Sharper Shots

Not being an expert photographer I still manage to get a lot of shots that simply do not cut the mustard ie they are not as sharp as I want them to be.
Now I know photographing wild birds is somewhat of a black art so you need all the help you can get.
In my search for perfection I came across a video on youtube called "The Ultimate Aperture Priority Hack !!!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTTGI6ZEsZM 

The guy from Beyond Photography goes on to explain how to set your camera so that when in AV mode your shutter speed wont go below what you set it at, thinking this will be a big help I followed his instructions to set up a Canon camera to do this, it didn't work I couldn't figure out why, I tried it on 7dmk2 and 5dmk4 same result.

I then spoke to a pal of mine who said that the setting he was adjusting was only used for when you are using auto iso and that you need to set the minimum shutter speed in the custom settings tab in the menu.
So I tried that and hey ho spot on this setting works a treat, now if the camera cannot achieve the minimum shutter speed it just will not shoot at all which will mean an increase to the number of keepers with a bit of luck.

Two lessons learnt, not all on youtube is spot on and don't be afraid to ask even if it makes you look a bit of a numpty.

Snow Bunting Hunt

There are usually Snow Bunting present along the seashore between Birchington and Reculver, I had seen people posting pictures and decided I would go along one morning and see if I could see these pretty little visitors from the arctic.

I set out early so that I would be arriving before sunrise and on the long walk to the location of the last reported sighting approx 2.5 miles.

I had almost given up when out of the corner of my eye I spotted movement, trust me for such a colourful bird the blend in so well with their surroundings they are hard to spot if they do not move.
I froze and sat down and slowly inched closer it was a solitary female.

I couldn't quite get her to go out into the early sun completely.

Canon 5dmk4 700mm @ F7.1 1/400th ISO500

This was the best I could do partly in shadow, I spent a few minutes with her before she flew off down the beach, mission accomplished, five mile round trip for one picture.

Gimbal Head Update Number 2 !

I purchased the Nest NT530h mk2 back in 2017 (see previous blog entry). I was out early on the coldest day of the year and whilst the horizontal movement which I have already repacked was fine the vertical movement all but seized up due to the cold.

So I thought it was time to repack the vertical movement, this was only possible by drilling a small hole in the cover plate with the Nest logo on.

Then it was a hex head bolt and the locking knob then un screws off of the main shaft.

At the back there is a bearing race and washers this was all taken off and dunked in white spirit.

To remove the main shaft you just need to pull it and out it pops, I was surprised that this was not sitting on a bearing race, it simply relies on the machining being of a tight tolerance and a red friction washer.

Once again it was all cleaned off with white spirit, both the shaft and inside of the pivot, then dried and a good splodge of  high melting point lithium grease was applied to all surfaces and the bearing race.

Main shaft was put back in and rotated to ensure the grease was nice and evenly spread around, then the washer and bearing race followed by the knob.

Finally the hex bolt was refitted with a bit of semi permanent Loctite.

It now runs smooth as silk and should do so in all weathers, yes you do stand the chance of having you kit do a sudden nose dive if you are not careful but at least I will now be able to follow erratically moving targets a lot smoother than before.