After nearly 3 weeks of suffering with a trapped nerve in my neck/shoulder, I’ve not been able to get out to do any photography. So on Christmas Eve I stuck the camera on a monopod & stood in my living room watching the feeding stations.

All shots were done with the Canon 100-400mm on an ISO of 800.

We had some Goldfinches on two of the feeders, it was seeing them which prompted me to take a few shots, but by the time the camera was set up, they had moved to another feeder which didn’t affords me a clear view of them from the patio window. I hope to get some shots of them again.

Whenever there is food about for the birds, there are squirrels. We’ve not seen the black squirrels for a few weeks but happily they are now back. Just one visited on Xmas Eve but we have had 5 or 6 in the garden at once, the others won’t be far away.

Of course, the Grey Squirrels are never far away.

All shots, as usual, processed in Lightroom 2 and completed in Phototshop CS4. Noise levels on the 20D are not very good & these shots were run through the Imagenomic Noiseware filter to reduce the high noise levels.

Inspired by a thread over at the forums of DSLR User Magazine, I took my Canon 50mm f1.8 for a walk over the town centre this week.

It’s fixed focal length, unlike the standard zooms which come with most cameras these days, so you can’t use zooming to help compose the shot, you have to compose it by choosing the right place to stand.

It’s a great little lens, very sharp & with such a wide aperture - f1.8 - you can get some nice creative depth of field shots. The results certainly surprise considering the lens is available for around £60.

I didn’t have too long as the photography was combined with a shopping trip so the shots were all taken around Broadway Gardens in the town centre. The gardens had been known as Kennedy gardens for many years until the name change a few years ago as part of the towns 100th birthday.

I was able to attend my local Remembrance Day Service at Letchworth Garden City again this year. The last time I was able to do so was in 2005. That last time was one of the first occasions I’d used my Canon 20D & the very first outing of my Canon 100-400mm L IS; I only bought the camera & lens at the start of November 2005.

Ironically, this year’s parade will be one of the last full shoots with the Canon 20D as I plan to replace it after Christmas.

There is usually a good turn out at Letchworth & this year was no exception. The local Army & Air Cadets head the procession and there is always a good turn out of Beavers, Brownies, Cubs, Scouts & Guides.

The service was led by Roger, curate at St George’s in Letchworth who recently provided some support to my wife Jane during our recent bereavement. It was all the more poignant for us this year as Jane’s dad, Tom, died in September & was a war veteran himself.

I had two cameras with me, the 20D sporting the Sigma 50-500mm with which most shots were taken, and the Canon 300D which had my Sigma 18-55mm lens fixed.

Most of the shots taken concentrate on individuals. I stayed perched at the side of the War Memorial so didn’t get any shots from the crowd-line, but I think I was best placed for some nice shots of the people taking part.

It was hard to make a small selection of shots from this event as I was really pleased with the vast majority of them. I don’t know if that’s more a comment on the amount I shoot or the quality I shoot at.

I got asked to take a couple of shots for a budding actor’s agency profile recently.

Young Fred is 7 years old & keen to get off to an early career in adverts & filming. He attended my ’studio’ with his mother.

The setup was two 180W studio lamps at about 45degrees fired by radio-trigger from the camera. The setup was metered with my Sekonic Flashmeter.

Unfortunately, I seem to have a problem with the radio trigger which fails to fire quite often, but we got there in the end.

You can see Fred’s profile & picture at the A & J Management website.

Three weeks ago I was fortunate enough to get a ride along with the Chopper Coppers of the Chiltern Air Support Unit from their base at RAF Henlow in Bedfordshire, and I got to take my camera!

The Chiltern Air Support Unit is a consortium of Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire & Thames Valley Police which share two helicopters to provide air support for police operations across the three police districts.

The unit came to fruition in 1992 when the three forces came together to share helicopter facilities. In 1996 a second helicopter was purchased. The two helicopters are currently based at RAF Benson in Oxfordshire & RAF Henlow, although the unit has been at Henlow less than a year having been previously based at Luton Airport.

I went with the crew on a day shift from 8am to 4pm & spent my time with a Hertfordshire PC, a Bedfordshire PC who form the unit’s observers & a civilian pilot provided to the unit by a private company. The weather was pretty poor & it even looked like we might have to be grounded for the day, the cloud cover was so heavy.

Unfortunately, as luck would have it, I managed to get the crew on a particularly quiet shift. We only got to lift for two jobs during the whole ten hour shift. Total flying time was around 90 minutes.

We flew down to Hertford to assist local police officers who were searching for a male who had run off from police in a busy housing estate. We circled about the houses & schools for some time using the chopper’s camera system to try & track down the offender. He managed to escape for another day so we returned to the base in Bedfordshire taking a direct flight path from Hertford, across Stevenage & into the unit’s new purpose-built facilities at RAF Henlow.

Our second shout came only a few minutes later when we were called to Luton to assist in the search for a male who had made off from police on a scooter. It was suspected that the scooter may have been stolen.

Unfortunately, we were again unable to track the rider or scooter down & returned to base. This was to be the last flight of the day.

The Eurocopter EC-135T-1 comes equipped with the latest thermal imaging camera, skyshout loud-haler system & powerful spotlighting unit. It has up-to-date mapping which can guide the pilot direct to an individual address anywhere in the three force areas. Crewed by two police officers who act as observers & work the complicated radio, mapping & camera systems. Several of the private pilots are ex-military. There is space for a stretcher for med-evac duties.

Although it would have been great to have got some more flying in, I really I enjoyed my time with the unit. It’s always great to take photos in a completely different, & exciting setting!

The Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway is a small railway line running between Haverthwaite in Cumbria, a few miles up the line to Lakeside which is at the southern tip of Lake Windemere. They have Furness Railway Number 20, Britain’s oldest working standard gauge steam locomotive.

We took a trip on the railway during our summer hols. They run steam trains & diesels on the single track line. Our carriages were pulled by the Austerity 0-6-0ST “Cumbria”, a steam train.

The trip doesn’t take long and pulls into the only other station on the line at Lakeside. We took a cruise up Windermere to Ambleside & back again, in time to catch a train back to Haverthwaite.

Once the train pulls into Haverthwaite, they have to unhook it, drive it round to the front of the cariages & then hook it up again for the return journey. They unhooked the train & replensihed it with water. I took several shots during the process, then went up to the footbridge to take a pic of the engine going to the front. On this particular occasion, the engine went into the siding & was replaced by a diesel.

As it pulled its new group of passngers out of the station again I realised my rucksack containging my Canon 100-400mm L IS, my Sigma 10-20mm & my Canon 300D was still on the luggage rack in the last but one carriage!

We jumped in the car & drove the few miles up to Lakeside, beating the train by about 5 minutes. As it pulled in I jumped aboard but the rucksack was no longer in the carriage. Fortunately, the guard had rescued it intact with photography gear, lucky!

I’ve been printing out photographs of my father-in-law for his funeral tomorrow. One my way across the garden I noticed a couple of spider webs spun out across our patio.

By way of a break, I grabbed the camera, stuck the Tamron 90mm Macro on & then added some extension tubes. All shots were taken with extension tubes fitted, manual focus & the Sigma Ring Flash.

These photos are of 3 different spiders. By the time I returned to the first one, he’d bagged an insect & was busy chomping away on it.

And here’s a couple of flowers I shot aswell. I have no idea what they are; I’m no gardener.

Of all the subjects I’ve shot in the last couple of years, I’d not tried team sports.

An opportunity arose last weekend to nip down to London to try my hand at some American Football shots. I’ve been a fan of American Football for around 30 years, even before it came over to the UK in the early 80s. I used to listen to it on the American Forces Network in the early hours of the morning.

In fact, I liked it so much I started my own team, with 3 other lads, in the 80s. I played the game for several years & even coached a team at Bedford.

I went to watch the London Blitz playing at home to the Bristol Aztecs at Finsbury Park.

The weather varied from very sunny to quite overcast but was very hot. I found one of the problems was getting the right exposure depending on whether the main subject was the Aztecs in black or the Blitz in white. There is a tendency to underexpose with a white subject so I added up to 2/3 extra stop when the subject was mainly the Blitz.

I called the reception photograph “Touchdown!”, this is a bit of artistic licence really because the ball was actually caught on the one-yard line & then run in for a touchdown.

For the first half of the match I used the Canon 100-400mm IS L (with image stabilisation turned off due to ongoing problems). In the second half I used the Sigma 50-500 which is a bit slower at focusing but gives a little more reach.

The Blitz ran out winners with a score of 39 - 20. I really enjoyed the experience & the end results. I will probably look to doing some more American Football when the opportunity arises.

One of the most impressive units at the Festival were the Romans. The detail of the uniforms & equipment is fantastic.

The Romans brought their Centurions & Auxiliaries together with half a dozen cavalry & they did a full demonstration in the arena of marching & tactics, together with demos of weapons & their specialist Roman Artillery. The cavalry swords look pretty sharp judging by the way that apple has been sliced in two!

One of the most incongruous sites of the day was when the Romans went up to view the World War I trench. You can see the trench in the background of the shot of the Centurion Officer.

One of the largest sections in the History Festival was groups representing the World War Two arena.

Apart from many different units there was a large battle re-enactment which involved some paratroopers (Black Knights Army Display Team) landing on D-Day & assisting French Partisans before the British Army arrived. They were attacked by two German Messerschmitt 108s (representing the Me 109s) which were then seen off by a genuine Spitfire which saw action on D-Day itself in 1944.

Groups of many nations were represented. We saw many different groups of Americans & British units, together with some German, but also one or two units of Russians.

The following 3 shots are of German troops from the 2/Pz.Aufkl.Abt.Grossdeutschland - a German Armoured Reconnaissance Unit.

The Living History camps were detailed & realistic with tons of genuine WWII weapons & equipment.

The Russian Solders below are from the 2nd Guards Rifle Division.

Incidentally, during the main battle display, one of the paratroopers ‘chutes failed. Luckily he was able to release it & deploy the reserve parachute. I have no idea whether this was a genuine problem or staged, but unfortunately, I was shooting one of the other paratroopers so didn’t actually catch that moment.