Gateway Galleries

If you're looking for book reviews, you need Books Monthly Magazine. Please click on the banner below and you'll simply fly there! This site is now dedicated to photographic images, many taken by me. You're welcome to send your images to me by e-mail for possible inclusion in the Gateway Galleries, which kicks off this month at www.gatewaymonthly.co.uk

On the left are the very first two pictures taken with my Fuji camera, pictured above left. It's going to take me a while to get used to it and all its features, but I think it will be worth it in the end - my principal reason for getting it is that we have such a wide variety of birds here in North Norfolk. A few days ago we saw a Red Kite and some Sandpipers, and my compact digital was nowhere quick enough to get pictures of them that are any good. This site is very much work in progress and will contain my diary of events as I go shooting pictures each day with the dogs, so please check back from time to time! It's a very rewarding hobby, just seeing the birds, but  I want a permanent record of what I see, hence the cemera, which is not new, but not secondhand either. By the way, I did use to be an industrial photographer, but that was back in the dark ages, before photography had really been invented, so to speak.

Thursday May 28th 6:39am - Bright sunshine after early rain. Plenty of blue sky so should get some decent pictures if the birds play ball! In fact, I just managed to get some of a couple of blackbirds sitting on the arch just outside the patio door, which I've uploaded opposite. The camera has a feature which allows you to take three shots at once, at varying zoom levels, which is cool. It also lets me take about 30 frames per second if there's something flying past. A few days ago four swans went right overhead in a diamond formation, very spectacular sight, but of course, sod's law, the camera hadn't arrived at that stage. Loads of jackdaws circling the back garden. Will try to capture some of them after I've put the food on the bird table. Jackdaws, magpies, collared doves, tits (blue and coal), blackbirds, starlings, sparrows and a robin. The bird table, courtesy of Pete next door, has made all the difference - the birds have returned to the back garden with a vengeance!

Holt Vintage Car Show Sunday July 5th 2009