The online presence of Tim Collier. Photographer, course leader, lecturer and blogger.
The vogue at the moment within photography is high dynamic range imaging (HDR) and whilst it has certain applications where it can function effectively it is, at the moment, over played. These images are an antidote to HDR and celebrate the subtle within photography.
I print using an Epson R2400 Stylus Printer, which has proved to be a really fine work horse over the years. The other day however, I was a little alarmed to see two red lights flashing in a way I’d never witnessed before and the printer completely unresponsive. When I tried to print I got a message telling me that “Parts inside your printer are at the end of their service lifeâ€
As a postscript to the article and comments posted on ‘On Location in Cumbria: 3‘ from a few weeks back it was interesting to witness a female Mallard being raped at Llanelli today.
Caerphilly CCBC have asked me to run a series of seasonal walks which we are calling ‘Landscape and Wildlife Walks with a Camera’Â These walks are all free and offer a chance to explore the Upper Sirhowy Valley. It is an area I’ve photographed extensively through various commissions over the last few years and one I have come to love.
I’ve always said that editing and selection is the hardest part of photography, particularly with your own images and already I’ve changed a couple of the images for the competition!
Well I’ve just submitted my images for this competition – as below – So who knows… If you don’t enter you can’t win! You can submit three images per category and as many categories as you like.
Wales has the highest density of sheep in the world, some nine million, so it’s probably not surprising that many landscape images in my collection are dotted with small white specks, and at times I’ve been cloning out these specks not realising they were sheep at all!
The last posting from my time up in Cumbria. It was good to photograph the Twite and from two different locations. A flock of about 40 were present at Walney Island and later on in the week a group of eight were feeding on Askam pier in some rich low evening light.
It’s the time of establishing territories displaying and getting on with mating and prolonged stays in hides at this season are likely to produce some good behaviour shots. I’m interested if anyone can shed any light on the male Mallards here and if male on male is common within bird behaviour. It the first time I’ve seen it and I’ve got quite a few images of male on female, as you would normally expect.
I went down to Fishguard yesterday to meet up with a good friend Cliff Benson. We were discussing the structure of some courses that we are aiming to start next year at The Ocean Lab in Goodwick.
Many hours were spent in the hides at Leighton Moss and although we were not, on this occasion, fortunate to get any glimpse of the Bitterns, we were rewarded with a couple of brief, but really good, sightings of the small herd of Red Deer that live on the reserve. They are often deep in the reeds but at times break into the open areas to graze.
I’ve been away for a few days up in Cumbria. My brother lives in Askam and is well placed for Walney Island and the Duddon Estuary. It was also a chance to visit Leighton Moss. one of the RSPB’s flagship reserves.
All of these photographs were taken on Druisdtone beach in West Wales and show what can be achieved when you really “work” your subject and strive to see things in new and unconventional ways.
Which memory card would you put in your camera out of the two above? It seems an obvious choice, the 4.0GB. Not always, think again.
It’s not the most comfortable hide I’ve ever been in but already it’s throwing up some interesting encounters. Finally this weekend the bridge hide on the river at Home Farm was finished and today I spent four pretty uncomfortable hours over looking the stretch of river that I hoped would fill in some of the gaps of the birds I have ,to date, managed to photograph at the farm.
A few images for some ideas on using silhouttes – They’re occurring everywhere and not just at the beginning and end of the day. I particarly enjoy the portrait profiles, it harks back to the physionotrace and it’s amazing how we all have such a unique and clearly recognisable profile.
