Why is it....?

[Justin Time]

...that when I don't take the camera I get presented with great photo subjects?

Yesterday evening, took the dog for a wander round the patch.. heard a strange noise... squeaky gate plus a chirp... racked my brain... nope.... had a look in the patch of nettles, brambles, thistles etc... picked up the movement... two young birds just out of the nest but not yet ready to fly.. got one onto my hand... cracking little blackcap.. little beauty... camera sitting by the PC after saving pics the day before.

I could go on... the perfect otter prints in the mud by the stream, illuminated nicely by the late evening sun... or the fox cub sniffing at my foot ( camera in pouch with velcro, paah).. or... well, you get the picture

I suppose I should be thankful that I can still remember them.. what's the best picture you've never taken?

 

[bambodoggy]

don't know if it would have been a good picture but I had a little visit from a greedy robin on saturday. I was working down in Southampton grinding a couple of stumps out of somebody's front garden. I was using my larger machine and it's pretty chunky sounding when I hit a knot in the stump and stalled the machine, I walked round to look at the stump before restarting and standing beside me as I looked down was a little robin red breast with his mouth absolutely stuffed full of worms from the hole I'd just dug. I mean this little guy must have had 5 or 6 full worms in his beak and as I looked down I swear he winked at me!!! then jumped into the hole, grabbed a 7th worm and flew off. Bold as brass he was...lol I'm suprised he could even fly carrying that much weight onboard....lol

Daft story really...but I liked it and it kept me amused for the rest of the day

 

[Toddy]

Beautiful summer morning, I was sitting on the back step sewing, at peace with the world. Three wee chaffinches flittering about on the grass, not four feet from me, suddenly cooried down and froze for like a couple of minutes. I was starting to wonder if the bird seed was poisoned or something when this damn great hawk came rushing past my head to get to the birds. The chaffinches *exploded* upwards and into the trees at the side of the garden, and the hawk zoomed off. I sat there with my heart pounding, grinning like an idiot. Absolutely brilliant and no photo. My neighbours wouldn't believe me until the hawk ripped a pigeon apart in front of them a couple of months later. Then they started worrying in case it frightened a child

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[Moonraker]

Nice stories

I was out in the garden and saw some great things around so grabbed the camera and took some shots:

We had seen this bird inthe garden a few times and this was the first proper shot I had got of it. Turns out to be a male Black Redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros). Note the red tail and almost pied body.

Turns out the fledglings had just left the nest and mother (brown with a red tail) was protecting them just next door where they had emerged from a wall. Initially I thought hewasa form of flycatcher as he catches flies by 'hoping' up into the sky to catch them or swoop down from trees, but a hunt through the bird book told another story. In the photo you can see flies in his beak ready to feed. Quite surprised to see they have a web site in the UK all to themselves http://www.blackredstarts.org.uk/

I had left the grass to grow long in the orchard area rather than the usual haircut since we moved in and it really shows just how important a niche habitat long meadow grass is as it was literally crawling with wild flowers and insects. Here is one particular Nymph like insect which I have not identified yet (perhaps a fly fisherman can .

Often it is worth getting down on your belly with the camera to really see another world. In fact always worth thinking about climbing a tree or trying to see what is around us in a different way and this in turn often creates great photo opportunities. Regardless of the photos, just to lie there and watch all this macro scale life was fascinating.

Lastly as I was tidying a pile of hazel wands I saw this beautiful young Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius) climbing up from the grass and siting on the hazel twigs in the sunshine, waiting patiently for it's wings to open up properly.

Truly a magic moment of transformation from the chrysalis into such an attractive butterfly (though not rare in Europe). They have a delightful flight pattern and they flit around in a very chilled out manner, which suits to locality rather well

happy snapping

 

[Povarian]

My best one would have to be:

On a crisp frosty winter's morning a couple of years back. I was driving to work and looked into a field I was passing where a lone oak tree stands. The tree was twinkling and glistening with the thickest hoar frost I've ever seen - frost hanging from the limbs like vines, and the newly risen sun creating a layer of mist around it's base.

Since that day, I've tried to always have some sort of camera with me, although I am torn because sometimes things should just be treasured for what they are and doing the photo thing can diminish the power of the moment.

 

[ronsos]

On a cold afternoon in january,I was in my local woods with the dog,and watched a buzzard fly over us just above head height to land on a nearby fence post.The dog ran up growling to within about a metre of the buzzard who was beautifully back lit by the setting sun - a golden buzzard. Time seemed to melt away..He gave a sort of bemused look at the dog as if to say 'aye right ,wee man', before flying off.On the way out of the woods he flew overhead escorting us back to the car(were the camera was).Havnt been to those woods for a while, need to look him up this week,wont take the camera though,if I do he wont appear.
excellent pics btw,moonraker

 

[Ogri the trog]

While serving in the South Atlantic,
I had a chance to spend a few short days on one of the Falkland Islands more remote Islands. Saunders Island, is about 15 miles by 5 with a settlement of about 6 houses at one corner. A mate & I did the walkabout thing for three days to visit the other end of the island. While there, I was crouched amongst the rocks, doing what nature demands. There is very little sound save the waves on the shore about 300 meters away, and the whisper of the never-ending wind. Then a shrill squawk draws my attention skywards where there are two Turkey Vultures, circling me - no doubt waiting to see if I'm worth eating!
That was the photo I missed, but the set that I did get (along with a few minutes of video footage) was of the pod of common dolphins that swam into the bay and played in the surf for about half an hour before swimming off to the next bay to continue their frolics. I'm convinced that if I had rolled my trousers up and removed boots/socks and waded in knee deep - they would have been all around me.
That few minutes of video, to me, is the ultimate in chill out media - how can there be strife in the world when something that serene is going on?

Ogri the trog

 

[Rob]

I have a fantastic blurred picture of the sun in a blue sky. The sad thing was that I was standing on top of a mountain near Oban and that the picture should have been of the Golden Eagle that was riding the air about 4 feet above my head and 12 feet out.

I witnessed a battle yesterday, between a Magpie and a Jay. No camera present They seemed to be fighting over the body of a chick - I could not tell if it belonged to either of them. The fact they were at it for so long (and I mean serious punch/peck-up) makes me think that one of them had raided the other one's nest (but i may be wrong).

 

[Spacemonkey]

Would love to have got a picture of the two foxes who would play with my dog. All three taking it in turns to be chased. Great, unrepeatable sight, and all happened in Croydon of all places! Or the time I was sat on the beach in the settled snow (very unusual for the South..) at around midnight and a fox comes trotting right up to me. It gives me a sniff at my feet, looks up as if to say 'How do?' then carries on past me trotting by without a care in the world...

 

[Stuart]

Roving Rich has to put his Fox photo up in this thread.


come on Rich its a supurb shot

 

[arctic hobo]

A shot on my old Pentax of cloud swirling over the Skakastols ridge. I was on a Midtmaradalsryggen, a great spur, with the ridge across a glacial hanging valley. The light was the lovely suffused kind you get as the sun just comes out of a cloud, and it glinted off the wet black gneiss of Store Midtmaradalstind, which stuck up like a fang from the ridge on the left. Above this and the cloud was a evilly black sky... if I may say so myself, a truly wonderful shot Except that the film was lost in the river Utla Not the best I've never taken, but the best I've never printed.

 

[martin]

A few years back I was into Wildlife Photography in a big way. One late spring evening I photographing Blackheaded Gulls picking St Marks Flies from the surface of a pond in a wood. Having used up the film in my cameras I rewound them both back into their canisters but didn't take them out of the cameras as the light was fading.
As I walked out of the wood a Short-eared Owl flew past me at eye level about 15 foot away.. When he was level with me he turned his head and fixed me with his beautiful yellow eyes, turned his head back and carried on his way. He never missed a wing beat!
Theres me stood there with 2 cameras round my neck and no film in either. Talk about gutted Short-eared Owls are one of my favorite birds.
This is burned into memory and I still kick myself now.

 

[stotRE]

Along time ago i was training to be a carpenter and joiner at Brompton Barracks in Chatham and one night whilst on guard duty a fox strolled into camp.
I just lifted the barrier and saluted.Priceless.

 

[zackerty]

A white rhino charging me, encased in a flimsy thin wood hide, Nikon F, 50m f1.8...

 

[tomtom]

yesterday, spontainously took a boat up the river and went up one of the creeks.. the water is very shallow, we couldnt use the motor near the top so we were punting.. lo and behold some 500 yards away a fox (young) jumps down the bank and on to the beach and comes slowly along to forshor towards us.. we watched him slowly make his way along the beach snifing.. looking for things to eat for a good 5 mins untill he came just about level with us when he hoped up the bank and dissapeared in to the under growth. i dont know if he saw us but if he did he was compleatly un-fazed by us and never look directly in our direction!

 

[Roving Rich]

Yup, I must have missed thousands of photo's by now.
Last year I bought myself a brilliant new camera, I'm really pleased with it. The only problem is it an SLR, so is just too big to carry all the time. So I now find myself longing for another pocket sized camera, something with a decent lens, a bit of zoom and aperture priority !
On the other hand and in the opposite direction to this thread, sometimes it all goes to plan. I took the dog out early in the morning, knowing that we'd seen foxes here earlier in the week. I kept my eyes open , but no show, so we stopped and waited by a gate post - not easy with a hyperactive labrador lurcher ! and sure enough this little fox appeared after only a few minutes to take in the morning sun....

I got a few photos of it ( largely out of focus ) as it trotted closer to find out what was making those strange wurring noises - a truly magical experience, I was over the moon !

Cheers
Rich

 

[leon-1]

Yep have to agree with you Rich, sometimes you haven't got the camera, but the times that you have and get a good shot, that makes up for it.

I quite liked this inquisitive little chap

What I find annoying is having the camera taking a picture and finding that the end result is blurred or the object of the photo is too small to see with an electron microscope

 

[Fenlander]

Nice stories

I was out in the garden and saw some great things around so grabbed the camera and took some shots:

We had seen this bird inthe garden a few times and this was the first proper shot I had got of it. Turns out to be a male Black Redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros). Note the red tail and almost pied body.

Turns out the fledglings had just left the nest and mother (brown with a red tail) was protecting them just next door where they had emerged from a wall. Initially I thought hewasa form of flycatcher as he catches flies by 'hoping' up into the sky to catch them or swoop down from trees, but a hunt through the bird book told another story. In the photo you can see flies in his beak ready to feed. Quite surprised to see they have a web site in the UK all to themselves http://www.blackredstarts.org.uk/

I had left the grass to grow long in the orchard area rather than the usual haircut since we moved in and it really shows just how important a niche habitat long meadow grass is as it was literally crawling with wild flowers and insects. Here is one particular Nymph like insect which I have not identified yet (perhaps a fly fisherman can .

Often it is worth getting down on your belly with the camera to really see another world. In fact always worth thinking about climbing a tree or trying to see what is around us in a different way and this in turn often creates great photo opportunities. Regardless of the photos, just to lie there and watch all this macro scale life was fascinating.

Lastly as I was tidying a pile of hazel wands I saw this beautiful young Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius) climbing up from the grass and siting on the hazel twigs in the sunshine, waiting patiently for it's wings to open up properly.

Truly a magic moment of transformation from the chrysalis into such an attractive butterfly (though not rare in Europe). They have a delightful flight pattern and they flit around in a very chilled out manner, which suits to locality rather well

happy snapping

The "Nymph like insect" is one of the Mayflies......this is the most similar picture i could find....http://www.vision.caltech.edu/feifeili/101_ObjectCategories/mayfly/image_0021.jpg