Whimbrel and Stonechat at Marazion Marsh

Two Whimbrel were showing well yesterday feeding on the grass bank at Marazion.  A pair of Stonechats at the east end of the marsh are on territory as well.  The female below was very obliging in late evening sunshine.

Being chat-ted up

This pair of curious Stonechats investigated what I was up to on Marazion beach yesterday.  If they could talk, I reckon they would have asked what I was doing! They were as content as I was in the rare bright sunlight and approached to about 15 ft.  The sun was quite low and directly behind me, bringing out the full peachy-orange colour of these winter plumaged Stonechats.

The seaweed and general beach debris make an interesting picture of different colours and objects.  As regular readers of this photoblog will be aware, much of my photography is done in this area.  There is always something different here and when the sun does shine, the light is stunning.

EXIF Detail: Aperture F/7.1 Shutter speed 1/500s.  ISO 400. WB Cloudy. Focal length 510mm. (eg. 300mm F/2.8 + 1.7xTC).  Tripod mounted. 21 meg RAW File cropped in Capture NX2 software.

Welcome back !

A few hours from first light this morning at St Gothian Sands and I was treated to my first Northern Wheatear sighting of the year. The males are always first to arrive as they are eager to get on their breeding grounds early and establish territory. Females will follow through at the end of the month and into April. Wheatears and chats are one of my favourite families and the images of the birds below show the reason why. I have slotted in the Blackbird image from today as well, just because it was singing its' heart out and deserves a mention. Its not from Africa but is more than welcome !

EXIF Detail: P Program Mode. Shutter 1/400th. Ap F/10. ISO 800. Focal length 850mm. EV -0.3, White Balance: Cloudy. DX Crop Mode used. Distance from bird c30 yards.
EXIF Detail: P Program Mode. Shutter 1/400th. Ap F/10. ISO 800. Focal length 850mm. EV -0.3, White Balance: Cloudy. DX Crop Mode used. Distance from bird c30 yards.

EXIF Detail: P Program Mode. Shutter 1/400th. Ap F/10. ISO 800. Focal length 850mm. EV -0.3, White Balance: Cloudy. DX Crop Mode used. Distance from bird c30 yards.

Stonechat. EXIF Detail: P Program Mode. Shutter 1/250th. Ap F/8. ISO 1000. Focal length 850mm. EV -0.3, White Balance: Cloudy. FX Full Frame Mode used. Distance from bird c10 yards.

Blackbird. EXIF Detail: Aperture Priority Mode. Shutter 1/125th. Aperture F/6.3. ISO 1000. Focal length 850mm. EV -0.7, White Balance: Cloudy. FX Full Frame Mode used. Distance from bird c 20 yards.

One Stonechat - four angles

I was waiting in the car for Hen Harrier to fly through a favoured hunting spot on Trewey Common when this inquisitive female Stonechat paused on several different perches just five or six yards away. The light was so intense that you can actually see the car's reflection in the pupil of its' eye. All four images are different as it moved from perch to perch.

EXIF detail: EV -0.3, Shutter: 1/640, Aperture: F/8, ISO 320, Focal Length:840mm (!)WB: Auto, Colour balance two shades towards amber to enhance the straw tones in the grasses to gain more contrast when a harrier flew past (that was the idea anyway).

To crop or not to crop

Below are two photos, both of which show the original uncropped image and the zoomed in cropped version. Both were taken with low ISO of 400, so neither will yield any noise or graininess. The smaller original images are perhaps a bit record-shot-ish, but for those who like a full-frame photo, then as long as the original is in good focus, you can keep cropping until the picture pixelates. The two larger images was the furthest I could go.

Both were taken last week on Marazion Beach, an area where one can spend all day exploring in superb light.

Best of the rest at the res today

For the first time ever I ran out of memory - gigabytes of memory that is. Some 550 plus shots at full resolution today drained the memory cards. The shots below were the end result of a day of very changable weather and light conditions. Dawn started at 0 degrees, ice and frost on the ground, sleet, snow, rain and bright sunshine, all contributing to demanding photographic conditions. For the best part of the day, the ISO has been set at 800 to 1000 - fortunatly, the Nikon D3 works well at high ISO and I have now forgotten what grain is. The aperture has been wide open at F/4 and F/6.7 to push that all important shutter speed up. All of the images below have been cropped and adjusted in Adobe CS3 and are low resolution to aid faster download speed.

A morning on a Cornish beach

A stunning day and a photographer's dream...no wind, no rain, just intense, low sunshine behind you. Perfect. I spent four hours in and around Marazion and Little London beaches. 350 shots later, I was more than pleased with the mornings haul. Nothing rare but some very photogenic birds. Given the bright conditions, the all-important shutter speed was naturally high, sometimes up to 2000th second. Aperture was set to f/9. ISO was set to 250. Exposure -0.3 . WB changed to Sunshine. The camera was used in FX Full Frame mode and I used the 1.7x TC with the 600mm F/4 lens thus equating to about 1000mm focal length.