Martyn Pitt

A Buzzard overhead, I kept still and tried not to look like a rabbit ... looks like it has lost a primary, possibly a squabble with a Crow

They certainly love a scrap, as do swans, they can be really vicious

Not for the same reason, but you can add E/V to brighten the image, try +1 or +2 see which gives the result you want. At least with digital you can use a bit of trial and error. Sunsets and sunrise are tricky to get right because of the extreme contrast in the scene. To make the orange hues deeper set the white balance to cloudy or shade. I would recommend the following book to anyone keen to learn the mysteries of taking good images, it is concise and written in plain english so it is easy to follow Digital Exposure Handbook .

Demo, issue or the sought after Disco Demand copy

Speak for yourself Steve ... I told a guy last week that the "P" setting meant Professional

Sad news indeed, thank you Fisher for the pleasure that one record brought to us all, may you rest in peace Martyn

Nice touch getting her a shovel to match her top Baz

Johnny ... I hope you don't mind, but the quality is actually pretty good, focus is spot on, the problem is that camera light meters assume averages when automatically working out exposure, so they expect everything to be a mid grey colour, which is why most shots of the snow people take look grey, the camera has under exposed, the opposite happens if you were taking an image of a predominately black coloured bird. Back in the days of film I picked up a handy saying that has always stuck in the memory banks - Add light to white - most cameras have an E/V adjustment option, what you need to do is dial in around +1 possibly +2, (it's digital try one and see), this will correct the cameras metering. For a predominately black coloured subject apply the opposite and apply a -1 to -2 E/V adjustment You can always tweak it later in Photoshop Elements or something similar that allows basic adjustment. I spent all of 60 seconds in Photoshop Elements on your Sparrowhawk, adjusted the levels and contrast a touch, and got this

Horizontal snow today, still I needed the fresh air ... and several layers of clothing Tree Sparrow numbers are up, which is nice to see as they had declined over the last 12 months

A bit ironic choosing a song called "For once in my life" to play every day I would hope there would be some driftwood on the island so that I could fashion a dance floor,in which case my choice would be "Uptight (Everything is alright)"

A rather pleasant female Pheasant

I have one like that Steve...nice one

I also had a Fieldfare make a brief visit

A couple the many Brambling in my garden today (had to defrost the bird bath a few times)

Was he off to get a last second bid on e-bay ? For the non nerds the bird is a Snipe ... their camouflage is brilliant when they get in amongst the vegetation at the edge of a body of water, I had one fly in and land 10 yds in front of me, I watched it all the way, could I see it after it had landed, not a chance.

CarAMel is - Lighten Up Baby - Lighten with an E, as in relax chill out Romark is - Lightin Up - Lightin with an I, as in lighting up a room Clear as mud

A Nuthatch from Saturdays day out

Always an amazing thing to see in the flesh, there was one that I saw on telly with around 1 million birds over Rome, the state of anything parked below their chosen roosting trees was a sight to behold

Not a clue, sounds a bit like the Fine Young Cannibals ... nice track

Steve ... and anyone else reading ... a top tip for sunset photographs, set the White Balance to "Shade" it really warms up the image, and gives them a deep fiery glow

A Female Sparrowhawk in this mornings gloom

Graham, Steve is correct the one in my image is the female, juveniles also can have a brown cap, I think they are a smart looking bird, always neatly turned out.

A nice comparison in size between the Greenfinch and the Siskin on the right. It should be noted I had cleaned that feeder on Wednesday, those Greenfinch have awful table manners

I had a bit of a mad 15 minutes Steve, I was getting Brambling, Siskin and my resident Blackcap showed up as well. I had been working, only went down to make a cup of tea, ran back upstairs and got the camera. My resident Blackcap

A winter visitor to our shores, the Brambling, which can be a scarce one to see ... for the last 16 days I have been getting at least two in my garden, with as many as five a few days ago. Please excuse the quality but these were all taken through my kitchen window and the feeder is a fair distance away. I wanted to post them just to show what it is possible to get in an urban garden Note how defensive of the feeder the Greenfinch is