 

Tuesday Photo Challenge - Spread

Spreading its wings. A Great Crested Grebe stretching its wings on Hurleston Reservoir near Nantwich, Cheshire, England and the photo I thought of that caused me to rewrite this post.

 

Tuesday Photo Challenge - Spread

Two pairs of spread wings. Two American White Pelicans gliding between Little Quill Lake and Middle Quill Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada.

 

Black-capped Chickadee for Six Word Saturday.

Wings spread for take off. A Black-capped Chickadee on the South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario, Canada.

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Special Spot Shots

Tail spread, trying to impress a female in the spring. A male Yellow-headed Blackbird displaying near Punnichy, Saskatchewan, Canada.

 

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Tuesday Photo Challenge

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Scale

When I read the prompt for the Tuesday Photo Challenge – Scale I had several ideas for a post.

Landscapes taken with a telephoto where it’s difficult to get a sense of scale, extreme close-ups where you can’t tell what you’re looking at.

So, typically for me recently, I went in a completely different direction after thinking of a particular photo.

 

Tuesday Photo Challenge - Scale

This is the photo I thought of, a Great Crested Grebe looking lost amongst gulls in a winter roost on Hurleston Reservoir near Nantwich, Cheshire. These are mostly Black-headed Gulls, there’s one Common Gull close to the edge of the frame at about 1 o’clock.

 

Tuesday Photo Challenge - Scale

This may explain why the Great Crested Grebe is looking lost. A section of a winter gull roost on Hurleston Reservoir. Again, mostly Black-headed Gulls with a few Common Gulls, one Lesser Black-backed Gull and one Herring Gull.

 

Tuesday Photo Challenge - Scale

If the second photo didn’t give a sense of scale to the Great Crested Grebe looking lost this one may. This is most of a fairly typical winter gull roost in the 1990s. Anywhere between 12,000 and 15,000 gulls was a normal count. If you look closely there’s a Great Crested Grebe just swimming into the frame on the left hand side of the photo.

 

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Tuesday Photo Challenge

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Junk

When I first read the prompt for the Tuesday Photo Challenge – Junk I didn’t have any ideas.

Then I thought about a bag containing the parts of a zoom lens I took apart some time ago. The lens had a known problem where the ribbon cable controlling the aperture fails. Researching online showed that repaired lenses were still failing so I decided not to get the lens repaired.

I was going to tear the lens down to remove the jammed aperture assembly and reassemble it as a manual lens without an aperture. Well that was the plan, by the time I got deep enough into the lens to release the jammed aperture I knew the lens was never going back together. A modern, auto focus zoom lens is a lot more complex than an old fashioned manual focus prime lens.

Tuesday Photo Challenge: Junk

 

And just for a laugh, the junk lens photographed with a junk lens. The focusing mechanism of my 25mm CCTV lens jammed the first time I used it. Each time I use it I have to play around with it to get it to focus. It’s a pity as the lens produces some interesting swirling around the edges of the frame which I like. By the time I had finished editing in Snapseed it looks like a modern lens photographed using a a wet plate camera in the 1870s.

Tuesday Photo Challenge: Junk