NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

I have an old DSLR - a Canon 400D - that must be getting on for 12 years old now. At the time of purchase I also obtained a Canon 60mm macro lens - mainly for taking photos of moths at rest. For a while I studiously set the camera up on a tripod, used a remote control thingy and made sure that the depth of field and light was good enough to obtain passable results of the said resting moths. And then I got lazy... My compact Panasonic camera could take excellent shots with minimal fuss, so I just used that - no setting up, no trial and error, just click and move on. A bit soulless though. The other day I dusted down the old gear and took it out into the field at Box Hill. Pointed the 60mm at a few plants. Shown here are Sainfoin (top and middle) and Common Milkwort (bottom). Was quite pleased with the results. Of course depth of field is an issue (they were taken with an automatic setting) but in some ways it is quite effective having all but a focus point 'blurry'. I...

With the rise of ownership and ease of use of digital cameras, the number of birders wandering the field armed with the means of taking a photograph has never been higher. The quality of the results is, as to be expected, mixed - from the professional quality seen on some blogs to those blurred shapes that float in a sea of noise defying identification. This vast tide of image has had many benefits, one of them being a number of good species that have been nailed, that would have, in the past, got away... Beddington Sewage Farm has been fortunate to have Roger Brown patrolling the lakes with, rather than a telescope, a telephoto lens (that is longer than most small children). He is also blessed with the sharpest pair of eyes that I have come across. Small dots in the distance to most mere mortals appear as frame fillers to him - and he most probably was able to pick these dots up a quarter of a mile further away than the rest of us. But I slightly digress. Roger has a habit of seeing a...