Early spring flowers

A few flowers have started to bloom in the garden, an ideal opportunity to try out my new macro lens. The lens in question is the Canon 100mm L IS Macro lens, a corker of a lens. These shots were taken hand held. The image stabilization was a real boon.

  

Kelsey Park Herons

A great place to watch and photograph Grey Herons is Kelsey Park in Beckenham, Kent.

There is a thriving Heronry with a number of nesting birds. At the moment a number have chicks, they are in the middle of the main lake so there is no chance of disturbance although you will need a reasonably long lens.
Although most of the nests look pretty substantial the parent birds are topping up the nest, good opportunities for Herons in flight carrying branches.
Here are a few photos I took this weekend.

A Good time for Wrens

With Spring kicking in it is a great time to photograph Wrens. These birds usually spend their time in hedgerows and are often quite elusive.
However, now that their hormones are kicking in the males are setting up breeding territories. In order to define and protect these the male will sing and usually does so from a high vantage point. This means they are more often in the open, also as they are preoccupied with singing I find they are more tolerant of a closer approach.

Below are some photos taken recently a local nature reserve.

Alamy QC Outcome

Received some good news, all of the images taken with the 7D have passed Alamy's quality control. This was the acid test as one of the main reasons for buying the camera was the larger file size.

Canon 7D

Carrion Crow taken with Canon 7D

After much deliberation and internet research I took the plunge and bought a Canon 7D.
I read lots of comments about image quality and noise which were of concern but after downloading some RAW files from DP Review I was happy that this was the camera for me!

My main reasons for purchasing were:

• Approx 100% viewfinder, amazing how different this is.
• 19 cross type AF points - the more the merrier!
• 18MP I upload some images to Alamy and this will mean I no longer have to upsize them.

 There are numerous other functions that are really useful as well but these were the main ones driving my decision. I have only been out with the camera a couple of times but I am really happy with my choice.

I shoot in RAW and then post process in Lightroom so far I have seen no evidence of soft images that I cannot attribute to me messing up the shot.

I have sent a few images to a Alamy and an awaiting their quality control to see if the unsharpened files pass.

On display

On display
Originally uploaded by Richard Parker

One of my Up Helly Aa photos was chosen for use as part of an 'Intangible Cultural Heritage in Scotland' stand at the Scottish Parliament.

More info on ICH in at www.ichscotland.org

Canon 100-400 f4.5-5.6 L Field Test

The weather has been pretty good for the last few days so I was able to manage a trip to the London Wetland Centre in Barnes and a local nature reserve, South Norwood Country Park.

Over all I have been extremely pleased with the lens. It handles well, the AF tracked well in AI servo and seemed bang on in one shot modes. As for the sharpness at the long end I have no complaints at all.

Below are some images taken over the last couple of days, these have had some Lightroom processing but no sharpening at all. If you click on the image I have included large jpegs.

Canon 100-400 + 1.4x Extender

560mm, 1/250 @ f11 ISO 250, Manual Focus

Canon 100-400

400mm, 1/250 @ f8 ISO 200, AI Servo tracking on eye

Canon 100-400

400mm, 1/160 @ f6.3 ISO 250, One shot AF

Canon 100-400

400mm, 1/500 @ f7.1 ISO 250, One Shot AF

In my opinion it's a great lens, as to whether I will buy one that's a tricky decision. As the shots above will testify I was mainly shooting at 400mm or longer so although the convenience of the zoom is tempting I am not sure that I can justify the outlay if I will only be using it at a focal length I already cover.