Top View

Again a week that featured beautiful sunrises on the way to the office and a weekend that consists of grey and drab days. If there is a God an he likes nature photography, than I can only assume he does not like competition and he keeps all the good light to himself...

Anyway, I really wanted to go out and on days like these, the macro lens is my best friend. With overcast skies and a slight drizzle, small subjects are evenly lit without a lot of contrast and the tiny drops add interest to any close-up photograph.

I concentrated on several species of mosses that look their best in this season of the year. I found a small clump of Bristly Haircap (Polytrichum piliferum, Ruig Haarmos) and spent a good hour trying to create abstracts from the nice shapes and colors. After having taken the 'regular'  images from a low angle (lying flat on the ground), I wanted to try something new and set up the tripod above the mosses. By adding extension tubes to the lens, I could focus even closer and got rid of the distracting elements on the ground below the moss.

Bristly Haircap; Canon 5D Mark II w. 150/2.8 and extension tubes; 1/6s at F2.8 and ISO200; tripod

Spotted. The Great Woodpecker

Since the purchase of the 5D mark II, I had only used it for landscapes and abstract close-ups. The image quality blew me away and I really wanted to shoot some feathers with the camera, to see how the feather detail would look and how smooth the out-of-focus backgrounds would be. So for the first time in a while, I went to the feeding station and spent 4 hours staring out of the lenshole. It seems the time of feeders that are bustling with bird activity is now behind us. Temperatures were above 10 degrees Celcius and although there were many birds present in the small patch of mixed woodland, they were more interested in singing and checking out nest boxes than coming down for a quick bite. All in all I took 4 photographs in those 4 hours. A relatively terrible average, but at least I got a nice portrait of the male Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocops major, Grote bonte specht). As expected, detail is amazing and the image hardly needed any sharpening in Photoshop. I also like the smoothness of the background as compared to the images from the 1D Mark III. Experiment succeeded.

Now can we please move directly into spring?

Great Spotted Woodpecker; Canon 5D Mark II w. 500/4L IS and 1.4x; 1/200s at F5.6 and ISO200; tripod from hide

Old and New

-- Extra Newsflash --

I am very happy and proud to announce that my abstract image of zebra stripes has won the 'Mountain and Nature in Abstract' category at the 2011 Memorial Maria Luisa awards. This is a growing Spanish nature photography contest that this year attracted over 11.500 images by 1.000 photographers from all over the world. The photo is an oldie (from 2007) and won an award before (Asferico 2008), but I am happy to see it is still appreciated and it remains one of my personal favorites.

As so often, there is more Dutch success in the competition. Johan van de Watering won a highly commended with a beautiful dark and moody image of poppies and other wildflowers. Congrats! Do check out his website, Johan has some very inspiring work to show.

So much for the 'old'. The 'new' refers to the new design of the website. I got tired of the old look and wanted something clean and with a business feel to it. Hence the choice for refreshing white combined with business grey and just a hint of color. In the process, I decided to try my hand at a new logo too, as the old one looked good in small size, but did not hold up when enlarged. The new one is a vector image and can be blown up to kingsize without any loss in quality. It is based on one of my own (favorite) images of a Common Tern. That's it for now, hopefully a new image next time, although the weatherforecast does not look promising (again).

Great. Spot the Woodpecker

Temperature just below zero, clean and crisp air and the day off, that's how I like it. I went for a walk in the local forest just to see what would cross my path. I found some nice ice structures as expected, enjoyed being out in the woods alone and sat down every now and then for a cup of coffee and some well-needed rest (walking for miles with every single piece of gear you own gets heavy after a while). During one such coffeebreak, I heard the telltale sound of a Great Spotted Woodpecker rolling on a dead tree stump. I had heard many of them during the course of the morning, but this one was pretty close.

Actually, it was right above my head. I carefully crossed a small track and set up the camera, pointing upwards in a steep angle. I had to focus manually because of the canopy between the camera and the woodie. There he was, a silhouet with just a tiny bit of sunlight hitting his bill. I took a few frames and went back to the still hot coffee, satisfied with the moody image that just presented itself to me. Sometimes, it can be easy.

Great Spotted Woodpecker; Canon 1D Mark III w. 500/4 L IS; 1/800s at F5.6 and ISO200; tripod