We looked at the colour in Blooming Spring and the clarity of Spring Skies. There’s one more joy for a camera owner in Spring and that’s the enthusiasm of our neighbours the furry four footed and feathered friends along the river banks, in the fields and in our own backyards.

There’s something about Spring that seems to bring out the animal world into the open. Perhaps it’s because more of us are likely to get out walking along the country roads and the riverbanks once Mr Sunshine dons his hat in a more definite way.

Naturally it’s important to be respectful where nature is living and breeding. There are some places that forbid photographers because of abuse and a bad reputation is not something we would want photographers to get.

Ducks and sheep ! Common and boring ? I sometimes think so. We’ve all seen far too many of them, both in real life and in other people’s photos, we hardly notice them anymore. When a photographer doesn’t really think about distance, light and composition their photos of these common cuties can be mediocre to the discerning.

When we start out in photography we get a little excited about finding a subject like a duck. We concentrate so hard on the duck that we can forget that the duck is taking up about 1/2% of the frame and the other 49 ducks in the picture are taking up about the same! That leaves 75% of the frame taken up with water, mud banks, reeds and abandoned water and beer bottles!

As well as that there is no sense to the composition, it is a totally random gathering of feathers and the sun is often shining leaving a big dark line across the image where the contrast between the sunny areas of the scene and the shaded areas collide.

So when shooting ducks or lambs (not literally of course!), bear in mind my tips in the negative! However positive tips are, get in close (zoom in if necessary), frame just one or maybe 3 individuals. Squint your eyes slightly to be able to discern if there is contrast in the scene, especially if the sun is shining. If there is then wait for the sun to go behind a cloud to get a more even light. It could be a tree or a hedge that’s causing the shadow though.