Saturday 28 November 2009

Rainbows and Rain

Early yesterday morning I could see a faint rainbow from the kitchen window. It must be about a year since I last saw one. Out of curiosity I took a few photographs, some with the Canon and a couple with the mobile phone. The first is with the Canon and the second with the phone:

Faint Rainbow

Faint Rainbow

As I said the rainbow was very faint and the Sun was just above the horizon so I was interested to see how both cameras would cope. The lens on the Canon was set to its widest at 70mm and the phone has a fixed 5.2 mm. They both coped pretty well.

While I see a couple of Coal Tits visit on and off all day snatching the black Sunflower seeds it was a rarity to see one visit the bird bath.

Coal Tit

Coal Tit

This morning it was raining gently when we started our morning walk but the rain gradually increased and by the time we got back it was a deluge. That didn't stop the birds coming for their breakfasts. In fact there were more than usual, the first being a couple of Goldfinches soon to be joined by more plus Sparrows, Starlings, Greenfinches, Chaffinches and a Robin.

Goldfinches

This is the first time I have seen so many Goldfinches together since the outbreak of Finch disease earlier in the year. It was so dark with the thick grey rain clouds I had to set the Canon to its maximum 3200 ISO but with a little help from Paint Shop Pro I was fairly pleased with the result.

14 comments:

  1. They are OK, I've seen nothing else for a week, well rain. If you have a polariser it brings them up wonderfully. Check first because it can rid them completely.

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  2. Hello Adrian. The rainbow was so faint I was surprised it showed at all in the photos. I have a lot of filters for my old Ricoh XRX SLR but they don't fit my Canon lenses. The filters are much too small so I will have to start investing in some new ones. At the moment I just have each lens protected with a UV filter.

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  3. That new phone is performing well as a camera John.
    And a very good result of the Goldies, with such a high ISO.

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  4. Hi there John, I’m liking your comparison shots between your DSLR and your mobile. I’ve an iPhone (which I absolutely love) but as yet I haven’t taken shots off it. I should look into that and to what quality of photos I can get too.

    Great to see both cameras picked up the rainbow. I also enjoyed seeing your coal tit shots… I love that cheeky little bird. We are seeing it a lot at the moment too. Not noticed it in my bird bath but enjoyed watching it hide sunflower hearts in the ground during the summer.

    Good to see your goldies back too. It is great that we don’t lose the photo capture on dark days. There are a variety of ways that we can get the colour and brightness back when you start experimenting. Good result there too.

    Hope your roads are less icy now. We had a beautiful blue sky morning here but this afternoon when we went into the centre of Edinburgh we drove into foggy skies and much cooler temps at 3 deg C. The warm food/drink smells and atmosphere of the German market made up for it though :-D

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  5. I was quite surprised Keith. Would you believe it - the latest Sony Ericsson phone as a 12M pixel camera.

    With the high ISO I think it depends - the plainer the background the more the grain shows up.

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  6. The mobile did very well with the rainbow John.
    I enjoyed seeing the Coal Tit and great to see so many Goldfinches again, they certainly cheer up a dreary colourless day.

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  7. Hello Shirl. It isn't always convenient to have a bulky camera when out with the hairy monster, especially when I do a bit of local shopping at the same time so the phone is a useful item.

    No ice this close to the coast yet. The black ice was further inland and a bit higher up. For me it can stay there.

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  8. Hello Jan. The mobile does a fair job and fill a gap in my photo armoury ;)

    The Coal Tits are back and forth all day. I was really surprised to see the sudden increase in the number of Goldies. I put a couple of the feeders well away from the Birdy Bistro and they are just finding it. Spreading them out does at least mean less squabbles.

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  9. The thing I like most about the first photo is how the sun lights up the bare braches of the tree. And the thing I like most about the second is that you can really see how low the sun is by the shadow on the evergreen tree. They both did fine with the rainbow at the size the photos are in the blog. Great camera phone, John! You have persuaded me to try mine out a little more.

    cheers, Wilma

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  10. Hello Wilma. Late Autumn and Winter Sun can produce some nice lighting effects when it is low in the sky. I think Sony Ericsson have always taken that little extra effort to make good cameras in their phones. I have to sit on my wallet every time I see the advert for the new 12 mega pixel one ;)
    One of these days I will have to try it out to see how good, or otherwise, the video is.

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  11. Amazing to see how phone technology has progressed. Good comparisons John.
    We can probably expect to see more birds on the garden feeders if this trend of wet weather continues. FAB

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  12. Hello Frank. Yes some manufactures of mobile phones are working hard to put decent cameras in their products.

    Very true. The numbers of bird visitors has increased dramatically these past few days.

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  13. Great photos there of the Rainbowa, I have have also tried taking photos with my mobile and camera, both were pretty good, the mobile coped very well.

    Great bird feeders you have there, they will never go hungry. Sadly we do not get any birds at all in our garden, just a passing starling.

    John

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  14. Thank you John. I had hoped the rainbow would get a bit brighter but that was not to be.

    The birds are tucking in well since the weather changed. I am lucky that so many birds visit.

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Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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