The Mantis

You’re probably right. The only exception is if you’re a pro doing sports. Then it’s the Canon 1DX MKIII but that would cost you.

Have you got Nikon gear already? If so just ignore all this waffle... The D850 was a real winner 5 years ago, especially as a landscape camera, but has been overtaken by Canon and Sony mirrorless. A Canon R6 mirrorless (only released in 2020) will actually cost you about £2400 against £2800 for a D850. The downsides are: only 21Mp against 45, and the cost of the new RF lenses. There is a Canon adaptor for about £100 for the old Canon EF lenses which are a decent price secondhand on MPB. Canon have about 47% of the market so there's more Canon gear on the used market than anything else so it tends to be cheaper. @Stevo Fife will be along in a minute to pour water on this but unfortunately he's a Nikon fanboy and can't get beyond "Canon are shit mate". I'm using an R5 which I've had for a year. It has 45Mp but I was fairly happy with 20 before . The thing with mirrorless is the eye tracking which is fantastic. I'm in a club where people were moving away from Canon to Nikon a few years back, but recently they've moved to Sony or Olympus 4/3 or back to Canon. I just stick with Canon as it all comes round in circles anyway.

Heron on my local patch

Unbelievable that. I just assumed it was persecution.

Kites at Argaty a couple of weeks ago. Best of a poor bunch, fairly well cropped. Definitely prefer Galloway.

Assuming you mean the Black Isle? Didn't they almost get wiped out a few years back, poisoned or whatever? I was at Tollie RSPB a couple of years back and it was pretty poor although they seem to be recovering.

And if you go up East Lomond Hill shown in your second pic, this is the view back the other way

Never actually tried Vogrie Tam (plus it's 3 quid to park and full of kids ). I've got the pond at Mavisbank House near where I live, also Straiton Pond. A few mates have got good results at Leadburn but I've never been. These were taken on a day out at Argaty that one of the mates organised. They booked it mainly for the Red Kites and squirrels but I thought it was poor for Kites compared to Bellymack in D&G where I've been a few times.

Dragonflies and Damselflies and some Damselfly action...

I don't think you need to be too defensive about the ground, too many first world problems . I come along about 6 times a season and I think NDP is a great place to watch fitba. The club has just handled 2 all-ticket games in 4 days but presumably in Lg2 there will be no segregation so fans will be able to stand along both sides where you get a good view and are right on top of the players, and can go right round to exit the park. When I was growing up even the big grounds were shitholes so I find the modern ones a bit sterile , including TFS and my own club ICT. I don't think parking is any worse than Kelty or Linlithgow. If you turn up at either of those for the first time, for a big game, unless you're early, parking is hard to find. And saying that the place is hard to get to (if you're parking therefore you have a car) is a contradiction. It's a mile off the City Bypass ffs. By public transport from Edinburgh it's a dawdle (and plenty pubs near the ground). BTW at Bonnyrigg it's probably much easier to get parked to the south of the traffic lights (towards Rosewell) rather than north (towards Dalkeith). The slope is a problem and I was told by the chairman that the cost of sorting that would be "astronomical". Also there's very little room to expand. But people will have to get used to ex-Junior clubs coming into the league. Bonnyrigg are a great example of a club progressing the right way. I thoroughly enjoyed the cup tie. It was fascinating seeing The Rose having to up their game to cope with opponents who were half a yard quicker, quicker in thought, and with a better touch, and I thought Conor Doan looks an excellent signing. ETA - I was at Meadowbank on Saturday- wait till Falkirk have to visit that one

And the members got a vote.

Glad to see you got around Uig a fair bit anyway. July's usually a bit of a pisser, statistically, but it is what it is.

OK, went to Meadowbank so here's my excuses: 1. It was the only competitive game I could find in the Edinburgh area. Always prefer that to a friendly. 2. Been to Meadowbank loads of times so it wasn't a tick (judging by the accents and many sad wee guys with rucksacks, plenty others wanted to bag the occasion/ground). 3. Wanted to run the eye over one of ICT's league rivals. 4. Wanted to visit the Bellfield Brewery which is just across the road. 5. You can never pass up an opportunity to have a couple of pints in the Guildford between buses. It truly is a terrible venue and I feel sick for the likes of @tamthebam. Some people have been saying it's no worse than AP but the seats have very few passageways and are packed very tightly so if you want a pish you feel you are annoying far more folk. I got told off for sitting in the Directors' Box (not very obvious).The toilet situation at ht was awful too, a long walk followed by a queue. 1-1 at ht, fairly even, FCE took the lead with a grand strike from Crane, Low equalised from the spot. Arbroath totally dominant second half and supersub Bobby the Binman hit 2 great strikes.

Plus United have been facing a bit of a rebuild. Lost 5 or 6 players from last season and the manager of 4 years packed in. Spent a lot of time there last season as I was taking photies for them while another P&B legend was doing the programme.

3-1 flattered Rosyth. The 3rd was a last minute defensive blunder and Letham had spent most of the second half pressing for an equaliser and missed a barrowload of chances. Rosyth scored early and looked comfortable for 20 minutes. Letham came into it but Rosyth scored a second at just the right time and led 2-0 at the break. It's a tricky one as I know far more about the EOS than the Midlands. I saw most of the teams in Rosyth's conference last season and the standard wasn't great. But they're Tier 7 and Letham are Tier 6.

Steak & skirlie pies !

The person here is walking up Balnacraig Lane which is still there, after Lidl. The Howden End is the shed in the pic. Google Street View: https://goo.gl/maps/Q96EcqFeig6gKZKJ6

Tough luck with the weather on the crossing. Choice of 4 games on Monday night... I'll be up for a week early August. Probably go and watch the Lochies v Carloway.

Any baldies amongst them Probably see you Tuesday night

A Corbett and 2 Munros in that photo. I salute you.

Letham 1 Rosyth 3. Seven Acres Park. A pretty uninspiring venue but some really good people involved at Letham. Got me out the house anyway and got my season underway. Also got a nice Magnum at ht for £1.

No it's fine, never thought you were having a pop, the old guy gets on my tits though I'd quite like to film one of these dives as it would show more of what happens, but sometimes you have to wait about 3 or 4 hours and it's a waste of a photo op. This shot was back of 4 in the morning, the light was poor, and they stopped coming about 6am. Yeah some young Ospreys have to learn their trade which is quite good for photos as you know they're coming back for another shot if they miss. I hear the Edinburgh Photographic Society (or maybe some other club) has stopped allowing Kingfisher shots altogether in competitions, I think down south they've got setups where the bird dives into a glass tank in the river or something, and hurts itself. If you go back in this thread I think I've got a Heron taking a rainbow at the same pond, but it couldn't swallow it.

Hahah, I have this argument every week with a grumpy old guy in our camera club... he only does still life and he has no idea how difficult this is. Sure, it's set up at a fishery, taken from a hide. But it's a live fish OK. It's a life and death struggle. The bird has to rotate the fish to fly with it. The fish is fighting for its life so it's probably mucho confused, being out of its element for the first time, and the birds often drop them in the struggle. I've been doing this for 5 or 6 years and if anybody uses dead fish for Ospreys I've yet to witness it. They use dead mackerel on Sea Eagle boat trips but they have to, because it's at sea. For Ospreys you need a small pond (or loads of luck). Another thing is, search the internet for photos of the Osprey striking the fish. You won't find many/any, because it happens so fast, you can't predict where it'll come in. If it was a dead fish you could just focus on that all the time. I think I've got more pics further back in this thread but this is the only time I've got it flying right at me. Usually they're side on or you only get their erse...

Brammer of a rainbow too. ‘Tis indeed. Somewhere on these pages I’ve got an Osprey catching a blue trout. A genetic mutation of a rainbow and seemingly good fighters. Elsewhere I’ve got a real brammer caught by a Heron which couldn’t swallow it and had to give up.

The QC!