Bee’s and butterflies

August 4, 2018November 26, 2018George McNeill 18 Comments

It’s been a while since I last posted, I had planned to stop this blog due to a number of things. Number one on the list was no motivation, so now having rested and with the support from friends plus followers from the blog, let’s continue. Thank you all.

Bee’s and Butterflies.

We have had a hot summer here in Ireland, not much rain. Hosepipe ban’s and a lot of native people with a tan. Both rare in Ireland. With all this sunshine the butterflies are around in large numbers. The other thing I have been photographing is bee’s. Not to hard a subject has they flirt with the Blackberry flowers in the hedgerows.

I liked the fly which was captured in this shot.

This is a Ringlet which is getting a little worn looking.

So I decided bee’s flying would be a good subject to try, have you ever tried to photograph them in flight. It great fun and the hours disappear. So armed with a Nikon D7200 and a Sigma 105mm Macro lens fitted, a nice sunny day to keep shutter speeds up into battle I went.

Why do bee’s always take off facing the wrong way, this kind of shot was the flavor off the first hour or so. I don’t give in easy. A coffee break and it was back to the front line. I started to notice bee’s lift the rear end up slightly before take off. Which didn’t help when they are going the wrong direction. So in between the bee’s I got some other close up’s ( these a chopped in post).

Hover fly.

Clover flower caught in a light breeze. Yes it’s the effect of the slight movement that I like in this shot.

Not a hundred percent on this plant but I think it’s English Plantain. These plant shots were taken by lying on the ground with the camera. Focusing in live view, use the self timer and press the shutter release. Right back to the bee’s.

After about two hours my success rate way getting better. I enjoyed this little challenge and will give it another try. Might try flash the next time. Now on to some butterflies. The next shots are Large Cabbage whites.

The large cabbage white from different angles. Was going to try shooting these in flight but did not get one sharp shot. Bee’s are easy compared to butterflies.

For the final photo I’ll leave you with my favourite, a close up of one feeding.

Thank you for joining me in the garden, please feel free to comment. I would love to hear your thoughts or tips on shooting these subjects.

George.

Ring Necked Pheasant.

June 17, 2018George McNeill 12 Comments

Had the pleasure one evening watching a Ring necked Pheasant as it and a couple of hen Pheasants fed while crossing some scrub ground. While the hens kept under cover in the longer grasses the cock remained in the open, like me was keeping watch.

Here he stands in the warm evening sun light showing off his well tailored suit and face markings.

They make a range of sounds has they communicate with each other, from crowing to beating there wings. Sometimes both at the same time.

The above sequence of shots show the wing beating without the crowing. Below a couple of photographs from him crowing Pheasant calling

These Photographs where taken over a half hour period where I used a fence post has a make shift tripod. Shot with a Nikon D7200 and a Sigma 150 – 600 mm Telephoto lens. Processed and cropped in Lightroom. My last shot of the evening was where I caught him crossing a break in the ground cover and the warm light on his back.

I put the camera down and spent the last ten minutes just enjoying the scene.

Hope you have enjoyed seeing this beautiful bird with me and thank you for visiting.

George.

A mixed bag.

December 10, 2017December 10, 2017George McNeill 11 Comments

Went to bed Thursday night and the fields were green, woke Friday and the place is white. First snow of the year and it was evening before I could get time to head out of a walk around the local roads. There’s not a lot of great shots around here with it being just grazing and most of the old buildings pulled down and new homes replacing them. The one weekend it would have been great to be free I’m busy, snow just won’t last more that a few days here. Anyway back to a few photo’s.

Beside these trees there was a lovely old ruin, a home from over around 200 years ago with a little history.

Murder in Carricknaveagh

Scroll down the page in the above link to read the story of this spot.

Not much traffic here.

Above details and textures.

Winter sun.

These next Photos I caught at the last minute and were shot to be silhouettes has I metered off the black bird with spot metering against the bright sky.

This next shot is not something I do often but I enjoyed creating this. It was taken down by one of the many small lough’s we have around here.

And we have some visitors here at the moment, Redwing’s migrate here for the winter along with the Fieldfare both members of the Thrush family.

Above this is the Fieldfare.

The Redwing is the one in the foreground.

The next set of Redwing photo’s see the bird spit out a Hawthorn seed from the berries they were feeding on.

redwing seed-1804.jpg

redwing seed-1805.jpg

redwing seed-1806.jpg

redwing seed-1807.jpg

Did not know till I process these photo’s I had caught this, all the bird shots where taken with a 600mm and chopped in production. One more to go.

In this photo we have three Fieldfare’s and one Starling, So spot the odd one out.

Thank you for visiting and take care.

George.

ZOOooooom

October 30, 2017October 30, 2017George McNeill 2 Comments

I got a used Sigma 150 – 600 zoom lens, it’s about six months old and is in excellent condition. Included with it was a 1.4 tele – converter which I have yet to try. Camera used was a Nikon D7200. First Photo here was taken from my car, the weather was strong winds and heavy rain. So the light was dull and grey and the subject a Curlew (Numenius arquata) was around 45- 50 metre’s/meter’s away and was a handheld shot. The shot has been chopped and is slightly soft. But unless you were enlarging it, I feel it’s acceptable.

Crulew21.10.17.JPG

Next up was shot in my mother’s garden. Again hand held and the weather was warm and bright with no wind. The Nikon D7200 was used and the Robin ( Erithacus rubecula) was around 25 Metre’s away. I chopped this photo tighter that the last and has you can see the detail is good.

Robin21.10.17.JPG

If you look close you can see cobwebs running from the leaf level with his beak up to the thorn’s above. The last photo was taken at the coast has a storm was rising. I was shooting waves breaking over onto the road from the beach. Breakers were coming with in a few feet from where I was standing. I noticed water spray blowing off the breaker tops. I got the Sigma and D7200 from the car and using it set around 200mm mark, I shot the following wave. Not chopped in to enlarge but chopped into the format you see. The result is not bad. Again hand help in strong winds which were coming from behind me.

wave 21.10.17 b.w.JPG

It was while taking this shot a wave closer in broke a little later and I got wet legs from the knees down. At lease the few people on the bank behind me got a laugh.

So I’m looking forward to using this lens with and without the 1.4 converter. Also with the full frame camera. Will report back in a future post.

Thank you for visiting.

George

A Cold & Misty morning

November 20, 2016November 20, 2016George McNeill 7 Comments

So a misty morning greeted me with a heavy frost coating the world in fine jewels. Just me and the dog out for a morning stroll, with a 17-70 zoom on the camera we headed out. With the mist acting like a giant softbox the landscape soft on the eye, my old pal and I headed off down the road.

max.misty.JPG