Last time I wrote that I was trying to think about what to do next and in answer to that I have recently done several photo-shoots, mainly of my garden and one up in Norfolk at Cley nature reserve. I have also started collecting images for an exciting exhibition I'm entering at my church Holy Trinity Redhill.
I've done three shoots in my garden in short bursts partly to capture the best lighting and to get my eye in again. The first of these I focused on the cherry blossom and some particularly bright yellow tulips. It was great to have a play with my macro lens again, it proved to be really effective! However, the cherry blossom was a bit tricky as I was struggling to get a good composition shooting through all the branches. In the end, once I had been brave enough to focus on the closest flowers to the lens, I was able to capture the individual flowers and the results were much better. Here's one of the images below!
For the second shoot I had a go at something I have wanted to do for ages, to photograph the birds in my garden. I don't know why it's taken me so long to get round to it! I especially wanted to capture the House Sparrows. We are fortunate to have a large population of sparrows and have had as many as 40 in the garden at any one time! For a bird that has been struggling a bit over the last few years, in spite of topping the Big Garden Birdwatch table, it's good to see they're thriving in my garden!
Wildlife photography was originally what I really wanted to do or possibly wildlife filming, but it has often been very difficult for me to achieve. To a degree I have achieved that goal, but it's been mostly down to chance. Doing this shoot however has made me rethink that a bit because I seemed to find a formula that really works. Okay the garden is a bit different to the middle of nowhere photographing tigers in India or birds of paradise in Papua New Guinea, but I feel it's a method I can put into practice out and about. Maybe not as far afield as those destinations, as great as that would be, but I think wildlife in Britain can be just as exciting if you know where to look!
I did two things that made everything easier for me. The fist thing was to let the birds come to me, which I knew already, but it's one thing knowing that and another actually doing it! It's very tempting to follow the bird, but it usually doesn't yield good results. It was far better to choose a composition and wait for the bird, although they were places I know the birds like so it wasn't down to complete chance. As you may have guessed you need a lot of patience! The other thing was to use the right lens. When I tried this before I used my big telephoto lens and found it very clumsy and quickly released that it didn't have auto focus, which is no good for me because I can't focus the camera myself! Instead I used my zoom lens and it worked really well! There is one image I'm especially pleased with, but you will have to wait to see it, as I may be entering it for the exhibition I mentioned at the beginning! Here's another image from the shoot though!
So that leads me nicely to Holy Trinity's Connected by Arts exhibition! The exhibition is going to be on Friday 5th and Saturday 6th July at Holy Trinity Church, Carlton Road, Redhill, Surrey, RH1 2BX so there are some dates for the dairy! I will let you know more details nearer the time! The exhibition is being put on for two reasons, partly to raise money for our new building project and as an event to bring our local community together. For those who don't know my faith in Jesus means a great deal to me! Knowing that he's always there with me helps me get through the great difficulties in my life and makes the good times even better! If you haven't already, have a look at a post I put up a few years ago, which has a video about my faith and what it means to me!
I seem to have rambled on this time so that's all from me for now! I hope you enjoyed reading and if you have any feedback on things to write about next let me know!