Staffhurst Wood

This evening, we visited Staffhurst wood, to see the bluebells, which grow there each year. Here are a few shots.

I know, this last one is blurry. I don't know what this is, is it innovation or a mistake?

Cumbrian Landscapes and the D800

Last weekend I took my new Nikon D800 to the Lake District, in north west England. There is some beautifull scenery in that part of the world, and I came home with plenty of landscape photos. Until now, I've not really done much landscape work - I'm aiming to do a lot more in future. 36mp on a full frame sensor should come in useful there :~)

My D800 replaces the two Nikon DSLRs (D300, D700) that I have been using for the last few years (both have been found good homes via ebay!). I've only had it a couple of weeks now, and for most of that time it has been raining - so I haven't had a decent chance to put it through its paces. We did at least get a little bit of sunshine in Cumbria though - here's a selection of shots from there.

Ullswater:

Honister Pass:

Buttermere:

Wast Water:

Wast Water:

Cockley Beck (I think):

Nikon V1 at the British Wildlife Center

Yesterday we made a trip to the British Wildlife Center. They are closed through the winter, but are now open again for spring/summer. I've visited the BWC a good few times before, as it is only 15 minutes drive from where we live. It's a great place to visit to photograph animals that are otherwise quite difficult to spot in the wild, especially if you live in the south (their red squirrels being a good example).

On this visit, I decided to leave my D300 at home and try out my new Nikon V1:

 

I bought the V1 over xmas and have been itching for some decent weather to try it out. From my limited use so far, it seems this camera does need good light to produce decent results - with it's small, slightly noisey sensor, it really seems to struggle above ISO 400. This is exacerbated by the fact that none of the currently available lenses are very fast.

On the other hand, those lenses are excellent in terms of their optical quality. In particular, the 30-110mm zoom is completely sharp accross the frame, even wide open at the long end. Also, at 100 ISO the sensor produces lovely RAW files. This really is a sunshine camera!

One other advantage to having a compact camera like this is that the lens is so small it can poke right through the holes in the wire fences that zoos etc. use for their enclosures.With big SLR lenses, this isn't possible! The fox shot below is a good example of this. While I was taking it, the guy next to me was attempting the same shot with a D3 and a 300mm 2.8 (= lots of blurred fence in his final shot with his £8k set up!).

So anyway, here's a few shots from the day - hope you like 'em.