Oystercatchers photographed with a flash extender.

Today, and not feeling on top of the world because of my on-going bout of "man flu"… a cold by any other name of course, I did start to feel a bit better during the afternoon and decided to get some fresh air. I took my camera out on to the marsh where the flooded fields this last week has made it very interesting. There has been a lot of Water Rail activity there recently. Each time that I have been this last few days I have heard several, sometimes just a few feet away but in typical Water Rail style I have not seen them apart from just fleeting glimpses. Today though, I saw 3 that kept appearing on the edge of a hedge through the gate just near to the Lions Rest Estate, in fact right behind the RSPB offices. It was also nice to have the chance to photograph this Oystercatcher. It was feeding on the edge of a rainwater pool quite close to the gate, not a normal occurrence I would suggest. I have been experimenting with a Better Beamer which is a flash extender that magnifies and focuses the flash from a standard flash gun. Flash is definitely something that should be used more often but photographers in the UK are reticent because the finished photographs can look very harsh and hard and are not very pleasing on the eye. However, the skill is to use the flash as a shadow filler and the general rule should be that If you can tell that flash has been used then you aren't using it correctly. Today, I got the chance to really use it and I have to say that the results are very pleasing to my eyes. Without flash, I would not have even been able to get a shot let alone capture the detail that you can see in these images.