Happy New Year everyone. I hope your Yuletide and New Year celebrations have been plentiful and that the year ahead offers you good health, prosperity, happiness and endless photo opportunities.

To kickstart the new edition of the fabulous "Show us your great photos" thread, I offer not a pic but a video. We took this last night and it shows, in all its glory, the incredible firework display we offered our neighbours from the comfort of our balcony. If you watch the video you'll see our neighbours' fantastic fireworks going off in the background - and then there's ours. 

This is what you get when you buy a box of mini fireworks from your local cheapskate supermarket (Albert Heijn) for the princely sum of 10 euros!  Still, it was so crap it was a laugh, which means it actually offered great value for money. I hope the vid of our box of damp balcony squibs also raises a smile with you.

Happy New Year!

 

3 from this afternoons dog walk, Great Tit, Redwing and Robin

Well I have just signed up to a flickr account after quite a few people have asked me when I have been out and about on my travels. I was wondering who else on here is a member ?

Steve

15 minutes ago, Winsford Soul said:

Well I have just signed up to a flickr account after quite a few people have asked me when I have been out and about on my travels. I was wondering who else on here is a member ?

Steve

Still got my Flickr account, although I moved from there to Ipernity around 2011. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rigilbert/

That said, my Ipernity subscription expired last year and I've not bothered to renew it because I think it's too expensive for what it is, and there's a strong likelihood that the site will fold very soon.

http://www.ipernity.com/doc/rigilbert?view=1

7 hours ago, Winsford Soul said:

Well I have just signed up to a flickr account after quite a few people have asked me when I have been out and about on my travels. I was wondering who else on here is a member ?

Steve

Have got a Tiny-Pic and a photobucket account but never really use them now as most of my photo's go on FB. Used to use them for forums and to upload on here but that is now much easier do take them straight "out of the box" so to speak. Too much crap with photo bucket nowadays

A couple from a walk up Crinkle Crags and Bow Fell on Saturday. Despite the artic look it was surprisingly warm with very little wind

Edited March 5, 20178 yr by soulandy

1 hour ago, soulandy said:

Have got a Tiny-Pic and a photobucket account but never really use them now as most of my photo's go on FB. Used to use them for forums and to upload on here but that is now much easier do take them straight "out of the box" so to speak. Too much crap with photo bucket nowadays

Andy. I'm not on Facebook yet. But there's so many FB groups in the northwest dedicated to birds and wildlife that aren't on any other places that it seems increasingly inevitable that I will have to join. 

Loving your posts from your upland wandering.

Steve

8 hours ago, Russell Gilbert said:

Still got my Flickr account, although I moved from there to Ipernity around 2011. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rigilbert/

That said, my Ipernity subscription expired last year and I've not bothered to renew it because I think it's too expensive for what it is, and there's a strong likelihood that the site will fold very soon.

http://www.ipernity.com/doc/rigilbert?view=1

Russell. Just had a look, there's some great pictures there.

Steve

4 minutes ago, Winsford Soul said:

Russell. Just had a look, there's some great pictures there.

Steve

Cheers, Steve. Kind of you to say so. I've often thought about making my own website to display my better photos, rather than use places like Flickr and Ipernity. All these photo-sharing sites seem to succumb to internal politics after a while, or you find that other members lose interest in commenting and liking the pics of others. Not sure exactly why that should be, but I've seen it happen with both those sites. 

Flickr, in particular, had so many thematic groups with "laws" associated with them – post one pic, like and comment on five others, put your hands in the air, just like "Simon says" – that it was all too much. Whenever people get together, it seems some always want to make terms and conditions for being a part of the group. I couldn't be bothered with all that pecking order stuff, so I went to Ipernity. 

Sadly, though, Ipernity is a loss-making site and is sure to go under. That's unless the recently-formed rescue team of members can save the day, but – if they can save the site – they're talking about introducing a 50 euro annual annual fee. No thank you!

Where then to display your photos to a like-minded audience? Perhaps oddly, in many respects it actually seems the best place is here!

You can pass this one around if you like.

It seems some people are just not obeying the law!

 

 

6 minutes ago, Steve Lane said:

You can pass this one around if you like.

It seems some people are just not obeying the law!

 

 

He's probably from the Serious Accident Investigation Unit.

3 hours ago, Steve Lane said:

You can pass this one around if you like.

It seems some people are just not obeying the law!

 

 

Pot, kettle, black comes to mind!

x

7 minutes ago, crazylegs said:

Pot, kettle, black comes to mind!

x

Or what your mother said....."Do as I say, not as I do".

16 hours ago, Russell Gilbert said:

Cheers, Steve. Kind of you to say so. I've often thought about making my own website to display my better photos, rather than use places like Flickr and Ipernity. All these photo-sharing sites seem to succumb to internal politics after a while, or you find that other members lose interest in commenting and liking the pics of others. Not sure exactly why that should be, but I've seen it happen with both those sites. 

Flickr, in particular, had so many thematic groups with "laws" associated with them – post one pic, like and comment on five others, put your hands in the air, just like "Simon says" – that it was all too much. Whenever people get together, it seems some always want to make terms and conditions for being a part of the group. I couldn't be bothered with all that pecking order stuff, so I went to Ipernity. 

Sadly, though, Ipernity is a loss-making site and is sure to go under. That's unless the recently-formed rescue team of members can save the day, but – if they can save the site – they're talking about introducing a 50 euro annual annual fee. No thank you!

Where then to display your photos to a like-minded audience? Perhaps oddly, in many respects it actually seems the best place is here!

i have no idea if there is any sort of fee involved or precisely what the make up is but 500px seems to be used by a lot of people ?

On a slightly connected theme, do people who display photos watermark/copyright them ? Apparently photoshop can remove watermarks in seconds (or so I've read) Not that I think that i have much/anything that people may want to "steal" but what other options are there to protect your pics ?   

14 minutes ago, SHSDave said:

i have no idea if there is any sort of fee involved or precisely what the make up is but 500px seems to be used by a lot of people ?

On a slightly connected theme, do people who display photos watermark/copyright them ? Apparently photoshop can remove watermarks in seconds (or so I've read) Not that I think that i have much/anything that people may want to "steal" but what other options are there to protect your pics ?   

Thanks, Not heard of 500px before - will take a look. 

Lots of people on image sites do add either watermarks or "signatures" to their photos. Adding your name somewhere on the perimeter of an image means it can easily be cropped out. Getting rid of watermarks (Digimarc) is a much harder thing to do. Photoshop can't get rid of them with a click as the watermarks are part of the actual image itself, meaning you'd have to use Photoshop's editing tools to remove and alter the image bit by bit, which is very time consuming - especially if you make your watermarks quite obvious.

People also embed their copyright and contact details into the metadata of images. All photos taken with a digital device contains EXIF data, which includes stuff like camera setting, even geographical location if you're inclined. And most photo viewing/editing software allows users to add info such as your name/contact details to that.

44 minutes ago, Russell Gilbert said:

Thanks, Not heard of 500px before - will take a look. 

Lots of people on image sites do add either watermarks or "signatures" to their photos. Adding your name somewhere on the perimeter of an image means it can easily be cropped out. Getting rid of watermarks (Digimarc) is a much harder thing to do. Photoshop can't get rid of them with a click as the watermarks are part of the actual image itself, meaning you'd have to use Photoshop's editing tools to remove and alter the image bit by bit, which is very time consuming - especially if you make your watermarks quite obvious.

People also embed their copyright and contact details into the metadata of images. All photos taken with a digital device contains EXIF data, which includes stuff like camera setting, even geographical location if you're inclined. And most photo viewing/editing software allows users to add info such as your name/contact details to that.

Ok i don't use photoshop so wouldn't know how quickly a signature could be removed, it's only what i'd read although if it was worthwhile I guess "bandits" wouldn't worry about how long it took ?

Ah yes of course the EXIF data, I have my name in there as copyright.

Thanks for the info 

47 minutes ago, SHSDave said:

Ok i don't use photoshop so wouldn't know how quickly a signature could be removed, it's only what i'd read although if it was worthwhile I guess "bandits" wouldn't worry about how long it took ?

Ah yes of course the EXIF data, I have my name in there as copyright.

Thanks for the info 

You're welcome.

It used to be the case that you could get rid of EXIF data simply by using Photoshop's "save for web" feature, which reduces the resolution (and quality) so that becomes a smaller file and thus is quicker to load online. I've no idea if that still works.

If people are serious about protecting their images then both watermarking them and adding EXIF info about copyright is absolutely the best option. Sadly, too many uninformed people believe that any/every image they find online is "public domain" and thus free for them to use, which of course is not true. 

54 minutes ago, Russell Gilbert said:

You're welcome.

It used to be the case that you could get rid of EXIF data simply by using Photoshop's "save for web" feature, which reduces the resolution (and quality) so that becomes a smaller file and thus is quicker to load online. I've no idea if that still works.

If people are serious about protecting their images then both watermarking them and adding EXIF info about copyright is absolutely the best option. Sadly, too many uninformed people believe that any/every image they find online is "public domain" and thus free for them to use, which of course is not true. 

I just bought a copyrighted photograph from the states - all to do with my interest in black american civil rights, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, you would not believe the rigmarole - it took weeks of me giving assurance after personal assurance, as to who I was, my interest in the photograph, where I lived, what I was going to do with it.............................................

It finally arrived yesterday and has gone off to be framed.

Peter

20 hours ago, Winsford Soul said:

Andy. I'm not on Facebook yet. But there's so many FB groups in the northwest dedicated to birds and wildlife that aren't on any other places that it seems increasingly inevitable that I will have to join. 

Loving your posts from your upland wandering.

Steve

I think there's too many groups on FB full stop. Some are very good and quite relaxed and some have more rules, do's and don'ts that you can shake a stick at 

Glad you like my wanderings :-)

First wasp of the year buzzing round the room where I was working today.

A couple of pigeons trying to keep warm and dry in yesterday's rain while keeping their beady eye's on me :-)

Managed to achieve a UK lifetimes bird watching ambition today and got to see a very rare winter visitor. Great Grey Shrike. Unfortunately it was about half a mile away across two fields but just visible with the naked eye with the sun reflecting off it. The picture below was taken with the 500mm lens . The building on the right of the picture is a full size double shipping container so you can judge the scale and distance. The second picture is 100 % cropped just to show the Shrike, which is about 10" tall

Steve

 

8 minutes ago, soulandy said:

First wasp of the year buzzing round the room where I was working today.

A couple of pigeons trying to keep warm and dry in yesterday's rain while keeping their beady eye's on me :-)

I happened to see my first Bumble Bee of the year today, seeing the Queen wasp picture reminded me

Steve

Nuthatch.  Also heard today my first Chiffchaff of the year calling

Steve

 

Edited March 6, 20178 yr by Winsford Soul

1 hour ago, Peter99 said:

I just bought a copyrighted photograph from the states - all to do with my interest in black american civil rights, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, you would not believe the rigmarole - it took weeks of me giving assurance after personal assurance, as to who I was, my interest in the photograph, where I lived, what I was going to do with it.............................................

It finally arrived yesterday and has gone off to be framed.

Peter

Well done. If it took that much hassle, it must have been worth it for you. But... why all the copyright fuss over the sale of an old print? 

So how do i get to the Geese without getting wet?, i`ll figure it out

5 hours ago, SHSDave said:

i have no idea if there is any sort of fee involved or precisely what the make up is but 500px seems to be used by a lot of people ?

On a slightly connected theme, do people who display photos watermark/copyright them ? Apparently photoshop can remove watermarks in seconds (or so I've read) Not that I think that i have much/anything that people may want to "steal" but what other options are there to protect your pics ?   

Dave. . All my pictures are copyrighted and have exif data embedded. As previously mentioned its easy to crop out a name unless it's across the important part of the picture, which spoils it somewhat. 

Steve

Few pics from my fishing adventures. 2 of the River swale in Yorkshie at Dawn, and one of a Kingfisher asleep, while i was nightfishing

2 hours ago, Winsford Soul said:

Dave. . All my pictures are copyrighted and have exif data embedded. As previously mentioned its easy to crop out a name unless it's across the important part of the picture, which spoils it somewhat. 

Steve

Thanks Steve, I don't know if I've got this right or not. When I right click on a photo, go into properties, details & then in origin it's got author - My name

Date taken etc & at the bottom Copyright - My name. Is there anything else we  can add anywhere or is that it ?

Many Thanks

Dave

 

 

12 hours ago, Winsford Soul said:

Nuthatch.  Also heard today my first Chiffchaff of the year calling

Steve

 

Have a pair who are virtually resident on our feeders in the garden.  Nice photo Steve.

19 hours ago, SHSDave said:

Thanks Steve, I don't know if I've got this right or not. When I right click on a photo, go into properties, details & then in origin it's got author - My name

Date taken etc & at the bottom Copyright - My name. Is there anything else we  can add anywhere or is that it ?

Many Thanks

Dave

 

 

Dave I,m not sure about adding anything else. But I,m sure the clever guys and girls on here will know ? over to you lot.

steve

23 hours ago, Russell Gilbert said:

Well done. If it took that much hassle, it must have been worth it for you. But... why all the copyright fuss over the sale of an old print? 

I've no idea Russ. Whether it had something to do with the subject matter - a photograph of 17 year old Black Panthers member and treasurer, stood outside a bank with a rifle. He was shot twelve times by the police some time later - even though he had his hands on his head. 

He has a soul legend name sake - Bobby Hutton! 

A quick google and you'll find the picture on line. I think it's very powerful in lots of different ways. 

Edited March 7, 20178 yr by Peter99

2 hours ago, Peter99 said:

I've no idea Russ. Whether it had something to do with the subject matter - a photograph of 17 year old Black Panthers member and treasurer, stood outside a bank with a rifle. He was shot twelve times by the police some time later - even though he had his hands on his head. 

He has a soul legend name sake - Bobby Hutton! 

A quick google and you'll find the picture on line. I think it's very powerful in lots of different ways. 

Yup, very easy to find on Google, and used in loads of places online, including Wikipedia. No idea why you should have had such difficulty in obtaining it at all - unless the print belonged to a family member of Hutton or the photographer and they felt the need to protect or be reassured about how you might use it (which you said).

14 hours ago, Winsford Soul said:

Dave I,m not sure about adding anything else. But I,m sure the clever guys and girls on here will know ? over to you lot.

steve

Thanks Steve 

As there's always interest in these threads on the arrivals of swifts, swallows and martins, I thought folk here might like to know that a friend on Facebook posted up pics this evening of the first swallows of the year on the Greek island of Lesvos.

It might be a bit premature yet, but summer's coming! 

1 hour ago, Russell Gilbert said:

As there's always interest in these threads on the arrivals of swifts, swallows and martins, I thought folk here might like to know that a friend on Facebook posted up pics this evening of the first swallows of the year on the Greek island of Lesvos.

It might be a bit premature yet, but summer's coming! 

Russell. That's fantastic news. Swallows back in Europe. My first sighting last year was March 27 th. Which incidentally was my earliest ever sighting.

Steve

3 minutes ago, Winsford Soul said:

Russell. That's fantastic news. Swallows back in Europe. My first sighting last year was March 27 th. Which incidentally was my earliest ever sighting.

Steve

Looking forwards to hearing the swallows and swifts calling in flight. Daffodils are up, snowdrops, blue bells we've got through another cold, dark winter. The yellow rape seed fields will be with us very shortly - I've seen some yellow already on my rural drive to Loughborough for work each day. Won't be long either till my favourite tree - the horse chestnut, treats us with its candelabra type blooms.

I can hear the canal from my garden too - its starting to hear like spring over there too - ducks, coots, moorhens, swans etc are all starting to their courting songs. Lovely.

Peter

  

8 minutes ago, Winsford Soul said:

Russell. That's fantastic news. Swallows back in Europe. My first sighting last year was March 27 th. Which incidentally was my earliest ever sighting.

Steve

Wonder if you'll get an earlier sighting than that this year. I have a feeling you might as it's been such a mild winter and spring has well and truly sprung already.

Mind you, if I were a swallow, I'd stop in Lesvos for the year where it's nice and sunny. Being mere humans, all we get are three weeks there a year! 

3 minutes ago, Peter99 said:

Looking forwards to hearing the swallows and swifts calling in flight. Daffodils are up, snowdrops, blue bells we've got through another cold, dark winter. The yellow rape seed fields will be with us very shortly - I've seen some yellow already on my rural drive to Loughborough for work each day. Won't be long either till my favourite tree - the horse chestnut, treats us with its candelabra type blooms.

I can hear the canal from my garden too - its starting to hear like spring over there too - ducks, coots, moorhens, swans etc are all starting to their courting songs. Lovely.

Peter

  

Very evocative, Peter. Looking forward to summer even more now after that. 

3 minutes ago, Russell Gilbert said:

Very evocative, Peter. Looking forward to summer even more now after that. 

Thanks Russ

I'm going to try and step out of my hermit/recluse existence a bit this year and maybe even aim to have a holiday - I haven't had one for 11 years. If I manage it I will be going to your Greek island - your photos and posts have made it my number one choice. Thank you. 

Peter

1 hour ago, Peter99 said:

Thanks Russ

I'm going to try and step out of my hermit/recluse existence a bit this year and maybe even aim to have a holiday - I haven't had one for 11 years. If I manage it I will be going to your Greek island - your photos and posts have made it my number one choice. Thank you. 

Peter

It's a truly wonderful place - a time capsule of Old Greece. It offers bugger all to do in the way of contrived entertainments, which is great. Want to get away from it all and relax, in a traditional setting, with the most splendid food and the warmest, most genuine people it's ever been my pleasure to meet, then Lesvos - and the fabulously picturesque village of Molyvos in particular – are where it's at. 

We'll be there again mid-June through to early July - staying in a local and very basic apartment (no fancy hotels here, but it is marble floored for coolness) owned by a wife and husband in their very late-70s. I say wife and husband in that order because the man is a right lazy sod, and she, in her old age, still wields a hoe like a demon every day in their well-tended, twice-a-day-watered vegetable plots, which we overlook from the basic, but serene comfort of our balcony. Oh, and neither of them speaks anything other than Greek! 

Peter, if/when you go, I can hook you up/recommend so many things – and it would be my absolute pleasure to do so.

I saw swallows just over a week ago in southern Spain, slowly heading north, I think these ones go to France rather that the UK, the British ones fly over Portugal and up, but it's a good sign.  

I've almost got a yearning to go back to the Greek islands now, the last time I went to Crete and thoroughly enjoyed it, though I prefer the smaller, more intimate islands like Serifos, Sifnos, Naxos and Paros.

Californian sunset taken on my tablet.....

Spent a fair bit of time trying to get a shot of our resident Cetti's Warbler out in the open, they are notoriously difficult to get a decent shot of as they tend to skulk about in the cover of the reed bed or undergrowth, and dart around like Speedy Gonzales.

I missed focus on the little devil when it landed on an old fence for a nano second, but I did manage a couple of it, the second one shows how they like to stay in cover well hidden from the paparazzi 

Edited March 12, 20178 yr by martyn pitt

Spring is here 

59 minutes ago, baz1 said:

Spring is here 

very nice

On 10/03/2017 at 07:58, TattooDave said:

I saw swallows just over a week ago in southern Spain, slowly heading north, I think these ones go to France rather that the UK, the British ones fly over Portugal and up, but it's a good sign.  

I've almost got a yearning to go back to the Greek islands now, the last time I went to Crete and thoroughly enjoyed it, though I prefer the smaller, more intimate islands like Serifos, Sifnos, Naxos and Paros.

Oh to be in  the Greek islands. Been almost every year for the past thirty years. I agree Dave, the small ones without an airport are  the best. My favourite is Paxos below

Kev

1 hour ago, baz1 said:

Spring is here 

Wow. Lovely garden Baz. 

2 hours ago, Peter99 said:

Wow. Lovely garden Baz. 

Its my living pete so it would be shamefull not to have a nice garden me thinks  thanks for the comments cos that keeps me doin what I do best xx

On 09/03/2017 at 21:55, Winsford Soul said:

Russell. That's fantastic news. Swallows back in Europe. My first sighting last year was March 27 th. Which incidentally was my earliest ever sighting.

Steve

My office in Chester is in a converted barn and they come back every year. I will keep you posted with the date

Almost without fail when it's warm we have the door open and one flies in. Always makes me smile when they have found their way hundreds of miles back to where they were born, but can't find their way out of a building that they've been in for  5 minutes. We have to pull all the blinds down and switch all the lights off so that the only source of light is the door they came in :-)

 

4 hours ago, baz1 said:

Spring is here 

Lovely Garden.

You're just the person to help me identify my hedge. It's in flower now and will be full of fruit in the summer. They're like small plums, that start green then turn yellow, then reddish. Some say they are quince, but not sure about that.  I'll put up some photos of the fruit when it appears.

Thanks Kev

Views from Penny Hill near Copley in Teesdale 3 miles from me 😀