Photo Friday - Week 5

A bit of an unintentional bird theme today, but here's a couple of photos I took whilst giving some private tuition last Saturday at the Essex Wildlife Trust's reserve at Hanningfield Reservoir, the first from 'Rawl Hide', overlooking the largely frozen reservoir, the second from the Visitor Centre window, by the bird feeders.


Pentax K-5, Pentax DA*300mm f/4 lens @ f/6.7, 1/750s, +0.5EV, ISO200, handheld.

I really like the simplicity of this one.  I was drawn to the shadows of the trees across the snow by the water's edge, and had taken several shots of them on their own, but then saw the crow further along the shoreline.

This is fairly heavily cropped, a result of me not having anything longer than a 300mm lens, but that's the compromise I've decided to go with - portability over reach.  At least having superb lenses means you can crop and still be sure of good quality, and using a camera with an excellent sensor also helps (check out the sensor ratings here, the Pentax K-5 lies 6th, only behind medium format and two of the Nikon full frame models).


Pentax K-5, Pentax DA*300mm f/4 lens @ f/4.5, 1/350s, -1.0EV, ISO200, handheld.

Just a grab shot of a Long-Tailed Tit as it waited on the wire, near the feeders.  Negative exposure compensation was needed as the majority of the shot was in shadow, but sunlight on the bird meant that the white feathers were burning out.

Shot through double-glazing, it's not as sharp as I'd really like, but I like it all the same.