February 2010

[Jack Harrison]

Mick the Plasterer demonstrates the latest equipment to get to those difficult hairstreaks. Apparently much taller models are available.

Jack

[Lee Hurrell]

As part of my job I have to carry out Health & Safety assessments in the workplace for learners.

I don't think Mick would be getting away with that if I were to visit.....

Cheers

Lee

[Zonda]

Indeed,,,,,, if he fell backwards, he could crack his coccyx.

[Lee Hurrell]

No butterflies yet despite the warm sun today but I did catch this little beauty in my cemetery this afternoon

Cheers

Lee

[Zonda]

I've been taking pics of these as well Lee. Little charmers they are, but pretty quick and jerky. I didnt know about the orange eyelid until i had caught a few up close.

[Vince Massimo]

That's a real beauty Zonda. I recall that there were some nice Long-Tailed Tit photos posted before you joined the forums, which show the orange eyelid very well. I managed to locate them again under the title of "A perfect Moment". The post is dated September 23rd 2008 and can be found on page 7 of the General category of the forum listings. I will attempt a link later because I know that if I try now I will fail miserably and probably lose this post.

(Edit) Try: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2725

Cheers,

Vince

[Jack Harrison]

Smashing LT Tit.

Mick has finished his plastering; he didn't fall.

However - and I think he's having me on - one contributor to this group has told me privately that he is seriously considering getting some stilts for those difficult butterflies. He had previously mentioned step ladders!

Of course, Captain Oates has hired a cherry picker to be able to look down on tree-top Purple Emperors.

Neil: Try to persuade Matthew to join in the banter on ukb. He would be a valuable contributor but I guess he doesn’t have a lot of spare time.

Jack

[Lee Hurrell]

Zonda - wow What a photo, truly stunning!

I'll keep trying....

They are jerky, a second after the shutter clicked mine was away.

Can I ask what were the details of your shot were? I've been trying to photograph garden (and cemetery) birds while the butterflies are out of season without much success really....

Cheers

Lee

[Zonda]

Hya Lee, i cant really remember the details now, it was a couple of weeks ago. It was my Nikon D200, with Sigma 150-500mm OS. I think it was bright, but cloudy, so around ISO 640-800. Shutter speed would have been 1/250 or more. I've since darkened the whole background to hide the unsightly artifacts. I'm gonna get some of those Mick stilts, and some large flares to hide them,,,, then i'll be all ready for the blackberry picking season.

[Gruditch]

Yeah stunning shot Zonda.

Regards Gruditch

[Dave McCormick]

No butterflies around yet here, but found a Pale Brindled Beauty Male last night

[Charles Nicol]

i can't see Zonda's tit pic

Charles

[Jack Harrison]

Apparently the most searched for birds on Google are Great Tits.

Jack

[Charles Nicol]

Apparently the most searched for birds on Google are Great Tits.

Jack

i'm rubbish at birds... i can't tell a Tit from a Booby

Charles

[Pete Eeles]

i can't see Zonda's tit pic

Charles

It seems to have disappeared from the site where it was hosted (which wasn't UKB!). Shame, since it's a cracking pic!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Zonda]

Oops! Sorry i've been fiddling with it, and changed the url. Here it is cleaned up and framed.

[Jack Harrison]

I know that some people have issues about the ethics of post-processing. I don’t. I see no difference between say using a filter to darken a sky (old film technique and never questioned) and the modern digital of lightening shadows/darkening highlights. Moreover in the old days we used to post-process at the enlarger easel; dodging and burning to achieve a more realistic final print

Zonda’s L.T.Tit is a superb example of digital post-processing done to perfection – I love it. What would be really interesting would be to see the original, (cropped and resized, but no brightness, background adjustments. Many of us could learn a few tricks.

Jack

[Charles Nicol]

That was worth waiting for Zonda !!

A fine tit indeed

C

[Zonda]

I'm really no great shakes at post camera work. I haven't even got Photoshop, just use freebee downloads, mostly Paint.Net which i recommend to anyone on a light budget. With the Long-tailed Tit, i didn't like the light areas behind its head, so decided to make the whole background a uniform dark (almost black) colour. The only other manips were a little colour saturation, and sharpening.
Paint.Net features the best free noise reduction that i have been able to find on the net, having tried NeatImage,(which i didnt like at all), Noiseware(which was the best of the rest), and had a look at Helicon as well. Here is the almost original of the LTT pic, it's as far as i can go back on this one.

[Jack Harrison]

I’ll have a look at Paint.Net.

One thing I always do (and from your comments Zonda you might not have done so) is to retain the original totally unaltered and do any post-processing on a copy. I learnt this lesson the hard way!

Jack