Video

I am very new to video. All my cameras offer the feature, but I have used it little. In recent months I have started the learning curve and have about 30 clips loaded onto picture library web sites to see what happens. It is hard to imagine where the market is, but one sold in the first week.

I mess up a lot by either losing focus or camera shake. Autofocus does not work as well in video mode and doing it manually is almost impossible. The other problem I have had has been dust on the 1Dx sensor. Not so easy to get rid of as on a stills picture.

Editing is also difficult. I learnt how to use Adobe Premier, but it is not intuitive and hard to remember what you have learnt a few weeks later. After trying a few others I have settled on Serif Moviemaker. Serif software is always easy to use. The icons make sense and I rarely have to refer to the manual.

Here is my first attempt at a sequence. I would like to do a few more like this.

Sandgrouse

Many years ago I stumbled upon a permanent hide at a man made drinking pool in the Belchite area of Spain. Photographically it looked wonderful and I imagined all the birds that might come to drink there, which would include the Black-bellied and Pin-tailed sandgrouse. It had the look of a hide that was built for commercial use and I later Googled it and found out how to book it for a couple of days. It has taken a while for me to get around to it, but in July 2016 I finally did.

There are actually two hides close together. One is better for the Black-bellied sandgrouse although both species come to either hide. Many species of larks, Raven, Chough, Stone curlew, Rock dove and other species also came to drink.

The shot I really wanted was of a sandgrouse leaping from the water after they finished drinking, but the wind was coming from behind them and they always turned their back to the hide before taking off. It would be nice if I could book the hide for a morning with an easterly wind.

Pin-tailed sandgrouse, Pterocles alchata, Single male on ground, Spain, July 2016

Pin-tailed sandgrouse, Pterocles alchata, Single male by water, Spain, July 2016

Black-bellied sandgrouse, Pterocles orientalis, Single female by water, Spain, July 2016

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I have been back to the same Grey wagtails, but concentrated on getting flight pictures this time. I placed a feeder full of live meal worms about two feet away from a rock and manually focused half way between the two. I was surprised by how many pictures were in sharp focus, but few had the wings in good positions.

Grey wagtail, Motacilla cinerea, single female in flight, Warwickshire, July 2016

Canon EOS 1dx. 1/4oooth at F10. 3200 iso. 100-400mm MK2 lens.