Miniature Albatross...

This shot was taken while walking around Bempton Cliffs earlier this year, I only spent 2 very short days there but managed to get a half decent shot of all of the major birds,



The technical information of how I took this photograph;
Lens: sigma 18-200 @ 200mm, Aperture: F.8, Shutter Speed 1/2500. ISO: 800,

After I had taken the picture I added a touch of sharpness and shadow and then added a small gradient boarder,

I hope that you like my picture, Thanks Lee Harrison,
Happy Days and Happy Snapping.

Could This Be The So Readily Promised Doggy Heaven...

This shot was taken while walking around one of the smaller towns near to were we were staying in France, from the dogs side there was about 2ft between the top of the wall and the floor but from our side a big drop,



The technical information of how I took this photograph;
Lens: sigma 18-200 @ 52mm, Aperture: F.14, Shutter Speed 1/250. ISO: 400,

I wouldn't usually use such a high F. for a photo like this but I had my camera set up for taking shots around town of landscapes and architecture,

After I had taken the picture, I just added a boarder, what you see is how I took it,

I hope that you like my picture,
Thanks Lee Harrison, Happy Days and Happy Snapping.

Red In The Face...

This shot was taken while walking around White Coppice,



The technical information of how I took this photograph;
Lens: sigma 18-200 @ 200mm, Aperture: F.8, Shutter Speed 1/500. ISO: 400,

After I had taken the picture, I cropped it in, added a tiny bit of shadow and added a black and white boarder

I hope that you like my picture,
Thanks Lee Harrison, Happy Days and Happy Snapping.

Back lit Beauty...

This shot was taken while walking around a local meadow near to my home,



The technical information of how I took this photograph;
Lens: sigma 18-200 @ 200mm, Aperture: F.8, Shutter Speed 1/250. ISO: 800,

After I had taken the picture, I cropped it in to enlarge the subject, added a touch of shadow to enhance the details and then added a gradient boarder

I hope that you like my picture,
Thanks Lee Harrison, Happy Days and Happy Snapping.

At the End Of The Storm There's A Golden Sky...

This shot was taken while walking around the Rivington and Heapey area,



The technical information of how I took this photograph;
Lens: sigma 70-300 @ 122mm, Aperture: F.9, Shutter Speed 1/125. ISO: 400,

After I had taken the picture, I did a bit of modifying, when I originally took the picture, there were 3 power cables cutting across the sky and through the temple steeple which spoilt the picture so I edited these out using the retouch tool in Picasa, after this I upped the shadow ever so slightly to give the temple more definition and then added a oval black and white boarder,

I hope that you like my picture,
Thanks Lee Harrison, Happy Days and Happy Snapping.

Roe In The Grass...

This shot was taken while walking around Brockhole Quarry, this fine male came to within about 5 metres of me,



The technical information of how I took this photograph;Lens:
sigma 18-200 @ 200mm, Aperture: F.5.6, Shutter Speed 1/160. ISO: 800,

After I had taken the picture, I add a touch of shadow and upped the sharpness and after this I added a rounded a boarder.

I hope that you like my picture,
Thanks Lee Harrison, Happy Days and Happy Snapping.

Sun Shines On the Righteous...

This shot was taken at Heysham Bird Observatory, when walking around 1 day,



The technical information of how I took this photograph;
Lens: sigma 18-200 @ 200mm, Aperture: F.29, Shutter Speed 1/50. ISO: 200,

After I had taken the picture, I added a touch more shadow and then added a gradient boarder.

I hope that you like my picture,
Thanks Lee Harrison, Happy Days and Happy Snapping.

Heavens Missing An Angel...

This shot was taken while on my first holiday with my partner, it was taken one evening after a wonderful day out we sat watching the sun set and it is possibly my favourite picture that I have taken...



The technical information of how I took this photograph;
Lens: sigma 18-200 @ 200mm, Aperture: F.22, Shutter Speed 1/200. ISO: 1600,

After I had taken the picture, I cropped it in to make my subject bigger, and added a touch of sharpness to enhance the silhouette

I hope that you like my picture,

Thanks Lee Harrison, Happy Days and Happy Snapping.

Sharing The Lake With Another Family....

This shot was taken around the lake at our first villa, there was a small family of Coypu living on our lake so one night I decided to get a little closer, hiding behind a tree the trusting little cub or Kit or baby, I'm not quite sure what they are called came walking right up to me, it new I was there but as long as stay still it wasn't bother, eventually after watching it for 20-30 min. it ended up within 2 metres of me, an amazing experience,



The technical information of how I took this photograph;
Lens: sigma 18-200 @ 200mm, Aperture: F.6.3, Shutter Speed 1/50. ISO: 800,

When I took this picture, it was going very dark, so I had to drop my F. and drop my shutter speed right down, on normal occasions I would never drop my shutter speed this low for nature photography but this time the light forced me to and I had to take a lot more shot to get one that was clear,

After I had taken the picture, I brightened the picture, (so you can tel how dark it was when I took the picture), upped the sharpness and then added a very small gradient boarder.

I hope that you like my picture,
Thanks Lee Harrison, Happy Days and Happy Snapping.

Dasies In The Dark...

This shot was taken today while sat in my back garden, we don’t have many plants in our back garden, but I try to make the most of the ones we do have from photographing the Bee and Butterflies to taking photos like this,



The technical information of how I took this photograph;

Lens: sigma 18-200 @ 200mm, Aperture: F.8, Shutter Speed 1/2500. ISO: 800,

For a close up shot like this, I would usually use a lower f. such as F.6.3 as this is the lowest my lens will let me go but for this picture I left it as F.8 to give a better depth of field across the petals whole keeping the contrast of light and dark,

After I had taken the picture, I added a little bit more shadow to black out the background more and then added a boarder...

I hope that you like my picture,
Thanks Lee Harrison, Happy Days and Happy Snapping.

Humming Bird Moth...

This shot was taken while walking around the gardens of a very large chateau




The technical information of how I took this photograph;
Lens: sigma 18-200 @ 200mm, Aperture: F.6.3, Shutter Speed 1/1250. ISO: 800,

After I had taken the picture I upped the sharpness slightly to increase the detail and added a black and white boarder,

I hope that you like my picture,
Thanks Lee Harrison, Happy Days and Happy Snapping.

Great Green Bush Cricket...

This shot was taken while walking around a few small roads near our villa, Danielle and I just set off from out back door for a short walk and saw all sort from Wasp Spiders to Swallowtails, Imperial Eagles and Hobbies and almost everything in between, while watching a small but fantastic Beatle or Graphosoma Italicum for those amongst you that like your technical names when I saw what could only be described as a small plane or aircraft crash land in the hedgerow, it sounded like a Chinook doing a low fly by... Intrigued by the size of the creature I went looking for the culprit and found the mother of a Crickets looking back at me... A Great Green Bush Cricket and trust me it lives up to it's name "GREAT"....it was massive... in this picture there is nothing to scale it to but you can just tell its big, from memory I think it was about a foot long, of maybe 4 inch but it was large...




The technical information of how I took this photograph;
Lens: sigma 18-200 @ 200mm, Aperture: F.8, Shutter Speed 1/500. ISO: 800,

After I had taken the picture I upped the sharpness to increase the detail slightly and then added a gradient boarder to blend it into the background,

I hope that you like my picture,

Thanks Lee Harrison, Happy Days and Happy Snapping.

All Hot And Not So Bothered...

This shot was taken whilst walking around the garden of our villa, I saw this beautiful little Glanville Fritillary come and land on a near by flower, I took a quick record shot so that I could ID it on later inspection expecting it so fly off but it didn't, it just sat there, had a little drink and then just soaked up the sun, seemingly not bother be the presence or me or my lens.



The technical information of how I took this photograph;
Lens: sigma 18-200 @ 200mm, Aperture: F.6.3, Shutter Speed 1/400. ISO: 800,

After I had taken the picture, I upped the shadow to help define the features and then increased the sharpness to enhance the detail, after this cropped the picture in to make it appear longer and added a black and white frame with rounded edges,

I hope that you like my picture,

Thank you Lee Harrison, Happy Days and Happy Snapping.

To Nice To Leave Behind (but I was smiling)...

This shot was taken while on the ferry, leave Dover Harbour, it seemed like such a shame to be leaving such a beautiful sight behind and it reminded me that even though I have spent most of my childhood holidaying around Great Britain there is still so much I haven’t seen but I had a quiet smile on my face as I took this picture :),

I hope that you like it...



The technical information of how I took this photograph;
Lens: sigma 18-200 @ 18mm, Aperture: F.22, Shutter Speed 1/400. ISO: 400,

For this picture I left my ISO at 400 so I could have a higher shutter speed and there would be no blurring from the movement of the boat, if I was on land using a tripod I would have used ISO 100 and a much lower shutter speed achieving a greater depth of field.

After I had taken the picture, I just edited out a few imperfection such a much in my sensor (I need a clean desperately) and the added a boarder

I hope that you like my picture, Thanks Lee Harrison, Happy Days and Happy Snapping.

A Southern White Admiral

I saw many new and exciting animal birds and insects when out and about in France, but this must have been one of the most beautiful butterflies I have ever seen, it might only look black and white, but when you was this butterfly in the sun it have a iridescent blue sheen that covered its wings...

I hope that you like it,



Thanks Lee Harrison Happy Days and Happy Snapping.

13th Century Church...

One thing that amazed me about France, was the architecture and the especially the churches, on our journeys we stumbled across this 13th Century church that I been so well looked after it looked like it had been built last week, truly unbelievable...

I hope that you like it,



Thanks Lee Harrison Happy Days and Happy Snapping...

The Keeper Of The Fence...

On the first morning in France at our B&B I decided to rise before breakfast to have a walk around and see what I could find, this turned up many different birds including Black Redstarts, Cirl Buntings, Middle Spotted Woodpeckers and Honey Buzzards but this little gate keeper made one of my favourite pictures,



I hope that you like this photograph, Happy Days and Happy Snapping

My Friend, My Car and My Girl...

Back from France and many photographs to share, unfortunately my last post dated blogs did not automatically post so these will be pre-dated to keep up with the 365 days, these pictures wont have to many details but after these 4 posts all information will be provided...

This was an experimental shot that I took at the port while waiting for the ferry, I took this picture in my friends glasses, if you look closely you can see me on the left taking the picture (the friend) the Audi in the centre of the left lens (the car) and his partner in the right lens(the girl).

I like the effect that I got from the photograph and I am hoping the experiment more with it...



I hope that you like this photo, Happy Days and Happy Snapping

Lilly in the pads...

Bugging Me...

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star...

Butterfly Made of Metal...

Berry Dew...

A Crowned Bird...

A Beauty In the Grass...

Shadows of light...

Seal In The Wake

Its The Eye Of The Spider...

Fall to the sky...

Mothing with a Difference...

Macro Forest...