The Lemon Fool

Snorvey wrote:It just makes it more sensible to slow down and enjoy the view.

Agreed' drove at my normal speed on the way up to Inverness
after that we did around 45-50 most of the way and a lot slower on the one track bends
and stopped plenty of times
Didn't see any roadside deer
may do next time as I might do it again in a couple of years

pje16 wrote:

Snorvey wrote:Ach, they're just coos. I still prefer a fence between us though.

They may be to you
but they are monsters to a Londoner
I lost count of the number of sheep on the wrong side of fences, just on the verge by the road
It was an amazing trip, loved the driving, the places we stayed at and the people we met.

With kyloes the fences are just for show

We used to help our neighbour get his bull ready for the Neilston show because it needed to be done quickly; the washing, brushing and hairdrier would invariably make him a bit narky after a short while.
When jock finally took offence at being styled the most important job was to open the gate for him - lest he find out that he could just walk through the thing whenever he wanted. The big sod would bring down telegraph poles having a scratch.

-sd

Northern Wheatear on migration. North East Scotland in a soft autumn sun.

scotview wrote:Northern Wheatear on migration. North East Scotland in a soft autumn sun.

Lovely pic, can I ask what camera you used, and the exposure details if you have them?

elkay

elkay wrote:
Lovely pic, can I ask what camera you used, and the exposure details if you have them?

elkay

Thank you elkay,

I use a Panasonic Lumix G7. It is a micro four thirds camera. I use it with Canon EF white lenses and an adaptor.

The picture is actually taken from a section of 4K video footage and is 8 megapixels. By using video I can get frames that would be difficult to capture with a stills camera. The camera has a crop factor of X2 which makes a 300mm lens effectively 600mm, which is great for birding.

I set the camera to shutter priority, this means that I can get up to very fast shutter speeds to "freeze" action. The view finder shows true image exposure, what you see is what you get, so I push the shutter speed as low as I dare in poor light. I use manual focus and the camera has coloured pixels at subject edges to show when focus is reached. I don't use image stabilisation but have the camera mounted on a monopod.

It is always facinating to step through a section of high speed video footage frame by frame to see action wasn't apparent at normal speed. See frames of a gannet diving.

Hope that was useful, technology is amazing. 8K video next, hopefully.

scotview wrote:

elkay wrote:
Lovely pic, can I ask what camera you used, and the exposure details if you have them?

elkay

Hope that was useful, technology is amazing. 8K video next, hopefully.

Thanks, that was really useful. I actually have a GX800, the entry level 4/3rds from Panasonic. Should be able to follow your approach. I haven't had it out much, but you've inspired me to have a play with it again...now that I am retired, and will have completed moving house within the month.

One further question...how do you merge the frames to show the track of the gannet diving?

regards
elkay

elkay wrote:
One further question...how do you merge the frames to show the track of the gannet diving?

regards
elkay

I'll give a brief explanation.
Firstly, you need a lot of luck.
For such a sequence you need to get the entire sequence within a fixed background shot. Focus needs to be set on where the action is happening.
Shutter speed is usually around 1/1000th second and the event lasts half a second, so at 30 frames per second you get 15 frames to choose from.
I run my video back in VLC player (free) and capture the frames I want.
I set a master frame in Publisher, then crop small images or strips and overlay them on the master frame.
These are grouped and saved as a jpeg. The image below is of a rare greater yellowlegs wader taking off.

I think I'll leave it there so as not to hijack this thread. Hope that's useful. I do use the camera in normal mode for landscapes and macro. Enjoy !!

Some finalists here for the 2022 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards -

https://www.comedywildlifephoto.com/gallery/finalists/2022_finalists.php

Slideshow URL here, with navigation arrows on the left or right of each individual photo - https://www.comedywildlifephoto.com/gallery/finalists/2022_finalists.php#&gid=1&pid=1

A few personal favourites taken from the above link -









Cheers,

Itsallaguess

In Sicily at the moment, went up Mount Etna yesterday. The cable car goes up to about 2600 meters, if you can avoid the stroppy guides you can then walk up to about 2900 meters to get a good view of the main crater. It's a tad active at the moment, they really don't want you going much further than that. Stunning day, though.



Scott.

Snorvey wrote: I've actually learnt the difference between hay and straw today. So, correction to the coos post, it's a bale of hay that they're staring at all day, not straw. It wasnt dry & scrubby like you put on the floor of a barn, it was rich looking, a little bit moist, presumably quite sweet stuff (going by the way they ate it anyway). I am now complete.

That's right. Hay is like long grass, often a faded green'ish colour, grown and harvested solely for feed, esp. over winter. It retains quite a good %age of moisture hence is easier for cattle to digest.
Straw is... the stems of harvested cereal/grains crops, wheat, barley etc. It's very fibrous and dry and can't be used as feed. Mostly for bedding in barns, and to make barns easier for mucking out

swill453 wrote:In Sicily at the moment, went up Mount Etna yesterday. The cable car goes up to about 2600 meters, if you can avoid the stroppy guides you can then walk up to about 2900 meters to get a good view of the main crater. It's a tad active at the moment, they really don't want you going much further than that. Stunning day, though.
Scott.

Damn, you're making me jealous!

Have you sampled the local Fuoco dell' Etna liquor yet?

Snorvey wrote:Much windier last week!

Glad I did the NC500 last month

UncleEbenezer wrote:

swill453 wrote:In Sicily at the moment, went up Mount Etna yesterday. The cable car goes up to about 2600 meters, if you can avoid the stroppy guides you can then walk up to about 2900 meters to get a good view of the main crater. It's a tad active at the moment, they really don't want you going much further than that. Stunning day, though.
Scott.

Damn, you're making me jealous!

Have you sampled the local Fuoco dell' Etna liquor yet?

I think a sample was thrust into my hand at the cable car tourist shop.

Scott.

Snorvey wrote:Ah the last of the lighter nights. Next week, we're plunged into darkness for 6 months.

Great pictures
but you're in Scotland, not Iceland.

pje16 wrote:

Snorvey wrote:Ah the last of the lighter nights. Next week, we're plunged into darkness for 6 months.

Great pictures
but you're in Scotland, not Iceland.

He exaggerated. He meant five months before the next installment of Free Jetlag reverses the darkness.

But really it's two months of serious gloom, after which the season has turned around and the gradual improvement starts to make all the difference psychologically.

Snorvey wrote:I've said it before, we've a lot to thank the Gulf Stream for. Saskatoon in Canada is quite a bit further south than me and they are cold with a capital 'C'. Boiling in the summer though, wheras we're not.

Which is precisely why climate change might leave the world as a whole warmer, but us locally (Atlantic NW Europe) quite a lot colder. Melting ice from Greenland disrupting the Gulf Stream.

pje16 wrote:

Snorvey wrote:Ah the last of the lighter nights. Next week, we're plunged into darkness for 6 months.

Great pictures
but you're in Scotland, not Iceland.

err...the main difference being the price of alcohol!

Little known fact: Tennent's Super Lager (the purple can) is considered a sophisticated drink in Italy.



We didn't have any, honest. Out for a drink in Catania, Sicily, they obviously tried to impress us by serving our (actually quite nice) local brewed craft lager in the branded glasses.

Scott.

A walk in the Anagach Woods today - beside the Spey at Grantown.



Its primarily dominated by Scots Pines - but the scattering of beeches added some colour at this time of year.

Snorvey wrote:Thwarted in my attempt to make it to Loch Eanaich, I backtracked to my eventual lunch spot at Loch Eilein

[pedant]
Loch An Eilein
[/pedant]

[jealous]
Wish I was there
[/jealous]

Snorvey wrote:I shall be back. With waders.

Wimp! what's wrong with bare feet?

--kiloran