Robin With Snow & Ivy, Rickmansworth

Robin With Snow & Ivy, Rickmansworth, originally uploaded by flatworldsedge.

A shot of opportunity from a day out battling the snow yesterday. I was trying to do daytime light painting using a 9 stop ND filter, with the camera cloaked from the snow under a half kilo of elastic bands and plastic bags. Not the happiest human being due to the constant harassment of snow and with the experiment failing, I looked up to see this chap watching from just 2-3m off.

I probably looked pretty comic attempting to extract the camera from its bags, off the tripod, remove the 9 stop ND filter, get out of bulb mode, etc. without frightening him off. Still, he was a bold beast and remained through the whole wretched juggling act. This one is a close crop against ivy. There are some nice snow ones to come too.

Hope everyone's preparations for the coming week are going well, or, if you aren't celebrating Christmas, that you are surviving the media/Flickr blitz of attention it gets!

The feathers look nice in large!

See Robin With Snow & Ivy, Rickmansworth on Flickr.