Photography by Sharon Curran

As a member of Flickr I spend quite a lot of time looking at pictures that others have posted and am quite often in awe of some of the amazing pictures posted by photographers on there.

I find myself drawn to some images and wishing I could achieve those results but am sometimes limited by my equipment. For instance I love macro pictures – close ups of things such as flowers, insects and everyday items which look totally different when shot using a dedicted macro lens. Unfortunately I don’t own a macro lens although I do have one down on my ever increasing wants list! However recently I discovered there are cheaper ways of achieving similar results to a macro lens in the way of macro filters.

These filters which are sold singularly or in a pack of four in varying strengths screw on to the front of any ordinairy lens quite simply and are easy to attach and remove. Ok so they aren’t as effective as a dedicated macro lens but for those who are on a budget who may wish to experiment with close up pictures they are a good starting point.

My husband brought me a set of four macro filters for my birthday and I admit when I tried them to start off with I found them difficult to use and they got relegated to the back of the cupboard. However this months assignment for the DSLR Skills Course I am doing was centred around macro shots and they showed you how to use the filters so I thought I’d give them another try.

The kit contains four filters in strengths 1, 2, 4 and 10 magnification. The 10 is the strongest and gives the greatest amount of magnification this is the one that I have used in most of the pictures I took. When you’ve screwed the filter onto the front of the lens you’ll find it completely distorts everything when you look through the viewfinder – this is what threw me the first time I tried to use them.

When using macro your depth of field is greatly reduced so it can be difficult to get the background looking correct too much blur and it looks silly too little and it doesn’t show the macro to it’s best. I just kept playing around and taking shots with different levels of depth of field to see which ones I liked the most afterwards – this is usually the best way to experiment with new equipment.

This shot is of a pink flowering hedgerow, I liked the bright colour of the flowers and thought it would make a nice shot. As you can see using the 10x filter does create quite a heavy amount of blur around the edges of the picture (this is the depth of field) I think it works ok in this image but something is slightly lacking for me.

I carried on walking, keeping my eyes peeled for some interesting looking flowers or shrubs. After a while I came accross another flowering hedgerow which had some shoots which were an unusual shape so I thought I’d try getting a shot of those.

I really liked this shrub because the shoots were a really interesting shape which worked really well with the macro filters. Unfortunately the background in this picture is a little too busy for me with the stem of the shrub which looks a little distracting. The shoot was so close to the branch that I couldn’t easily get a photograph without it looking quite noticeable in the background – shame as this such a brilliant plant to photograph.

Next up I thought I’d try a dandelion shot. These are really popular subjects and I wanted to try something different to the usual full dandelion that most people tend to photograph. I looked around and spotted a half blown dandelion so got down on the ground and started composing my shot – this is whe I really found out what the macro filters are capable of!

I was rather impressed with the above image as it really shows the detail on the head of the dandelion and on each little seed head.

Macro shots work well with flowers and that is what I would use such a lens for if I had one. I love a nice bunch of flowers and they look so different in close up. I thought I’d have a go using the filters on this flower which was almost like a daisy but with purple petals – no idea what kind of flower this was but it made a nice subject.

It was a very bright sunny day and this has caused some shadows on the petals. I’m not sure if they are a little distracting – ideally I would’ve liked to have used a reflector to eliminate them but it was a rather off the cuff trip out with the camera and unfortunately I didn’t have my full kit with me.

In the end I decided to submit the following shot for my homework assignment this month. I spotted some pinecones underneath a massive tree and wondered if they would work in a macro shot – most people have entered flower shots for their homework piece and the consensus on Flickr was that this shot stood out as it is an unusual subject.

So as you can see the macro filters do work to a certain extent, ok they aren’t anywhere near as good as a dedicated macro lens but for those on a budget they are a more affordable option at around £10 – £20 for a set of four on Ebay – much more wallet friendly if you want to experiment with close up shots but don’t want to pay out for a seperate lens.

You may find that once you get them that macro isn’t for you or you will find that you slowly become engrossed in the weird and wonderful world of close up photography and then feel that a dedicated lens may be a good investment for your kit. I’m not going to say which bracket I fall in to but lets just say I had better start saving up!

This coming months module for the DSLR Course is ‘Portraiture’ so I am looking forward to getting stuck in and trying my hand at some shots. I do like taking portraits so hopefully I will enjoy this and get some good photos as a result.

Many thanks for reading. Don’t forget you can also follow my photography through my Flickr account and on Facebook

All comments and feedback appreciated.

For those who have been reading my blog for a while will know that back in November I took a few shots at Benjamin’s Christening. Ben is now 6 months old and I’d arranged to go and visit his mum for the day and take some pictures while I was there.

The drive up to Manchester was rather rubbish as the weather couldn’t quite decide what it was doing but I soon arrived at my destination. Unfortunately Ben was teething and was a little grumpy but with the help of his play mat I managed to get some nice shots, helped by the natural daylight coming in through the window.

He is so active now pulling himself around and starting to learn how to move accross the floor so keeping up with him was sometimes quite difficult. He is a proper little poser though stopping every now and then and just giving the most perfect look – it was just making sure I was ready and waiting when he did and unfortunately I missed quite a few shots but this is the joy of photographing children you never know what they are going to do next.

Bens mum showed me how he loves playing in his Jumperoo, his face was a picture but it was impossible to get a shot whilst he was bouncing up and down. After a while he was a little tired out so he went off for a little afternoon nap which seemed to do the trick as he came back a lot more smiley. By this time it was dark outside and so I got to test out my new flash which I’d only recently brought, this was my first time of using a hotshoe flash and I really like the difference it made to the pictures.

I got some amazing smiles from Ben which I caught on camera and some really cheeky little faces too. I especially love the expression in this next picture.

All too soon it was time for bed and for me to head back home. The drive back was atrocious as I got caught in a blizzard and in some of the worst fog I think I’ve ever driven in during my seventeen years of driving so I was definitely glad to get home. I don’t want to put up too many pictures as these are a bit of a taster of them for my friend and her boyfriend but I can’t resist putting this last one up as I love it – I just hope they will too.

I’d just like to say many thanks to Colette and Dave for letting me take some photos, Ben is definitely one of my favourite subjects to work with as he is such a happy, smiley little boy. I really hope that you both like the pictures.

Next weekend we are off to a wedding and I am going to be taking my camera with me to try and get some shots so I should have some more photos to share with you all. As always many thanks for reading, your support is appreciated – please feel free to leave comments as I enjoy reading them.

Now for the final part of my visit to the WHF.

This is a little overdue; I have been so busy that this is the first opportunity I’ve had to write it up so firstly apologies for that but hopefully it will be worth the wait. 

The rest of the day was free time for us to walk around the centre and go back to the animals we wanted to get some more pictures of – except the leopards as they are so quick and unpredictable you can only visit them with a keeper. I had a walk around and revisited some of the cats that I had already seen to try and get some additional pictures of them starting with the Pallas cats then working towards the tigers. This is when my favourite part of the day took place.

When walking towards the main tiger pen there was a solitary tiger in an enclosure and he was laid down right next to the fence and when I say right next to the fence I mean literally against it. Realising this was the perfect opportunity as there was no other visitors anywhere near me I very quietly sat down next to the fence right next to where the tiger was sitting and said hello to him. I couldn’t quite believe that I was sat about 6 inches away from a tiger chatting away to him telling him how absolutely beautiful he was!

 The next thing I knew just as my own cat at home would do he rolled upside down onto his back and pulled in his paws in towards the centre of his body and let out a little noise, not quite a purr but quite similar to one. So I slowly got out my camera and took a couple of shots……

After a couple of minutes he rolled back over and lay against the fence so I took the opportunity to get a close up picture of his eye……

He repeated this about four or five times, rolling onto his back and posing for me some more before rolling back and relaxing again. He kept making these little noises exactly how my cat does when she is ‘talking’ to me but obviously a lot louder than my pet does! It was such an amazing experience – I mean how many people can say they had a ‘chat’ with a Sumatran Tiger?

The very last animals I met on my visit to the WHF were the Kings of the Jungle – the Lions. They have three lions at the centre Tiny, Kafara and Manzi who are all brothers who were born at Woburn Safari Park, the brothers had to be moved to as the from Woburn as they already had resident male lions in their pride.

Now admittedly on the day of our visit the lions didn’t really do much except spend most of the day asleep in the sun! Occasionally they would get up for a short while to turn over or have a yawn with their huge mouths but most of the day they seemed like they hardly moved.

The African lion is the only big cat not endangered, being listed as a “threatened species”. This means there are some restrictions in international trade of lions and their parts. Lions are found through out sub Saharan Africa inhabiting savannahs, grassy plains and open woodlands. Their life span is on average 15 years in the wild with captive lions living up to their late twenties.

Lions are the only social member of the cat family living in groups known as prides consisting of related females and their young and 1 – 2 males. It is the females who do most of the hunting, running at a maximum speed of 30 mph over 50 yards. They are 1 of 4 of the big cats that can roar. It is said that a lions roar can be heard over 5 miles away. The biggest threats to the lion population in the wild are poaching and hunting of the animals and through disease such as canine distemper and FIV which is the feline version of HIV.

Another group of people came to the enclosure who were being shown round by a keeper; they weren’t a photography group as they didn’t have cameras. They may possibly been a group of people who were attending one of the afternoons for animal adopters to visit their chosen adopted cat. The keeper explained that lions like the smell of lavender; she then got some lavender oil out of her pocket and applied some to the back of her hand. More or less immediately one of the lions (I think it was Tiny) jumped down off his wooden platform and came over to the fence. He started rubbing himself up against the fence the same way a household cat rubs itself up against the furniture – he loved obviously really did love the smell of the lavender oil. The keeper then let us stroke the lion through the bars which was fantastic! The fur on his body looked as if it would be very smooth but it was actually very wiry and his mane was really wiry and dry not at all how I expected it to be, not that I ever really expected to ever get to physically stroke a lion!

Before I knew it the day was over and it was time for me to start the drive back to Milton Keynes, I must admit I didn’t want the day to end it had been amazing from start to finish. It wasn’t just about the photography for me but I actually ended up enjoying seeing the cats close up and hearing about the work the Wildlife Heritage Foundation are doing at trying to save these spectacular big cats from possible extinction.

I am definitely going to be returning to the centre again, they run photography days throughout the year and I know that the Talk Photography Forum are planning on running some more days next year so hopefully I will be able to make one of those. I would definitely recommend the photography days for anyone who would like the opportunity to get up close to these animals for themselves – the money raised also helps the centre pay for the upkeep of the cats that reside with them so it goes to a worthwhile cause.

I’m also considering adopting one of the cats through the adopt an animal scheme run by the WHF. For £50 a year you can adopt a cat of your choice and you get invited to visit the centre on adopter’s day so you can see the progress your animal is making.

For more information about the Wildlife Heritage Foundation please look at their website http://www.whf.org.uk

So that brings my big cat’s diary to a close but before I go I want to share with you my favourite picture from the day……

Please if you have enjoyed reading my blog feel free to leave a comment they are all most appreciated.

I love cats, all kinds of cats from your average household moggie to the beautiful big cats that live in the wild. Over the weekend I got to combine my love of cats with my love of photography by attending a Big Cat Photography day organised by the Talk Photography forum.

The day was taking place at the Wildlife Heritage Foundation in Kent. A charity which is UK based who are working hard to ensure that the big cat species of the world are protected from extinction. They are an active partner in the European Endangered Species Breeding Programmes (EEP), as well as setting up education programmes for the people that share the habitats of these wonderful cats. The WHF is also raising awareness and funding for big cat projects around the world.

Having checked that I had a good supply of fully charged batteries and empty memory cards on the Friday evening I got all my camera equipment prepared for an early start on Saturday morning. Up at 6am to get ready before leaving home to travel down to Kent I was so excited about what the day would hold, I’d read such great reports from people who had previously attended the WHF I couldn’t wait to get there and experience it for myself.

After a nice easy drive I arrived at my destination in plenty of time and grabbed myself a drink from the refreshments tent. I met up with a few other members of the Talk Photography forum and introduced myself to a few of them who had already arrived, I was also asked to sign an indemnity form and read through the safety guidelines – basically I was signing away my life, if I got eaten it was all my fault! Once everyone was in attendance we had a short safety briefing – do not put fingers through the bars (really?) do not poke the animals etc seemed like common sense to me but we all know that not everyone has that in abundance!

We would be shown around the centre animal by animal and be given time to take plenty of photographs as we were there. The warden would give us information about each one and would answer any questions we had. First off we saw the Pallas Cats – these had a small head and a long tail. They look not very similar to a household cat in the face but have a lot of hair which comes out from their neck towards their face.

They have two Pallas Cats at the WHF Tula is female and Wei Shand who is male. The species is near threatened, it is unknown how many of these cats remain in the world but a lot of this species are killed by humans each year due to poison put down on farms as a side effect of rodent control. These little cats looked very cute but can actually be quite vicious; they have the most beautiful faces though.

We then travelled to see the tigers. In total there are ten tigers currently residing at the WHF we visited Indy, Puna, Asu and Bawa who all share a very large enclosure.  Indy is a hybrid tiger which means a cross breed (Bengal with Amur) and came to the WHF from Paradise Wildlife Park where she was hand reared in her early years.

Puna is a Sumatran tiger, the smallest of the species and came to the WHF from Heidelberg Zoo where she had been hand reared. When she arrived at the centre she had forgotten how to be a proper tiger and so she was housed with Indy in the hope she would pick up the animal instincts she would naturally possess in the wild. Puna is playing a vital role in keeping the gene pool of Sumatran Tigers alive in captivity as an active member of the breeding programme along with Nias who she is paired with – they successfully produced two cubs in 2008.

Asu and Bawa are the two cubs born at WHF in July 2008. At a year old they are almost the same size as their mother but still display the playfulness of cubs. It is hoped that once they reach 18 months Asu will be moved on to another facility to become part of their breeding programme. Unfortunately Sumatran tigers are critically endangered and may disappear within the next 10 years this is why breeding centres like this play such a vital role in the conservation of these magnificent cats.

The picture below shows just how tall the tigers are when they stand on their back legs – these are actually the smallest types of tiger but they still stand at a good height when they stand up like this.

Due to the sheer amount of breeds of big cats housed at the WHF I’m going to break my blog down into separate parts as I want to make sure I do each animal justice so my last section for today will be about the next species on our visit – the Amur Leopards.

We saw four of the Amur Leopards on our visit – Artur and Xizi the breeding male and female and their two male cubs Argun and Anuy who were born at the WHF in October 2008. Artur has to be kept in a separate enclosure to his mate and offspring as if he was to be placed in the same pen his natural instinct would cause him to try and kill the two cubs.

The Amur Leopards are the world’s most endangered species of cat and this breeding pair are at the fore front of the conservation work at the WHF. It is estimated only 35 Amur Leopards remain in the wild and it is envisaged that some of the off spring born in captivity under the EEP programme will be released into the wild in the future to try and stop them from becoming extinct.

These cats certainly were the liveliest of the day. We had been warned that they could stretch their full front leg through the cage, and they were very likely to do it, we were to be on guard at all times and if the keeper shouted “get back” we had to move faster than lightning! Xizi especially would run straight towards us with a loud growl and a snarl which made for some great pictures.

It was very difficult getting pictures of them as they just didn’t stand still plus trying to hold a camera, check the focus and get a shot with one eye whilst keeping the other eye open for a leopard charging towards you with it’s rather large teeth heading straight for you is a mean feat I can tell you.

One of the cubs was so absolutely adorable as he made a little squeaking noise rather than a growl at times it was hard to believe that these animals are so deadly and dangerous. The keeper was able to feed Argun and Anuy through the cage and they even gave his hand a little lick though he said in a few months there will be absolutely no chance of him being able to do that…..funnily enough he didn’t try and feed Xizi by hand.

Even though Argun and Anuy are only 10 months old they are a good size and not much smaller than Xizi. This picture shows just how big their paws and the length of their claws – I certainly wouldn’t want to mess with any of these guys!

The Amur Leopards were stunning animals, the power in their bodies was spectacular and they are amazingly beautiful, almost mesmerizing. I certainly hope that the work being done by the WHF and the other centres in the European Endangered Species Breeding Programme can go some way to help protect them from extinction as it would be such a loss to the animal kingdom.

Anyway that’s it for today. Tomorrow I shall tell you about some of the other animals we met on our visit to this amazing place. I will also be uploading more images from the day but please bear with me as I have taken 700 photographs and need go through them and decide which ones I want to upload to my gallery.

Many thanks as always for reading – all comments appreciated. I hope you will check back to read my next instalment once I have written it.

This is my first post on my blog so if you are reading then thanks for stopping by.

Last week it was my birthday and I turned thirty five. I started thinking about where I am in my life and where I want to be by time I’m forty. I realised that as much as I have a great life with a fantastic husband, a great family and amazing friends I sometimes feel that I haven’t achieved much with my life so far and that I would like to use the next five years to change this.

Since buying my first SLR camera in February of this year my interest in photography has increased. When asked if there was anything I would like for my birthday by my husband some new equipment for my camera was on the top of my list. So as part of my presents I received some great accessories for using with my Canon 40d – a new memory card, remote shutter switch, cleaning kit and a variety of different filters. I am sure these items are going to come in very handy and I’m looking forward to testing them out.

I also decided to treat myself to a new lens using money received from my parents and opted for the Canon 55 – 250mm IS which arrived this morning. At the moment I have two lenses, the 17 -85mm IS lens which came with my camera which gives good results but sometimes the lack of zoom frustrates me somewhat and the 50mm 1.8 EF lens which I find is great for doing portraits. Later on this month I’m going on a photography outing to the Wildlife Heritage Foundation in Ashford to shoot big cats and I know that I really need a lens with better zoom to get the best pictures I can, this is one of my other reasons for purchasing the nifty two fifty. I’m determined to get some great shots while I’m there and hopefully having this lens will help.

My photography is definitely one of the things I would like to work on over the next few years. I have a few other things I’d like to do but at the moment they are simply ideas in my head rather than actual plans so for the time being I’m going to concentrate on my photography and see where that takes me. Tonight I’m going to start uploading a few images onto my site and working on my galleries so I should have something to show you all soon – hopefully you will be back to check them out.

That’s it for today – many thanks for reading. Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday!