A Photographer's Calendar. A personal blog of M and J Bloomfield Digital Wildlife Photographers.

High pressure produced wonderful, cloudless skies over the last few days, great weather for taking photographs.  We decided it would be good idea to visit a site we use to take pictures of Red Kites in flight.  The weather was just perfect; unfortunately it turned out to be average in terms of the pictures, due to lack of co-operation by the Kites.

It was however, a great day for watching the kites.  At one time we counted 14 individuals, flying, riding the thermals then gliding along the hill ridges.  Meeting up with other kites and trying out a bit of display flying.  Occasionally, ganging up on the local buzzards to give them a hard time.  It is a good time to watch kites and other birds of prey.  They take to the air on good days trying to find a mate.  So you stand a better than normal chance of see the birds in the air.  Look out for the display flights but also keep listening for there calls as this can be the first indication you get a bird is nearby.  Also, look out for birds visiting old nesting sites.  Old nests will be in need or repair and both birds will be busy to get the nest ready for egg laying.

March is an interesting month, as the countryside makes a change from winter to spring.  Lengthening days starts warming the soil, triggering plants and trees, dormant throughout the winter into growth.  One of the first flowers is the Snowdrop.  They provide a splash of white, against the dull browns and muted greens.  Here in the south some Snowdrops are already starting to set seed, where as in Dumfries, Snowdrops are just coming into bloom.

If your walk takes you into damp woodlands, keep an eye out for the sulphur yellow of the Lesser Celandine.  It will be providing a splash of much needed colour in our bare woodlands.  The Coltsfoot, also a yellow flower but, commonly found on ground which is water logged can be seen at this time of year.  On the same type of ground you may also find the weird looking Butterbur.

Because of the lack of flowers at this time they are great places to see insects.  Butterflies such as the Brimstone and Peacock which over winter as adults, will be on the wing on warm days.  Brimstones are the easiest to spot as there bright yellow colour stands out against the dull foliage.  Both Brimstone and Peacock roost in evergreen shrubs and after a warm March day, these are a good place to look for the butterflies.

Find a large open field and keep an eye out for Mad March Hares.  The mad title comes form the females who getting tired of being chased by the males, will turn around and fight off their advances.  Fur flies and the leaps into the air, spinning and boxing have gained them the name mad March hares.

Lakes and ponds are worth a visit.  Later on in the month, Great Crested Grebes will be displaying.  The dance, with both birds standing completely out of the water and doing synchronised movements across the water is wonderful to see.

Enjoy the longer days and keep looking for signs of the coming summer.  Lastly, if you are out and about at the beginning or end of the day, keep a watch out for Foxes.  This is the time of year females will be bringing new cubs above ground for the first time.  Keep a look out towards the end of the month and you may be lucky to see a new family on one of its first outings.

Also out in March Goat Willow, Blackthorn, Greater Stichwort and Lesser Periwinkle.

Until next time.

Time to update you as to what’s been happening with our Drobo generation two drive.  As we have written earlier, we have been having a long running problem with one of our Drobo drives units.  The dive has been corrupting files for the past couple of months.  After exhausting every possible external reason why the drive was corrupting files, finally Data Robotics agreed to replace the unit.

Data Robotics have a no loss of drive swap policy on faulty units.  This was one of the influencing factors when we were investigating purchasing these drives.  The way it works is that Data Robotics ships a replacement unit.  Once you receive the replacement drive, you then return the faulty unit.  All appeared to work well with this system.  The replacement Drobo drive took four days to arrive.  We then arranged for the defective to be returned.  This all seemed to work well without fault, even if waiting in for couriers was a bit of a waste of a day or two.

All the drive swapping happened while we were away in the Cairngorms, so it was only when we returned we were able to test fully the replacement Drobo drive.  The news so far is that the replacement drive is working and so far we have had no more corrupted files.

The problem we have is that the replacement drive Data Robotics sent us is a generation one drive.  The one it replaced was a generation two drive.  As soon as we realised we had been supplied with an older, less well-specified drive we contacted Data Robotics.  They were very apologetic and arranged to ship a second-generation replacement to us this week.  So we are waiting on another courier to deliver and collect.  Has this latest episode given us any more confidence in Data Robotic and the Drobo drive units?  As we have said before, with the problems we have had we would find it very hard to recommend these products to anyone.  

So with a bit of luck, by the end of the week we will have the correct specification drive, that is fault free.  While we are waiting, we still need to check about 30000 or so files, to see if any have been corrupted by the original faulty Drobo drive.

Until next time.

The snow of January was replaced by cold and wet weather and the odd snow flurry during February.

We were only in the south of the country for first two weeks of the month, which gave us plenty of rain.  We were away on a shoot in Scotland for the last two weeks of the month experiencing very different weather.  Average day time temperatures in Speyside were about -6°c, with night time temperatures falling to -16°c – a bit chilly.  The Highlands of Scotland as you may have read from our blog has been experiencing the worst winter for 30 years.  Heavy snowfalls have caused misery to both the wildlife and human population.  Although skiers have had the best snow conditions in Scotland for many a year.

On our return we were greeted with heavy rain and flood warning reports from the Environment Agency.  However spring is supposed to be on the way, I do hope so.  

March may bring the much needed warm and sunny days.  We can look forward to Spring flowers and some colour in the countryside.

The weekly mean average temperatures for February were,

maximum temperature          8.9°c
minimum temperature         -2.4°c.
*(please note we only measured 3 out of 4 weeks due to our Scotland trip)

We left the Cairngorms on Wednesday morning, overnight Grantown on spey had a fresh fall of snow.  As we travelled home, southward on the A9 the snow started again.  By mid day it was quite heavy.  By the time we reached our overnight stopover, the television news was full of stories of heavy snow in the Scottish highlands.  By Thursday afternoon, many of the roads we had be driving on just the day before were closed due to snow.  Such is the unpredictability of the weather in the Cairngorms.  On Friday, we learnt that in the Cairngorm massive, heavy falls of snow and high winds meant drifts had reached 1.5 to 2 metres in some places.

Red deer are suffering in this unusual weather.  Populations of Red deer have been on the increase, in part been due to the milder winters of late.  Numbers of deer were at perhaps the greatest it has ever been.  This year has been different.  From the middle of December hills have been covered in snow.  Unable to find enough food the populations are starving to death in every greater numbers.  Many estates are feeding more than normal, in an effort to try and preserve the deer numbers.  This is helping, but at the end of the winter we could be looking at half the number of deer in Scotland.

Extreme weather, is having a devastating long term effect on the wildlife of Scotland.  As we have already written about, we travelled wildly in the Cairngorms looking for wildlife and found very little.  The cold and snow has forced birds and animals to move out of their normal areas.  Take for instance the Lochs.  Normally during the winter some of the highland lochs support populations of geese and other waders.  With the lochs completely frozen over these birds have had to move to warmer climbs.

Residents that can’t move, are having to try and find a way of surviving.  Some will survive but many won’t.  This summer the numbers of breeding birds will be lower than in previous years.  It may take years for numbers to recover and some species may never recover to previous numbers.

Finally, our thoughts go out to the many people we met and the new friends we made on our trip.  Their lives are being effected by the weather as we speak.  Closed roads, mean missed appointments and not being able to reach home or work.  Their only compensation.  They live in one of the most wonderful bits of this planet.

Until next time.

We have been looking for any wildlife for days now and any sighting has become an event to celebrate.  The snow and the extreme overnight temperatures seems to have sent most of the local wildlife into hiding.  You may catch a glimpse but that is all.  We spent the other day searching what seemed like the whole of the Cairngorms for suitable subjects to photograph.  Not only didn’t we find much of anything to photograph we didn’t see it either.

Now being a touch on the paranoid side.  You tend to get like that when you make your living from wildlife.  We began to believe that it was a malicious conspiracy aimed solely at us.  But it appears that it is happening to most people in the area at the moment.  What should be about and what is actually moving around are two very different things.

So the weather has taken its toll on our expectations of Scotland in the winter.  It has been a surprise to most of the local people we meet too.  The bright cloudless skies would have you believe that you were in the Alps.  It has been beautiful light to photograph wildlife it has just been that the wildlife is all huddled up trying to keep warm and survive this period.

Normally if the wildlife is not co-operating we would be out taking landscapes.  And there’s the rub.  You can take landscapes in bright sunny conditions but it is not ideal and who is going to believe its Scotland anyway.

Until next time

Yes it has been warmer in the fridge than outside over the last few days.  Everywhere is still covered in a thick blanket of snow.  Some of the roads that have been closed are now getting opened as the snow ploughs force their way through.  Searching for mountain hares in these conditions is not without its own adrenalin rush as you negotiate the mountain roads covered in snow and ice.

Now the Mountain Hare is Britain’s only native Hare as the Brown Hare is an imported species.  Mountain Hare have a brown coat in the summer but come the longer days of autumn and winter their coats change to a white or light grey.  This adaption acts as a wonderful camouflage when the snows appear.  Hiding the hares from aerial attacks by the biggest birds of prey in the UK the Golden Eagle.

Having described the Mountain Hare and its camouflage I expect that you are wondering were is the picture so that you can see what they look like.  Well so are we.  We spend most of the day looking for Mountain Hares and saw none.  Not one.  It looks as if the curse of the cold weather has struck again and the Hares were not out on the slopes we were looking at.

Until next time.

Winter is always a hard time for the Scottish Red deer populations.  But this year has been one of the hardest for nearly 30 years.  One thing we have been anticipating when planning this shoot was to get some more pictures of Red deer in Scotland.

Our first morning day trying to capture some good pictures trip started out with temperatures of -16°C.  Our destination was a valley famous for its Red deer population and Golden Eagles not to mention the odd Peregrine falcon or two.

It was a bright and very still day not getting above -6°C all day.  All we saw were Red deer but high on the tops of the hills.  They were trying to find enough to eat to survive the bitter cold.  Searching small areas of exposed rock or where the wind had caught the snow and cleared a patch of ground.  The Red deer on the tops of the hills turned out to be the highlight of the day.  On a day when the rest of the wildlife decided that the way to survive was to stay out the wind and cold.

So is the lot of the wildlife photographer.  Some days you get the perfect light.  Light you dream about.  Then you can’t find a living thing that will venture out long enough for you to get it in focus.  Better luck tomorrow.

Until next time.

We are currently travelling and photographing in the highlands of Scotland.

Why would you want to go to Scotland in the winter, it’s a darn site colder than the south of the country.  This is the type of reaction you tend to get when you mention to people that you are planning to travel to the Scottish highlands at any time but during a few months in the summer.  

The answer is the scenery and the wildlife.  The scenery is spectacular.  The Scottish highlands are covered in a thick blanket of snow.  Wildlife, you can see the specially evolved adaption that allows birds and animals to survive these extreme conditions.

To see and photograph this scenery and wildlife, that prompted us to plan this trip to he Scottish highlands and the in particular the Cairngorms at this time of year.  We realised that we were leaving the trip late.  But the longer days of late February gives you more time to explore.  The weather is always a gamble whatever time of year.  However, so far we have not been disappointed.  As we travelled up to the Cairngorms the snow started to fall.  Arriving in the highlands, hills were coated in a glorious white blanket making the whole landscape change shape and form.

Until next time.

Last July in an effort to rationalise our file storage, we purchased a couple of Data Robotics Drobo disk drives and a Droboshare to allow us to connect the disks to our network.  These two units replaced our previous set up of an eclectic assortment of external drives which we had acquired over a number of years.  The Drobo technology uses a Data Robotics propriety disk spanning system that saves files across several drives.  The system is developed so that if a single disk drive fails you can replace it without loosing any data.

All went well for the first 5 months or so.  Then we started to see the odd corrupted file when we saved files to one of the Drobo units.  We contacted Drobo support and they came up the solution of running CHKDISK on the system.  Which we did and the corrupted files were repaired.  All was well again or so we thought.

A few days later the problem re-occurred.  This started what has been a very very long process of contacting Drobo support and trying to find out what is going wrong.  On one bad day we saved 40 or so TIFF files to the networked Drobo.  For about an hour or so we were able to open the files.  Then at the end of the day we were preparing to copy the files to the backup Drobo unit when before our eyes 33 of the files suddenly became corrupted.  We looked at the software supplied with the Drobo unit that tells you if there is a problem with the Drobo and it reported that the unit was health.  Not very healthy, when you loose a days work.

We contacted the support team again and supplied the requested log file.  They came back with the fact that the Drobo had been turned off very frequently.  This is not surprising, as we do tend to turn the unit off when we are not using it for a few days to try and reduce our carbon footprint.  The support team warned us about shutting down the Drobo correctly.  Apparently these units are susceptible to data loss if not powered down correctly.  We were shutting it down correctly, but even so we did pay particular attention when shutting down over the next few days.

A few days latter and the problem of the corrupting files occurred again.  More calls to the support team and still no solution in sight.  As we were not getting anywhere through the support team route we contacted the UK sales office.  Luckily for us this phone call did get some action and a new power supply was dispatched.

By this time we were loosing all faith in the Drobo or the solutions being offered to us.  So when the new power supply arrived we decided not to take anymore chances.  We took the Drobo out of our production cycle.  We attached it to a UPS because the support team had again reported that the unit was subject to power losses.  Then after a few days we started to get corrupt files again.  Then in the middle of copying files to the unit it suddenly re-booted itself.  Another call to the support team, another log file emailed.  After looking at this log file the support team came up with the fact that the unit was experiencing power losses.  It was suggested that although the UPS can power the Drobo for 90 minutes or more we may have experienced a 90 minute power loss that had affected the Drobo.

After further emails and phone calls, we have eventually arrived at the point were Drobo are shipping us a replacement unit.  With a bit of luck this may cure our problems.

Now it is understandable, anything that is manufactured can and will at some time break.  Our problem with Drobo, is the time it has taken to solve the problems we have had with the unit.  So far it has taken 2 months to get to this stage.  We still don‘t know if the replacement unit will work.  We just can’t afford to have equipment that is not earning it’s keep for this length of time.  

Our other problem with the Drobo is that the corruption is silent.  The only way we knew that the files were being corrupted is when we tried to open them.  In some cases the files could be recovered using CHKDISK but the majority could not be recovered using this method.  We are yet to discover if we have found and fixed all the corrupted files.  Our fingers are crossed.

Will we be buying any more products from Data Robotics Inc.  Well after this experience, not anytime soon.  Would we recommend Drobo to anybody, not after our experiences.  What will we be doing in the future.  Well replacing the Drobo units is high on our priorities.  What with we don’t know yet   From our experiences with Drobo and in the past with LaCie it seems that these small RAID or RAID like units are just not reliable enough for day to day use.

Until next time.

It was only last August when we were bloging about the failure of the long rains in the early part of year that had left Kenya in a dire state with drought griping the country.  The United Nations was organising food drops, as failed crops had meant that some of the population was near starvation.  When we were there in October, Nairobi was suffering rolling power cuts, parts of the city being backed out, on different days.  The cause was the lack of water.  Most of Nairobi is powered by hydro electric and the lack of water meant that the turbines were falling silent.

The Mara was a brown desert, hardly a blade of green grass anywhere.  Rivers that normally run deep and wide were almost non-existent, in fact in some cases rivers that normally flow all year were dry.  Much of the game had moved to the far south of National Reserve where the permanent rivers still with water were providing some respite from the drought..  Masai cattle were being grazed in the National Reserve as the water shortages forced the local herders to break the park rules trying to save their cattle.

What a difference a few months can make.  When we left in late October there was no sign of the short rains.  However, only a few days after we left it started to rain and the short rains of 2009 were very heavy.  In fact the rains have been so heavy that the rivers of the Mara have been impassable for much of January.

The drought, has had a major effect on Kenya’s wildlife.  In Amboseli National Park many grazing animals died due to the drought.  This caused an imbalance between predator and prey to occur.  Lions have become a major problem as they roam into pastoral lands searching for food.  The food they are finding, is domestic animals.  This is bringing them into conflict with the local farmers, which means that Lions will be killed as the farmers protect their livestock.  

Lions are declining rapidly all over Africa as more and more pressure is put on land by people.  So in order to protect the Lions of Amboseli and to try and restore the balance between predator and prey the Kenyan Wildlife Service (KWS) is trying to restock parks like Amobseli.  Animals from areas were the grazers have fared better in the droughts are supplying a top up of prey species.   KWS are in the process of gathering up 7,000 Zebra and Wildebeest from conservancies such as Soysambu.  These will be used to re-stock Amobseli, provide the local Lion population with a much needed protein boost.

Other changes in animal behaviour caused by the drought have been seen all over Kenya.  Our good friend Brian Freeman reported in his latest newsletter that Wild Dogs had been seen in the north of Samburu.  You may not be impressed with this reported sighting until you realise that this is the first time in fifty years that wild dogs have been seen in this part of the park.  Hopefully the dogs will settle in the park and find it a great place to prosper.  This critically endangered species needs all space it can get.

Until next time

When you are using the adjustment brush and painting your mask on the area you want the brush to effect.  If you hover over the pin associated with the brush you will see the mask highlighted in red.

Suppose you would like to be able to see the red mask all the time and not loose it when you move the cursor from the pin.  Press the O key and the mask will turn on.  You can now paint as usual using the red mask as a guide.

Maybe when you turn the mask on it is difficult to see because it’s in red.  No problem.  Hold down the Shift key and keep pressing O, this cycles through the available mask colours.

Last shortcut for today, if you would like to view your picture without the pin showing hit the H key.  The pins will disappear and hitting H again brings them back.

Until next time.

Here in the south east we experienced all five types of weather during January.  No doubt you did too.  We have since the beginning of the year, started to record the weekly maximum and minimum temperatures.  I thought it would be interesting to look at the temperature variations during January in conjunction with the prevailing weather conditions.

Our recorded average temperatures for January were,

maximum temperature          6.7°c
minimum temperature         -2.2°c.

We had snow fall overnight on 5 Jan and into the next day which did not start to thaw until 11 Jan.  This was then followed by days with rain, frost and fog.  The actual temperature variations were very big ranging from a high of +8.9°c to a low of -5.9°c.  Recording the temperatures let you see in real time how changeable weather can be and why predicting the weather is not always an exact science.

What will February bring?

If you are working in the Develop module the full stop and comma keys are very useful.  By pressing the full stop key you move the selected adjustment slider focus down.  Using the comer key moves the focus the other way.

Now you may be thinking what practical application does this have as I use the cursor to make the adjustments.  Once you have highlighted the adjustment you want to make you can use the plus and minus keys to make the adjustment.

Suppose like me you like to take a look at you image in lights out mode to make the final checks.  Now you look at your images in lights out and decide that you should lighten the images.  Use the full stop or comma key to move to the exposure or brightness slider and hit the plus key.  Your image will brighten up with out the need to leave Lights out mode to see the slider and make the adjustment using the mouse.

We wish you a very Happy New Year.  

Normally at this time of year we look back and review the year just gone by and talk about the high points and try to forget the low points; this year I thought I would write about what we have lined up for 2010.  

I can’t leave 2009 without mentioning our trip to Kenya which is how we start 2010, processing pictures from the trip.  We had a fabulous time; once again we stayed with Freeman Safaris.  Brian and his team provide an unsurpassed level of commitment to ensure you get the most from your time in the Masai Mara.  We were lucky enough to see 8 different leopards, including a mother with young cubs.  An array of birds, many young lion cubs and we cannot forget the Wildebeest crossings.  Keep checking back on the website for picture updates.

What have we planned for 2010?  In February we are off to Scotland.  Using Grantown on Spey as our base will be capturing the local wildlife and landscapes in their winter wonderland.  On the list are Red deer, which should still be on the lower slopes before they make their way back up the hillsides in spring.  Mountain hares in their glorious winter white coats, Ptarmigan, which like the deer venture onto the lower slopes at this time of year.  Red squirrels and Golden Eagles will be out looking for love.  Capturing a displaying Golden Eagle would be a delight and certainly a sight not to miss.

We will continue our blog providing you with hints and tips on digital workflows, including Lightroom and Photoshop; photographing in the snow and general nature and countryside topics.  

The website will be getting a make over this year and will have a new look and feel.  There will be changes to the online shop and we will be offering a more personalised shopping facility.

We will also be out and about photographing the UK flora and fauna.  Looking to fill the gaps in our portfolio and find new and interesting locations to photograph.  We will keep you updated via our blog.  

It only leaves me to wish a happy and successful 2010 what ever you do.  Please do keep our website bookmarked and continue to visit us during 2010.  Email us at Mark and Jacky.

Starting today we are introducing a new feature to our blog, Lightroom hints and tips.  We use Lightroom extensively to develop our RAW images and in doing so have gained a lot of experience and expertise in using the software.  So we thought that it might help people if we passed on some of the things we have learned.  So here is tip No 1.

Tip number one is all about backing up your Lightroom catalogue.  I am sure that you have set Lightroom to backup its catalogue?  No, well it is a good idea to let Lightroom make a backup copy of the catalogue once in a while.  In that way if the file does become corrupted for any reason you have a fall back.

To make sure that Lightroom backs up your catalogue automatically, go Edit> Catalog Settings  in the menu bar.  The Catalog Settings dialogue will open select the General tab.  Near the centre of the dialogue box is the Backup section which consists of a drop down selector.  Select one of the backup options from this list which best suites your needs.

It is as easy as that to keep your Lightroom catalogue backed up.  One word of caution, Lightroom is backing up your catalogue for you, what it is not doing is backup your images.  So to make sure that you don’t lose these you should be backing these up separately.

Until next time