It's here! The time of the year when the leaf buds on the trees slowly unfurl their beautiful new leaves. Acid green in colour, and utterly perfect. The elements have yet to batter and scar them, or the passage of time to age them into their more sombre, dark greens of high summer.
I'm still slightly obsessed with my new (second hand) lens. So when I arrived at the brook, I cast aside my old trusted 24-120mm, in favour of the 80-400mm.
It was really foggy...
Having a new lens with a different focal length range, is a bit like having a new set of eyes. Compositions previously unavailable can now be achieved. I took the shot below at 240mm, and I love how the lens compresses the scene.
I spotted a pair of kingfishers sitting in one of the willows. Not wanting to scare them off I stayed a respectable distance away, but as my long lens was already on my camera, I managed to capture this shot of one of them sitting among the branches.
The main problem I now have with the new lens, is that the ball head on my tripod isn't quite strong enough to hold the camera in position, and I get an initial creep downwards, once I let go of the camera and the tripod bears the full weight of the lens. The only way to get around this is to frame the composition higher than I want, to accommodate the downwards creep. Once the camera is settled it is fine, but the process is incredibly annoying, and I will have to buy a new tripod head that can cope properly with the additional weight, as it's not really a workable long term solution.
The oil/chemicals that had been dumped in the river upstream a few weeks ago, have mainly dispersed now. There are still tiny patches of rainbow oil in a couple of places, where the current hasn't flushed the pollution away. I have seen mallard and mandarin ducks, herons, a white egret (look closely in the photo below!) and deer in the brook, and haven't noticed any wildlife in distress. There are still signs up everywhere asking dog walkers to keep their dogs out of the water.
I swapped back to my 24-120mm lens for the shot below. It is as close to the water as I can hand hold my camera, without it being submerged....
As of Friday, I am a free woman, as I reach the end of my current work contract. I'm actually looking forward to a little time off. There is a project that I really want to work on, to use my photographs to try and raise some money for the refugee crisis. Life/work has been busy, and I haven't had time to sit down and draft my idea out. Hopefully I can make some progress soon.
I can be found on...
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cathgothard/
Website: www.cathgothard.com
