Garden Life in Autumn

[Iggy]

We are well into December 2018 now and yet the weather is relatively mild, with no sign of any snow in London.
So no fierce blizzards to endure as were prevalent in December 1968 with more than a foot of snow, poor visibility and buses cancelled.
Hence, there is still fruit and even flowers to capture around Norbury.

Climate change is here to stay!

[Iggy]

Realigning the diagonals and with some other tidy up, “Raindrops” was entered in our CCC DPI-3 Comp last night as my fall-back image.
The judge liked it and gave it a 10!

[Laura]

For Encounters in Bushy Park, l was looking for actions shots to tell a story but also took several portraits shots of animals and large birds.
Shooting small wild life in the garden is different. Ideally the set-up should have special feeding stages with adjoining hides such as at Millers Wood for very easy capture with a 400mm lens. http://www.johnstantonphotography.co.uk/millers-wood-2/

In my garden, remote WiFi might replace the hide. I have yet to set up natural looking feeding stations.
Unsuitable weather has delayed progress of the trial of a camera on tripod in the open.

Today morning though, there was a brief window of opportunity for 20 minutes with a friendly robin and nice light at midday, even though I was shooting in the shade.
The robin was relaxing in a low bush. Offerings of small bird seed and suet pellets or even live earthworms, gently cast, were no temptation.
Took a few hand held shots and then later when the robin was further in the bush, moved slowly closer to within 2 meters.
I had to re-position a few times to get clearer hand held shot through the bush where intersecting branches were a problem.

Here are a couple of images. Minimal tidy up with dodge and burn in Photoshop.
Hope to have more close-up opportunities with this robin this autumn.

What a great series of a robin! I LOVE the creatures, nicely done Iggy!

[Iggy]

Thanks Laura.
The robins are still about and were actually singing in our garden yesterday even though we are deep into autumn.
Delightful song. Makes me happy when I hear them!
Not so tame anymore as I have not been in the garden much.

Still time for you to put in your PDI entry by midnight today for the competition on Wednesday.

Best wishes,
Iggy