The f Stop

It’s always quoted that opening up the aperture on your camera is the way to throw the background in photographs out of focus. You would want to do this to make the subject of what you’re shooting stand out; more often than not anyway. Sometimes it’s good to break rules but frequently there’s nothing more distracting than a lot of clutter in a photo to take away attention from what you’re photographing.

Sounds simple doesn’t it? Change from f10 to f4 and hey presto the background has a nice blurred effect. Simple.

In fact I feel it’s a grossly over used quote. Sure it will blur the background, but an easier way is to use a long focal length lens and get as close as you can to your subject. Much better effect.

We went out to the coast this week on a photography tour. We managed to photograph quite a bit despite the wind, the rain, failing light and cold fingers. The Black headed Gulls were quite charming. This particular one was my favourite.

Breach

Where the sea wall breached half a mile west of Salthouse an inlet has developed. This allows the sea behind the shingle ridge at high tide. Old sea defenses presumably put in place many years ago to stabilise the shingle have been exposed. See the metal posts at the back of the photo below. Offshore a deposition of sediment is taking place; making a feeding place for waders and other birds alike. As we walked the area recently a Red throated Diver took advantage of the good feeding here close to shore.

Exchange

We quite often hear of rare American birds that reach the UK; what we don’t often hear about are our birds that reach the States.

If you look at any map of North America and find a place that is central, a place equidistant from the sea whichever way you look, then the chances are you have found Nebraska. Here, among a flock of wintering Sandhill Cranes, a local has picked up on an associating Common Crane from this side of the Atlantic. Although Nebraska has hosted Common Cranes previously on migration, this is the first time a wintering individual has been found.

We saw Cranes in three different parts of Norfolk on our last six tours. Here’s a pair we saw a few weeks ago.