Day 193 - Herd of Sheep?

in the frame

For a while, I've been meaning to study photography a bit more, learn the next steps, technically, toward competence...but I never have time (because, you know, blogging!), so in the meantime I'm just taking lots of photographs and waiting for the magic, which surely must start happening soon?!

Tonight it was nearly 7pm when I arrived home after working late, then shopping.  Anna is out all evening bat bothering, so we had an early tea, before Anna headed off at 7.30pm, and I took Jazz out for his nightly constitutional. 

Of course, my main priority was to get some sort of photo for the damned blog. 

I've pretty much photographed everything around here now, so I've had to, on occasion, resort to looking for unusual perspectives (which is an interesting proposition in its own right). 

I found this hole in the hedgerow, and realised that if I stood in just the right spot, the hole made a natural frame for the trees in the distance.  I played around with focal length and f-stop for a few minutes, but guess what...the first one I took was the best. 

There's some kind of lesson there, but I'm reluctant to try to unravel it!

one for sorrow

Moving on...I spotted this Magpie way up on top of a large Ash tree down the lane.   It was a long shot, but nicely in sunlight.   I cropped this from a much larger image (the bird was quite a distance away), but I like the framing, and the blurry oak leaves in the foreground. 

I've talked about corvids in the past, and you may remember I'm quite fond of them...it would be nice to get the full collection on my blog, as we have all of them locally...although the jay might be a challenge...

Consider the above image the official start of the Smart Birds series.

lepidoptera magma?

Next up, I spotted this little chap scurrying across the road, and stopped for a brief photography shoot.  I had all the wrong gear of course, so this was taken at full 300mm zoom from about 1.5m away...really not ideal, and I think the lens is actually incapable of focussing that close. 

But what the heck, he's another in my growing collection of animals, which is getting pretty extensive now - I must start to catalogue it all soon!

I've just spent 15 minutes trying to identify him, but can't pin him down...possibly some sort of fritillary, but I'm not at all sure on that.  If anyone out there has the patience and/or expertise to name that species, please leave a comment...

Muchas gracias! 

(nope, there was absolutely no reason for that to be in Spanish...deal with it...)

of course I've herd of sheep

Finally, these lovely, ever-cooperative sheep, always ready to pose interestingly at the slightest provocation...here, they're going for the caught in the spotlight look...

I think they've pulled it off admirably!

Incidentally, I was a'pondering...if a group of sheep is a flock, then why is the person who looks after them a shepherd?  If the herd is the verb, then he's a herder, not a herd.  And if it refers to the fact that he looks after a herd, well he doesn't, it should be flock. 

So why isn't he either a shepherder, or a shepflock?

You see, these things niggle away, pointlessly, at my OCD...

:-/