Here is a photo I shot a few years back at Salgados of a Greater Flamingo standing amongst some warm rising fog. I came across it whilst clearing out some files, enjoy.
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Flamingo Through The Fog
Re-visit To An Old Friend To Test DxO PureRAW 1.5
Back in 2016 I spent quite a few cold early mornings and evenings with a pair of wintering Short Eared Owls in Derbyshire in the UK. Some of the time I spent was far too dark to get some good shots due to having to shoot at too high an ISO.
Back then I was shooting with the Nikon D810 which was and still is a great camera today (it’s currently my backup camera), but high ISO wasn’t fantastic. Today I invested in the DxO PureRAW standalone software which “cleans” RAW files up before processing. I have been using DxO PhotoLab for sometime, however, I was only using it for it’s denoise capabilities and therefore PureRAW is a better fit.
So, I chose the following photograph to test the capabilities. My biggest issue with a lot of denoise software is that it makes the background unpleasing and detracts the viewer’s eye from where you are trying to force them to look, however, DxO PureRAW really makes a good job of the background.
I’m no mouthpiece for DxO, in fact, I had some words of dissapointment with them recently over the upgrade path of their PhotoLab software, but there is no doubt their PureRAW is something special.
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Another Migratory Passerine…..Garden Warbler
As an addition to my last post regarding Flycatchers During Migration, another small bird to keep a watch for during the autumn migration in Portugal is the Garden Warbler. It’s not a resident and can only be spotted as it passes through during migration. The Garden Warbler has no real features to identify it, therefore, if you spot an “LBJ” (Little Brown Job, the term given to many small birds difficult to ID) during the migration period then it maybe a Garden Warbler. They are quite shy and like to keep in the cover of branches so spotting them is quite difficult.
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Backlit Bee-Eater On The Chase
I have quite a few shots from a session of shooting into the sunset yesterday evening and I’ll post a new blog entry soon, but this photo deserves it’s own post!
As a photographer, you can put yourself in the right place at the right time by careful planning, but sometimes that extra bit of luck can make all the difference.
Here is a backlit shot of a European Bee-Eater swopping in to catch a Honey Bee. In case you are wondering, it easily caught it and took it to feed a juvenile perched waiting on a nearby electricity cable.
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The Kingfishers & Their Friend Weasel
Ok, I very much doubt a Weasel would be a Kingfisher friend but it makes a nice children’s story book title…….
I was counting on a sleepy morning today but the dogs had other ideas, waking me up before sunrise. Therefore, I took the opportunity to spend some time at the new Kingfisher perch I placed in the river a few days ago.
It still needs some work on positioning but it’s great to see once again there are many Kingfishers present. The local pair seem to be busy feeding a 2nd brood and although not intentional, I have spotted their nest in the riverbank where they are busy delivering food. There’s plenty wrong with the Kingfisher image below, but it’s a great start to my new season of Kingfisher photos!
Whilst I sat there patiently waiting a Weasel showed up running around like crazy. I fired the camera shutter which grabbed it’s attention and then fired off the shot below with him looking directly at the camera before continuing on its hunt for breakfast.
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Male Common Linnet Taking A Bath
It was one of those days today, a high risk of failure to get the photos I planned. I was hoping to write my next Algarve Resident article about the Nightingales and they incredibly difficult to photograph as they always keep themselves in thick cover. After sitting and waiting by 4 separate Nightingales, all within a few meters of me, I gave up after 2 hours and headed back. Whilst walking along the river bank I spotted a small flock of Linnets splashing around in the shallow water. All but one male flew for cover and he was happy for me to sit and photograph him whilst he took a long bath a relief for my dissapointment earlier.
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