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I managed to capture this Fox just at the moment he stuck his tongue out though I think he was licking his lips. Foxes are found throughout Britain and Ireland. In fact they are found pretty much throughout the Northern Hemisphere. British Foxes were once thought to be a different subspecies (crucigera) with smaller, more widely separated teeth. But further work has shown that dentition varies and it is highly doubtful whether British Foxes are sufficiently different to merit being called a subspecies. Though Foxes from even warmer parts of Europe seem to develop longer coats compared with British Foxes. They are highly adaptable and can occur in many different habitats feeding on a wide variety of food especially rabbits, voles, birds, beetles, worms and fruit. Foxes living in urban areas tend to scavenge for food scraps just as they do for carrion in rural areas. But they will also take live food in urban situations. The one visiting my garden is partial to peanuts.
Foxes mate in the depths of winter when the Vixen can be heard making that familiar screaming bark. Gestation is just over 50 days and the young are fully weaned at about 10 weeks. The male usually helps provision the young with food. The cubs usually associate with their mother until autumn, when they disperse to find territories of their own.
I finally managed to get some satisfactory shots of a dipper!
I believe this is a juvenile - and it returned to this grating (?drain outlet) a couple of times, I wondered if the nest had been inside the culvert.
Many thanks to everyone who takes time to view, fave or comment on my pictures.
I managed to get back in to an abandoned factory I thought was lost forever and was secured by fences and security guards. Now it seems all the guards have gone and the gates were wide open. And who am I to refuse another chance to visit an old favourite lightpainting haunt!?
The old factory in question was a refractories facility close to Matlock in Derbyshire, England. It's about a 40 mile drive from me so not exactly local and driving all that way only to be turned away by a security guard is not an option. Especially now since fuel for my batmobile is so expensive.
Inside the factory are wide open spaces with curved roofs and long narrow corridors. It's like a playground for lightpainters since there are so many places to shoot in.
Along the first floor is a long gallery or walkway with a cool roof supporting structure. This gallery has featured in my images from here quite a bit and last night we found ourselves up on the first floor again.
For this shot I set up a gelled flashgun at the rear of frame and asked the model, @inksurgeon to stand in the middle. We set off a smoke pellet to provide background seperation behind the subject. Once happy with the main part of the image, I replaced the lens cap without ending the exposure.
I then turned on a couple of tactically placed RGB LED cubes pointed at the steelwork. I then removed the lens cap and rotated the blue lit steel structure for a total of eight ways. The camera is rotated around the lens axis and I expose each segment for a couple of seconds before rotating the camera.
Possibly a bit complicated to explain to the non-lightpainter but I can say that this image was made in one photographic exposure.
I managed to get a photo of these before the birds ate them all.
The flowers, leaves, berries, bark and roots of the elder have all been used in traditional folk medicine for centuries. There is also a rich background of folklore and traditions surrounding it. In the Middle Ages legends held that tree was home to witches and that cutting down one would bring on the wrath of those residing in the branches.
She managed the pearls and the scarf, but Muriel thought she might need help clipping on the earrings. Personally, I'm just relieved she didn't find the red lipstick. :))
I bought these earrings for next to nothing in a local shop last year to use as a prop, but this is the first time they've seen the light of day. I was happy to see the theme this week!
For this week's Smile on Saturday! group theme, Earrings.
Managed to capture the Male Orange Tip Butterfly today after seeing a few of them about the last week
Haven't managed many photos during the recent bad weather so here's one from my Spain backlog. For most of my bird-watching years I have known this species as Azure-winged Magpie (Cyanopicus cyanus). It was famous for having one of the most unusual distributions of any bird on the planet. They are found in far-eastern Asia (including China, Japan, Siberia) with a small population in Portugal and Spain, but occurring nowhere in the 9000 km gap between them. But in 2002 some genetic research was published that suggested they were different but near-identical species, and the European "species" became known as Iberian Magpie (Cyanopica cooki). The main difference is that the eastern species has about an inch of white at the tips of the blue central tail feathers. They are social birds, usually occurring in family groups that inhabit open woodland areas. I photographed this one mid-bounce in Spain's Coto Donana.
The eastern Azure-winged Magpie (C.cyanus) was first described by Peter Pallas in 1776, but the Iberian Magpie was first described as subspecies cooki by Charles Bonaparte (Napoleon's nephew) in 1850, and this name has subsequently been adopted for the new species. Iberian Magpie differs from Azure-winged mainly because it lacks the latter's white tips to the central tail feathers. But Iberian is also a bit smaller and browner-backed that eastern Azure-winged. The Cook after whom cooki was named was Captain Samuel Edward Cook (1787-1856) British geologist, naturalist and collector. Cook collected an Azure-winged Magpie in Spain in 1831, which was until then, only known from the Far East.
Close-up shot of the rapids in Glen Massan where the rocks have been carved into unusual shapes by millennias of water movement.
I somehow managed to delete this photo by mistake this morning and as I like it, have put it back on so back to zero everything again. Never mind I'll be more careful next time.
This is the RSPB woods at Tunbridge Wells Kent, UK late in the evening. It is populated with Deer, Konik horses and goats not forgetting the foxes, rabbits and lots of birds.
A beautiful place for a long or short walk.
Photo taken with a Helios lens,
Glancing through my gallery you might think that we have an abundance of insect life in our surroundings. Nothing could be further from the truth and I struggle to find much at all day to day, especially at the moment during our anticyclonic gloom. One species that does seem to have done OK is the mother of pearl moth - patania ruralis. As I go around the garden watering with the hose, I inevitably disturb one or two moths and this one flew out yesterday and secreted itself amongst the Japanese azalea leaves. Usually these moths in flight travel fast and disappear before I can pinpoint their position. But I managed to spot this one's hiding place and got a snap or two, even with our dark, grey skies overhead. These mother of pearl moths have emerged from a clump of nettles which we grew in a container pot. Quite often they have flapped back into the nettles which have kindly stung me as I strive for a snap or two. This time however, there were no such hazards.
This is a Merlin engine, 1 of 4 recovered from a Handley Page bomber. The aircraft crashed in 1943, shot down over Germany. The engines remained buried in the ground until 2010 when they were recovered by the Germans who then passed them onto the MoD who then passed them onto the Wings Museum in Sussex. They have managed to restore this engine to working order whilst retaining 90% of the original components.
This week I managed to photograph both Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler at close quarters. This one is a Chiffchaff and I'll post the similar Willow Warbler later. Most years the Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita) is the first spring migrant that I see and this year was no exception as I saw a couple of singing birds on 28 February. This coincided with some unusually warm, fine weather. Chiffchaffs do overwinter in Britain but they tend to occur at lower altitudes, so living in the Pennines I rarely see them in winter, and assume that singing birds in my area are genuine migrants. The early migrants like Chiffchaff mainly winter around the Mediterranean, so do not have as far to travel as sub-Saharan migrants. They can also make use of good migrating weather systems in Europe whereas the weather in sub-Saharan Africa has little relevance to the weather in Europe.
Chiffchaffs are very closely related to Willow Warblers and it was Gilbert White (author of the Natural History of Selborne) who first realised they were separate species by listening to their distinctive songs. He also separated Wood Warbler at the same time. This was in 1768 in correspondence with Thomas Pennant, twenty one years before he published the Natural History of Selborne. It isn't just the song that distinguishes them, Chiffchaffs are duller than Willow Warblers, with shorter wings and distinctive dark legs, all visible here. They also have a more ptominent white crescent below the eye and have a habit of down-pumping their tails. Willow Warblers are similar, except Willow Warbler is a little brighter with longer wings, and paler legs. That eye crescent is less obvious, and they don't habitually pump their tail. But if spring the song is the best way to distinguish them. Here is Chiffchaff song on Xeno Canto: www.xeno-canto.org/466006 (By Andrew Harrop at Rutland Water). For comparison here's a Willow Warbler www.xeno-canto.org/621080
The scientific name Phylloscopus means leaf-gleaner from its habit of searching leaves for insects. Collybita means money-counter which refers to the song; chiff-chaff, chiff-chaff, chiff-chiff-chiff-chaff. This really does sound like someone counting coins from a table top. And for me that coin-counting repetitive song will always herald the arrival of spring.
I managed to persuade my grandson to come for a short walk after dinner but, he was quite alarmed when I asked two young ladies if they mind me taking a photo of their drinks.
Managed to get out and photograph the very shy and elusive Dartford Warbler at long last!, bit of a long shot and heavy crop but I liked the pose so much that I picked this one out of all the others to post, a second or two before I pressed the shutter button a dog started to bark and this little fellow stretched up over the gorse to see what all the commotion was about, lovely to see and hear these pretty little birds! :)
On another note, I have just knocked up a Website www.Digittalia.com its still under construction and only on free hosting until I finish the construction so it might be a bit slow to load etc but its been long overdue and for all the people who have been nagging me to do it, you know who you are so check it out! ;) lol
Thanks to those who look and take the time to comment, it's very much appreciated.
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I only managed to get a few worthy shots on this particular evening as the ball head part of my tripod had broken. Thankfully I found the same ball head at the local camera shop later on and although it was an extra expense, I couldn't really fathom the thought of being in South Island for another 2 weeks without being able to use my tripod.
I admire all you landscape photographers out there. New Zealand is so picturesque, it truly is a landscape photographers haven. I gave it my best shot but I've come to realise that I may be out of my depth as far as this genre is concerned, lol. But still, I'll keep at it.......
Tadaaa! Three OOTDs I managed to create and put them in 1 picture. I kinda want to portray the "Gamer, Influencer & Boho Chic" Style :D So what Style do you prefer?
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Full Credits & HD Shots: Persophone.
･ﾟ` 🎀 Featuring 🎀 `ﾟ･
~ LEFT:
ODIO *Jennie Skin Gacha RARE 2 Tone2.
KitCat *One and Only Dress. Available at SaNarae Event.
#Bang *Alternative Style Earrings. Available in The Imaginarium Event.
{Demicorn} *Back to School Nails #5. Available in The Imaginarium Event.
TAKE IT - EZ *Saklay Thiy Tattoo. Available at Harajuku Event.
KitCat *Swish Game with 2 Bento Poses Included.
~ MIDDLE:
ODIO *Miso Skin Tone2.
BOMI *Playful Headband [Bold].
{Hime*Dream} *Eliana Dress. Grab it at Flora Event.
Cinnamon Cocaine *Tegann Sunglasses - Queen. Exclusive item for The Girl Power Event .
Cinnamon Cocaine *Stra Princess Whipshake - Banana Milk. Exclusive item for The Girl Power Event .
~ RIGHT:
ODIO *Loopy Skin Tone 2 (Genus/BOM).
{Hime*Dream} *Melanie Dress. Available at SaNarae Event.
CAZIMI *Cupcake Nails.
MOMIRAI *Not Shy Tattoo.
DUST *Bumper Bag Gacha - Flowery. Grab it at The Imaginarium Event.
~ SCENE:
ANDORE *Fly Pony, Fly Gacha.
Baby Sunshine*Voomba Vacuum Pug Pals. Available at The Imaginarium Event.
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My first star trail ... very much a test shot to learn some lessons for when I do it for real later in the year. The focus isn't quite right here but I put this down to it being 2am in the morning and the few nips of Laphroaig that I had consumed beforehand :D Also, still very much learning how to use my camera's intervalometer.
Managed to photograph a green woodpecker @ Dunham Massey for the first time this morning. Quite a way off but just pleased to see one. Heard quite a few yaffling too and saw a couple in flight. Just need to get nearer next time!
Somehow I managed to get between the male and female coyotes in the cold weather. -2 degress, no wind and sunny. She went back into the woods and I hung out for about 15 minutes. I could see both the male and female pacing on either side of me just inside the tree line. Finally the female decided to catch up to the male and I got my photo op.
This is the uncropped version of my Mischief Managed photo for Eclipse.
Autumn Meadow, Drifting Smoke. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.
Light beams pass through drifting smoke to illuminate autumn trees, Yosemite Valley.
This was just about my first photograph on this November 1 day in Yosemite Valley for the fall color. I drove up very early in the morning, departing hours before sunrise so that I could be there for early light. I was a bit disappointed to find that a managed fire was underway in the valley, filling the lower end with thick smoke and producing some haze almost everywhere. For a brief moment I contemplated driving back out of the Valley and photographing in lower, clearer country… but as I drove a short Valley loop I found that the smoke was actually adding a dramatic effect in some places.
In the end, most of the photographs I made on this visit involved that haze, ranging from barely enough too be visible up to smoke that choked the lungs and burned the eyes. Here the smoke was fairly thick, though it did not spread too far, and while there was a lot of smoke among the trees the air was relatively clearer where I set up. As I made this photograph the rising sun was still low in the sky, and the interplay of light and shadow formed angled light beams.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.
I managed to get this photo after I tripped in Bodie last Saturday, but it was clear that I had injured my wrist, so I put the camera and tripod in the car and focused on setting up shots and lighting subjects for the rest of the night session.
I managed to make time for a visit to Stodmarsh NNR (one of my favourite wildlife destinations) and, despite an unpromising forecast, the light wasn't too bad. The more than predicted 'fresh breeze' meant small birds and insects, apart from odonata, were mostly hiding.
My favourite tree in the village,glowing in the Autumn sun.
Just upgraded my PC a few days ago to Windows 10 and managed to make a mess of my monitor settings which somehow became stuck on thermonuclear level brightness. Just got it sorted today so I shall start to catch up with everybody now I can see your photos properly once more.
Managed to get out this morning and pay the beach a visit - this time it was Newcastle Beach, NSW; Australia.
Here I've used the rusty posts that surround what's known locally as The Canoe (or World) Pool a children's saltwater pool that is located beside the Newcastle Ocean Baths.
The sun was pretty high in the sky so it was necessary for me to use my Lee Big Stopper and Lee .9 Hard Grad filters to create this long exposure image.
Thanks again for any comments, views or favorites - hope you liked it!
Hope too that you have a wonderful week!!!
I managed to see three different species of owl on my bike ride this morning, but Short-eared was not one of them. I took this one from the car on Mull in the morning sunshine. You can see that the pupil in the shade is dilated compared to the eye in the sun. You can also see the short ear tufts that give rise to its name, though of course these are just feather tufts. The real ears are located asymmetrically either side of the facial disc. According to the BTO there were only 620 breeding pairs in Britain (2007-2011), though the breeding population varies massively in synch with the Field Vole cycle.
I managed to get out to the Pond [Lake] last week. It was a very dull day, but made a welcome change to the rain and high winds we've been getting lately.
There were plenty of ducks, gulls and geese around plus a pair of swans and this pair of white doves.
I've never seen any white doves over there before, so this was a nice surprise and they stayed put for me too.
When I got back home I decided to look doves up on line as I know nothing about them. Most results seemed a bit disparaging about them and called them pigeons. Well, I suppose they are of the pigeon family but to me they are so much more distinctive.
Anyway - I know pigeons can be seen as a nuisance, but I read somewhere that people's perception of them changes for the better when they find out how useful and stoic homing pigeons were during the war and they were even awarded medals - so there!
I don't often take wildlife photos but this horse, in a field near Ardentinny, was very photogenic and seemed keen to have its photo taken. I think that it expected an apple, or some sugar, for its efforts but all I could offer it was some green, green grass from the other side of the road :)
Icius hamatus
I found a pair of Icius hamatus on one of the garden chairs outside, and relocated them to this plant. Unfortunately the male disappeared after I'd only managed to get an "identification photo", but I was pleased to photograph my first female of the species!
This is my whisky-fueled, wee hours test shot using my home-made version of a Gary Fong flash diffuser. The real thing costs £50-£60 ... my version costs 60p :D
Returning to Sandanbeki, Wakayama, this was the last photo I managed to get after exploring the caves (big emphasis on "after the caves", I still have more photos to upload). Prior to seeing this cliffside I wasn't aware this was a highly photographed spot, much less a national park! (Or what goes as a national park in Japan cause whatever the critique is, it's VERY different from the USA). The colors on the cliff were not tampered with in the editing phase, it really was a stunning composition in of itself. I also thought about editing the white hotels in the back out. But on the other hand, I don't think they impacted the photo in a negative way, so I just made them a bit darker.
You can walk out to the edge of that cliff, but the view isn't as good over there as it was here. Nor is there a very good foreground.
But don't let the name fool you. There will of course be some people out here, but compared to other spots around Honshu, it's a paradise away from civilization. Wakayama is, after all, one of the most isolated, and naturally challenging places to get out to, despite google maps will tell you it's around a 2 hour drive from Osaka. But say you went to Fuji Hakone national park and there was just way too many people (which would be a relatable situation) I would highly recommend coming here instead, there are far fewer tourists here.
Another one of those beautiful, calm days on Loch Eck, with a lovely sky reflected in it at the end of the day.
Explore position: 252 on Sunday, February 20, 2022
I managed to get a shot of one of the juvenile kestrels at RHS Hyde Hall the other evening, but today I managed to get four of them in one shot! We think this is all of the juveniles as we stood and watched for a while. The one on the edge of the nest box kept hopping down out of sight, but there was never any sign of a fifth juvenile!
After being confined to the office for an entire week I finally managed to go out for a wee stroll.
Spending a few hours roaming the countryside with my dog Bert in fresh air and lovely sunshine does cheer me up quite a bit....
Just managed to capture the northern lights on a 50:50 cloudy night. Corona appears as a curtain from straight above, with rays coming down directly overhead.
The pinkish clouds are glowing from light pollution, produced from 2-3 lights that illuminate the junction of two major Alaska roadways, a couple of miles away.
Rokinon 12 mm 2.8 manual fisheye lens.
Have not managed to get good photos lately.
So it is time to share some more from this year's Vivid Sydney.
This year's theme was "Ocean creatures" and that one reminds me on some sort of flowers, hence the name.
More info here: www.vividsydney.com/
Thanks for looking and have a great day.
Press z for large view.
Norbert
Managed to catch a Blue Jay visiting the feeder earlier today.
Hope everyone is doing well and staying safe.
Click "L" to view on black.
Managed to get out once while in Newcastle over Christmas (annoying 2 beautiful sunrises which I missed due to Christmas Day and a flight to Southampton!) and headed to my favourite local spot, St Mary's Lighthouse. For once got the tide height and sunrise pretty bang on for a nice level of water over the causeway.
St Mary's Lighthouse, Whitley Bay
Nikon D750 / Nikon 16-35 @ 20mm / f/8 5s / LEEfilters 0.6nd Hard Grad
Managed to make it down to the lower lighthouse at Eastbourne last Thursday. What was a risky walk over the slippery rocks and staying away from the base of the cliffs, just in case of rock fall. I had the pleasure of seeing an incredible sunset. As the sun dipped under the low clouds, it managed to put some colour on the sky before dropping below the horizon. Times like these I'm very glad and grateful that I live close to the coast.
