On the sea in Shetland

Red throated divers have started to return to Shetland having been south for the winter

Still lots of Long Tailed ducks around, these at Grutness, having a dispute

A lot of chasing about be good to see. At Grutness 6 birds but over 80 at Westvoe

Lerwick Snow Bunting

Finally caught up with the snow buntings that have been -present in Lerwick for about a month. These have been feeding on seed put out by birders at the quarry above Clickimin.

The conditions were sunny but cold with ice and snow on the ground. At first the buntings didn't show, then a tractor came for a hay bale just as the snow buntings arrived, peering over the edge of a rock.

As usual for this species they were noisy and chattered until the tractor left then flew down to feed for a short time before taking off and flying off

Ten minutes later they were back and came to feed again for a short time then flew up to the highest point in the quarry.

The OM1-2 150-400mm was good at tracking using the settings previously showed. 

Shetland Birds a Mixed bag

 Managed to get out at last in good but cold weather, so headed down to the south end of Shetland. Going out of Sandwick it was evident that we had a fall of thrushes with around 15 blackbird, 30 Fieldfare and 10 Redwing and we have had a Robin in the garden.

Down at Spiggie a Bittern had been found but with no-one on site is was difficult picking it up and then only for a few seconds as it flew. Grey Heron, 6 Whooper swans, 12 Teal were also present at this end of the loch (North). 

Down at Virkie the three Taiga Bean geese had move with the flock of Greylag more towards Exnaboe but as soon as i pulled up the birds started walking away so only distant views.

At Boddam, several Common Seal were hauled out balancing on the rocks at the north end. Turnstone, Curlew, Redshank, Ringed Plover flew around and landed near a Grey Heron.

A morning at Grutness beach was quiet at first then 6 Long Tailed Duck flew in, later joined by two Red Throated Divers. Only a few waders on the beach - Redshank (4) oystercatcher (14) Turnstone (8) Sanderling (4) while GTBB(2) Common Gull (4) Shag (2) joined the others in the Voe.

Shetland Taiga Bean Geese

 Headed down to Virkie to see whether the Taiga Bean geese were still present. The three birds have been with a flock of Greylag for around ten days but stay separate.

It was not a good day with the gales and rain and when i arrived they were at the very back og the field. i decided to see whether they would be visible from the Virkie road and thankfully they just showed, but distant.

Managed to get a few photos before they headed back out of view. Taiga Been geese are browner and darker than other other grey geese. The yellow orange on the base of the bill usually covers half the bill

They breed from Western Siberia to Scandinavia with small numbers wintering in Scotland and eastern England.  

Shetland Little gull

 A still days for once so down to Sandsayre to check whether the Little Gull was still present.

It soon appeared and landed on the sea close by

I wanted some flight shots but it was overcast so shooting at between ISO8000 and ISO10600

These have cleaned up nicely with DXO 

The Black Redstart was still present but very mobile spending time in the gardens as well as down on the beach

A male Goldeneye came into the Voe and an Otter seen in the surf moving quickly away from me. All these photos were taken on a Olympus OM1-2 and 150-400mm

Om1 -2 Settings for BIF's

 Down to 1/500 to capture the spray ISO2500

Birds on the ground are much easier to photograph and you can use a slower shutter speed so less noise

ISO 12800 F5.6 1/1000

These are the settings i use for birds in flight (BIF)

1. AF- C  (continuous auto focus)
2. all focus points
3. bird Identification
4. Eye focus
5. sequential shooting settings
6. SH2- 25fps
7. Pro capture SH2
8. ISO auto-to a maximum of 12800
9. RAW
10. 1/4000 to 1/5000 second
11. IS - on
12. Exposure compensation +0.3
13. silent shutter
14. Lowest F/number
15. at least a 128GB card (high speed) you will take lots of photos

Point the lens towards the subject and keep in frame, it is difficult, so practice needed as it is a narrow field of view.

Press shutter 1/2 way to engage Pro capture and full press to take photos, i normally set this to 15 before shutter is pressed and 20 afterwards- be prepared to take lots of photos but as it is set for silent shutter it doesn't count  as shutter activations so less ware and tear.

The smaller or more active the bird the higher the shutter speed should be set. Photos will be much better in good light which will also result in a lower ISO. Try 1/4000 for BIF and 1/1000 for birds on the ground, they are still moving feeding, preening etc

Always be ready and keep the bird in fame then follow it on take off, try for a clean background if possible.

all 1/4000 second F5.6 ISO12800

ISO 12800 F5.6 and 1/4000 second

All sanderling photos cropped by 25% and noise reduction (DXO) used

Olympus OM1-2

Does the Olympus OM1-2 give you an advantage over a Full frame camera. I would say yes. They say you cannot crop on a 4/3 camera and still get a quality photo

Using Pro capture & 50% crop

                                                                           50% crop
 

Full size image before crop

Crop from above 75% so photo about 5m pixels

ISO 25600 1/4000 F5.6  using pro capture

ISO 25600 1/4000 F5.6 using pro capture

some of the features of the OM1-2 

• Pro capture
• Live ND filters built in
• Starry sky focus
• Focus Stacking
• IP53 weather sealed 
• 8.5 stop stabilisation
• Double buffer size
• Black out free shooting
• High resolution up to 80mp
• Live composite
• Super sonic wave filter
• Improved AF
• Dynamic range

Pro capture- this is great for action shots such as the Black Redstart above, 1/2 press the shutter and it remembers a number of photos, press it fully down and you get these and a number of photos after pressing the shutter. so say 50 photos- 15 before and 35 after pressing the shutter. Be prepared to have 1,000's of photos from a photo outing. Make sure you shoot in silent mode so it doesn't record on the shutter count.

Live ND Filters. No need to carry around a number of filters and holders, this can be set up to ND128 and you can see it live.

Starry Sky Focus-  focusing on stars is a big problem but this automatically focuses on the stars, a massive bonus for Astro photographers, and it works.

Focus Stacking- If you are into Macro this is an automatic focus stacking system to ensure the whole subject is in focus. Takes 15 photos at various points then combines them in camera.

IP53 weather sealed which is great if you are in Shetland and you can go down to -10

8.5 stops of stabilisation, the best on the market as far as I know. Don't forget you need a speed to freeze the action. This is good to reduce camera shake, no need for a tripod

double buffer size. - this has doubled in size so when taking lots of photos in can download onto card and hold the remainder in the buffer with out stopping the shooting sequence.

Black out Free sequential shooting. In addition to the existing 25-120fps, they have added 12.5fps and 16fps for better shooting of static subjects

High Resolution shooting @ 14 bit, 50mp hand held or 80mp on a tripod

 

Live Composite in camera stacking, great for star trails and light painting using a series of photos and combining into one photo.

Super Sonic wave Filter dust is a pain for all camera users with inter changeable lens. The OM system combats this with the filter vibrating the sensor 30,000 per second 

Improved AF system This works great for birds in flight and is even stickier than the Sony system. Human AF has also been introduced. Auto focus is super fast even with the teleconverter in use, ease to track birds in flight. The bird eye focus is excellent with around 99% in focus.

Dynamic Range out performs several FF cameras

I am pleased that it performs reasonably well in poor light (Black Redstart) we don't get much more than a couple of hours good light in Shetland during winter. Looking forward to a sunny Spring.

You can still use a high ISO, the Black Redstart photos were taken at ISO 25600 and using noise reduction is very usual. Again using a high ISO is a no, no with a 4/3 camera some people said don't go above ISO1600 the noise will kill the quailty. Not true !

The three photos above of the Black Redstart are around 60% crop taken at ISO 12800 on a slightly better day and closer views, using Pro capture.

Still plenty of features to try out.

I will provide full details of my settings on the next blog