Bees in the Birdbox

Bees in the Birdbox
Originally uploaded by Rob Johnstone

A couple of years ago we put up a bird box on the corner of a shed. The first year we had bluetits nesting in there, and were very excited when they laid, hatched and fledged a few chicks. One summer we sat and watched as the new birds flew the nest. It lay dormant, and this year the nest box was moved when work was done on the shed. We moved it to another shed, and were not expecting new residents as the box now faces north. To our complete surprise the bird box now does have some flying residents, but not birds. Bees have decided the box makes a might fine home. We don't really want to evict them as bees are having a hard time in the UK at the moment, so we will have to learn to co-exist. I'm not sure such a small space will accommodate a hive for long, however we will watch them over the summer to see if they stay.

Blogger Labels: macro,photography,bluetits,Bees,Birdbox,chicks,birds,nest,residents,moment

Razors Edge

Razors Edge
Originally uploaded by Rob Johnstone

Todays theme is "Razor Sharp". Scary one this image. Had help from my stepson James to help prevent me being blinded. I probably could have got closer but was too chicken. After we had finished my photo session, James borrowed the camera to take some of his own photos for his college course. He wanted to do some stereotypical images associated with drug culture. By the end of the day our kitchen was covered in white powder (sugar and salt), rolled up ten pound notes, train tickets (apparently James thought this was more British than using a credit card), and a kitchen knife covered in tomato ketchup! Mum was not too impressed.

Creepy Crawley things

For fathers day my wonderful family bought me a super 60mm f2.8 Macro lens. I love this lens. It’s my first proper, non-kit lens, and although I feel like a beginner with it, I am impressed with the quality of the images it produces.

As I am trying to work fully manual, the things I’m concentrating on to begin with are focus and depth of field. Consequently I am blasting everything with off camera flash to use as small as aperture as I feel I can get away with.

So next is lighting, and then composition