My most recent photos... |
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Most of my pictures are all now on Flickr. Click the logo to visit my photostream...
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...and everything else
Click here to see all my Flickr sets.
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Me and my stuff
I've always been interested in nature photography, and for years used a number of Canon and Minolta film cameras. I sold the lot in 2003 and bought a Nikon Coolpix 4500, but soon decided that a digital SLR was the way to go.
Since 2004 I've been through various Canon cameras and lenses including two EOS 20Ds, an EOS 30D, an EOS 40D, an EF 400mm f/5.6L, and an EF 300mm f/2.8L IS before finding myself with the following which I use at the moment:
EOS 7D
EF 500mm f/4L IS
EF 1.4x II extender
Kenko 1.4x DG extender
Sigma 150mm f/2.8 APO DG
Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8
Super-Takumar 50mm f/1.4
Speedlite 550EX
Macrolite MR-14EX
...plus sundry other gubbins.
I tart everything up using Canon DPP, Adobe CS2 and Helicon Focus (for the stacks).
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A-Z index
Click here for a list of links to all my photos by species/subject.
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Copyright and contact
All photographs and content are copyright Rich Andrews. Please don't copy, steal or hotlink any of the photos on this website. It's the height of rudeness.
If you have any enquiries about usage, please . Thanks!
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SUNDAY 29th MAY 2011
Rhagium mordax
Another macro pic grabbed between gusts of wind - this longhorn beetle was feeding on hogweed flowers behind Stratford hide. An otherwise grey and probably deleted shot, rescued by ringflash. I really need to make myself some kind of plamp-like device to keep these things still in this weather.
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SATURDAY 21st MAY 2011
Baby burnet
With all this cold windy weather it hasn't been so good for photographing insects. Here's a Six-spot Burnet caterpillar getting ready to pupate on a grass stem at Chew today.
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FRIDAY 13th MAY 2011
Scarce Chasers
A trip to the River Avon between Keynsham and Swineford to photograph the newly-emerged Scarce Chasers. Normally I don't see these until later in the season when they've attained their full adult coloration, but I wanted to get some pictures of them in their orange 'teneral' plumage.
The weather was generally cloudy so it was difficult to locate them as they weren't flying, but every now and then I would flush them up from the long grass alongside the footpath. I found a total of ten. It was a bit tricky to get a clear look at them in the grass, but as many of them were fairly inactive I could move the leaves away without disturbing them.
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SUNDAY 8th to WEDNESDAY 11th MAY 2011
Bialowieza
Just back from a few days away in Poland to see some of the things we missed last year. As it was a couple of weeks earlier than our previous visit there were a lot of spring migrants we thought we might see which hadn't arrived yet - Thrush Nightingale, River and Icterine Warblers to name a few. But we did manage to see Pygmy Owl, Great Snipe, Hazel Grouse and White-backed Woodpecker which we missed last time, but again despite several attempts we didn't see any Bison. Quite how we failed to see Europe's largest land mammal is anybody's guess.
As usual with forest birding there wasn't much chance for too many photos, but I did manage some of a few moths which came to the light at the guest house in the village. The two below are Scarce Chocolate-tip and Reed Dagger. Perhaps at some point I'll get round to uploading the rest of the photos from both this trip and last year's trip to Flickr.
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MONDAY 2nd MAY 2011
Severn Beach
With a good wader migration underway in the estuary, I found myself at Severn Beach early this morning wondering why it's taken me this long to pay my first visit of the spring. The nice early morning light and pre-breakfast high tide should have been good for photographing the small waders on the beach before there was too much disturbance, and luckily today that proved to be the case. Typically it was mainly Dunlin in front of me, with smaller numbers of Ringed Plover and Sanderling.
It was a shame the summer plumage Curlew Sandpiper from two days ago didn't hang around, but nevertheless with small flocks of Barwits heading up the estuary it was nice to get to see some active migration for a change.
More on Flickr.
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FRIDAY 29th APRIL 2011
Windy Weston Moor
The weather looked so good when I left the house, but as I arrived for a potter about the AWT reserve this afternoon, the clouds came over and the wind picked up, making any close-up photography a bit of a chore. A smart new Small Copper kept out of the wind long enough for a four-frame stack, and the Hawthorn was in a sheltered enough spot for a ten-framer:
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THURSDAY 28th APRIL 2011
Prior's Wood
A quick evening stroll around the AWT reserve at Prior's Wood to see the swathe of bluebells. The fading light and my shite landscape photography meant that I didn't come away with my flash cards on fire...
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SUNDAY 24th APRIL 2011
Nice weekend
The fine weather has brought out a load of early Dragonflies, so I had a try for some photos of Hairy Dragonfly at Weston Moor AWT reserve. I managed to find two or three, but the trouble with this warm sunshine is that although it's great for watching dragonflies, it's less good for photographing them because the buggers never land! An hour's worth of wandering up and down the rhynes gave me just two goes at one perched up, the best of which is below.
I also took a trip to the Mendips to look for Grizzled Skippers, which also produced a few Dingy Skippers and hundreds of Pyrausta ostrinalis.
You can see the ostrinalis bigger on here.
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SATURDAY 23rd APRIL 2011
Arty-farty
Whilst sat in the hide at Chew this afternoon, a huge queen Hornet flung itself through the window and slapped down on the shelf in front of me. It was a bit of a surprise at the time. She sat there just long enough for me to put a macro lens and ringflash on and take one shot, but in my haste I had the shutter speed set to auto and ended up with this almost aesthetic arty-farty result. Almost. Some people on the internet pass this kind of blurry tat as something they meant to do, so if it's good enough for them...
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WEDNESDAY 20th APRIL 2011
New site
Welcome to my new website.
That's a generous way of saying that I've taken all my old photo pages from cvlbirding.co.uk, added a nav bar and put them on a new URL - www.RichAndrewsPhotography.co.uk.
I've also had a bit of a spring clean and started moving some of my old galleries over from cvlbirding. First up is the Blue Tit nestbox blog I did a few years ago, and to mark the occasion I've warmed over a few of the pics below. Click here to re-live the whole sorry saga.
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SUNDAY 17th APRIL 2011
Publow puddle duck
A Ferruginous Duck was discovered on a small farm pond by local birding legend Alan Bone this morning. It was only five minutes from my house and sure enough on my unhurried arrival this afternoon it was still there, milling about with a small group of Tufted Ducks. They weren't too worried about me sitting by the path and before long the group paddled right past.
There are some more at Flickr, and the top one can be seen a bit bigger here.
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