Yorkshire wildlife & landscape photographer

Fuji X Pro 1 Infra red conversion

May 22, 2016

I have just finally received my Fuji X Pro 1 back from it’s conversion to the infra red spectrum. It’s been away for nearly two months despite being quoted 10-15 days turnaround but finally, after much complaining it’s here. I’ve been out with it just for a quick test and, of course, I see its roll primarily as a landscape camera, especially when I am travelling light with the family. Here’s a sample image from this morning that I took en route home from visiting a local nature reserve. Lots more to say about this new project as and when I have some impact images to show but at least this image will give an idea of how dynamic the mono images will look from the camera.

Fuji XPro 1 infra red conversion

by John

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Bolton Abbey and Strid Wood

May 21, 2016

I had a trip out to the very picturesque area of Bolton Abbey and Strid wood today to attempt a few shots of wood warbler and other summer visitors such as redstart, pied flycatcher and spotted flycatcher. The weather was a bit grim and damp to start with but as the day progressed the sun came through – just as well really as it was pretty dark under the canopy of Strid wood for the warbler photography. I began the day with a few shots of Bolton Abbey before working around to Strid Woods. The light wasn’t particularly good for photographing the Strid, an area of fast flowing water through twisting, narrow rocky channels, so I concentrated on attempting to photograph wood warbler. The wood warbler is a species very much in decline in the UK and so it was as much a pleasure to watch this little leaf warbler as to photograph it. It never came low enough really but I managed a few record shots as it sang it’s trilling song through the hornbeams in it’s breeding territory, it’s lemon yellow body quivering with the effort of the song.

Bolton Abbey | Yorkshire landscape photographer Strid wood view point towards Barden Tower English bluebell woodland

by John

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Macro photography | Photographing moths | Angle shades moth

May 17, 2016

I really enjoy macro photography so when an opportunity like this angle shades comes along, it gives me a great excuse for breaking off from the commercial edits to take a few shots. I was just stepping into the house when I noticed this angle shades roosting on the garden wall. He was quite out in the open and an easy meal for any birds, so I popped him into a glass and went and got the camera. I decided to photograph him on an old red brick in the garden which had several years of algae and weathering on it, in fact, very similar colours to the moth. I used the 200mm macro lens for the shots using only natural light. Angle shades is a nocturnal moth so I wanted to give the images a darker feel and achieved this by dropping the shadows a couple of stops in post.

by John

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Macro photography at Askham Bog | wildflower photography | Yorkshire wildlife photographer

May 15, 2016

I’ve been enjoying the macro photography of late and decided I need to get out with the camera again to see what i could find. A quick walk around Askham Bog revealed a few butterflies and insects to photograph as well as a few wild plants such as the beautiful water violet but, on the whole, it was fairly quiet due to the slightly cooler temperatures and stiff breeze. I tend to travel light when doing macro photography in the field, taking only a 200mm maco lens, 16mm fisheye and a 24-70mm for general shots if required. I tend to use mainly the 200mm f/4 micor Nikkor lens and the 16mm f/2.8 fisheye where possible for most of the shots. I love the working distance and the soft, shallow DOF of the 200mm macro and prefer over the shorter Nikon macro lenses such as the 105VR lens. Water violet was a beautiful plant that I’ve not photographed before, but as it grows in water or deep wet mud, it was tricky to photograph and I think I would have benefited from an even longer lens, maybe the 300mm or even the 500mm with some extension tubes. The following shots show the water violet, small white, female large red damselfly, cranefly and a common hoverfly called ‘the footballer’ because of it’s stripy coloured strip. Jack-by-the-hedge or garlic mustard finishes off the set.

by John

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Spring wild flowers in a British woodland

May 12, 2016

Spring wild flowers | wildflower photography | British wildflowers

I headed up to Ox-close Woods today to photograph spring wild flowers in a British woodland setting as the forecast had been for a cloudy bright day which is perfect for flower photography. However, by the time I arrived at the site, the sun was blazing away and the wind was gusting making flower photography really quite tricky! I’d mainly gone to photograph the very rare herb-paris (Paris quadrifolia) although I figured I wouldn’t better what I have done here before and I was right. The plant wasn’t in such a good spread as when I last saw it so I decided, rather than redo what I have previously done, I’d try something different with a 16mm fish-eye and some tight shots with the 200mm macro shooting from above. The bluebells were probably at their very best and the areas where stitchwort and bluebells flowered together were some of my favourite scenes. The wild garlic or ransoms was just incredible with large swathes on the woodland embankments and it was while I was photographing the garlic, I spotted some Jew’s ear fungus growing on one of the wooden steps, slightly backlit by the late morning sun. Although I noticed the small snail shell in front of the fungus, I didn’t realise until I was looking at the images on a large monitor, that there was still a snail in the shell and that it was munching on the fungus! I think I’ve identified it correctly as Cochlodina laminata, the plaited door snail.

by John

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