About this website

	The purpose of this website is to show what a wealth of interest the natural world affords us in Leighton Linslade. I hope that it will get more people interested, so that they too can enjoy it, and to encourage its conservation for future generations. I also think that walking is a good thing, especially if you want to see some wildlife. Hence, all the photos on this website were taken within walking distance of Leighton Linslade, and I've included some ideas for walks.
	If you would like to use the images on this website for non-profit purposes, please ask me first. Some images are for sale as postcards or plain greeting cards. The greetings cards are available from Nature's Harvest in North Street, Leighton Buzzard. My contact details are: (You'll have to type the email address in yourself as I don't want the spammers to get it, at least not too quickly.)
	My camera, for anyone who's interested, is a Panasonic Lumix FZ-300, which replaced an FZ-150. (The FZ-150's internal screw thread broke so it would no longer accept my extender and macro lenses.) The FZ-300 is a similar compact camera, and the photos it takes are not an improvement on the FZ-150, but it does have other features.) From 2006 until April 2012 I used a similar camera, the Lumix FZ-7. Before March 2006, I had a Nikon, which was a great camera but didn't have the amount of optical zoom that I really wanted. The FZ-150 had a 24x optical zoom, plus another 4x digital zoom. The FZ-300 has a different way of measuring the zoom and says it has the equivalent of a 735 mm SLR zoom capability. The telephoto extender lens (1.7x) has gone to another owner as it was useless on the FZ-300, but the macro lens that I acquired for the FZ-7 can still be used on the FZ-300, although it required a new adapter, and it is still earning its keep. In 2015 I acquired a used Canon 30D, which is an SLR. It was better than any of my compact cameras for low-light photographs, had better flash performance with an external flash gun, and is better at in-flight photos of birds if you use a big, heavy telephoto zoom lens, which I have. I replaced the camera with a Canon EOS 760D, which takes the same lenses as the 30D. It is a heavy camera with a telephoto zoom or macro lens fitted, so it only goes out for specific purposes. In 2021 I bought an Olympus TG-6 after it had been praised for taking macro photographs of small creatures, such as flies, in the Dipterist Forum magazine. I also bought the flash attachment and the ring LED attachment, which I keep almost permanently fitted. With the LED attachment it will take a photo of something right up against the camera with no external light coming in. If your subject is stationary you can select focus stacking and the camera will stitch together the best possible in-focus image from several that it takes in succession. Depth of The idea of the photo diary was from the Moorhen website (see Links page), which is well worth a look. Thanks to Nan, Michel, Jeremy, Janet, Jane, Liz, Dave, Jonathan, Geoff, Bob, Tony, Wendy, Edna, Eddie, Felicity, Andrew, Gill, Rich, Jackie, Ed and Siewlin.