Mike Lane's Ramblings

Canon EOS 1Ds waterlogged body.

mikelane81 — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:49:37 +0000

The camera body mentioned below went for £620 to my amazement. I had to keep checking the advert to make sure I had made it clear it was none working.

Woodland bird photography hide

mikelane81 — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:11:38 +0000

I am now offering a days photography at a well established, private bird feeding station in the Midlands. The wooden hide is purpose built for photography and natural perches provided for the birds to land on. Ideally lenses of around 100-400mm are required, but longer or shorter can be accommadated as perches can be moved around to suit.
Great-spotted woodpecker, nuthatch, blue tit, coal, tits, great tits, marsh tits, chaffinch, greenfinch, goldfinch, robin and dunnock are all regular visitors. Brambling and redpoll have visited this winter too.
The backgrounds are ideal for photography and the hide will accomadate two photographers.
I will be on hand in case you need any help with equipment or would like perches moved around.

A tripod is required and bring food and drink.

Prices are £70 per day per person. Two people £130 per day.

To discuss dates please
contact me at mikelane@nature-photography.co.uk

Tel 0121 744 7988
Mobile 07766 418013

Pictures on my web site at http://www.nature-photography.co.uk/Woodland%20bird%20workshop.htm

Canon EOS 1dS Mk3

mikelane81 — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:53:41 +0000

I got my Canon EOS 1ds MK 3 wet a while ago now and it has not worked since. The repair shop told me it was beyond economical repair. I have left it on a shelf in the hope it would dry out and one day start up perfectly. You do hear these stories about electronic equipment, but it has not done so.

So I have just put it onto Ebay as a none working camera for spares. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/110813925735?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

There is a surprising amount of interest and bidding already reached the £70 mark.

Nuthatch

mikelane81 — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:49:18 +0000

The nuthatch is not the easiest of birds to photograph at a feeder as they rarely stop to pose on the way to grab some food and fly straight off. This bird I have trained to stand alert and upright to order in the right spot!

Magpie in flight

mikelane81 — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 19:28:16 +0000

Magpie in flight

I have been feeding this bird on the post for almost a month now and it has become quite tame. I can stand close enough to get pictures with the 800mm lens, but the bird does not pose well. It lands on the post with its head down, grabs whatever food is available and flies off quickly. It has been a good opportunity for flight shots though.

Tifs or Jpegs

mikelane81 — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 17:41:23 +0000

With just a few days to go before the end of year I find myself asking the same question as every other year end. Why do I keep all my pictures as Tif files? 50% o f the picture libraries I supply are now only taking Jpeg files and I suspect the others will follow shortly. Nearly all pictures are sent out to customers online and as Jpeg files. Libraries are saying to themselves why save them as much larger Tif files when we never sell Tifs any more; and there is no noticeable loss of quality in Jpegs.

The saving on disk or server space is huge, around 75% less space required when a Jpeg is saved at full size and the highest quality. It is time I made the decision. It means my current hard drive capacity will last for years and I will no longer have the almost annual task of changing my drives for every larger ones.

At the end of each year I take an external drive copy of my master picture disk that contains all my raw and Tif files and I freeze it, never to be used again. I have one for each year and it is incremental, meaning each one contains every year up to that point. This is in addition to my other copies of my master picture drive. I have an internal drive copy of it and two USB external drives, one of which is stored off site. I swop the external drives from time to time, bringing the off site one home to bring it up to date and taking the other one away.

This year I will start to only save my 2012 pictures as large Jpeg files. Unless I hit a snag by the end of the year I will convert all my previous Tif files to Jpegs too. It should be a simple automatic job to do.

mikelane81 — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 16:17:47 +0000

I have spent the last four days watching Redpolls. Mostly not carrying any camera kit as it has been too dull for photography, but just walking around finding them and noting where they were feeding. Today was a beautiful, clear, blue sky day so armed with the 800mm I spent my time hanging around the trees they frequented most. This is my favourite sort of photography. All the work is done in advance while the weather is unsuitable. Just long hours in the field watching and noting.

I picked on this particular area because all the trees are short and recently planted so the birds were often only at head height, giving me the advantage of not having to look upwards and usually having a distant wood or hedge as the backdrop, rather than sky.

Redpolls are often very static. Once they start to feed on a catkin they can be still for 10 minutes or so, before moving onto the next one. This makes them difficult to spot amongst the branches and catkins. Even if there are a dozen birds in a tree they can go unnoticed at first. Once found though they are a very approachable species. Even with a 400mm lens I could have got close enough today.

Camera bean bags

mikelane81 — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:44:52 +0000

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a confusing subject, but one that fascinates me. I often get emails from firms offering to improve my rankings in search engines, but what ranking they are talking about I am not so sure. Type “Mike Lane” into Google and I usually come up first so long as you are in the U.K. (Type it in the USA and a Louisiana fisherman comes first). If I do not come first then add “wildlife photographer” and I always do, although there is another Mike Lane with a web site of bird photographs.

What I really want is to come first with “yellowhammer picture for sale”. I used to do quite well at this in the early days of the internet, but no longer. As all my pictures are now in a PHP database rather than simple HTML coding this seems to be more difficult.

I have recently started selling camera bean bags again and very quickly did well in the search engines as I got all the right keywords in place. I am certainly always on the first page in Google, but have not reached the top of the page yet. To improve my chances I have bought the domain name www.camerabeanbag.com. I am now waiting to see how long it takes for that to appear in Google. It will be a one page web site that replicates my current web page selling camera bean bags. I shall join the two web sites together so it is not obvious which one you are on, but hopefully get my bean bags closer to the top of the page.

Nikon 4000 Ed Coolscan scanner

mikelane81 — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 19:46:07 +0000

I have not used my film scanner for some time and when I have tried been very aware that the quality was poor. This morning I had another go and it was terrible. The scanned image looked like it was flared and I suspected the lens or glass inside the scanner was filthy. A quick Google to see where I could get it serviced produced two web sites on “do it yourself” scanner servicing. 12 screws later and I had it in bits on my desk and a very tiny mirror the size of my thumbnail in my hand. There was so much dust on the mirror that I could have written my name in it. A bit of soft lens cloth and alcohol solution and it was spotless.

Proud of myself I reassembled it and all is perfect now. No lens flare and back to as good as new.

Workshop for focus4nature and the Royal Photographic Society

mikelane81 — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 19:49:43 +0000

Workshop for focus4nature and the Royal Photographic Society

On the 18th February 2012 I am giving a workshop on wildlife photography in Bath. This is organised through the RPS and sponsored by focus4nature. It runs from 10:00 am until 4:30PM.
Full details on the RPS web site at RPS

For bookings contact the RPS at;
Email: reception@rps.org
Phone: 01225 325733
Cost: £45.00. Members of the RPS Rate: £30.00

Tutor and content
This course is designed to give you an insight into how to photograph birds and mammals. Mike Lane FRPS has been a full time professional wildlife photographer for the last twenty years, travelling to over 50 countries in search of subjects. He is happiest however, photographing his own native British wildlife, which is amongst the most challenging in the world. Mike believes that there is a technique or location for photographing most of our wildlife and on the course he will reveal many of these methods.

Camera equipment
The course begins by looking at the equipment required, from digital cameras and lenses to tripods and flash gear. More importantly what settings are the most appropriate for the subject. What ISO to use, Raw verses jpegs, which meter modes and focus modes. AV or TV mode or even manual exposure. What works best for fast moving wildlife?

Hides and other none photographic equipment
Working from hides is a major part of bird photography especially. Mike will demonstrate their use and other gear you need that camera shops do not sell.

Methods and techniques.
Kingfishers are always a popular subject with photographers, but not easy to photograph unless you know how. Even seeing one can be difficult, although they are common birds. There is a simple technique to attract them and Mike will tell you how to photograph them both perched and in flight and even diving into water.

The same for birds in your garden. How is this best done? What setup should you try to achieve? What are you looking for in the way of backgrounds and perches?

Locations
Throughout the day the locations where wildlife can be photographed with relative ease will be highlighted, both at home and abroad. Many British birds and mammals have a location somewhere where they can be quite easy to get close to. Mike has spent a lifetime finding them.

On safari
Since many of us only get to photograph wildlife on trips abroad we will look at what equipment is most appropriate here.

Post production
We will not have time for a full computer demonstration, but Mike will show how to download your pictures both at home and on a trip, store them, back them up and edit efficiently. Keeping track of the vast numbers of pictures taken with a digital camera can be very difficult.

Selling images
Mike has made his living from his wildlife pictures for the last twenty years and will give a short insight into how to get your work published.

Course requirements
This course is suitable for those with Digital SLR cameras and lenses of at least 300mm and upwards. Beginners and more advanced workers will find it suitable.

What to bring
Digital camera if you might want to ask questions about it. You are welcome to bring a few prints of jpegs on a memory stick for Mike to discuss.

Bring a packed lunch or use local facilities. Drinks provided.

This workshop is supported by Focus4nature