From the Botswana files,   with the air still,  there was no movement in the palm tree fronds and not a ripple on the water,  allowing me to record these late afternoon reflections.   With my back to the disappearing sunset,  and with light fading fast,  it was a case of wide open aperture,  high ISO and slow shutter speed.   The still conditions meant that even with the slow shutter speed I still got a sharp image with little or no subject movement.    Although I've managed over the years to get sharp images at low speeds handheld,  on this occasion I took no chances and set up the tripod.

     Most of the processing of this image was done in Lightroom 2.6,  which I confess I'm still not entirely comfortable with,  however processing was fairly quick and I'm reasonably pleased with the result.   I've written before about cropping and once again I had to decide just how much was enough here.   The image is presented here full width but cropped in from top and bottom to give a tighter,  panoramic,  composition.   I'm still not sure whether I like the palm tree at the extreme left edge of frame or not and in hindsight (wonderful commodity) I wish I'd zoomed out wider with the lens at the time.  

   Canon 5D with 24-105mm zoom at 47mm and F4.0.  Shutter speed 1/13 second at ISO 1600.

     From the Botswana file,  another pied kingfisher shot and another example of the selective focus/ blurred background look which I think works really well, particularly with bird shots.   With the bird pretty much in profile and the branch on the same plane of focus,  the wide aperture and resulting narrow depth of field are still enough to get what's important in focus.   

         Canon 5D at 700mm (500mm with 1.4x tele extender), f5.6,  shutter speed 1/800 second at ISO 200.

Cropping alternatives.

     This image has been cropped to give a tighter composition than the full frame and of course there are numerous choices that can be made in this regard.    Check out the current banner image and you'll see that it's a different cropping variation taken from the same frame.   Some folks get rather precious about cropping "I never crop images", "I only ever crop in the viewfinder" etc.   Or that classic ultra pretentious piece of twaddle,  "I don't crop,  I preserve the integrity of the frame",  yeah right!   If you're photographing a building, a parked car,  a sculpture,  well and good,  you can use your bi-ped zoom function to fill the frame and avoid the imagined ethical dilemma of cropping.    (Technical note:   bi-ped zoom function:  the utilization of one's feet to get physically closer to the subject)  

      In nature,  sometimes cropping the image to get the desired result is required.   In this case,  the subject was happy to perch momentarily on the branch at a safe distance from me but sure wasn't going to sit there whilst I tried to get closer,  even if that had been possible.     KD. 

     Not a lot to say about this shot really....a sunset over the Okavango Delta, Botswana.   If you look closely you can just see an egret in the shadows.

      Canon 5D Mark 2 with 500mm lens at F 8.0,  shutter speed 1/2000 second at ISO 1000.

Reloading mainsite.

     I'm in the process of reloading some files to my mainsite,  could take a few hours at the rate it's going.  If you visit the site and find some difficulty navigating it,  or you find some broken links etc,  please be patient.   This site maintenance should be complete within 24 hours.     Thanks KD. 

Update.

      My mainsite is now back to normal and the homepage image updated,  thanks for your patience.  KD. 

   Photographed in the Okavango Delta, Botswana,  this banded mongoose was one of a fairly large colony which we observed just before sunset.   They seem to be active and social animals and whilst we watched them,  they spent much of their time foraging through leaf litter looking for insects and grubs.

    Canon 5D with 70-300mm zoom lens at 300mm and F5.6,  shutter speed 1/320 second at ISO 800.

     Sunset over the Okavango Delta,  Botswana,  and a flock of open billed storks fly home for the evening.   This shot was taken hand held from a boat and processed in Photoshop CS3.   Given the detail in the image,  it's best viewed large and so I've prepared the image in several sizes and made them available as "wallpapers" with, where practical,  image dimensions to suit most popular computer monitor sizes.    For those who would like to use these as screensaver images,  they are available as a free download at my mainsite. 

      On the subject of my mainsite,  I've reorganised it a bit as well,  simplifying the homepage and including a link to a new "Publications and downloads" page where you'll find the wallpapers.   If that's too much messing around,  just click on the picture to open the link.   Of course it should go without saying,  but these images are the subject of copyright and are provided for non commercial use only and not for reproduction.    Cheers KD.

       Canon 5D with 24-105mm zoom lens at 88mm and f13.0,  shutter speed 1/125 second at ISO 400.

       Photographed in Botswana,  I had trouble trying to identify this bird but after scouring some of the bird groups on Flickr,  I was able to establish it as the lesser striped swallow.    Pity I wasn't a bit more organised,  I could, with a guide's assistance,  have identified the species whilst I was still in the field and noted it down!

     Canon 5D at 700mm (500mm with 1.4x tele extender) at F9.0,  shutter speed 1/1250 second at ISO 400.

    Not a weird Wednesday,  so much as a Wednesday whinge....

Internet frustrations. 

   (To tag,  or not to tag?  That is the question.)

     In recent months I've been alternatively using Technorati or Live Journal "tags" on my blog entries hoping,  that maybe,  they might help people searching the internet for information or articles on specific topics,  to locate relevant content here.   I'm now rethinking this practice and questioning its value.  

      I recall back in 1998 when I got my first computer,  turned it on,  and opened internet explorer for the first time.   In keeping with the advertising of the time,  I asked myself the question,  "where do I want to go?"   Being a complete newbie (I'm not sure if the word had been coined by then or not) I thought,  Microsoft,  there's got to be a site for Microsoft!   So I typed the word in and conducted my first ever internet search.  The search engine returned the "top 10" results of which the first 3 or 4 were for a computer shop situated on the other side of the planet (USA),  number 5 was I'vegotabigpenis.com  (I kid you not) and the remaining 5 sites which were similarly useless,  off topic or offensive.   

      With so many new pages being published on the net,  millions every day,  it's difficult for search engine designers to get it right and keep it relevant.   Having said that,  I believe that companies such as Google have made great efforts in the intervening years to achieve relevance in their searches,  it's an ongoing challenge.   Recently I decided to test some of the Technorati keywords that I've been using to see if firstly,  the results were relevant,  and secondly,  whether or not any of my blog entries were shown.    To cut a long story short,  they failed miserably on both counts.   The fact that my own blog entries aren't seen I can understand,  it's easy to get lost among all those millions of pages.  But on the issue of relevance,  it appears that for Technorati at least,  it's still 1998.  

      For example when clicking on my tag for "Serengeti",  I find out that there's a US based rap singer who calls himself "Serengeti",  there's a company calling itself "Serengeti Enterprises" or similar, which appears to have nothing to do with the actual Serengeti,  oh, and Fred Jones hit 2-0 off Bob Smith in the 9th innings playing for the Houston Daffodils if that means anything to anyone!  (I might have misread that one as it was of absolutely no interest to me)    The point is,  I had to scroll down to result number 14 or 15 to find out about the day rates for a resort that operates on the edge of the Serengeti National Park and that was the first tag result that was even remotely relevant to the search.   For those of you visiting from another planet (or Fred Jones fans) the Serengeti is a region in Tanzania in Africa teeming with extraordinary wildlife and is considered one of the world's great natural wonders.   Worthy of top billing on an internet/blog search I'd have thought.

      Another example,  click on "Malachite Kingfisher" and you'll find out that there's a swimsuit company called Kingfisher and they're taking orders for their 2010 swimsuit model calendar.   Now don't get me wrong,  I love women in bikinis as much as the next guy,  but if you're looking for something specific about Malachite Kingfishers,  forget it.

      The upshot of all this is that I'm now rethinking the practice of including tags in my blog entries.  Am I simply making work for myself by continuing to use them?  Is it a pointless exercise?    If anyone has any thoughts on how to make such tags useful, I'd be pleased to hear from you.  KD     

      Another early morning lion shot from my Botswana adventure.   As was the case with a previously posted image,  this one was accidentally underexposed but rescued in post processing.   Shutter speed used was 1/8000 second but correct exposure would have been about 1/1000 or 1/2000 second.  None the less I'm reasonably pleased with the end result.  The image has been up on my mainsite for a few days as the homepage image with linked explanation.   KD.

       Canon 5D with 500mm lens at f4.0,  shutter speed 1/8000 second at ISO 1600.