Really behind!

Yep, I have neglected my blog again. As per usual, life is busy, even more so than usual at this time of year. Hubby has decided to change jobs so lots involved with that. Then we want to put the house on the market in the new year, so we've been decorating and sprucing the place up. Now that the holiday season is upon us, we have had to put our plans on hold until we can get everything back into storage, lol!

So, to catch up I am just going to post my favourites from November. I think I am finally starting to become more serious about what I do as I am far more critical and lots of stuff that I would have posted before is not making the cut, but I am getting better at remembering to take snapshots!

So I start with a snapshot of my baby. I LOVE this shot of him, it's so natural and innocent



Little man's 2nd Birthday



Eldest watching the mini-stox at the raceway



Fieworks at the raceway



Early one misty morning



A most unusual find for mid-november, a newly hatched clutch of black swan cygnets



Foxy



Zack's official 2 year (self) portrait. My attempts were pretty poor and in desperation, I set up the camera with a remote and let him take his own portrait. Stroke of genius on my part if you ask me, lol!



In my top 10 favourite shots of the year and one I am thinking of getting printed big for the house.



A bird in the hand...



One of my xmas card shots



And ending on another snapshot, I LOVE the looks on the boys faces!

Bradgate Flickrmeet - The Reds

After spending some time photographing the fallow deer, we decided to trek to find and get close to the red deer. Luck was on our side, there was a decent sized herd on one of the open bracken covered hillsides.

Bradgate Flickrmeet - The fallows

On Sunday 31st October, a local flickr group that I am part of had a meet up at Bradgate Park in Leicester. We went with the hopes of seeing a bit of rutting, and hopefully see the red deer stags. Things did not look too promising on the drive over, it was very foggy & misty. It wasn't so bad at the park, but certainly still dull and a bit misty. That has never stopped me before though, lol!

A scenic shot, complete with mist.



First, we came across the fallow deer. These 2 chaps were rutting (clashing antlers)







This deer was quite naughty. He smelled the bread and made a beeline for this man. The deer should not be fed or they have to be shot, they are still wild animals..... despite what some may think.





Possibly albino or leucisitc fallow buck. I am pretty certain his eyes were not pink, meaning he is leucistic.

Finally got a decision about my poor broken lens...

I didn't blog about it at the time, but I had a run in with another photographer before I went on holiday. He was a BIG bloke (read - fat bastard) who was unable to hold his temper during a heated slanging match and he grabbed my camera by the lens and snapped it straight off the camera. I am willing to bet he's abusive to many in his life. I admit, I was no angel (got to love women's hormones!) but there was no need for what he did.


Here is a pic of my broken lens



I was devastated (after I calmed down) as it was what I got with my POTY prize money, it wasn't flash, actually, it was very basic, but it was sharp and I loved it. Thankfully I had taken out the accidental damage cover on it.... which hubby went MAD about, who's laughing now?! So I called them up, arranged to have it sent in and waited and waited. After a month I called them up to see what the hell was going on as I'd not even had a phone call. Turned out they had lost the paperwork that I sent with the lens and therefore didn't know who it belonged to and left it in a miscillaneous cupboard. Oh man, I was hopping mad. They promised to look at it ASAP and 2 days later I had a call to say it had been written off. They sent me vouchers to the tune of what I "paid" for the lens, bearing in mind it was only 3 months old and was still the same price.

As I mostly photograph nature & wildlife, I thought about getting a bit more zoom. After searching and reading reviews, it seemed the Tamron 70-300mm would fit the bill. I would be able to get it with my vouchers and reviews suggested that people liked it. So I picked it up from the shop and took it out that afternoon, a really bright, sunny afternoon at that. All I can say is that it was an epic FAIL! The good points were that it had a macro function... that was about it. The bad stuff included, SLOW auto focus, no image stabilisation and the most horrific purple fringing I have ever seen.

Here is an example, sooc, just resized and watermarked.



After showing my hubby that night, he said it was absolutely not acceptable and after doing some more searching, we decided that I should go for the Nikon 70-300mm f4.5/5.6 IF-ED AF-S VR. It was a lot more money, so we opted to use the vouchers as a deposit and take 6 months interest free credit and I walked out with it that day. I have to say I am in love, it's a nice bit of glass, the VR is a nice touch, it feels great in the hand and I can't wait to give it a real run in (bearing in mind it is my xmas pressie!) when we have a flickrmeet at Bradgate Park this Sunday.

Here are some shots I have taken with my newest baby.

At 70mm



At 300mm

More nature