31 | May | 2018 | REFLECTIONS FROM MY WORLD old blog.

Yesterday when I posted a blog WordPress sent a message say congratulations it was my 500th post on

“Reflections from my world”.

Today I thought I would post how it all started – my love of the natural world dates back to around the age of 8 when I started to develop an interest in nature. I was lucky enough to have an elderly teacher at Primary School who encouraged this non “school” topic. I can no longer recall her name but she had set up a bird club which she held in the summer one evening a week for children with an interest in bird watching. She lived in a wooded area in a bungalow near the school, her garden was a wildlife haven with bird feeders and ponds. Each week she would talk about a bird species followed by some practical activity such as pond dipping.

I struggled at school with reading and writing and I still do. I do not think I have ever read a fiction book or a novel cover to cover. However, I made progress at school and when I was offered to choose a book for prize day in 1966. Most books asked for were story books but I asked for a bird book due to being given this school award for progress my 1st bird book was “Birds and their Nests”.

bridbook

My 1st adult bird book was “Colin’s Guide to British birds” saved up for around 1968. One of the best books on birding available at that time but so dated by today’s bird book standard with small pictures many of which were in black and white. This book is still in print but has been updated and modernised over the years. Anyone who owns a current nature book will know how good they now are. Access to nature photography has improved so much as well in recent years. In the past, I would take pictures on 35mm film. I would have to pay for the film stock than pay for the development and printing of the film only to have to discard 90% of the photos because you would not know if your pictures were exposed right or in focus until your film came back. Focus exposure and even winding the film on were all a manual function of taking a picture in the past – today this is all able to be done automatically for the photographer. “This will never catch on” was the thought when digital cameras 1st came out. – My first digital camera was only a small compact camera. I remember going to Brighton for the day with it and the battery ran out by lunchtime !! Battery developments and improvements have happened. Now my 35mm film Camera has been replaced by an equivalent digital camera. Taking wildlife and nature pictures has never been so simple and cheap once you have invested in your equipment.

Today I use the following equipment to observe and record nature.