news

I have recently purchased a Nikon D2H it was a difficult decision trying to decide whether or to wait for the D2x to come out or go for the D2H. Main problem with the D2H is that its only 4 megapixel but really do I need large files? it only makes it more difficult when processing - one thing I have learned though is to only ever use RAW files. It gives you so much more freedom when you come to process your files. If I do need a larger file then I go for the D100 or use Genuine Fractals- a plug-in for Photoshop that can increase picture size without to much interpolation. The D100 is a great camera and there seem to be a lot of websites that slate it I don't understand this as if you know what your doing you can get really great pictures with it, the reason I went for the D2H was the speed and the buffer size. With the D100 shooting in RAW file mode I often found that I could get 5-6 shots off then the camera would slow down meaning I would normally miss out on the shot I was after, this doesn't happen with the D2H the speed is outstanding and the buffer is huge so you never run out of shots and I imagine another firmware upgrade would increase the processing speed even further. I've not tried the D70 mainly because I had already purchased a Nikon SB-80DX flash and this wont work with the D70 it does with the D2H so I don't understand Nikons logic here. I suggest you try as many as you can and really think about what you need and what you can carry!

Keep an eye on the website I hope to keep it up to date a lot more than the old one!!

Well Spring definitely seems to be on its way, not much rain so far but a few sunny days. Pretty soon the Summer migrants will be back and the flowers will be starting to come out, things to look out for Bluebells, Crocuses and Daffodils all can make excellent photos and agencies do like good flower pictures as they do have a greater market than bird pictures. You need to try and do something different with your pictures to get them to stand out, good pictures of flowers against a plain background always look good try a black or white background to make the colours of the petals really stand out.

This Spring is definitely the time to get a picture of Swallows and Martins they are notoriously difficult to photograph due to their size and speed they rarely stop except to feed young or to collect mud for house building this can often be the best place to get them. If you know of a spot near a stream where the birds gather mud you can use a hide to wait for them to appear I currently use a bag hide, it doesn't use any poles and acts like a large blanket it can cover a camera, lens, tripod me and a rucksack and really helps to break up your silhouette having no poles you can put them up anywhere and the best thing about hem is that they don't have any great weight! If you cant find any suitable sites and if you have a big enough garden you can simply set our own site by clearing away some earth and keeping it wet if the birds see it they normally come down straight away and gather it up, they often re-use the same sites. As well as swallows and martins it is always a good idea to leave out small pieces of string or wool tied in bunches around you garden for all of the nesting birds blue tits are particularly fond of moss and carry away huge amounts of the stuff for nests. Remember if you do find a nest site and wish to photograph it try and not get to close to itÂ this is the worst time to disturb birds as they are setting up nests and makes them more prone to predation, make sure you check that the birds aren't on the protected list as disturbance of these birds could lead to prosecution, I prefer not to photograph birds at the nest as the risk of disturbance is to great and you will find that nearly all birds and nest sites have been photographed before - the key factor with bird photography is originality and trying to get something different.

This Spring as well as the Summer migrants to photograph I'm going to try and work on flowers and insects using macro work to get in close and fill the frame. Cuckoo flowers are normally the first to flower and can be found where there is damp grasslands near rivers or on the fringesÂ of marshland being the best sites, these flowers often attract the early insects in particular the orange tip butterfly a very pretty butterfly but one that tends to be very shy and difficult to get close to, best times are cool days or early in the morningÂ try and make sure that the sun doesn't throw your shadow over the subject when stalking or you will have no chance of getting close. I try and not use to much flash for macro as it can often lead to strong highlights and spoil the contrast of a picture. If you need flash use a screen over the bulb or try and bounce it using a reflector.

Just been to Lathkill Dale NNR in the Peak District National Park. The weather wasn't great but this area has to be one of the best places to photograph the Dipper. Like a large Robin in shape brown overall with a white chest and rufous band an extremely striking bird. If you cant see them you should be able to hear their strong piping calls as they race up and down the river, you can normally find them where rocks stick out of the water or where there are weirs. You can often see there white chests as they bob up and down looking for food. They have a habit of not staying still for too long and dart under water for a short period of time often coming up again quite a distance from where they went in. Also on the menu in this area are the spring lambs, you can almost guarantee that agencies will take great pictures of cute animals and lambs are great examples of these. Take a look at some of the pictures taken today.

Just visited Gauntlet Birds of prey in Knutsford. To see the display and to get some pictures of birds of prey close up. These centres are a great place for photography, the birds are quite tame and you get really close to them without spooking them. They are also useful for getting pictures of birds that are non native to this country. The key is to zoom in quite close for portraits and use a really short aperture like a 2.8 or 4, the lens I use the most for this is the Sigma 70-200 ex 2.8 its pretty quick and it has the advantage of being a zoom so you can change the angle without having to move. You can also get great flight shots of the birds for this I would use a 300mm.

Just been to the RAF Cosford Airshow a really great place to get pictures of all types of aircraft from helicopters to the latest jets. The weather was pretty awful for photography though grey and cloudy, not great when you are trying to capture aircraft that are going about 500mph. You have two use a really narrow depth of field and a good 300mm lens I use the 300mm F4 AFS and its a great lens, focus silently and fast and has a built in lens hood. The added benefit of the 300mm on the Nikon D100 is that you get the 1.5x multiplication factor which turns the 300 F4 into a 450mm F4 which for fast flying aircraft is great. For the pictures that required a slightly wider angle I used the Sigma 70-200 2.8 EX which I think is as good as the Nikon version but half the price. To get good shots you need to track the planes in the viewfinder until you get the shot you want and take as many as your buffer will allow this isn't great on the D100 with NEF's you get 4 then the buffer fills and you have to wait. I got rid of my D2H not long ago because I didn't like the photos it took in low light but for auto focus speed and buffer capacity nothing could touch it. As for the aircraft on the day I wanted some good pictures of the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

I decided to head for North Wales as there had been a large amount of snow in the area and I knew it would be staying. Snowdonia National park in Winter is as picturesque as any Alpine Ski resort on the continent. The main purpose of the trip was to photograph the snow and the mountains but also to test my new camera the Nikon D200. The D200 is the new replacement for the old D100. The D100 has been my main camera for about 2 years after trading in my old D1. The D100 was in my Opinion Nikons best DSLR far better than the D50 and D70 and it was and still is cheaper, the D70 and D50 offered no real improvement over the D100 so I never changed cameras when these two new models arrived. I still think the D2X is too expensive especially after owning a D2H (which was flawed from the start and was poor in low light) so I was reluctant to buy the D200 as is always the problem with a new camera Nikon often use the first batch to iron out any problems on the users. But after becoming increasingly frustrated at the poor buffer and frame rate of the D100 I decided to go for it and bought a New D200. The cameras are roughly the same size and weight and look to have the same battery but on closer inspection the new EL3e that comes with the D200 has an extra contact point - this tells the camera information about the battery mainly how many shots you have left etc - doesn't seem to be much use and I would have preferred to have kept the old EL3 so that I could have swapped them from the D100 but progress is progress I suppose. As for battery life the D200 eats them I regularly only get about 250 to 350 shots from a full charge this is poor compared to the D100. As for the 10MP they do make a difference - it means you can crop your shots more, meaning that you don't have to get as close to your subject to get good close ups -Â with wildlife this means you don't disturb them as much, and the main benefit of the 10mp is the larger picture size for agencies and printing, as some agencies only take 50Mb TIFF it means less processing work - it does also mean thoughÂ that the 1GB card that could get 102 photos from the D100 now only gets 60 and at 5fps this means that you have to be choosey about your photographs. This I think though has another benefit as when I used to photograph with Velvia I was reluctant to take a photograph unless everything was perfect as the costs associated with processing would mount up and any out of focus or underexposed shots would prove costly, then when digital came along there was none of the costs associated with processing so the tendency was to photograph everything as any out of focus or underexposed shots could be deleted. So hopefully the D200 will help to slow me down and think more about the final shot being taken. As for handling etc the camera is prefect it borrows all the features of the D2H and the D2X so feels great, I do think though that I will have to get the MB D200 battery pack as you can use 2 batteries and have the benefit of the second shutter release button for portrait photos. Nikon are still not bundling any decent software with their cameras so you have to pay for your camera then either get Nikon Capture or Adobe Photoshop CS2 as CS doesn't work with NEF's fro the D200. Any way have a look at the photos below and compare them with the D100. The lowest ISO on the D200 is 100 as compared with the D100 which is 200, this gave an interesting choice of shutter speeds on F11 at ISO 100 with the D200 I was getting no more than 60 as opposed to the D100 at F11 ISO 200 which was more like 500. The colors with the D200 don't seem to have the contrast of the D100 but this can be changed in Capture if you select a custom tone curve which I think I will try, also I never use sharpening in camera and prefer to do it through editing but you can see the difference between the D200 sharpness and the D100 sharpness I think t is something to do with the filter on the D200?

Well after my trip to Wales I was keen to try the D200 out shooting wildlife. So off to Tatton Park in Knutsford, its a stately home run by Cheshire County Council so no National Trust pass here. The main purpose of the day is to photograph deer in particular Red Deer and Fallow Deer as there a two large herds here. For this; two cameras the D200 and the D100 and a manffrotto mono pod rather than a tripod as they are much easier to carry, two lenses for the job the Sigma 500 F4.5 and the Nikon 300 F4 AFS. The Fallow deer are alot more tame than the Red's so you can get quite close up,Â about 20 feet before they get a little wary, whereas the Red Deer wontÂ tolerate you any closer than 60 feet without trotting off. This is where te long lens is needed, I was hoping that the snow would have lingered on a bit longer but unfortunately the sun had melted it but at least the light was there for a decent shutter speed.