This and That

Years ago Goldfinches were frequent visitors to my bird feeders.
Since then a few seasons of finch disease and reduced vegetation cover has lessened the chances of seeing one. So far this year I have managed to spot one. A very welcome sight.



Mrs BT is being a very dutiful mother in the Blue Tit nest box.
She is keeping her eight eggs warm and frequently turned.
Mr BT continues to bring her food.

Penny is coming along very well after her dental session last Friday.
Back to normal on the food front - always hungry!
She is enjoying her walks. Must say I'm more that a bit fed up with this cold weather.
Just the day for ....



a steaming mug of hot coffee as seen by the Seek thermal imaging camera.

A Walk on the Full Spectrum Side

It's been quite a while since I gave the Canon 1200D an airing. That is the camera which had the internal UV filter replaced with clear optical glass. The first thing I have to do before each session is reset the white balance. That is done by photographing something green and instructing the camera to use that as the white balance level. I always take a photo of the lawn.

Today's mid-morning walkabout was in full sunshine though the breeze still had a cold edge.
Focussing is not easy as IR and UV light have slightly different focal lengths to the light wavelengths the camera was designed to use. Instead of autofocus I have to use manual focus in live view on the LCD. That can be difficult to get spot on with bright light from the Sun on the screen.

Anyway, here are a few from our walk. All have some tweaking to the RAW files in Affinity Photo.

A quick shot of Winter Pansies:



Footpath to the back of the church:



The South side of the church:



An old tree in the churchyard:



Footpath to Mill Lane:



Mill Lane:



Sheltered Housing:



Ladybirds on nettles:



Blackthorn along Old Mill Lane:



On our way back along the main street:



To finish off - orchid still in full bloom:



Some subjects work better than others.

A couple of B/W photos with the 520nm IR Filter

Mixing Channels - The Making of a B/W Picture

A brilliant Sunlight day with lots of bright blue sky and plenty of clouds, just right for a bit of infra red photography. Pity the wind was so bally cold.  A good job I'm not related to any brass monkeys. I was trying out a new IR filter on the 'full spectrum' 1200D. This one is infinitely adjustable from 530nm  to 720nm.

This photo was taken with it set to 530nm and the camera white balance set to the green grass.

Result as seen and taken by the camera:



The RAW file was adjusted for contrast and black level in Affinity Photo. Then the channel mixer was used to adjust each Red, Green & Blue level independantly on each R G & B channel:



Finally that was changed to B/W (greyscale) with a tad more tweaking: