…..is a question I often hear from attendees on my Workshops and other events. People who are worried that their slightly older digital camera isn’t up to the performance of “state of the art” models or even their level-entry camera will not provide the performance required to take great shots.
Whatever age or model camera you have, it has one goal; to capture reflected light. Of course, newer cameras may do this with a better intelligence, higher number of pixels, better in low light etc., however, this doesn’t mean that older technology suddenly becomes redundant. We live in a material world which the camera manufacturers are well aware of with clever marketing. I’m very aware that these “state of the art” cameras can bring new features and far superior image quality but most of these are not necessarily required by everyone wanting to simply take great pictures.
I have been wanting a permanent reflection pool for a long time, some of you may remember my Temporary Reflection Pool from 2015. I thought of a few locations, but in the end I decided to place it near the Oasis Hide. It has been constructed to have early morning sunrise light which is when birds often look for water, of course, this means there is a possibility of some nice back-lit photos towards sunset time too.
It had to be raised off the ground to bring it almost to the height of the lens hole in the hide to get eye level with any birds and I was going to build a wooden platform when I had a brain wave. Last year one of our Water Heater Solar Panels sprung a leak which meant they had to be replaced. Luckily, we still had the old panels so I decided to strip one down to use the chassis as body to hold the water.
Today, I finally got to work on getting the Reflection Pool erected. The base (salvaged from an old Solar Water Heater) is in place. I’m not so sure it is quite long enough so may have to extend it.
Full blog post from start to finish when it’s complete.
Living in the northern hills of the Algarve has many dirt tracks, some of which are actually classed as main roads, some others you wouldn’t attempt to drive a car up. Therefore, when we first arrived here I was determined to invest in a Quad to get around the terrain. I opted for a CanAm Outlander Max which has the added benefit of 4×4 when the going gets really tough.
It enables me to get to some areas that would otherwise be a day-long trek. Carrying the 500mm lens and camera on the Quad has been tricky and therefore I am now looking at ways to customise it to carry equipment.
Today, I modified the front rack so that I can attach my Lensmaster RH-2 Gimbal (or any other tripod mounted device) to it. Originally, I was hoping to also carry the lens and camera on the Gimbal attached but I think I’m asking for trouble. So my next task is to make a custom rear box to fit the camera and 500 lens in securely whilst driving. The Gimbal will remain on the front rack whilst driving and I can then also use the Quad as my tripod, or rather Quadpod!
A few years ago, I had a lot of problems with Bushnell Trail Cameras, which resulted in many being sent back under warranty. The current one I have is a few years old now but still a good performer, the model number 119740 (NatureView Cam HD Max Live View).
However, I still feel the build quality is a little “cheap” on these cameras and a few days ago, the strap brackets snapped, these are made from quite thin plastic. So this morning, a bit of engineering time in the workshop and have bonded some metal brackets to the back. Probably stronger than the original ones too!
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