Moorhen on Nest

As well as doing a bit of sea fishing we went to visit my parents up in Chipping, Lancashire, over the Easter bank holiday where I gave my new camera a proper try out.

The results speak for themselves and considering that the lenses are the ‘cheap’ ones I’m very pleased with how the pictures have turned out. The moorhen above shows that the autofocus picked the wrong spot and couldn’t quite get in the gap where the Moorhen is but it’s still one of the best photo’s I’ve taken of a Moorhen – user error on my part.

Snake's head fritillaries (Fritillaria meleagris)

This photo was taken with the standard 18-55 kit lens with the aperture wide open to throw the background out of focus. The quality of the full size image is astonishing and at print resolution (300 dots per inch) is about 14 x 91/2″ without any enlargement.

Prunus (Flowering Cherry) 'Pandora'

Another ‘close up’, not for any reason except that the Pandora Cherry looked great against the blue sky.

Dwarf Tulip (Tulipa tarda)

And another close-up of a flower, my Mum is a brilliant gardener so there are always things to practice on. All the photographs were taken using the ‘RAW’ setting of the camera to get the best possible image quality and as the light was fantastic no other post processing has been done.

Am I pleased with the Canon EOS 450D? You bet I am – I can’t wait to get onto Anglesey or in the hills and mountains of Lancashire and the Lake District to see what it’s really capable off.

While I was there I thought I’d try out the Nikon 2200′s close up facility and as you can see by the results – it seems very good. This first picture is of the Apple blossom with the conservatory, blurred deliberately for effect, in the background.

The conservatory got a good soaking as per Mum’s instructions so I moved outside to check on Dad’s veg.

This got the same treatment and I was pleased to see that the carrots had started to show through as well as the onions and leeks and other seedlings so I must have been doing something right.

Then came the bit I’d been looking forward too and putting off until I’d done all the bits and pieces I was really there for. Every year the Swallows come and nest in the garage so I slowly opened the door hoping to see one sat on a nest only to be greeted by this little fellow and a couple of his friends.

As well as the Swallows a Robin (I think) had build a nest within a stack of old seed boxes an this year had managed to fledge at least three young. This was probably a lot easier this year as while Mum and Dad were away their cat, Woody (along with Becky and Megan – two gorgeous black labrador retrievers), had gone to a friends for his own enforced vacation.

I made one last circuit of the garden to check on the Moorhen and her chicks and took a few final photographs of the cherry trees for Mum and Dad just in case the blossom had fallen by the time the got back then, very pleased about seeing the fledglings, left for home.

The weather that week was fantastic and reports from Mum and Dad after they got back confirm that I didn’t manage to kill anything – in fact they say I did quite well, but it’s not exactly a hardship when you get to visit such a beautiful place and see such wonderful things.