{"id":1039,"date":"2008-01-04T22:01:25","date_gmt":"2008-01-04T22:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/1039"},"modified":"2013-11-23T01:01:46","modified_gmt":"2013-11-23T01:01:46","slug":"bird-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/bird-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Bird life"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Another overcast day, but it was dry (if somewhat muddy underfoot) and mild enough to get me out at lunchtime. Instead of staying to the paths I ended up following a kestrel into the fields but without managing anything remotely usable in the way of a photo. I also caught a glimpse of a green woodpecker, but didn't even manage an un<\/i>usable shot!<\/p>\n

The time wasn't entirely wasted though. Given the dull weather I attempted a few shots of more cooperative birds with flash. The results are in the January Birds<\/a> album, but here's a sample.<\/p>\n

The first is of a robin. I saw this when I was heading back to work. It was flitting in and out of the hedges and I only managed one usable shot.<\/p>\n

\"robin\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Slightly easier were the magpies. There are more of them around, and they were generally roosting and fluffing themselves up to keep warm. There are three shots in the album.<\/p>\n

\"magpie\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The star of the show was a male blackbird. For some reason I tend not to get on with these birds. Or rather, they don't get on with me. Supposedly bold, they generally fly off as soon as I line up the camera. Or else they dive under bushes. I've got a large collection of blurred or obscured shots of them. This one decided to cooperate with me and I was able to take a number of shots, four of which I've uploaded. <\/p>\n

\"blackbird\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It's the first time I've made a concerted attempt to use flash while photographing birds. They were all taken with the camera in 'manual' mode and I varied the shutter and aperture somewhat experimentally. Most of the shots were with a moderate shutter speed (1\/125-1\/200) and at around f\/8-f\/10. I kept the ISO setting at 400.<\/p>\n

Camera note: all shots taken with the EF70-300mm 4.5-5.6 DO IS lens and Canon 430EX flash unit.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[980],"tags":[33],"class_list":["post-1039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds-2","tag-birds","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t