Up in the Valley, down in the Forest.

My brother Alan came down the other weekend. Really nice to see him it was too. He brought with him his camera kit, I gave him my 50D with a 100 macro lens. I wanted to see if he had been using it and if he had how proficient he had become. Unfortunately I don't think he's used it much. We set about putting that right with a trip to Gigrin and the Elan Valley. There cannot be many better ways of getting a feel for your camera than trying to catch Kite in flight, combined with a bit of landscape photography thrown in.
Fixed up with my 300mm lens and 1.4 converter he set about getting some practice. The weather was not brilliant, but fortunately there were some bright spells.

These are three of my efforts. They are cropped but they have to be. The Buzzards and Rooks came reasonably close too.

Having spent well over an hour with the place all to ourselves we decided to shoot up to the Elan Valley and do some landscapes.

Cabon Coch Dam, nearest the visitor centre. I have never seen it with water flowing over it as far as I can recall.

Claerwen Dam

My brother Alan,

Alan had never been to the Elan and I think he liked it. He didn't like some of the high drops though, he suffers from Vertigo.

Saturday was a wash out and we had to look after my grandson KJ whilst his mum was in Hosp. We took a very wet, windy and cold walk around Wellington Gravel Pits.

Sunday however was stunning and it was down to the Forest to give him some more practice at small stuff on the feeder table and ducks etc on the ponds. This time I let him use my 600. He was soon Chimping like a good 'un.

I had a go at the little Grebe,

All in all, I think he enjoyed his weekend. He treated himself to a Sigma 75-300 lens whilst down here for shots in his garden and particularly his pond. I'm looking forward to seeing some shots.