The Four Ages Of Sand

Spooky Epping Forest captured by promising new film maker

Uni M went on another of her lunch dates recently (I try not to ask too many questions) and she instructed me to drive her to Loughton and to come back in 3 hours. What to do? I went deep into Epping Forest and did some filming.

What a spooky place! The weather was extremely dodgy, with heavy cloud but also some sun breaking through. I've slowed some parts of the video down and also increased contrast a little, but apart from that there are no added effects in this.

Go to Full Screen, turn on HD, turn up the sound, sit back and watch a promising new film-maker discovering his art...

The Birds and the Bees: First experiment with the Pixco Wide Converter WC-46E45 0.45X (Macro)

As mentioned before,

(http://www.fouragesofsand.com/2012/01/answer-to-what-is-it-244-panasonic-sd900-.html)

 

the fantastic and cheap Pixco Wide Converter lens, WC-46E45 0.45X, is also a Macro lens. You just unscrew the back fitting and attach to camera.

I'd tried it with stills but not with the video function.

Walking in the graveyard yerterday I saw that the bees are back! It's alomst 2 years ago to the day that I got these photos in the same spot:

http://www.fouragesofsand.com/2009/02/spring-is-here-.html

But now, of course I have my trusty SD900 with me at all times so was able to take video with the Macro attachment. The results? Pretty darn good! I found that you can zoom to 3X with the Macro lens attached, and it's still sharp at the centre.

it's worth watching full screen in HD.

 

 

Question of the Week: What colour is a Starling's tongue?

At last I've had a bird on my table! It's been over 4 months since I built it (previous post) and yesterday was the first time I've seen anything on it (though something's been taking my grapes in the night)

It's just a Starling but the reflected colours on the feathers are beautiful in slow motion(50 seconds in) and you can see the yellow tongue in close up at the end (cropped to 1/9 original frame size)

 

Using video to ID birds

Many times when I was in the forests in Venezuela I'd see little birds flitting about in the canopy but they moved so quicky and the light was so poor that I had no chance of identifying them, far less of photographing them.

Now with my new toy I think I'll be in with a chance. The SD900 gives you such control over aperture, shutter speed and focusing that you can have a go at just about any bird even under the most adverse circumstances.  This Goldcrest was deep in the woods in low light but with cropping and slowing the clip in Powerdirector 10, it's good enough for a clear ID.

Can't wait for Summer!

A cropped still:

And the vid:

Birds in the snow at Tyttenhanger Gravel Pits, near St. Albans, Hertfordshire

Saturday was a freezing cold day but with the sun shining it was beautiful too. Here's my video of Tyttenhanger Gravel Pits, just down the road from Hatfield. My camera work definitely needs some er work but the final result is pretty good, and the female Reed Buntings and the Robin show up well against the frosty branches.

Music: Sovereign, by Kevin MacLeod

 

Green Woodpecker in the snow in St James' Church Graveyard, Enfield Highway, London,

I spend quite a lot of time in the graveyard next to the college where I work. It's the only place I can get any peace, and there are are lots of birds there too. Here's a Green Woodpecker in the snow, filmed at 30X zoom with the Panasonic SD900.

What does the Green Woodpecker eat? Ants, ants and more ants:

Overview

The green woodpecker is the largest of the three woodpeckers that breed in Britain. It has a heavy-looking body, short tail and a strong, long bill. It is green on its upperparts with a paler belly, bright yellow rump and red on the top of its head. The black 'moustache' has a red centre in males. They have an undulating flight and a loud, laughing call.

Where to see them

Green woodpeckers spend most of their time feeding on the ground. Look out for them on your garden lawn or in parks - short grass provides good feeding opportunities for them. Like other woodpeckers, these birds breed in holes they peck in dead wood. They can be seen in England, Wales and Scotland, though they're absent from the far north and west and Ireland.

When to see them

All year round.

What they eat

Ants, ants, and more ants. They use their strong beak to dig into ant colonies and eat the inhabitants.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/g/greenwoodpecker/index.aspx

Music: Eternal Hope by Kevin MacLeod

Siskin and Redpoll's waggling tongue

I managed to take this rather fine shot of an Andean Siskin ( (Carduelis spinescens) in Venezuela last year

(previous post)

And here's the species you can see in the UK:

previous post

Now I've managed to video them! Though to be honest, the results are less than rather fine. Still, they are such lovely colourful birds I think I got away with it. Ditto the Redpolls in the second half; the light was really low and they were deep in the woods. It's worth watching just for the way the bird at the end waggles his tongue (slowed to 1/3 speed and cropped in PowerDirector 10)

Goldfinch and Collared Dove in the afternoon Sun

I have a habit of trying to zoom in to the birds as close as possible, whereas in fact the background is just as important. This Goldfinch looked stunning in the afternoon winter sun but it's the fruit tree that really sets him off I think:

 

 

A Robin coughing up a fruit stone

One of the great things about video compared to still photography is that you stand a much better chance of capturing a fleeting moment. This Robin was singing in the sunshine for ages, then stopped and coughed up a stone from a berry. The whole thing was over in less than a second, but with the wonder of the Panasonic SD900 and PowerDirector 10, I can share it with you now.

The second half is slowed down to 1/5 actual speed and cropped to 15% of original frame size.

Enjoy.

Blackbird eating berries: Experiment with CyberLink PowerDirector 10

Being a cheapskate, I like to use free software wherever possible, but sometimes you just gotta pay for the good stuff. I've been using a variety of programs to play around with video over the last couple of months, and had some success. Wax 2.0 has some great features but regularly crashes, and will only accept a limited number of formats. VirtualDub is wonderful, but it has its limitations, and is not very user friendly. One problem is that it won't accept the .mts files that Panasonic uses.

After a lot of experimentation, I went for CyberLink PowerDirector 10. Early results suggest it was the right choice. The stabilisation filter is worth the £50 on its own.

Here's a Blackbird eating frozen berries. The lighting on the original clip is quite poor, and even with the image stabilisation of the Panasonic SD900, at 30X zoom, it's still fairly shaky. But things are much improved by increasing Contrast, Brightness and Saturation and using the Stabilisation filter. The second half is slowed to 50%: