Hard stuff proper balls to the wall epic fail

[Stuart Philpott]

It's been a tough ol year on the toggin front for me. Mainly my own doing trying to throw everything I have at building a camper has left me with so so so few outings.

i'm incredibly lucky. i'm allowed access to this little quiet spot, where the care and custodianship of an incredible game keeper backed by the same with the landowner mean hares and roe abound and I get more than my chance of photo ops ,naturally if I do my bit.

Nowt is given with wild thangs one has to earn the piccies with a bit of graft sure, but the chances have to be there to take in the first place.

so my couple of week hols came and went we both grafted at the bus dawn till dusk bla de bla with one single shoot it was cool lovely an all ..............., but one hankers for the fairy dust days and it wasn't that.

I can't acces me quiet place in the shooting season so a weekend or two back got up helllish early not for togging but do own the fact that I'd done enough graft to be able to go out toggin later in the day

. Yeah I know after kicking myself senseless on a building site pulling obscene hours I still needed to earn an outing at the weekend ...bloody madness but we are who we are.

After making myself feel good........... I reset the camera stuffed the DOii on double checked all was clean and set off for a late afternoon and eve hare shoot with my darling . Ha and that right there is where it all went pear shaped.

I missed one tiny step to reset to RAW from small Jpeg...................

Fast forward to the shoot I bumble ( as always it's always a bumble ) into a leveret

Leveret is like a puppy that complete and utter wonderful madness of a tiny thing that comes running up to one almost wanting to play and as ya reach out to stroke the sod is off bouncing around all ways, in case it gets caught

Puppy was also coupled with a few other bigger hares also being cool.

We got home glowing... both of us grinning like cheshire cats what a magical day ........ya know that feeling after a day sprinkeled with fairy dust,.......................one just knows one can't have stuffed the whole lot up... in all those frames there just has to be one that's ok.


there just has to be one that isn't compromised

Hmm not so much

I am the guy that stuffed the whole bleeding lot up,:banghead:................... it is still very raw and hurts like hell the pit in my stomach as it dawned on me that I didn't have huge RAW files to play with will lurk a while


The truth is the man or woman that never made a mistake never did nuffin. We all know that.....................one can make excuses never show the cock ups , but we all know they are there in wildlife toggin there is nowhere to hide

I kind of revel in the fact I screw up so often because it makes me want to go back and be better, I know it's a bonkers mindset, but hey a dollop of madness is no bad thing if one wants to make wildlife images, wihout that insanity I don't think one can really push one's self hard enough to really be the best one can be

but this one .......................... OMG this one ................................. completely floored me

funny I picked my self up from the gutter next morn up early completely knackered worked like a sod created a new hole to go and play in, but nature don't work that way ...................ya get one chance that's it!!

Hey ho ha here's a piccy one of oh so so many........... no crop no post no nuffin, SOOC........................ if it's crap then so be it. you can tell me I can cope................... if it's not and there is potential , and you try to make wildlife images you'll have half a hunch of my feelings


_S2I0459 by Stuart Philpott, on Flickr

ha

bring it on (next year)

stu

 

[Stuart Philpott]

PS it's on flicky probably too big for here............ tough i'm off to bed

 

[Dale.]

I can sympathise

I dread to think how many deletes I sometimes get versus keepers with this game.

As for the image, not bad sir.

 

[jdburkedjburke]

Hi Stuart

I know the feeling more for the bin than keepers.
Nice image.

How is the build going.

 

[Nod]

Life can be a biatch! Shame the shot isn't up to your usual standards and expectations BUT you have the memories of the encounters taken through the Mk 1 eyeballs - hard to share but YOU can keep them.

 

[Stuart Philpott]

I can sympathise

I dread to think how many deletes I sometimes get versus keepers with this game.

As for the image, not bad sir.

It could have been ok Dale bar it being such a tiny jpeg that ironically might be too big to post here............. loosing the whole shoot though really hurt . Sorry slow in reply I#ve taken a proper battering this week mate horrendous hours and knocked sideways by a bug not the dreaded one but it's still flattened a raft of us.

I think I'd have been ok if in RAW not blummiin jpeg It's all washed out the ISO is somewhere silly I really reckon there was something I could have worked with but hey ho ,this is how we learn

Hi Stuart

I know the feeling more for the bin than keepers.
Nice image.

How is the build going.

David call me stu everyone does...or often worse but stu is good for here Slow but sure I guess I held back one peice because I miight need to trim it but said sod it early this week to it's gradually getting boshed with varnish...if I hadn't of played show and tell with my wood I wouldn't have made this cock up all my doing

I've not got my consumer unit installed so on the way to having 240 set up. Lot's of procrastination on earth point and wire size but that's all done and dusted had to cut a hole in the carpet lined panel ,so then set about making a funky walnut plug type contraption to make said hole look purdy that's now in varnsih mode . Ha i'll be back with a brush in my grubby mit shortly.

then i've got to pull the RIB bed out which is horrendously heavy then I can finally assenble the rearmost cupboard. Jees I pull some hours it's all been relentless for yonks now.

I'm about there right now David, I was just about to buy my batteries when I found out someone close to me needed real serious help, so batteries went south as did my little bit of dosh to buy them with. So back grafting like hell to turn things back around. as Nod says sometimes life is a proper biatch, as fast as I pickmyself back up sommit knocks me sideways again. But hopefully it will all be good soon

cheers for asking bro thank you

Life can be a biatch! Shame the shot isn't up to your usual standards and expectations BUT you have the memories of the encounters taken through the Mk 1 eyeballs - hard to share but YOU can keep them.

I just hate messing up Nob , but you are so right and also almost quotine something I said to Dale recently....ahh mate you ought to have seen the little fella so so funny so like a naughty puppy, I'll not forget this, it's just I wanted to make the grade as a tog as well

cake and eat it is a big ask though some folks have never seen a hare let alone get chances like I do, I do realize how fortunate I am.

take care lads

 

[Dale.]

It could have been ok Dale bar it being such a tiny jpeg that ironically might be too big to post here............. loosing the whole shoot though really hurt . Sorry slow in reply I#ve taken a proper battering this week mate horrendous hours and knocked sideways by a bug not the dreaded one but it's still flattened a raft of us.

I think I'd have been ok if in RAW not blummiin jpeg It's all washed out the ISO is somewhere silly I really reckon there was something I could have worked with but hey ho ,this is how we learn




David call me stu everyone does...or often worse but stu is good for here Slow but sure I guess I held back one peice because I miight need to trim it but said sod it early this week to it's gradually getting boshed with varnish...if I hadn't of played show and tell with my wood I wouldn't have made this cock up all my doing

I've not got my consumer unit installed so on the way to having 240 set up. Lot's of procrastination on earth point and wire size but that's all done and dusted had to cut a hole in the carpet lined panel ,so then set about making a funky walnut plug type contraption to make said hole look purdy that's now in varnsih mode . Ha i'll be back with a brush in my grubby mit shortly.

then i've got to pull the RIB bed out which is horrendously heavy then I can finally assenble the rearmost cupboard. Jees I pull some hours it's all been relentless for yonks now.

I'm about there right now David, I was just about to buy my batteries when I found out someone close to me needed real serious help, so batteries went south as did my little bit of dosh to buy them with. So back grafting like hell to turn things back around. as Nod says sometimes life is a proper biatch, as fast as I pickmyself back up sommit knocks me sideways again. But hopefully it will all be good soon

cheers for asking bro thank you




I just hate messing up Nob , but you are so right and also almost quotine something I said to Dale recently....ahh mate you ought to have seen the little fella so so funny so like a naughty puppy, I'll not forget this, it's just I wanted to make the grade as a tog as well

cake and eat it is a big ask though some folks have never seen a hare let alone get chances like I do, I do realize how fortunate I am.

take care lads

Stu, I noticed it was a little washed out. I'm sure it will stand up to a bit of contrast though and maybe a tad of saturation. Saturation might not be needed if the contrast tweak works. I didn't see what size it was though, sorry. It looks sharp enough on the face/ears and not particulalrly noisy from what I can tell.


JPEGS can sometimes work ok, I wouldn't give up on it because of that Bud. RAWs are better but I don't think this one is a lost cause, have a play, it's not far off a keeper, if not already.

Come what may Bud, you'll still have the memory. It's annoying but you'll have a giggle about it one day, especially when you double check your settings before you go out next time.

 

[Nod]

I just hate messing up Nob ,

ROFL at the typo!

My niece (much to my sister's amusement) used to call me Nob so I started calling her Harlot rather than Charlotte. Shut her bitch of a mother up!


Stu, real life is far more important than getting the perfect shot(s). I often deliberately leave the cameras all behind so I don't spend too much time looking through a viewfinder instead of experiencing everything that's going on around me.

 

[Dale.]

Stu, real life is far more important than getting the perfect shot(s). I often deliberately leave the cameras all behind so I don't spend too much time looking through a viewfinder instead of experiencing everything that's going on around me.

Excellent point, I often wonder on how many fly bys I've missed sitting in a pop up hide, being focused (camera wise and mindset wise) on a perch.......and not just flybys, how many other animals have I missed?

This came to light for me recently, I've been spending less time taking pictures at my kingfisher and more time observing, as I've kind of been forced into it as I've only been able to go later in the day and the usable light fades so fast in the woods. My point is, sometimes we mess up or just can't take images, for whatever reason but it's all experience and seeing nature for what it is, its habits and ways can be very important in making future images. Besides all that, it's just nice to sit and watch, it's good for the soul too.

 

[Nod]

On a recent holiday, we spotted a pair of KFs flitting over a harbour as well as a couple of flying fish (outside the harbour but only by a couple of hundred metres.) As you say, low light makes photography a bit challenging, as does a large Ouzo and hunger!!!

I have actually managed a grab shot of a kingie in that harbour, using an X-10 or 20 Fuji compact! It landed on a mooring rope about 20' away from us and I had the camera ready since I was taking a shot of the boat the rope was mooring. Also had one land on the rope of a boat we were waiting to go out on (same boat we saw the flying fish from) a few years back. Only stayed there for a few seconds but it can only have been about 3-4' away.

Almost trod on a fallow deer about 25 years ago. We were looking for chestnuts and were completely unaware of it until the ground exploded at our feet and it bounded away! Magical!

 

[Stuart Philpott]

OMG NOD..........mate I'm so sorry, it is silly funny actually and again another genuine c*ck up on my part but i'm still mortified. I did this to Janny as well ( ages ago) called her sweaty instead of sweetie , she reacted like you have by laughing , but this stuff haunts me i'm such a blumming fruit loop.......sorry bro

Harlot is silly cool...class !!

Yup I know ,(re real life) that was what I was trying to get out....ahh mate I wish somehow I could show folks some of me and ickle beasties...... what really happens....... I try to convey it in these mixed up rambles backed by the odd piccy ,but never feel I really get it out. A little leveret repeatedly running up to me almost taunting me ...who has that happen to them,? It's not isolated Nod not a one off, but it's hard to rationalize. I do try to fathom it all........ because if I can hone what ever is going on then maybe I can make it happen more often, but in my heart it's just bewildering......................

I guess i'm a driven little soul bro that's why the images mean so much and my failings knock me sideways, ..... I use some fabulous tools mate grafted out over 4 years on my knees or on a ladder @ 50p a meter. That's a lot a hell of a lot of 50p 's to buy a DXii and me DOii, , so a cras error like this one above does floor me. All those late nights all those hours to nab a couple of tools is insane and I can't set them up proper

it's funny

That said mum nature and these astounding animals are my soul food bro I live for them and these encounters, it's just we are talking on a togging forum so talking about making images is essentially why we are all here, they aren't the be all and end all though


LMAO, sometimes I think I shouldn't write anything my eng lang is so mixed up, but hey I guess we are all smiling, so that.s no bad thing

sorry mate

Dale agreed....... and I repeat sometime I just want me cake and to eat it......a clever lady once said to me tie spent in observation is never wasted... she was actually talking about animal care, but it's the same with image making of living things the more you stare the more you see and that gives you a tiny bit more info and experience for next time

 

[Dale.]

OMG NOD..........mate I'm so sorry, it is silly funny actually and again another genuine c*ck up on my part but i'm still mortified. I did this to Janny as well ( ages ago) called her sweaty instead of sweetie , she reacted like you have by laughing , but this stuff haunts me i'm such a blumming fruit loop.......sorry bro

Harlot is silly cool...class !!

Yup I know ,(re real life) that was what I was trying to get out....ahh mate I wish somehow I could show folks some of me and ickle beasties...... what really happens....... I try to convey it in these mixed up rambles backed by the odd piccy ,but never feel I really get it out. A little leveret repeatedly running up to me almost taunting me ...who has that happen to them,? It's not isolated Nod not a one off, but it's hard to rationalize. I do try to fathom it all........ because if I can hone what ever is going on then maybe I can make it happen more often, but in my heart it's just bewildering......................

I guess i'm a driven little soul bro that's why the images mean so much and my failings knock me sideways, ..... I use some fabulous tools mate grafted out over 4 years on my knees or on a ladder @ 50p a meter. That's a lot a hell of a lot of 50p 's to buy a DXii and me DOii, , so a cras error like this one above does floor me. All those late nights all those hours to nab a couple of tools is insane and I can't set them up proper

it's funny

That said mum nature and these astounding animals are my soul food bro I live for them and these encounters, it's just we are talking on a togging forum so talking about making images is essentially why we are all here, they aren't the be all and end all though


LMAO, sometimes I think I shouldn't write anything my eng lang is so mixed up, but hey I guess we are all smiling, so that.s no bad thing

sorry mate

Dale agreed....... and I repeat sometime I just want me cake and to eat it......a clever lady once said to me tie spent in observation is never wasted... she was actually talking about animal care, but it's the same with image making of living things the more you stare the more you see and that gives you a tiny bit more info and experience for next time

Stu, you portray your experiences to us very well. Sometimes, I can imagine the scene, even without pics. I love your tales and can relate to them entirely.

'Getting it out' is what I try to do as well but the thing is, on top of that, they're also very personal experiences. Even without pics, you will have the moment and your mind's eye pics for yourself, forever. Photography provides these moments, even without pressing the shutter button, it gets you out there and what a joy it can be. Yeah, it's frustrating too at times.

Sorry for banging on about my kingfisher again but this year (it's all I've done really), I was wondering what I'd let myself in for, I'd expected the licence to make it easy but it was far from that. Apart from a few grab shots early on, it was June before the images started coming but it was being out there way before that, like months before, even the previous years that led to the 200 or so keepers I got this year. In all that space and area, a whole kilometer either side of the nest, I found the KF's favourite perch. I put my own perches nearby and they chose those too. That was it, mission accomplished for me, now for some pics. It took being out there and the experiences that brings to get to that stage. My first load of images weren't great, I beat msyelf up over it, I was exposing for the white bits on the KF's neck and throat, totally ruining the rest of the file. To make it worse, I did that on 3 seperate outings, there was this kingfisher, feet away from me, going about its business as if I'm not there and I couldn't get my settings right. Most of those images will never see the light of day, due to small technicalities within them but making those images, ie being there over all that time is an experience I'll have forever. I made mistakes (loads) but they won't be happening next year if I am granted a licence again.

I'm trying to say, don't be too hard on yourself for not taking RAWS, we've all done it and learning from those things is all part of becoming a better photographer. Over and above that though and one of the biggest draws of photography for most people I think is whatever thier genre, is learning, every day is a school day in this game.

I've also made many friends from photography, many I would never have known, even got 1 or 2 besties from it.

Take the experiences too, images, whilst nice are only part of the game.

 

[Stuart Philpott]

Shh already I love you banging on about the king of fishers Dale, ...........we share a similarity maybe not in the species we try to capture but in that simple fact we keep going back over and over and chasing the odd one in particular. I'll always believe that's a "way in" not only to the bird or beastie's life but image wise, it almost forces one to think harder . We sort of become involved in a non competitive game. Trying to out do ourself, not anyone else .

Aye we all make mistake bro and most of us make them a few times before the penny drops. I guess some folks make more some less,probably down to god given talent and apptitude for nature image making. I don't think it's a bad thing to scream at myself a bit Dale, in some ways it keeps the mistake fresh, so hopefully one doesn't do it again, but no one is infallible. Ha it's funny mate as I read your post I was so gutted for you on those 3 mistakes on separate outings....... lol........... no where to hide is there bro. Also the law of sod comes into play it's always inter plays with a good shoot doesn't it. It is what it is bro part of learning ,it don't make it easier though, especially wildlife very simply one can wait so long for a chance period a really special chance can be rarer than a rare thing, ha and then they all comes together.............. like buses all at once,

EXP can be so tricky when there are brights involved bro, one doesn't always get the chance during an outing to check the histograme it just happens so fast... tough isn't it , but as before it's how we all learn.

I do take the experiences buddy AND SOME