Fogey

Congratulations, Polly.

So what lens did you use for this image Rob?

It doesn't surprise me Geoff - I've seen a photograph of a Blackbird eating a rat and I have Blackbirds regulary eating the tadpoles in my garden pond. For a songbird they are voracious predators.

Good Lord Polly, it only seems like last week I remember you telling me about it. My condolences on your loss - in some way it's comforting to know Patricia will be remembered, year on year. I have a rose called 'Whiter Shade of Pale' planted, in memory of my wife; Anne's favourite Procol Harum song.

There has been a plethora of images to choose from for the POTW this week with entries being posted right up to the deadline. Three very strong contenders stand out for me; Hatter's greasy Young Engineer, in 'Herts Steam Fayre People Pictures', simply for the candid moment and the Aww! factor, Paul's 'Tapered Drone Fly' in his Other Apple Tree Dwellers post, for the sheer clarity and detail of the macro and Monkey's 'Another Amazing Sky' for, not just the sky but for the drama and composition of the image. A very diffIcult choice but I think, by a whisker, I'm going for Monkey's Another Amazing Sky - I just like the drama of the image. Congratulations Monkey. Full post can be seen here

A great shot.

Are we showing our ages, Gareth? Yes! I remember him, although I'm not sure the younger generation made the connection on the day. Well spotted and taken.

Interesting! Seems to me there is almost a touch of infrared about these images. I can't pick a favourite out of the last two.

I have been following Barry Beckham's tutorials for a number of years now and regard him as the go to man whenever I have a problem.

Excellent work, Gareth.

No, you are not wrong and yes the Shellduck is very fast. A good capture.

Mark, what you are asking for is much easier than you think. This is a link to the intermediate 2022 ACR (Adobe Camera Raw), file and how to install it as an attachment to Photoshop. https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/camera-raw/kb/camera-raw-plug-in-installer.html Open up your images in Adobe Bridge, menu click, (right click), the image and select 'open In ACR'. Then follow this 5 minute tutorial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzXusnsMTXY&t=45s&ab_channel=BarryBeckhamVideos There are a plethora of videos on photoshop via this link. https://beckhamdigital.photo/ I have had a play with your image, following the instructions in the tutorial, just to show you what I mean. Dramatising the sky with the raw file, using this method, will produce a far better result than I can do with the reduced image you have posted.

Sorry Mark, this doesn't work for me. The prop blur was against a grey sky and you can see that against the red sunset sky - stands out like a sore thumb. You would have been better to work on dramatising the original sky, in my view.

And yet 15 mins later we had 9/10s cloud cover.

The sky this morning from my back garden.

I like the way it came out as well. HDR?

The link is not valid, Mark.

Ummm! what image would that be?

Welcome to The Independent Photo Forum mikbone. Do have a look round our site and if there's any questions you only have to ask. We do have a very active macro photography section, so you should fit right in.

Sorry Gareth, I disagree. AI will never replace real life. Everything I have seen here looks artificial, over-stylised and frankly, dead.

Wow! and Wow! again. Stunning image.

No, the vast majority were meadow buttercup, Golden Aster and Cowslips.

I've been looking for a meadow that has soley been used to grow wild flowers and have finally found one near Whitchurch, called Melverly Meadows. The history of the place is on the Welcome sign - the only thing being it's not very welcoming to the disabled. If you can't walk you can't visit; it's as simple as that. However, from what I did manage to see is that there are indeed some large meadows that are teemong with wild flowers. I just missed the Cowslip season, the evidence was there with all the Cowslips in seed. A bit later on in the year the predominant colour will be blue The meadow goes beyond the trees. The purple flowers are common spotted orchids.

Also Jigidi.

Thank you Clicker, for that valuable insight. Reading that has opened up a plethora of possibilities that I hadn't considered.