Camera shake is one of the most common causes of blurry, hand held photographs and are often caused by using lower shutter speeds or longer focal lengths without any means of stabilisation.

The problem has been addressed somewhat with the introduction of image stabilisation technology that effectively counteracts any small amount of camera movement, but this solution places an extra drain on your cameras battery and usually comes at a premium.

If you don’t have image stabilisation built into your lenses or camera body then the cheapest and most effective way to minimise camera shake is by using some sort of fixed support such as a tripod or monopod.

Now, carrying a tripod or monopod around with you on location might not be permitted or practical. Here’s a cheap and pocketable alternative to using a monopod.

… Or you’ve just dropped it 200-feet during an aerial shoot. What are you going to do?

With typical SLR photography equipment costing hundreds and even thousands of pounds, any loss or damage could be rather expensive to rectify.

It’s possible that a household contents or travel insurance policy would cover any damage or loss, but it’s worth checking what restrictions are in place e.g.

• If you’re covered for everywhere you’re likely to go - you may not be covered whilst you’re traveling or for the complete length of your trip.
• If you’re covered at all times - some policies might have time restrictions e.g. leaving equipment unattended in a car overnight.
• Whether all of your equipment is insured - there may be an upper limit on the value of a single insured item.
• There may be minimum security requirements that must be met.
• Whether you’re covered if you’re earning money from photography - professional photographers usually attract different rates. Make sure you’ve got the right sort of cover.

With specialist insurance cover available from under £100 per year, it makes good sense to get your expensive equipment covered as soon as possible if it’s not already covered by an existing policy.

Here’s a few UK-based insurers to get you started:

• Aaduki Multimedia
• photoguard
• e&l Insurance
• AUA Insurance

For that extra bit of security, you could also invest in a safe. They’re becoming quite popular and can even be purchased at your local B&Q store for under £50.

I’ve had my camera gear for a few weeks now, but have only just got separate insurance cover for it.  I do feel better knowing that it’s all covered now.

After receiving feedback on my photo of the poorly squirrel at Formby Point and confirming suspicions by speaking with someone at Save Our Squirrels (SoS), it appears the squirrel is actually infected with the squirrel pox virus (SQPV) that’s spreading throughout and threatening the entire UK red squirrel population.

I wasn’t aware of the problem when I took the photo and so didn’t report it, but I’ve since passed on details of my sighting to SoS. Hopefully, it will be of some use and hopefully this post will help to raise awareness of this deadly disease.

If you spot any red squirrels that look like they could be infected with SQPV, please report it as soon as possible so there’s a chance they can be treated and the risk of infection to healthy red squirrels is reduced.

It’s still early days for me and Flickr.  Whilst I can appreciate its benefits there are a few things about it that annoy me:

• Inability to quickly grab thumbnail HTML for multiple images to use on external websites such as this blog.  Currently, I’m having to visit each image individually, click through to see all available sizes, click through again in order to choose the thumbnail size and only then get access to the required HTML.  I would prefer to be able to select all of the images I’m interested in and then quickly get access to the HTML source for all images in a particular size format.
• Only being able to add images to a single group at a time and then having to confirm each one individually.  This isn’t such an issue when you’re assigning groups to a couple of images, but the process becomes laborious pretty quickly.  I would like to be able to quickly send my content to the relevant groups I’m already a member of.
• Groups that insist I post comments to X number of other images whenever I add one of my own to the group.  The process for assigning groups is already slow enough.  Don’t ask me to do more work when you’re already asking me to add my work into your group.  Seems a bit cheeky to me…

This last one, I find, is a particular pain in the ass.  Two of the reasons why I starting posting my photos to Flickr was showcase them and also to get feedback.  Groups or pools are useful in helping to find an audience, but some ask for too much, I feel.

What do you think about these points?  Do you think these are reasonable
expectations or am I expecting too much from a free service?

My wife and I took a trip to a local National Trust site called Formby Point today. It’s well known as a habitat for red squirrels so I naturally took my EOS 40D along with me. It had rained in the morning, but by midday the weather was cloudy and bright. It was a bit chilly, but that wasn’t a problem as we were just happy it wasn’t raining.

Apart from red squirrels, Formby Point also features a wide variety of wild photographic interest. The squirrels’ area is mostly wooded so you can also find a mixture of birds and plant life, but my main aim was to get some sharp, frame-filled photographs of the squirrels. The squirrels at Formby Point are known to get quite close to humans so with a little patience I was able to get some of the shots I’d wanted.

The light levels were such that I was able to get away with hand holding my Canon 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM lens ISO 400-800 in order to keep noise levels to a minimum and allow the squirrel fur to be clearly seen. Most of the shots I took were at the 200mm end and around 1/200 second so subject movement was more of a risk than camera shake, but I was glad to have the 4-stop image stabilisation for the more shaded areas.

TIP: If you’re doing a similar shoot, take some squirrel food with you to encourage them to stay still long enough for you to get your shot!

Here are a selection of shots from the day: