Portmore Lough

Portmore lough is in County Antrim here in the north of Ireland. It is one of the RSPB nature reserve’s I like to visit Portmore a few times a year. Spring time brings in the Common Tern to the nesting rafts on the lough and so on a hot sunny spring day ( note these are not words we use a lot in Ireland ) I arrive at the reserve. With only a few cars parked up it meant the hide by the lough would be quiet. The walk to the hide showed butterflies and damselflies were out, but a breeze blowing made closeups difficult.

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Blue Damselfly. Getting  a shot of this was hard work, even this one could have been sharper.

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Yep it’s a red Damselfly.  These seemed to land on the ground which helped with the wind, but hard on the knees.

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Black-veined  white butterfly. This one is a little battered, it was the only shot I got plus a workout. Then it was into the bird hide or bird blind depending when you are from. Two women were there and after a short update on what was seen I set up the camera. There are three nesting rafts and has well as Common Tern’s there was Blacked Gulls nesting.

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A Common Tern bring in lunch. I sat and watched the coming and goings around the rafts for an hour. I find by spending time studying these birds, patterns arise. This helps to get photographs, so lets meet the Common Tern and Black Headed gull.

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This photograph shows the Common Tern ( left) and the Black Headed Gull.

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This gull is a young immature Black headed gull. On the way back to the car park I stopped close to the feeders and shot this Sparrow.

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I believe this is a House sparrow. So it was back to the car and pack my gear away and the 40 minute drive home.

Thank you for visiting.

George.

 

Monochrome day

I have a love for black and white images so this week, yep it’s like the weather here. Not much colour with a mix of snow, mist and the never to far away RAIN. So the first image is another misty lough shot.

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This was taken last week, I enlarged the grain a little to soften the image to get the effect of B&W film I shot some years ago.

This next shot was taken with a telephoto lens and edited in Silver Efex Pro2 which is part of the Nik Collection.

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This was taken in the afternoon before sunset with the light coming in from the right and the clouds acting like a large light modifier on the landscape. Also giving a nice rim light to the clouds. This is the Mourne mountains in County Down, Ireland with the cloud covering Slieve Donard the highest mountain in Northern Ireland.

And my last shot I took was of some woods near my daughters home. It was the play of light and shadow on the texture and into the trees that drew me to this shot.

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I edit all my raw images in Lightroom before finishing with Silver Efex Pro2 for any monochrome shots. I hoped you enjoyed the blog, please feel free to leave a comments. What you like or dislike, what software you use for B&W editing or for colour.

Thank you for visiting, liking and your comments. Have a good weekend.

George.

Spring morning in the back yard.

Woke this morning to the rising sun hitting the bedroom window, one look and I and my old pal where quick to get outside. I was setting up the tripod just has the last of the mist was kissing the lough surface. I took these with a 70- 300 telephoto lens, bracketing some of them and editing them in HDR Efex Pro. With the mist and a hoar frost coating the foliage it was a beautiful morning to be out. My old pal enjoyed following whatever scents and trails he was came across. Exploring the world by his nose like dogs do.

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Mist on the water.

Got in from work the other evening and there was a mist dropping over the lough. With the land bathed in the light of the full moon and the twinkle of stars adding to the view I set up in the cool damp air. With the temperature around 2  Celsius (35/36 F) it was not a night for standing around, so getting a couple of shots it was coffee time in front of the fire.

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342/365 Shutter release challenge

Shy

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Stopped today on my way home at a lough with around a dozen Mute swans in the field beside it. Some took to the water and this is the only one to strike this pose.

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341/365 Shutter release challenge

They’ll never notice me

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Saw these Mallard’s out on the lough then on closer inspection I noted one was a white duck. It seems to have latched onto these male Mallards and where they went, it went.

Not a great photograph, I chopped into show the white duck but I loved the way it just tagged along.

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332/365 Shutter release challenge

Reed Swan

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When out working around the garden I like to keep the camera handy, A couple of swan’s landed on the lough at the gardens edge. Walking down I got stood still till they got use me and managed to get a couple of shots before leaving them to their feeding. This shot was taken through some reeds which I did knowing they would be out of focus. I like the effect of them framing the  swan.

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