May 29, 2014: Gannet On The Move

365 Project, Day 194

Here is my day 194 submission to my 365Project:

Oh the gannets! There they are all day flying and fishing around the ship...my source of entertainment when there is little else to be seen :)

Here's a couple shots of one our most commonly observed bird species out here in the North Sea, a Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) in flight:

And a wonderful little poem, by Julian Dale, inspired by the gannet :)

THE GANNET

My favourite bird's the gannet:
It's the best bird on the planet.
It's better than knots
And guillemots
And beats razorbills by lots and lots.

Yes, my favourite bird's the gannet:
It just can't be beaten, can it?
It hatches on ledges,
Where it stays till it fledges
And grows a physique
With a fabulous beak.
Then it takes to the air
And soars way up there,
Till it reaches a summit,
Whence it dives in a plummet
And down with a S W I S H !
It catches a fish.

Yes, my favourite bird's the gannet
(Apart from my girlfriend, Janet!).

May 16, 2014: Feeling Moon-ey

365 Project, Day 188

Here is my day 188 submission to my 365Project:

Today I think I was able to capture a somewhat better image of the moon in the wee hours of the morning than I did on yesterday or the day before. I'll probably forget the settings by the time I try to do this again but that's the wonderful thing about digital, you have many opportunities to play with settings and capture the shot you're hoping for! 

The one thing I needed to figure out is why I'm getting posterization, or banding, in these images? It isn't so bad in my photo of the day but you'll see in this next photo that it's there...there are distinct bands of colour around the moon. According to this webpage the basic gist of it seems to be that these shots, which inclue areas of little detail, are posterized because they were shot in JPEG fine format and not Raw format. There is too little info spread too far apart in the JPEG image thus creating the blocky banding seen here. 

I have indeed heard in my path of learning photography that it's best to shoot in Raw, especially for post processing purposes including the cropping I've done here. I've gone through my phases of shooting in Raw and I understand there is much more information in a Raw format photos; the only thing is Raw files are just such big files and require even more time for post processing!  Oh well, looks like I'll be shooting Raw next time I want to photograph the moon and, although it'll take some more time to get the final result, there should be no posterization :)

Posterized moon

Breagh offshore platform

Sunrise over the barovane

Breagh sunrise

Breagh sunrise

Breagh sunrise

Breagh installation silhouetted at sunrise 

Lone Common Guillemot (Uria aalge) aka Common Murre 

Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) taking off

Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) 

Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) 

Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) 

May 14, 2014: Early Morning Full Moon

365 Project, Day 186

Here is my day 186 submission to my 365Project:

Working in the Northern Hemisphere means that, as we approach the summer solstice, the nights are getting shorter and the days longer. For this job I am working midnight to noon; I am conducting passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) watches from midnight until sunrise which is currently 4 am! It is actually a nice balance working 4 hours on PAM (so getting our reporting done while monitoring and listening on the hydrophone but not too much computer work!) and then conducting 8 hours of visual watch.

Tonight was the full moon and when I came to the bridge to start my watch the moon was amazing, so bright and full! It had been a while since I photographed the moon but, after a bit of experimentation, I managed to recall the settings and take a photo of the full moon before the moon disappeared :)  

And some more photos of the always present Northern Gannets (Morus bassanus) and a Lesser Black Backed Gull (Larus fuscus):

Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus)

Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus)

Lesser Black Backed Gull (Larus fuscus)

May 7, 2014: Wood Pigeon In Flight

365 Project, Day 180

Here is my day 180 submission to my 365Project:

It seems that we have had a few hitch hikers, or visitors taking a rest, on the vessel the last few days. While conducting our visual watches for marine mammals we've also had a few birds around. By far the most commonly observed bird species so far is the Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus). In addition to all the gannets we have seen flying around here offshore of the east coast of England we have had a couple of doves and pigeons around. 

Here is a photo of a Wood Pigeon (Calumba palumbus) making it's rounds around the vessel...a great opportunity to practice shooting frozen action shots at high shutter speeds :) 

Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus)