.
. |
Catching MeteorsShooting stars is pretty difficult if your a novice at night photography, you
can't use flash because it quite obviously won't reach that far into the sky. Instead you have to rely on long exposures and a high ISO - however not to high to become just a fuzzy picture. You also have to content with clouds which reflect the cities light pollution and so a clear night is preferable in dark surroundings. On the 13th - 14th of December was an annual meteor shower, it was all over the news however many had a sky covered in cloud. Anyway I thought why don't I have a go at capturing one so I set of just outside the house into a cold night to try. I was still testing exposures and settings out because I had the furthest possible from the ideal conditions however whilst on bulb mode one flew overhead. I couldn't believe it I had caught one. It was over very quickly and I only saw one other that night so I was lucky it chose that piece of sky at that moment in time. |
.
. . |
Little Owl - Featured in local NewsletterSo after research into the location of the little owl I set off one evening on a quest to find it. It was around 5 0’clock, just before the sun set when I tried to lure the owl in by using a portable amplifier and a little owl call that I had downloaded off of the internet. At first the only visitor was a jay that I had seen flying around landing in the tree above me.
A bit later on when I stopped and started to pack up with a slight disappointment I heard an unfamiliar noise. It must be the owl! I thought to myself, so I played the soundtrack again awaiting the response, however there was no reply. The only thing that moved was that Jay that had been hanging around, except as I looked up I realised it wasn’t a Jay but in fact a little owl (there tiny). Being a hobbyist wildlife photographer I fumbled for the camera making sure I always had one eye trained on it - getting an odd look from a lady walking her dog - I snapped away. Typically in all the photos there was only one where the face was towards me and the lighting wasn’t great, but hey ho. I was very happy. This was my first ever sighting of a little owl and my first ever sighting of a wild owl. . . |