The notices of impending doom now make it clear why the big sign stating the car park opening times was erected a while back. There being no gate or barrier to the car park it had seemed a bit ridiculous. When the barrier arrives it'll make much more sense.
The RSPB love erecting signs and notices. Locals seem to love removing them when they are intended to keep them out of places they have roamed for decades.
Later, after nipping home for a longer lens, I went for a look at a flock of sheep and their lambs. Wary critters, sheep. Harder to sneak up on than many wild animals! I got a sheepscape and one or two pictures of sheep which are okay.
Even when 'cast' (lying on their back unable to right themselves) sheep don't like being approached. After putting my camera down I quietly went to the aide of one such sheep. Despite my careful approach the ewe thrashed about and kicked her legs so energetically she was able to stand up and (as sheep do) walk slowly away a few yards and have a wee. Why couldn't the daft animal have righted itself before my arrival?!
Always on the lookout for pictures which don't obviously say 'sheep' I spied a couple of supplement licks and tried to make a picture of one. The heavily hoof-marked ground was what made the picture for me.
Saturday was poultry auction day. Again I was in two minds about making the early start. I was glad I did. Not only did I manage to stop and make a sheepscape en route I also got some new additions to the poultry auction archives. There was a huge entry of hatching eggs, each lot having to be allocated a number. Catching the moment when the number on the sticky label was visible and in the process of being stuck down took a good few attempts.
In the other shed the early morning light was doing its thing casting shadows on the proceedings. This only lasts until around ten (and only occurs in spring and autumn) but makes it easy to get impressive pictures.
I must have had my eye in for seeing light effects, as I spotted one in the mart café. Mmm, bacon...
The action in the sale ring didn't present much other than the usual. There wasn't much different in the main shed either, until I started looking in a different way, trying to make those 'complex' pictures I like to look at. I never miond accepting happy accidents such as people walking close to the camera.
Sub-framing is a bot of a cliché but it can help break up a set of pictures.
In line with my recent days at sheep dog trials I took a lot more frames than I used to. Especially when I saw a potential picture in the hope that something better would happen rather than settling for the first or second frame and moving on. This means a lot more deletion on teh PC, but it pays off often enough to make it worthwhile. Not a new technique, but one I've never followed through to the degree I should in the past. It can also result in a series of pictures which work as sequence.
Six hundred frames were soon whittled down to 200, 45 of which can be seen here.
Leaving the mart I could happily have headed home but the sun was shining so I turned left aiming for some hills and some sheep - with a bit of luck.
As is to be expected when the sheep spotted me they sidled off! So that meant sheepscapes were to be sought. I really don't know why the middle hours of the day are thought to be bad for landscape photography. Maybe three o'clock doesn't count, but I still like the sun well up in the sky. But then I don't like my landscape pictures devoid of life - animal or human. If there are no figures in a landscape, where's the story?
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