The Four Ages Of Sand

The Birds and the Bees: First experiment with the Pixco Wide Converter WC-46E45 0.45X (Macro)

As mentioned before,

(http://www.fouragesofsand.com/2012/01/answer-to-what-is-it-244-panasonic-sd900-.html)

 

the fantastic and cheap Pixco Wide Converter lens, WC-46E45 0.45X, is also a Macro lens. You just unscrew the back fitting and attach to camera.

I'd tried it with stills but not with the video function.

Walking in the graveyard yerterday I saw that the bees are back! It's alomst 2 years ago to the day that I got these photos in the same spot:

http://www.fouragesofsand.com/2009/02/spring-is-here-.html

But now, of course I have my trusty SD900 with me at all times so was able to take video with the Macro attachment. The results? Pretty darn good! I found that you can zoom to 3X with the Macro lens attached, and it's still sharp at the centre.

it's worth watching full screen in HD.

 

 

Question of the Week: What colour is a Starling's tongue?

At last I've had a bird on my table! It's been over 4 months since I built it (previous post) and yesterday was the first time I've seen anything on it (though something's been taking my grapes in the night)

It's just a Starling but the reflected colours on the feathers are beautiful in slow motion(50 seconds in) and you can see the yellow tongue in close up at the end (cropped to 1/9 original frame size)

 

What is it? 247

The Joy of Laurel and Hardy

I suspect most of us have been members of the Laurel and Hardy Appreciation Society at one time or another. I was active in the early 90s and went to a lot of the conventions. If nothing else it was a great way to meet girls. (Ok, that last bit's a joke)

I also made the pilgrimage to Stan Laurel's birthplace in Ulverton, and the Laurel and Hardy museum.

 I was in the Helpmates (Uk) Tent. Here's my ticket from a particularly great night back in '91. Ah heady days...

And I see that the next convention is in the same town as the one I went to, just over 20 years ago!

http://www.laurelandhardy.org/convention.html

My dream was to watch and to own all 105 Laurel and Hardy films. I'd scan the TV listings every week, desperate to add another film to my list of recordings but alas I only got up to around 20 films, and of course I had no chance with the rarities.

How times have changed; I was in HMV at the weekend, and saw the Laurel and Hardy collection. 21 DVDs containing 68 HOURS of L&H footage, including rarities, foreign versions and computerised colour versions. It was a snip at £30, down from an original price of £100.

I'm working my way through them right now. What joy!

Here's an alphabetical list of all L&H films. I'll be ticking them off as I go:

Tigers and Leopards. Or possibly Leopards and Tigers

 Following our recent discussions on Tigers and Leopards (previous post: comments) I see that Waterstone's are selling models of them.

 I don't know which is which; in fact I don't think there's any way to tell the two species apart for sure, but they are both beautiful creatures anyway.

Using video to ID birds

Many times when I was in the forests in Venezuela I'd see little birds flitting about in the canopy but they moved so quicky and the light was so poor that I had no chance of identifying them, far less of photographing them.

Now with my new toy I think I'll be in with a chance. The SD900 gives you such control over aperture, shutter speed and focusing that you can have a go at just about any bird even under the most adverse circumstances.  This Goldcrest was deep in the woods in low light but with cropping and slowing the clip in Powerdirector 10, it's good enough for a clear ID.

Can't wait for Summer!

A cropped still:

And the vid:

A bird winked at me last week

I've been talking to birds for years but it's only recently that they started talking back. This one winked at me too (see slowed down section at 33 seconds)

How to run.

It's 170 pages long. How hard can it be, for goodness sake??

But is it art?

Is this a powerful metaphor for the alienation of modern man in a fragmented and ultimately meaningless universe, or just a cheap trick with an ipad? The debate continues.

Birds in the snow at Tyttenhanger Gravel Pits, near St. Albans, Hertfordshire

Saturday was a freezing cold day but with the sun shining it was beautiful too. Here's my video of Tyttenhanger Gravel Pits, just down the road from Hatfield. My camera work definitely needs some er work but the final result is pretty good, and the female Reed Buntings and the Robin show up well against the frosty branches.

Music: Sovereign, by Kevin MacLeod