baby / bathwater

 

25 & 26-04-26

A couple of days when not a lot made the headlines but a few decent images were taken which deserve to be posted rather than be binned. And we had some fun. And a New Camera arrived! So no point in throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Let's do it!

On the 25th April we went to Warriston. We drove there which is nearly unheard of. It was late in the day and the sun had just appeared. No time to waste - jump in the wee car and speed round there. On arrival we bumped into (not literally) Andrew and Unda - great timing! Lots of chat and catch up and nearly forgot to take any photos.

One of the topics of conversation was Mary's new camera! She had expressed an interest in getting something with animal or bird detection that could do slo-mo video. I immediately got on the case and and noticed that if you got high quality used kit from Wex (with a year's warranty) we could set her up with the same body I have (Lumix G9ii) but with a lighter 100~300mm lens. It is about half the weight of my 100~400mm and about a third of the price. It makes the whole thing less heavy and easier to carry about. A halfway house between her old bridge camera and my heavy weight job. If she got something too heavy it would put her off taking it out and having fun.

We also got a her a street lens (12~60mm) for scenery and wide shots. Our trip to Warriston was her road testing it for the first time. Being used it was a bit less expensive than new, and remarkably all came to less than the price of a Sony RX10 bridge camera. It also seemed a lot better condition than my camera which has had a lot of use over hundreds of trips during the last 2 and a half years. Mine still works perfectly btw and I'm very happy with the results. It will be interesting to see Mary's results. It takes a while to get used to a new camera especially one as complex at the G9 however Mary is keen to become familiar with it before we go on holiday in June. We have a special holiday booked in June. I'm not going to get over excited about it just yet until the Strait of Hormuz gets unblocked and the flights get fuelled up.

smaller, lighter package with nearly the same reach

First we went to where the blackcaps had been seen (setting up a nest perhaps). It was around a variegated holly tree which has since been associated with holly blues. It did seem to be on a corner rich with wildlife: a red admiral settled briefly and there was a comma as well as many speckleds on the surrounding shrubs. Various birds heard but no photos.

We all then went to comma corner as the In Loving section has become known. There were a couple of commas and assorted white fly-throughs. An orange tip posed nicely and then shut its wings for a snooze giving the chance of close-up shots. Even with the long lens on I was able to get the sort of detailed result you'd expect from the macro. (See below.)

hoverfly

fantastic detail from the long lens

speckled wood on blossom

many lovely things in the cemetery

an all-too-brief appearance of the blackcap (m)

26-04-26

angry deserted rabbit, Pilrig St.

Next day, Botanics on the menu. There were some people in period costumes although the one nearest us seemed to be dressed as a magician. Those aren't costume glasses and hat. Normally I'd ask what they were doing but they seemed too involved. I was amused by the woman who had an old camera and a mobile phone that wasn't correct to the era.

oops - not era appropriate

We had a pleasant enough constitutional but there just wasn't much in the way of wildlife, it was getting late and there wasn't much happeneing so we called it and went home.

LTT

bee on rhodies

on the way through St Marks we fed the stock dove
with the limp which seemed happy enough to see us
(which makes the crows very unhappy!)