Tanny
Well-known member
Television Birdwatching.
Do-you-know, when a person gets old they are unable to perform (in more ways than one:-C) as well as they did when young. They can’t climb high mountains; they can’t walk great distances through, Deserts, Forests or Hills, and if they’re like me who is on the very basic pension of less than a hundred a week, and nothing in the bank, then they have no chance of ever going to exotic countries to seek out interesting birds. Then again some elderly people are confined to wheelchairs or Zimmer-frames. Their birdwatching days are limited to sitting at their living room window watching the garden birds feeding on the food they put out each day, or sitting in a car watching the countryside with their camera on their lap hoping to see a friendly bird approach to photograph. I was thinking about these people last autumn while watching Bill Oddy and Kate Humble in their Autumn Watch program, and while watching I had my camera beside me. It struck me then whether I could take a picture of the birds shown on the Telly. My camera is the FinePix S5600; I found this a great camera because it was light and had a good shape for holding in arthritic fingers. The other digital cameras I had previously were susceptible to being dropped, and after a couple of times onto rocks and pavements they were unusable. I switched off the room light and pointed the camera at the screen and zoomed in until it filled the viewing window. With a press of the button to focus I then took the pictures. My television is a large Digital one with what I think is a plasma screen, (I’m not clued up on tellies, I leave that to the owd-un,) the screen seems to be the same stuff as this computer. Both of them are flat. I don’t think a person could take pictures on the old kind of Analog Tellies because of all the lines. After the program finished I downloaded the pictures onto the computer and edited out the good ones. My first attempts were rather useless with only a couple of reasonable pictures to keep. From then on I scan the Weekly Television Magazine and make a note of the wildlife programmes to be watched. Before the show begins I set up some cushions beside me on the settee to the height of the telly, then I place a small bean bag on the top to stabilise the camera. The results achieved are quite satisfactory to me but I don’t think they would be accepted by the experts. I will post some of them for your perusal and hope for some comments.:t:
This new interest of mine has given me a new interest in life and has stimulated my interest in all aspects of the environment. Elderly people should have something to stimulate them, or that old adage of ‘Waiting for God’ takes over and they drift away into death. My photography has taken me throughout China, with wonderful pictures of the Giant Panda and other rare animal and birds from that mysterious country. I have just been to Portugal where I took pictures of the rare European Lynx. I followed that with pictures of the battling Bison on the Prairies of America. I have great pictures of the Hunting Dogs of Africa and many pictures of the Coral Reefs throughout the world. The greatest collection of pictures is of the Monkeys of the World, one of which is my Avatar, this one is the nearest I could find to resemble me.
I was worried about the infringement to copyrights by taking these pictures but have been assured that as long as I am not attempting to receive monetary gain from them it is alright, also the quality of the pictures would not be accepted by any known agency. These pictures I keep are solely for my own pleasure and by keeping them it’s almost like “Twitching for the rare creatures of the world”.:-O
I hope this report stimulates some other elderly person to do something similar and gives them also a new lease on life.
Tanny.
Do-you-know, when a person gets old they are unable to perform (in more ways than one:-C) as well as they did when young. They can’t climb high mountains; they can’t walk great distances through, Deserts, Forests or Hills, and if they’re like me who is on the very basic pension of less than a hundred a week, and nothing in the bank, then they have no chance of ever going to exotic countries to seek out interesting birds. Then again some elderly people are confined to wheelchairs or Zimmer-frames. Their birdwatching days are limited to sitting at their living room window watching the garden birds feeding on the food they put out each day, or sitting in a car watching the countryside with their camera on their lap hoping to see a friendly bird approach to photograph. I was thinking about these people last autumn while watching Bill Oddy and Kate Humble in their Autumn Watch program, and while watching I had my camera beside me. It struck me then whether I could take a picture of the birds shown on the Telly. My camera is the FinePix S5600; I found this a great camera because it was light and had a good shape for holding in arthritic fingers. The other digital cameras I had previously were susceptible to being dropped, and after a couple of times onto rocks and pavements they were unusable. I switched off the room light and pointed the camera at the screen and zoomed in until it filled the viewing window. With a press of the button to focus I then took the pictures. My television is a large Digital one with what I think is a plasma screen, (I’m not clued up on tellies, I leave that to the owd-un,) the screen seems to be the same stuff as this computer. Both of them are flat. I don’t think a person could take pictures on the old kind of Analog Tellies because of all the lines. After the program finished I downloaded the pictures onto the computer and edited out the good ones. My first attempts were rather useless with only a couple of reasonable pictures to keep. From then on I scan the Weekly Television Magazine and make a note of the wildlife programmes to be watched. Before the show begins I set up some cushions beside me on the settee to the height of the telly, then I place a small bean bag on the top to stabilise the camera. The results achieved are quite satisfactory to me but I don’t think they would be accepted by the experts. I will post some of them for your perusal and hope for some comments.:t:
This new interest of mine has given me a new interest in life and has stimulated my interest in all aspects of the environment. Elderly people should have something to stimulate them, or that old adage of ‘Waiting for God’ takes over and they drift away into death. My photography has taken me throughout China, with wonderful pictures of the Giant Panda and other rare animal and birds from that mysterious country. I have just been to Portugal where I took pictures of the rare European Lynx. I followed that with pictures of the battling Bison on the Prairies of America. I have great pictures of the Hunting Dogs of Africa and many pictures of the Coral Reefs throughout the world. The greatest collection of pictures is of the Monkeys of the World, one of which is my Avatar, this one is the nearest I could find to resemble me.
I was worried about the infringement to copyrights by taking these pictures but have been assured that as long as I am not attempting to receive monetary gain from them it is alright, also the quality of the pictures would not be accepted by any known agency. These pictures I keep are solely for my own pleasure and by keeping them it’s almost like “Twitching for the rare creatures of the world”.:-O
I hope this report stimulates some other elderly person to do something similar and gives them also a new lease on life.
Tanny.
