Tuesday 22 March 2011

Spring is sprung

I had a timely reminder yesterday that toads were spawning. Last year I missed the toads crowding into a small pond, but when I dashed over yesterday they were there in numbers. I grabbed a few shots in the late afternoon sun and planned a return visit today if the sun was playing ball. It was.

I couldn't make it to the pond until after lunch, and the light direction wasn't great. However I had planned for this and for getting down to water level by putting my chest waders in the back of the car. The pond is very shallow and all but dries up in summer, so all I had to do was paddle out, kneel down, and get close to the toads. Some of them were spooky and dived as soon as they saw movement, some didn't. Once I was in the water more would let me get close with the macro lens. Some seemed to see me as a rival and would approach me quite aggressively - maybe! Others came up and rested on my waders.

common toad

I'm really not suited to hand holding unstabilised lenses so the aperture had to be kept fairly wide so I could keep the speed up. Using the af-on button for focus helped me enabling be to turn the focus ring to trigger the shutter (with my finger pressed down on the shutter release button). A nifty trick for macro I find. Even so the depth of field was minimal making for many rejects. I spent about an hour with the toads, and maybe should have stayed longer but I was running out of picture ideas. And I felt a bit of a fool sitting in a pond with people passing me by...

common toad

A brief walk then followed when I heard my first chiffchaffs of the year and saw one flitting about high in a silver birch. Later on I heard larks up on high, and peewits beginning their whirling and diving displays. I might do some more wildlife stuff this week if the weather holds.

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