Photo Views, Life through the eye of a camera.: nature

Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts

Black & White or Colour?

Hi, my question today is Black and white, or colour?

I think both images have their merits, but which do people prefer?

Please let me know via the comments section, thanks.

Woburn Savannah

As promised following my Rhino post the other day here are some of the other animals that share the savannah plains at Woburn.

We have the Zebra or Equus burchellii. They can live up to 35 years and weigh in at about 300-320kg.

A group as in the above photograph is called a “dazzle”. The closest relative to the zebra is unsurprisingly the horse but, surprisingly the next closest relative is the Rhino, they have the same dentitional formula, and a similar bone structure.

The Ostrich is the worlds largest bird, although flightless it can still run at speeds of up to 43 mph (70kph).

Did you know?

The ostrich has the largest eye of any land animal. Its eye measures almost 2 in (5 cm) across.

They can grow to a height of 7 to 9 ft. (2.1 to 2.7 m) and weigh an impressive 220 to 350 lbs. (100 to 160 kg) that’s one big bird.

The park is full of various types of antelope too. I really like this photo [above] because the bird has been caught in mid flight giving a dramatic feel a life to the setting. Unfortunately I can’t claim credit for this on as it was taken by my wife Mel (they were on her side of the car) well done Mel for getting such a good shot. Some of the other photos here were also taken by Mel.

Woburn is home to the African Ungulate Conservation Centre simply known as the “Antelope House”. It’s focus is to house and help endangered African antelope and other hoofed mammals(ungulates) and is the focus for many breeding and conservation programmes.

The way the road winds through the park land enables you to appreciate these animals intermingling together as they would in the wild, well as much as is possible to do anyway. If you haven’t already visited Woburn Safari Park or something similar near you then I strongly suggest a visit I’m sure you will enjoy it and don’t forget your camera.

I’ll bring you more shots from the different areas of parkland in future posts thanks for visiting and come back soon.

Headbanger Challenge 3rd November 2010 – Fall has Arrived.

This weeks headbangers challenge has been set by Tom- fishing Guy and is `Fall has Arrived`. Now over here we don’t call it the fall but stick to Autumn. So I hope you don’t mind Tom but I’ll sub head this weeks header with ‘Autumnal’.

Now autumn colours I love, all the golden yellows vibrant gold's and bronzes of the leaves. The bright red of the berries in the hedgerows, they all make for an outstanding photo opportunity.

So to try and get that great shot I headed over to a little lake in my neighbouring village to take some photos for the header challenge.

Now the lake isn’t very big but there is still an abundance of trees surrounding it.

Unfortunately as you can see from this photo I arrived a little late for some of them as they had already lost a lot of their leaves.

So it called for a bit more creativity.

Holding the camera just above the ground gave me this more exciting photo.

I used the berries and tree trunk in this shot to frame the fishing jetty and Lily pads.

It must be nice to live in this bungalow and have the beauty of the lake at the bottom of your garden.

I hope you like the little Autumn jaunt down to the lake. Do you think the different camera angles have worked? Let me know what you think in the comments section.

If this is your first visit why not stay a while have a look around then pop over to see the other entrants in this weeks header challenge. Just follow the links at the top of my right hand column.

Technorati Tags: Headbanger,Challenge,November,Fall,Autumn,header,Autumnal,gold,photo,lake,village,trees,tree,garden,photos,berries,camera

Header Challenge 29th September 2010.

This weeks header challenge has been chosen by Tom-fishing guy. He chose as the topic of our headers: ‘Water Reflection - Inanimate Object’.

Now I’ve shown lots of animate and inanimate objects and their reflections in yesterdays post on our river cruise in France. Today though is meant to be just inanimate objects as the subject matter of the photographs.

So continuing on from yesterdays river cruise post I bring you inanimate water reflections.

The obvious choice for inanimate objects reflecting in water is of course boats.

Buildings too give great reflections in water especially when it is as still as in the above photo.

Another building we saw as we enjoyed the river trip seemed to be all roof. Its roof line extended right down to the water, giving a shelter under its eaves to moor a boat.

Speaking of moorings for boats this simple post mooring was beautifully mirrored in the river.

What I found great about the river cruise was the blending of animate and inanimate objects along the river bank, proving that man can work with nature and not always against it.

The sometimes vibrant colour schemes of the homes along the river helped to add a bit of fun to the banks of the waterways.

Whether animate or inanimate objects as the subject of the view, I’m sure you’ll agree the river bank is certainly a nice place to be.

Why don’t you let me know via the comments what your favourite scene is from yesterdays and today's photos. Animate or inanimate?

You can also check out my fellow headbangers interpretations of this weeks theme. Just follow the links at the top of the right hand column.

Technorati Tags: Header,Challenge,Water,Reflection,Inanimate,river,nature,theme,reflections,boats

Afternoon of Day 7 of our family holiday to Pas de Calais, France.

Well after our photo session around the church and castle in Arques I posted about yesterday we decided that we would spend the afternoon on a river cruise.

We joined a river excursion around the Saint-Omer marshes in the Audomarois region. The region boasts 160 kilometres of rivers covering 3400 hectares.

The boat left from the wharf joining Au Bon Accueil a restaurant near the village of Salperwick near Saint-Omer in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.

The boat we had was a long open-topped river cruiser, with big picture windows through which to view the scenery.

I managed to get a seat at the very front of the boat thus enabling me to take some photos straight forward without any glass in the way.

The views as we journeyed around the waterways were quite stunning.

The banks were lined with birds…

fishermen….

and immaculately presented homes and gardens.

Some of the homes were obviously only holiday homes, though from the looks of this garden they must spend a lot of time here.

Other property along the banks were more like garden summer houses a place to stay whilst fishing the river, from the looks of the keep net on the right of the photograph.

Other homes along the banks were much more substantial. A commonality between them all though was that they all had a waterside letterbox.

Obviously the postman for these home-owners delivers their post by boat.

It had been a great cruise, the weather was great the view superb and the company brilliant. A perfect way to spend an afternoon. Oh and I got to take lots of pictures too gets even better.

Although the commentary for the cruise had only been in French, and my French is terrible at best, that didn’t detract from the enjoyment of the excursion around the waterways of Pas de Calais.

Technorati Tags: Calais,France,photo,church,castle,Arques,river,Audomarois,boat,restaurant,Salperwick,scenery,birds,garden,waterside,pictures,marshes,rivers,photos,waterways

Day 5 of our family holiday to Pas de Calais, France.

Day 5 of our holiday, and the swimming pool at our little cottage is still in high demand. Our daughters are still going swimming before breakfast and they are loving it, which is why we chose this particular cottage. Personally rather them than me, too much energy needed at that time of the morning, especially when on holiday.

We decided that today we would venture across to Boulogne, on the northern coast of France. Boulogne is only 25 miles across the English channel to Dover. When we got there I was surprised to find that the white cliffs of Dover were clearly visible from the seafront.

We had found, whilst looking in some tourist brochures left in our cottage for us, that there is a Sea world museum called Nausicaa in Boulogne, so we thought we would give it a visit.

Unfortunately it’s not cheap, but, it is big. You will need at least 3hrs to go around it all and that doesn’t count stopping in the restaurant or the gift shop.

Nausicaa sets out to explore all aspects of the sea. Its aim is to educate about the creatures that live in it…

and those who rely on it, to survive.

The exhibits are wide ranging and of course that meant I took a lot of pictures, oh well good job its a digital camera.

Some fish seemed curious…

others pretty.

I even found Nemo…

and friend.

There were lots of these…

I wouldn’t want to mess with them.

There were tanks were you could stroke the inhabitants though, in the form of various types of rays, they felt very velvety.

There was lots to see and do including hands on exhibits showing what man is doing to the ocean, both to care for it and shamefully, to destroy it. There was instruction on how we can save the oceans and the creatures that live in it and depend on it for their survival.

Coming back out there was just enough time for the girls to play on the beach whilst others of us rested in the sunshine.

Boulogne had been a great day out, all the family enjoyed it, even the mother in law.

Come on you knew camera shy or not, I was going to get a photo of you up here one of these days.

Come back tomorrow for more fun from France.

You can also click on the Camera Critters banner to link to more pictures of Critters caught on camera from around the world.

Technorati Tags: Calais,France,Boulogne,Dover,seafront,Nausicaa,pictures,Nemo,oceans,beach,photo,Camera,Critters,cliffs,creatures

Macro – Header Challenge 15th September 2010

It was imac’s turn this week to choose the topic for the header challenge that I take part in with ‘fishing guy’, ‘imac’, ‘Gailsman’, and ‘Lanny’.

His choice for the subject this week is ‘Macro’.

Now I like macro, I’m not always very good at it but I like to experiment with photography.

So what treat should I bring you this week?

A guess the item of food in macro…

Nah too easy.

A close up of wildlife venturing out?

Maybe, he is cute.

How about some flowers close up?

Or even an oil painting up close…

All possible for the top spot but today I have gone with some vibrant flowers with a little bit of wildlife thrown in. I hope you like it.

If you liked this walk through macro why don’t you let me know via the comments section, then you can check out what my other headbanger entrants have been up to this week, for their take on a macro header. Just follow the links at the top of the right hand column or click on their names at the top of this post.

Don’t worry all those looking for the continuation of the posts on our holiday to France. I will continue them tomorrow.

Technorati Tags: Macro,Header,Challenge,photography,wildlife,flowers

Lincolnshire Project 10th September 2010.

The Lincolnshire project continues with this weeks photo taken across the landscape of South Lincolnshire.

As I am trying to take the photo using, as close as possible, the camera settings I used in the original shot, the grey sky this afternoon has given very little definition to the photo.

As I stated in my original post on June 11th, I decided I would take a photograph of the same scene every 2 weeks throughout the year. The hope was that we would be able to see the seasons unfold in south Lincolnshire via the medium of photography.

Looking back at the six photos taken before this one, there doesn’t immediately seem a big difference to the images.

The light and sky is certainly different across the images. The hedgerow has also filled out on the left of the frame, but, unfortunately due to the tree on the right of the frame dying, it remains the same throughout all the images, well that's nature for you I suppose.

Why don’t you follow the rest of the project throughout the year with me, either subscribe via the form at the top of the left column, or simply click the follow button further down on the left column. That way you can make sure you won’t miss a weeks posting of the project.