Dave I am not sure I understand what you mean by this- ....but it is let down by the fact you can't really make good use of the f/1.8 because the min focus distance is 1.5ft. Can you clarify? Cheers What I meant was that you can't get close enough to a subject to make good use of a f/1.8, not reall...

Michaela Strachan is the new presenter :D Michaela 'cameltoe' strachan as she now known in our household after her wardrobe misfunction last night! :lol: Damn, must have missed that, did watch the show though. May have to check iPlayer :lol: . Love Spring/Autumnwatch. However, if they were going to...

Well apparently the Canon 70-300mm USM III lens is now discontinued. I got the Canon 55-250mm IS lens instead. Have not had a chance to use it much yet since the weather has been wet lately. Bit shorter than I would have liked but can't complain. I did test it a few times, the IS is very good, a bit...

I'm with you 100% Chris. I've never added, or removed, anything from a photo. Although I do remove dust spots. And I make "tweaks" on almost all shots - recomposing, lightening/darkening, colour contrast, sharpening etc Same here, do pretty much what you do. I pretty much consider myself ...

The Butterfly count aside,I am wondering what has happened to all the large whites this year.It can't be because of the weather,as I hardly saw any in the first part of the year,when the weather was good.Are too many chemicals now being used in gardens and on their food plants? P.J.U. For me I wond...

I have Sigma 105mm EX DG Macro which I have used on Canon cameras for 3 years (400D, 500D and 600D) and although its shorter than the 150mm, its quite sharp and never had an issue with it, only issue was that auto focus was slow in some instances, but manual focus is quite fast and I prefer it over ...

I had a dream last night that the presenter of Lesser Spotted Ulster (for all who don't know, a program about the people and places of Ulster in Ireland, see: [video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwVvKTeZmqA[/video] and he came to where I used to live, and he came in 1996 when the nearby beech wood...

So, did anyone see Autumnwatch on Friday when they showed the film with the almost pure white meadow brown? During the discussion afterwards they said that this was due to a parasite during the pupal stage which interrupted the flow of pigment in the wings. I've never heard of that before. Can anyo...

Love the images of the habitats and butterflies and moths, makes up for the complete lack of them here :D And I'm very interested in ID of those four moths. (I do believe the Skipper on the left is Thymelicus lineola.) I think 2 are mottled beauty (not totally sure though) others are white ermine an...

Been quiet here recently, saw 4 small tortoiseshells and a large white at a woodland in north of Co Down on Saturday, feeding on the last of the large area of knapweed flowers that was there, other than that, rain has been pretty much constant around here so not much to be seen.

Not sure why, it works fine for me. Try direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PDBgBBIXBs

Since I have a few of these I am working on, decided to make this one thread about them. This is the next episode to my Leaf Mines video, this second one is about the magic of Autumn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PDBgBBIXBs[/video]

Ok, thats all, I had my suspisions with Argos descriptions as one person asked if the sigma 70-300mm f4-5.6 ex dg macro had a image stabiliser and they said it did, which I don't think it does. might just use the vouchers to get the 70-300mm USM lens, saw a lot of reviews, some saying it was good fo...

Thanks all for. Since I had the vouchers anyway just wanted to be sure but if its not really worth it, I can see what else there is, I am on a budget at moment. I don't have a lot of money but did want a lens long enough I could get bird shots as I keep seeing geese and other migrant birds I would l...

Thanks Mark. I currently have two books on fungi. One being the River Cottage Handbook 1 Mushrooms and the other a field guide which I can't find. I'll check out that fungi group link.

I am thinking on getting a telephoto lens and one thing and other, was given £160 worth of Argos vouchers and saw the sigma 70-300mm f4-5.6 ex dg macro at Argos and thought it might be wroth using the vouchers on. Anyone use one or know how good it is?

That time of year again. Have a few fungi I have found I can't seem to ID. Have more to post and will do when I can. Both of these were found in a Birch/Scot's Pine woodland with some beech trees. I went to an area of the woodland that was on top of a hill. In an open area surrounded by birch and Sc...

Sorry for late reply, Matsukaze, your a real William Shakespeare there! Working on another video about autumn that I should have done by Monday, going out at weekend to film last few clips I need for it. Have some fungi I need to ID first, I'll post them later.

Oops, have to check tags in future to make sure videos work. Thanks all. When doing the video, I was searching for leaf mines and it turns out I got the first Irish record of Stigmella incognitella‏ with 3 leaf mines I found on apple (shown in the video), so that is 4 new moth records for Ireland (o...

I have not had much problem with moths or butterflies really, just the odd Meadow brown or Speckled Wood don't like the sound but I always had it down to the noise of the shutter as soon as I press the button they seem to fly away. Burnet moths (Six-Spot and Narrow Bordered-Five Spot) seem to fly aw...