Frank Anderson Photography Blog

Another SEO Visit

2012-01-29T12:00:00.000Z

Saturday was to be a day of two halves. In the morning I would spend some time at the coast and then visit the Short Eared Owls in the afternoon. Apart from a brief spectacular sunrise over the north sea, the morning proved uneventful so eventually headed inland to make the most of the ideal conditions to see the SEO’s.

On arrival, it wasn’t long before I saw my first owls though they were much more spread out than the last time I went there at the end of last year, as well as further away from view. Most were just perched, awaiting dusk. Although the SEO is diurnal these ones don’t seem to be that active until near the end of the daylight hours. Although it was hard to tell, I guessed at around 9 or 10 of them spread about and in various forms of activity and very vocal.

I switched between two different viewpoints during the afternoon. Southward facing where they were closer (though mostly perched) and more numerous but the sun was shining towards me and into my lens and giving awkward harsh light and Northward where the light was perfect but they were much further away.

Flyby – notice the perched SEO in the background (below)

The next four images were taken looking Northwards. They look like they were taken on a different day from the others but were simply in the opposite direction. The low sunlight gives a much more nicer warmer light and so pleasing image than the much cooler, duller images that were taken with the lens almost directly into the low sunlight.

As the sunlight started to fade, the sporadic activity stopped as the owls seemed to find themselves each a fence post or branch to settle on, evenly spaced out over the area, as if staking their own claims ready to start hunting at dusk.

Eventually, with my cameras ISO already pushed to its maximum but only getting 1/100th of a second, and the remaining sun light disappearing behind some clouds, I called it a day. Hopefully, I will get to see the owls one more time before they disperse as Spring approaches.

A Belated Post

2012-01-22T13:30:00.000Z

Last week was the first time in nearly a month that I managed to get out, largely down to the monotonous grey, windy, damp weather but on this case, despite being cold, it was sunny and only a slight breeze. I wasn’t originally going to post anything as it was an uneventful day and I was really just out for a walk but I thought I should keep the blog ticking over.

Large waves were crashing ashore along the beach I was walking along despite the lack of any real wind and I decided just to sit and enjoy the spectacle and fresh air. The only wildlife about were a various assortment of gulls and a few shore birds darting amongst the rocks.

Watching, I noticed sometimes a gull would break off from flying higher up and do a ‘daredevil’ run along the crest of the waves, nearly getting caught by the breaking onrush. I was amazed that none did – the one below nearly ended up swamped. I don’t know why it was worth the risk, certainly no food incentive that I could see.

This Oystercatcher was also getting in on the act, stopping off onto a rock and only at the last minute just missing an incoming wave though it didn’t stop it coming back again.

Despite an enjoyable walk, my first outing out of the new year remained uneventful with most of the gulls some distant offshore or high on the cliff ledges.

I Spy a Roe Deer…or two

2011-12-18T11:51:00.000Z

There’s a number of things I believe that contribute to successful wildlife photography – the equipment used, knowing how to use this equipment, knowledge of your subject, stealth, patience, field craft, the time of day, the time of year but perhaps one of the biggest is plain luck and timing. The last few times I have been out, is to photograph Roe Deer. I know a good place to go, I know the best time to go, I know all their routes, I have the equipment and have the means to stay stealthy but out of the 23 sightings on these two outings I had barely any decent images to show for it, why? It had a lot to do with luck and timing.

There are three methods I find useful in seeing and photographing Roe Deer:

Method 1 – walk through the woods quickly and as quietly as possible with a fast, light lens of around 200-300mm and there is a good chance you will spook them, where you might then get a ‘grab’ shot as they have the habit of stopping and looking back. Downside, your images probably won’t look good as you’ll just see the back end of them as they’re running off, plus you are disturbing them unnecessary.

Method 2 – sit yourself down hidden with a decent longish lens, somewhere where you know they move through and hope you get lucky. Downside, you can wait hours without any guarantee that you will have any success.

Method 3 – walk quietly through the woods, stopping every now and then to watch and listen for them. This is the way I use most of the time, especially at this time of year when it’s cold.

With Method 3 I can, on a windless day where there’s plenty of cover, literally stumble upon a Deer so really need to be concentrating, listening and be on the look out. What often looks like a lifeless, empty wood is often the opposite. The images above and below look like typical woodlands at this time of year, yet the one above there is actually a Deer watching. (See the last image to see where).

The one below, moments before there had been a Roe Deer that ran across from right to left after we stumbled across each other. As I quietly approached this spot, I was hidden from the Deer's approach by some holly bushes and trees and so we didn’t spot each other until we got to within about 4 metres. It was very dull so wasn’t even worth trying to take a photograph, besides, I was best equipped for a more static opportunity. Had I arrived moments earlier I would have been further away and maybe had a the chance to photograph it in some open ground without it seeing me. Moments later I may have missed it completely.

The following photographs are taken from my recent two visits and are the best of what opportunities came to me. Notice that all have the Deer staring in my direction. Image 1, 2 and 4 is because I used my shutter to get their attention, as they were moving from a clear spot back into cover. Their standing still also helped in keeping down motion blur in very low light. They can’t see me as I use some netting which I drape over myself. Image one you can see some quite intense looking as she can hear my shutter but can’t smell or see me. I only take one or two images so as to not create too much disturbance, so after anything from a few seconds to a minute of staring, they carry on.

Image two he saw me but stopped for a moment to look back at me before disappearing into the background.

With any one of these instances, arriving sooner or later could have involved in a better chance of an image or maybe missing the chance completely – it was just down to timing and luck.

Below shows how easy it is to miss these shy and alert Deer and, what appears to be an empty wood, may not be so. Although on this occasion, it wasn’t a photo opportunity because of the denseness of the trees, had it been coming towards me from a different location, I would have had time to hide and wait in a spot of my choosing.

Just to show some of the failures. 1st – branches in the way causing problems focusing, I usually manual focus because of this. 2nd – cut off by trees and an example of the usual glimpse gained. 3rd – blurred through movement in low light.

Prestwick Carr Shorties

2011-12-04T18:41:00.000Z

Prestwick Carr has gained a bit of notoriety for its Short Eared Owls, though I’ve had little joy in having much glimpse of them whenever I have been there. I’ve seen all the British resident owls, but this is my favourite – that amazing stare it has and piercing eyes – so it was this that made me spend from dawn to dusk on a cold and windy day in the hope to get more than just a glimpse and maybe a decent photo opportunity.

I knew that most of their activity was mid to late afternoon, but I new also knew that this was when they were likely to attract the audience of onlookers and I was hoping to watch and photograph them under more ‘natural’ conditions. The sun was just rising on an almost completely clear, cold morning and as I approached their main location, I could see in the distance one of them was at least active, but out of nowhere the wind picked up and it started to rain! By the time I had reached that point there was no sign of them flying – obviously the brief down poor had driven them to cover as I could see two of them sheltering in a pine tree. They'd probably already been hunting during the dawn so that would probably be it until the next usual appearance.

It wasn’t until just before 1:00pm that saw the next SEO activity as one of them flew low from nowhere and landed on a fence pole. After a minute or so it regurgitated a pellet and dropped to the ground, disappearing into the long grass. However, for a while at least I had forgotten the cold and my enthusiasm had been recharged. I was though, starting to think this was going to be another day of just glimpsing them and it certainly wasn’t going my way in my chances of photographing them.

At early December the sun was low in the sky, shining directly into my eyes and camera lens creating a harsh light and despite the sun being out still didn’t give me a very high shutter speed without upping the cameras ISO.

With dark clouds gathering in the south west, threatening to block out what little light there was and possibly even bring rain, I was not raising my hopes but kept telling myself to wait just a bit more time. I was rewarded with my patience a couple of hours later by the sight of, at first one owl flying around, followed by another until there was eventually around 5-6 of them flying past (though at some distance), hunting over the long grass, performing aerial acrobats between each other and landing on the various posts or the ground, though never really getting very close.

Typically with their appearance it became cloudy (only where the sun was, clear sky elsewhere!) and was intermittently raining and at best, I was only getting 1/800th of a second which with a 500mm lens plus extender, I was working borderline with camera shake (no IS on the Sigma). From the start I was focusing manually for the best results as a combination of poor light and extender meant, even on the 1D series camera, it was struggling with the twisting and turning of these owls.

Not great images but my best yet of this owl and will no doubt have to make another trip to Prestwick Carr. Even if none of them turned out, it was still worth the wait just to watch these beautiful and idyllic owls flying and hunting in the dull light of winter.

Red Squirrels Revisited

2011-11-06T12:53:00.000Z

After my previous and unexpected encounter with Red Squirrels earlier this week, I thought I would go out again this time with the intention of trying photographing them properly using more ideal equipment. I new it was going to be a long shot – the chances of them being there again in such numbers (they’re normally rare around here) was slim, but I figured they were out in force because of the abundant food supply of Autumn Beech Nuts and so were stocking up for Winter so they might still be around.

Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t so good on arrival, it had been raining early morning and was still overcast and dull, so as I positioned myself in the same spot as before, set my camera at maximum ISO (6400) though, in the dark shelter of the woods, at best I was getting 1/200th of a second shutter speed at this stage – not ideal.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to see much, but within twenty minutes I spotted my first Red, down on the floor digging through the leave litter but too far away to bother trying to photograph.

One of the things I like about sitting in a quiet wood with nobody else about, particularly early morning, is just to listen to the various sounds around. Because of the recent rain, the wood canopy was still soaking and water was falling as if it was still raining, making a background noise as it hit the falling leaves on the ground. This made it difficult to hear other noises as normal, though I could still hear various sounds – Blue and Great Tits, Magpies giving off warning calls, rustling in the tree tops and chattering from the Red Squirrels and over cautious Pidgins every now and then taking flight making a clatter with their wings. Occasionally I would hear a more distinct ‘rustle’ which could only be made by a much larger animal.

I was positioned in a dipping slope and had my lens set up pointing towards where I expected to see the squirrels, but to my left a particular rustling got closer and closer when out of the corner of my eye about six metres away I could see a Roe Deer looking at me. These are very curious animals, and with my back against a tree and netting over my lens, it probably wasn’t completely sure about me and I avoided looking directly towards it, hoping it would just ignore me, but a loud bark made it obvious that he was alerted to my presence and he quickly moved away for a short distance before again stopping to look back at me. I was able to take a couple of pictures, though at 1/40th of a second, hand held with a 500mm lens they weren't very good. He then vanished into the undergrowth, barking loudly as he went.

With only glimpses of the Reds and the light not improving, I was beginning to think it wasn’t going to be my day so just decided to have a wonder through the woods. It’s interesting how, in a mixed type woodland, one part can be so completely different from another. As I walked along I went from one part which was brightly coloured with the falling leaves, full of the sounds of song birds, to a part of the woods which became noticeably colder and completely without a sound – not even the water drops hitting the ground, it was a bit creepy though the reason for this, I’m sure was the lack of tree foliage which gave less cover for birds and being more open so more exposed and colder.

Eventually, as I approached a patch of woods similar to the one where I previously sat, I noticed a movement on the ground in the distance – I was in luck – another Red Squirrel. I sat down from a distance and made myself confortable hoping it would eventually move closer. Watching, it followed a typical pattern of finding food sometimes eating it on the ground but usually going up into a mid height branch it eat it and groom.

Although there were others around that I could see and hear, this was the only one on the ground or getting anywhere near to photograph. It’s ironic that when I had my 300mm lens they were much closer. Now that I had my 500mm they were much further away and I was in fact, getting a less closer shot than on the previous occasion despite having an actual magnification of double than before! Being marginally brighter, it was still below what was needed to prevent camera shake and movement blur. To add to this, whilst in the trees, the squirrel was moving between areas of darkness to bright back lit patches making exposure very difficult. Most of my images were blurred, over or under exposed and not one was I completely happy with but they do help to illustrate the events the day.

Autumnal Woods

2011-11-02T17:16:00.000Z

With some time off, I thought I would get out and take some photographs of this years Autumn colours before the leaves have completely dropped. With this in mind I decided to be more leisurely kitted out with a full frame camera, wide angle zoom, macro lens a 300mm lens good for telephoto landscape shots and a tripod. The forecast was for a rare clear and sunny day which would help increase the colours.

I tend to have an image in my head whenever I go out to take pictures, in this case it was the first rays of dawns sunshine creating shafts of glowing light and illuminating the canopy of leaves. Unfortunately when I arrived at the woods, it had only just stopped raining and there was no promised sunshine, just greyness. By the time the sun did come out, it was it was late morning when it was more harsher and it was patchy. I found myself sitting at a particular place, waiting for the sun to come to come out only for it to disappear as quickly as it came so it didn’t quite get the images I had visualised but when the sun did appear, it did make the woods look amazing.

I think for most people who take landscapes they do it to try and capture a moment in time and and the beauty of what they see. When I got home and looked at the images I had taken, I was very disappointed – they were nothing like what I had seen. I supposed it’s because it’s not just about the visual colours but the sounds and feelings of the moment, being out in nature, quiet and peaceful with just the calls of song birds, a Tawny Owl in the distance and a Roe Deer barking.

At one point, early afternoon I had been in the same spot for about an hour and a half quietly trying some macro and ‘artistic’ shots, when I realised I wasn’t alone. Up in the canopy I heard some rustling and ‘chipping’ sounds, looked up to see a couple of Red Squirrels chasing each other. On the ground further up a couple were feeding, digging in the layers of falling leaves. It had been over a year since last seeing reds here and I had start to believe the greys had taken over.

It was great just to sit and watch them, but I was kicking myself for not having the right photographic equipment at hand. The best I had was the full frame 5D, the 300mm and converter attached – not ideal. Amongst the leave litter the lighting and surroundings were ideal. Patches of golden light, the red coat of the squirrels along with the red, yellow and orange fallen leaves and logs for them to pose on. If only I had my normal camera I use for wildlife and 500mm lens! I could return another day but no sunshine was forecast for the foreseeable future (this part of the woods is dark) and besides, these are rare now, the chances of seeing as many as there was around at this time – about 5 or 6 – probably wouldn’t happen again for another 50 visits, if at all.

Red Squirrels are very shy animals and I don’t know if they saw me, they were certainly occasionally looking in my direction but maybe I was far enough away that they weren’t bothered by me so I was able to watch them for around an hour though the warning calls in a different direction from my position, by Magpies suddenly made them disappear. It amazes me just how well they can do that. You can surprise one, watch it go up a tree right next to you and you simply won’t see it again.

On this occasion, I was just about to leave when all returned again. I watched them for a further half hour when, above my head on the tree I was hiding behind, I heard the typical scorning chatter of a Red Squirrel. Looking up there was one looking right down at me. If they didn’t know I was there before they did now! They were gone again, only this one stayed long enough for me to take some pictures of it while it continued to ‘tell me off’ before it too disappeared. It surprises me that Red Squirrels are ‘bullied’ by their grey cousins as whenever a wild Grey Squirrel is surprised by a person, it will shot up into the trees and be gone. The plucky red will stop first, give you a load of Red Squirrel abuse, then go up into the trees making more noise at it goes. For me it gives them a bit more character than the greys and, along with their visual charms, makes them one of my favourite British mammals.

Below, a few images taken the day before of some Pheasants

Sunrise, seabirds and a fox

2011-10-09T09:35:00.000+01:00

What a difference a week makes. Stepping out of the house at 6:00am last week the temperature was already 17 degrees and I was wearing a tee shirt, today it was around 8 degrees not including wind-chill! At this time of year, it’s an ideal time to do land/seascaping as the ‘golden hour’ is around 7 in the morning – not too early to get up for and yet it is still relatively mild, at least I don’t have to wear gloves yet which makes it difficult to operate the camera for this type of photography.

So it was this in mind that I packed my tripod as well as my usual load of 500mm lens, converter, camera and 17-40mm lens, filters and cable release making for a hefty load. On arrival at location the sun was just below the horizon and by the time I was taking photographs the sky started to light up. I started taking some photos in prelude to what I thought would be a spectacular sunrise, when it just fizzled out! The clouds got the better of the morning and that was that, the below image was as far as it got.

As I wondered around looking around for further opportunities, the wind picked up. The photos above and below show two opposites of the conditions. Above, the winds whipping up large waves. Below, the same waves were crashing against these rocks but because is was a long exposure it looks deceivingly tranquil.

Walking further up the beach I spent around an hour attempting to photograph some of the waders around, though it wasn’t really the ideal time or location due to the number of people about though I did manage to get a few decent images.

Despite a light rain starting and the continuing grey skies, I decided to head inland where I came across this Fox. Initially, it saw me before I it and disappeared into the long grass though didn’t seem overly concerned by my presence, so I took a chance by waiting in the hope it was simply out ‘patrolling’ the area and I would see it again. This paid off as around twenty minutes later it reappeared. It was soon obvious that it was hunting for rodents in the grass as it was stopping, looking around and every now and then very intently looking downwards and then it would pounce.

I set my camera to ‘silent’ mode, which, although clearly quieter shutter sound than normal mode, it was still loud enough for the Fox to hear as at first, it would look at my direction, but would then be more interested in something in the grass and ignored me. I think silent mode does make a difference as it’s not so distracting and the Fox seemed to become quickly accustomed to me.

I spent around three hours at this location and could see a clear pattern to the Foxes behaviour. It would go one way, hunting for rodents, disappear for around twenty minutes then come back and go the other way, again disappearing before returning. I didn’t want to try chancing after it – I’ve never found this works with wildlife – but rather stayed put as I new there were Fox paths there and as long as I kept my distance I would have a good chance in seeing it.

The images here are just a few I took, though many didn’t turn out too well due the difficulty in focusing on it because of the low light and long grass. I had to manually focus and with a converter on the lens made it extra difficult, pointing the lens at a spot of shorter grass where I hoped it would walk by or following when I could, as it walked in the longer grass but with it’s head down there was little to focus on.

Many of the photos look like the Fox was looking at me but it was just looking around, kept turning its head in the hope to locate the sound of its prey. Often it did look directly at me as if to say “you still here?” I wondered if it was one of this years cubs explaining why it was so tolerant of my presence. There’s something special to me about a wild Fox looking right into your eyes.

Eventually, both our attentions were diverted to a commotion in the distance. Two Crows were mobbing what I could just make out to be a Sparrowhawk though at first I wasn’t sure as it seemed almost white, certainly very pale – I’m guessing it was a juvenile. You can click on the images below to get a bigger one, but they are heavy crops so the detail isn’t there.

A Raptorous Morning

2011-09-25T21:17:00.000+01:00

With plans to visit and photograph the Rabbits I visited earlier on in the year, I stopped off first at Prestwick Carr having not been here since January and hearing of the re-appearance of the SEO’s, presumably migrating from the north.

When I got there early in the morning it was dull with brief periods of sun. In the distance was a perfect rainbow – a sign of the rain to come, although not forecasted. There were few people about, the advantage of getting up this early, with only the odd cyclist and walker passing by.

As I made my way up bumpy track, I spotted in the distance, a Buzzard perched at the top of a tree. As I got closer it few across and made a swoop at second one atop of another tree. They then flew off together into the distance.

Further in the distance I could make out a Kestrel being mobbed by a couple of Magpies and another hovering over some fields. Jets from the nearby Newcastle Airport were regularly taking off presumably with people going to sunnier climes and I couldn’t help wishing I was one of them.

As I watched the Buzzards disappear into the distance, my attention was attracted to movement in a nearby overgrown field where I could see the occasional head of a Roe Deer bob into sight. Suddenly, three Short Eared Owls came out of the long grass, obviously disturbed by the Deer. In the poor light and with a converter attached to my camera, I was struggling to get a focus lock on them so had to switch to manual, by which time the owls had started landing back down again. I managed to get one half decent distant shot before all but one disappeared as quickly as they had showed up.

I was annoyed about missing such a rare photo opportunity before realising that I wouldn’t have even known they were there had it not been the chance of the Roe Deer passing through and spooking them. I waited a further hour hoping they might make another appearance, knowing that they are normally daylight hunters though these particular ones seemed to prefer dusk. In the meantime I was entertained by a Wren fluttering in and around the long grass nearby and some ponies playing in the distance. Eventually, with dark clouds approaching, I headed back down the track. I had spotted five Buzzards and four Kestrels though some of these may have been the same ones, and the three SEO’s.

I arrived at my next location in a light rain (not forecast) and settled near one of my favourite locations at a Rabbits warren. After about twenty minutes the enviable happened as a dog walker went right by me. Where I was, was off the beaten path and this person must have seen me and what I was doing well in advance but chose to walk right past anyway, dog off on a rampage. Soon after a family with about four dogs came nearby, again dogs let on the loose.

This is area is supposed to be a Nature Reserve. Obviously my idea of what a Nature Reserve is and what the Councils idea of one, are two different things. I would have thought it was somewhere where nature is protected and people can sit and watch wildlife and enjoy the surroundings rather than some dog super highway. Since coming here I have seen dogs chase rabbits, birds on the small lake, a fox, other dogs and have even had them have a go at me. You need a dog to walk around here during the day to protect you from other dogs!

Anyway, rant over, clearly I had no chance at this late time of the day (10 am), so I started my way home taking some sanctuary and seclusion hopefully by going through a more remote part of the woods. After an uneventful stroll and with the rain now thankfully abated, I came across the sight below – obvious a Sparrowhawk kill but didn’t think much of it as they are quite a common sight in most of the woods in the area.

A further three metres along, I saw a grey flash of movement in and around the undergrowth at the other side of a tree I was about to walk past and so stopped still. At first I thought it was a Grey Squirrel, then quickly saw it was a bird with its wings out so I thought it was an injured Pigeon. As I looked more closely, I could see, from only about a metre away, two yellow piercing eyes looking up at me and realised it must be the Sparrowhawk with the kill from the feathers I’d just come across. The female Sparrowhawk was a typical ‘shielding’ of its prey from other, would be predators and the way she was looking at me, she must have included me in that!

I know from experience that Sparrowhawks kill ratio is not particularly high, having seen plenty of attempts but only one success before so I didn’t want to scare it from its prey so very slowly walked back, expecting the bird to take flight. Amazingly, this plucky bird stood its ground – considering I nearly trod on it it wasn’t going to give way. I got to some distance then laid down to make myself look less threatening to it and carefully took my camera out, still expecting it to make off with its newly acquired food.

I managed to get a couple of images off in the difficult, dark light before it inconveniently pulled its prize underneath some undergrowth and just waited looking around. Eventually it felt happy enough to start tucking into the Pigeon there and then. I was surprised as I have seen female Sparrowhawks, who are large enough, take Pigeons off into the the trees with them to feed. It took about twenty minutes to devour its meal, regularly looking around with those bright yellow eyes, no longer interested in me as I only got the occasional glancing look. When finished it flew off and disappeared into the trees. I wonder what the chances of my stumbling across such and event never mind watching it until the end. I certainly made up for previous disappointment especially considering this time there were no dogs around.

Brief video showing the Sparrowhawk feeding.

A few small woodland birds

2011-09-18T15:33:00.001+01:00

Despite yet another dark and dingy weekend morning, I was surprisingly motivated to get up and go out. Although it was raining when I first left it soon stopped though remained dull and overcast making, as with last week, photography difficult but at least the wind wasn’t as bad.

Most of the photographs taken I deleted on the spot, mostly through blurred movement as they wouldn’t stay in any one spot for more than a few seconds though, with at best only a 1/300th of a second shutter speed, I was lucky to get as many as I did especially combined with the limited depth of field.

It was a couple of hours into the morning when all of a sudden the birds made a commotion and fled and I just managed to see a flash of grey come streaking through the trees and land some distance away. I could see through the branches that it was a male Sparrowhawk.

I think it must of aborted at the last minute changing direction from its intended prey and seemed to be looking back in disgust. Although it then flew out of sight I was sure it was still around as I could hear mobbing Magpies and the birds I was photographing took a long time to pluck up the courage to return. I’ve only ever once managed to witness a Sparrowhawk make a successful kill and that was a pigeon.

A Slow summers end

2011-09-11T15:56:00.001+01:00

I’ve been going through a distinct purple patch when it comes to my photography in the last few months, not helped by the worse summer apparently, in 18 years. It’s not that it’s just been cooler and we’ve seen less sun than a ‘usual’ summer, but it’s also been winder and completely unpredictable, and by some freak of chance, the weekends this year seem to almost be guaranteed to be worse than the weekdays weather wise! Combining this with few successes when I have gone out, my moral has been at a low ebb, it’s like nature herself has just shutdown for a while.

I did think of leaving the blog until I had some real success – only two of the last five outings has even resulted in my taking any photographs – but that could be another month at this rate, so I’m posting ‘the best’ of the last six weeks or so.

A rare summers day

Most of the typical days (if dry) have looked like the image below – flat and grey but also very windy, making photography more difficult as, from a technical point of few, I’ve had to up the ISO (typically 1600 – 6400) had slow shutter speeds and wide open apertures. You can see the narrow depth of field this has created with some of the bird images below with barely the head in focus. The lack of decent light has made the images look very flat and dull.

I may just work on my landscape photography for a while until I get my ‘mojo’ back. Already the leaves are changing colour and although 30-40 mph winds aren’t good, grey skies can actually work in your favour and at this time of year with the mornings getting darker, you don’t have to get up so early to catch the golden hour and yet it is still reasonably mild.

Marsden Rock to Trow Quarry

2011-08-02T20:01:00.001+01:00

The last month has been one of those periods where, for one reason or another, I have had no luck in seeing, never mind photographing anything. Considering the time of year you would think the countryside would be brimming with life. With this in mind I decided on Sunday to go to the coast where I new there would still have various seabirds – Gulls, Fulmars, etc., and I could practice some more birds in flight techniques and this would help alleviate my photography withdrawal symptoms. Armed with the Canon Mk III and Sigma 500mm f4.5 I decided, since it was a nice day, to start off at Marsden Rock and walk along the beach and cliffs to Trow Quarry South Shields.

Marsden Rock and the nearby cliffs, I think are a much underrated area for wildlife, in this case seabirds. It may not have the more exotic birds such as Puffins or Guillemots you get on the Farne Islands but it was a close comparison when it came to the shear amount of noise that many nesting birds make. A set of steps going down from the top of the cliffs to the beach made an ideal location halfway down to photography the gulls in flight which clearly showed a pattern to their flight enabling me to roughly guess the best shots, though it still tested the cameras auto focus abilities (not to mention my arms strength).

Above Marsden Rock looking north – below part of the Nesting cliff face

Some (above) were able to sleep despite the noisy neighbours (below)

After filling up two cards with images and not pushing my luck by staying underneath the cliffs, which were basically a very large bird toilet, I decided to start the walk north, along the shoreline where a lot of the juvenile birds had collected and were feeding and squabbling amongst each other

With another card filled up I continued my journey where my attention was quickly taken to some noise above me. As I looked up I saw half a dozen small birds ‘chasing after’ a Kestrel which flew to the end of the beach and joined another one hovering over the cliff edges. Too far away to get any kind of decent photograph, I quickened my pace in the hope they may still be around by the time I reached that point.

By the time I did get to the bottom of the cliffs where they had been, one of them flew back over head (followed by a small swarm of mobbing birds again!) and the other had made its way along the cliffs in the way I had just come, just as I had got up the cliff steps to the top. Making my way back along the cliffs the Kestrel returned giving me and a number of gathering onlookers a great sight of it majestically hovering into the wind and then occasionally diving into the grass edge which unfortunately, was out of sight. Although I was able to take some photos of it rising up again and pass something from its talons to its mouth, I couldn’t see what it was, but to eat it on the wing it must have been smaller than a rodent.

It wasn’t until I got home and checked the images that I realised that, although I had compensated for the exposure so as not to get a silhouette, I hadn’t given it a faster shutter speed. (Too engrossed in watching this spectacle) The third image below of the Kestrel hovering was shot with a 500mm lens plus converter at a shutter speed of 1/640 so I was lucky that I managed so many in focus as the actual focal length was 700mm, hand holding the lens and a strong breeze. The normal rule is to have a shutter speed faster than the focal length. Because it was relatively still whilst hovering these were ok whereas those of it diving and rising were blurred to some degree, still I was happy with the results and to be so close to such a display.

Above - Looking back at me and below a rear end view, talons at the ready

After the Kestrel moved off, I continued my last leg of the trip, to finish up at Trow Quarry. Every time I have visited this place, I have hoped to see the ‘resident’ Little Owl. After another, none to optimistic search, I finally spotted the diminutive owl perched on a rock edge starring right back at me watching it through my binoculars. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as pleased to see me as I was it, as it bolted into crevice before I had a chance to even think of photographing it. At least I had finally seen it and, I figured, since it went into a ‘hidey hole’ rather than fly away, that location was probably where it lived and so now I know where where to look, a more stealthy approach next time might produce a photo opportunity.

All in all the day produced a boost to my much needed for wildlife and photographic success.

Just as a side note for anyone interested in the photographic side, particularly the Sigma 500mm lens, the whole walking trip including stopping to take all the photos, I was carrying and hand holding the lens – a total of around five hours.

Photograph editing and ethics

2011-07-10T16:22:00.001+01:00

When I started my photography I was at college where I largely learnt using black & white and in the darkroom, developing and printing my own photographs. During that process you could change the images at the development stage or during the printing such as by dodging and burning. Nowadays most people are using digital – gone are the darkrooms with the chemicals and enlargers, replaced instead by computers and software like Photoshop. Although many shoot digital in JPEG straight from the camera, lots of people, including myself, shoot RAW which means there is some ‘processing’ needed using software to get the final image.

‘A Picture Never Lies’

Having briefly flirted with the idea of becoming a photojournalist (when I was younger and idealistic), this phrase ‘a picture never lies’ was around, and was probably more truer then in the days of film, but now you never quite know what you’re getting, with some skills at using a software package like Paintshop Photo Pro and Photoshop you can completely change an image.

On a recent visit to the Farne Islands I took a large number of pictures in RAW. This was my first photographic visit to the islands and I had seen so many amazing images but most of these were taken in sunshine with lovely blue sky backdrops. When I got there it became overcast and so had boring, dull grey backgrounds making the images that more poorer for it which got me thinking, and so the idea for this post.

The first image of the Puffin below is the original converted RAW file with no changes. The second I added blue sky, the way I would have liked it to have been on the day, but because the left wing tips were also ‘clipped’ I also added these, showing what can be done. I think if you didn’t know, I could have ‘got away’ with this and my skills aren’t particularly expert so you can imagine what could be done.

I am someone who believes in getting as much as possible right in the camera on the day. The above image was given exposure compensation to try and prevent a silhouette , when it came to processing it, I adjusted levels, a bit more fill in the shadows, colour saturation and sharpening. I’ve noticed on the Mk III it needs this more sharpening than what I’ve been previously used to. Normally, with the exception of noise reduction if needed and slight, occasional cropping for aesthetics, that would be it.

I don’t think there is anything wrong in doing those basics – our eyes see differently from what the camera does and all I try and do is recreate what I remember seeing – this is especially true of landscapes – however, I would not have normally made these other changes as this was not the way it was originally and adding the wing tips? Well, part of my enjoyment in photographing, in particularly wildlife, is my own skills and abilities, so I would be cheating myself if I was to accept this and would normally throw out any image that cropped off part of the subject.

The Fox image below is a photograph I have used but I have made some slight changes in this if you can see where. The top one is the final image.

The changes made? The grass stem across the Foxes eye was cloned out and, although I don’t remember originally doing it or why, a twig crossing the tail. Was it ok to do this or should I left it exactly as it was? Apart from that the usual changes were made – sharpening and adjusting levels – no cropping or anything else was needed.

Below is a photograph of a Rabbit I took earlier this year. This time only sharpening and levels. (Right original) I did find that large brown stem just to the right very distracting and would have been tempting (and easy enough) to have cloned it out but then when do you draw the line?

In using RAW, you’re expected to make some changes as the camera captures the very basic images and so would look very flat and soft without it. When you shoot JPEG, the camera processes everything for you, hence the styles you can choose, adding saturation, sharpening, contrast, etc.

I’m glad I learnt my photography when and the way I did and with my parents old camera which was completely manual, even the focusing had to be guessed! It’s just my opinion, but I don’t think that many people learn photography any more, just how to use the camera which isn’t necessarily the same thing as the camera will often do everything for you. Not that this is a bad thing, it opens photography up to more people who would otherwise be put off with the technical side. However, digital photography does make it more open to making changes to the image, but it is just another form of art so I guess it’s down to individual interpretation as to how far you go and what is ok.

Enjoying the Sun

2011-07-08T20:46:00.000+01:00

With the weather forecasted as being cloudy with thundery showers I kitted myself up for some atmospheric landscape images and left early this morning. I really must stop taking any notice of the weather forecast – it was a dry, sunny morning, no rain or dark moody clouds for that inspirational image! I decided then to make the most of the sun on the last day of my holiday. Enjoying the warmth and the sounds of Skylarks and Warblers, I noticed in the long grass in the distance a moving shape of some ears, poking up briefly followed by the slinking shape of a Fox moving across from me.

Unfortunately I hadn’t packed my long lens, only bringing my 400 in the off chance and I had just, last week, lost my teleconverter so was unable to fill the frame, not that it would have made a difference, the Fox was hidden in the long summer grass and only got a glimpse when it stopped to raise its head or moved into a less overgrown spot.

Image left, can barely see the head & right just the foxes back moving on

After the Fox disappeared into the undergrowth, I was about to move off when a second, third, fourth and a fifth Fox appeared – a family of a male and female with at least three large cubs which then stopped tantalisingly in front of me, a distance away, two far away to get decent pictures with the 400 lens but also mostly hidden by the grass making focusing difficult which I had to do manually and pre guess where I thought they would pop up briefly.

The images below are not technically good due to the focusing problems and cropping. If only I had my long lens and converter!

Fox cubs playing with a plastic bag!

The hunt for Red Squirrels

2011-07-05T20:15:00.000+01:00

Anyone living in the UK will know that the indigenous Red Squirrel is being taken over by the North American Grey since its introduction in the mid 19th century which isn’t going down well for most people.

Up until around 7 years ago the Red could still be seen in the Tyneside area but now they’re all but gone.

One of the last areas they can still be seen is Northumberland, so with one of the few remain good weather days of my holiday forecasted, I headed up to Plessey Woods in the hope to get a glimpse of this elusive squirrel and brought along my photography equipment just in case.

It was my first time here and had really no clue where I was going so just wondered around looking for signs to show they were still here. I used to watch them when I was younger locally and the best clue to their presence was the remains of eaten pine cones or better yet, listening for them eating the pine cones in the trees and watching bits of the cones falling down.

It wasn’t long before I came across both of these but couldn’t see the Squirrels themselves although they were obviously up there in the tree. It’s amazing how easily they can blend and hide within a pine tree despites its lack of foliage.

Eventually, success as I came across my first Red which I had surprised low down on a tree trunk. Grey Squirrels if you surprise them will shoot up a tree and you probably wont see them again. Reds seem more curious. They will go so far up then stop and watch you, often making a chattering scolding sound as this one did. I brought along some hazel nuts in the hope to tempt them down. Another difference between the two I’ve found is, although curious, Reds are also wary and unlike Greys, are not so easily tempted by food. This one certainly wasn’t – it just sat up in the tree waiting me out which of course it succeeded in doing, so I moved on.

The day wasn’t a lost cause though, as after a lot of patience I came across a number of other Reds and despite the dull light, I upped the cameras ISO to 6400 as I was hand holding the lens, trying to freeze the action as they nimbly moved around the trees and branches. Luckily their curiosity meant they would ever so often stop to look – the focusing had to be manual due to the foliage getting in the way and I had to be quick, but I did manage to get a few images.

Some from today

A quick walk today didn’t really come up with much, though I’m going to have to take a day out some time to dedicate to trying my hand at macro photography as hand holding and trying to get sharp images isn’t really working too well.

The Reed Bunting below was merrily sing away in some reeds but I was unable to get any closer and unfortunately I’ve managed to loose my ‘can’t be without’ x1.4 converter, so as a result', do the next best thing and take a photograph showing the bird in its environment.

The Farne Islands–Part II

2011-07-03T17:44:00.001+01:00

Some more images from my visit to the Farne Islands posted last week.

Sea birds in flight

2011-07-01T16:45:00.001+01:00

Not really being much of an expert of photographing birds in flight and after my recent trip to the Farne Islands, I thought I’d get a bit of practice in today at Marsden Rock off the coast of South Shields.

At this time of year there is a lot of nesting birds on and around this outcrop – Fulmars, various Gulls, Crows and Cormorants and with the sun shining and a light breeze, it was ideal conditions.

This is definitely a skill that needs a lot of practice, not just knowing the cameras focusing settings, exposures and lens techniques, but also knowing how the subject would behave. For the latter I realised the birds nearest to me were following a similar flight pattern and I positioned myself in a gap on the cliffs.

Shooting down onto the birds made for a nicer backdrop and a more interesting view, unfortunately the mixed background and brief view of them as they flew below my view, (and not helped by their sudden twisting and turning) made for difficult focusing.

After an hour and a half my images were getting better with my experience, however, hand holding a 500mm lens for that length of time meant my arms and wrist were aching and towards the end the ‘hit rate’ went down as a result. Managed to get a few decent ones and will give it a bit more practice.

The Farne Islands - Part I

2011-06-29T16:28:00.001+01:00

A trip I’ve planned for a number of years now but not actually got around to going is the Farne Islands, a group of Islands off the Northumberland coast, North East England, famous for its nesting birds especially Puffins as well as its large Seal colonies.

I deliberately chose the end of June as it would be the height of the breading season and most of the birds are there only during the summer period. For anyone interested in wildlife, in particularly photographing it, this is one of those places which are a must see. Another reason for going was to see the Puffins which are apparently, in decline so I wanted to see them.

To get to the Islands requires a boat trip which, on the way was a tour around the other Islands. I did this trip once before when I was around 12 or 13 and all I can remember was being sea sick and so I wasn’t filled with too much confidence when I saw the size of the boat we would be on – there was a constant to and fro of boats to the islands and most of them seemed somewhat larger. Thankfully I had my sea legs with me this time and quite enjoyed the forty or so minute outward trip.

I did a bit of research as to what the best photography equipment would be to take and decided on two of my DSLRs and a compact. For the lenses a 400mm, 28-102mm and 17-40mm. A lot of people online said that you could easily get away with a 300mm but it turned out the 400 was the best decision.

The Farne Islands as seen from Seahouses

On arrival at Staple Island you could already see the swarms of the famous Terns that greet you. The image left isn’t particularly good quality – it was taken with my compact which struggled to focus not helped with the boat rocking backwards and forwards. Notice how, after a lively sunny day, it now decided to now cloud over!

One thing that did get mentioned over and over again is the need for head protection from these Terns which I thankfully brought but I noticed a distinct absence by other people on the boat and as we approached closer to the landing point I thought they were soon going to regret not bringing something along.

Once landed there was a small fee to pay to the National Trust who help preserve the islands, not just the wildlife but the rest of the history that went along with the islands including the story of Grace Darling and the Culdee.

On walking up the path to the main part of the island, the ‘attack’ soon began as the Terns made it clear their disapproval of our presence by dive bombing us. The reason quickly becoming evident as many of them had nested right next to the path and with plucky defiance they went for anyone walking past, especially if they decided to stop near their nest.

You would think, at first that it was wrong to have people walking this route, but clearly they choose to nest in these locations every year despite the ‘disturbance’. Everyone was warned before getting off the boat not to go pass the cordoned off path and show some consideration.

The picture right was taken with a wide angle lens just pointing up from my head and yes, I did get ‘pecked’ on a number of occasions which was fair enough but I did object to my camera being crapped on – obviously didn’t want its picture taken.

The reasons for the Terns aggression

I kept walking along this section, feeling a little uneasy about stopping and causing more stress for the Terns, though, as already mentioned, I’m sure they would have learnt not to nest here if there was a major problem for them. As I walked along I just took a few grab shots on the move as a result of which most were out of focus or blurred.

The Terns weren’t the only ones you could get right up to. Further along at the first viewing area near the cliff edge were Guillemots and Cormorants. The latter were so close you could reach out and touch them, though with those beaks I wouldn’t have recommended it and were too close to photograph with anything other than a short focal length lens. Unlike the Terns, they were totally unperturbed by the close proximity of humans.

Cormorants taken with at 105mm

Taken at my 400mm lenses minimum focus distance

Further around the small island came the main attraction for me – the Puffins. There is something very endearing about this little bird and, like the Kingfisher, very photogenic. When I go out to take photographs, particularly wildlife, I have in my mind an image I hope to come away with. With the Puffins it was that iconic image with Sand Eels in its beak, preferably in flight. I soon noticed the Puffins were flying in to their burrows to feed their young while having to pass the awaiting gulls, looking for an easy meal by mugging them. The Puffins would virtually ‘crash land’ into their burrows to get past these freeloaders and from what I saw, this method worked well. You couldn’t help but feel for the Puffins. All that hard work just to have a Gull to take your catch from you. Still that’s nature and clearly the Puffins do ok.

The following images are just some which I managed to take.

I’m still going through the images I took, surprisingly not as many as I thought I would – around 4 gigabyte of them. The temptation was to just keep your finger on the shutter release and keep it there and at 10 frames a second I would have certainly filled up all the cards I brought along. Many of the other photographers there certainly used this method and although I did shoot at my cameras maximum frames a second, I tried to do so at the right time for bursts. With birds every direction, right next to your feet, coming in at every angle it was certainly easy to get carried away.

The problem I found was that you only had one hour on the island before the boat left and this was not nearly enough time, at least not for my first visit. I needed to work out the best location, the typical behaviour and then needed the practice of catching them as they flew in. I think I did ok for my first time but next time I would do better. The one grumble, was that as soon as we approached the island the sun went in, after being sunny all day! Apart from getting rid of that horrible grey background, it would have given the images a more 3D feeling which they lack.

As far as being a sight to see, I would recommend it to anyone interested in this kind of thing. To be amongst that many birds and so close all around you, is an amazing experience. And if you are a photographer? Point your lens in any direction and you’ll get something – you can’t miss!

Once I’ve had the chance to go through the rest of my images, I will be posting a Part II.

A weekend of mixed fortunes

2011-06-27T22:12:00.001+01:00

Saturday

With my Mk IIn now being replaced by a Mk III, I was eager to take it out for a trial. One of the reasons for getting this was due to its famed high ISO performance and with the day being dull and dizzily it was a perfect time to put it to the test. For the first part of the morning, I comfortably shot at 3200 and even 6400 with amazingly little noise and no banding – roll on dark, dingy winters (though not just yet). With some encouragement of some nuts, the Grey Squirrels where very obliging and even a Jay got in on the act.

Jay – 1/400 f4.5 ISO 3200

Having walked around for a while and finding nothing much else about, I decided to have a go at some of the ‘smaller wildlife’ that was flying and crawling round me. I’m not a macro photographer, but it’s surprising just what there is around our feet and it’s not until you get down and have a really good look that you realise this. I think on another day, I will go out equipped especially for macro as I really needed a tripod. At 1-1 distance, the depth of field was millimetres. I found myself focusing at the minimum distance and then firing the shutter at the right moment as I breathed in and out! To get any kind of balance between depth of field and shutter speed, I had to up the ISO to 1600 – not ideal for macro.

Sunday

A much brighter, warmer day (I think this is what they call summer!) so, a trip to the coast. Lots of fledglings still being fed by their parents mainly Sparrows, Starlings and Buntings, as a result of which they were much more approachable. For the first time this year, I was able to get the ISO down to 400 or less and still get a fast shutter speed and stop down a bit for extra depth of field.

An opportunity to test my cameras autofocus and my own skills with some gulls in flight, came later. This is a technique that definitely takes a lot of practice and experience. Just keeping the bird in frame long enough for the cameras focusing system to lock on is hard enough but then you have to keep it in frame so it can keep it in focus! I found the focusing limitations were down to my own ability (or lack of) to do this and need a lot more practice - and then there’s the various combinations of in camera settings to choose from.

The reason why this blog is a little later than I had planned is that I had a bit of bad luck – my computers hard drive died on me, as did my backup hard drive, all within a twelve hour period of each other! I’m sure I am not simply cursed with some kind of hideous bad luck, rather than the mini heat wave we’ve been having recently causing the drives to conk out. The good new was that all my original photographs taken in RAW during the last six years, were backed up on a backup, backup. The bad new was that everything else I had was on the other two drives, including my ‘processed’ files for my website and blog – that’s a lot of years of work. I’m sure the true nature of the disaster won’t be completely felt until later as I start to miss other things that have been lost.

A cold, damp day in June…

2011-06-11T21:16:00.001+01:00

…so, it’s a typical summer weekend then! One step out of my door at 6:00 am this morning and I nearly went back in for my gloves and scarf. A quick mental check to remind myself that it was indeed June and I continued on my journey. A bit of researching and messing around with my camera focusing settings, wanted me to put these into practice and see if they would make any difference to capturing birds in flight – in this case Turns – but first a stop off at the woods to see what was stirring.

Quite a bit of growth had taken place since my last visit when the ferns were just taking hold. They now carpeted the woodland floor, making spotting my first photographic hopeful, Roe Deer, more difficult, as I just stumbled upon the first five encounters, wondering how on earth I manage to miss them.

I decided to just sit down and hopefully let them come to me, so with my back to a tree and netting over my camera, lens and monopod I made myself ‘comfortable’. The lighting was very poor, despite picking a relatively open area and so had to crank up the ISO to 1600, though even this wasn’t enough as when my first opportunity came along – a male Roe – I had only 1/60th but managed to get him to stop with the sound of my shutter. Later, I tried the same trick with a female Roe but she either she didn’t hear it or ignored it and continued on her way, as a result of which most of the shots were blurred due to movement..

All the Roe Deer had now traded in their dull dark grey/brown winter coat for a more attractive reddish brown summer one.

I had hoped that by the time I reached my next destination, the light would have improved as the forecast was for a bit of sun! Not a chance, if anything it was becoming gloomier. I started off with a few ‘still’ shots including a rather damp looking Mallard, a Little Grebe with its catch and a few others before my first real opportunities, Terns, came along.

As it turned out, this didn’t really give me the opportunity and had hoped for a number of reasons. The blanket greyness gave little contrast for the AF system to work at its best. Exposure was a problem for a white birds flying against a pale grey background would need exposure compensation but it also flew across a background of trees which, if leaving the first exposure compensation, caused the Tern to come out overexposed. The slight underexposure was causing increase digital noise, so I felt what could have been some really good images, turned out disappointing. On top of this, the Tern decided to do all his hovering and best moves with their back to me.

In the end then, I didn’t really manage to test anything, so will have to try again if and when we get some summer sunshine.

A Walk in the Park

2011-05-30T09:50:00.000+01:00

On a very blustery day laden with showers, I decided not to venture too far but instead pay a visit to one of the local parks – Leazes Park in the heart of Newcastle, over looked by Newcastle United's football ground.

I hadn’t been to this particular park for some time and wouldn’t normally take take ‘wildlife’ photographs at such a location – it somehow seems too easy as the birds are tame, besides, walking around with a telephoto lens in a public area in this paranoid day-and-age is asking for trouble. So it was with some self consciousness that I spent about an hour taking some photos.

I was surprised at the various number of birds there were there, obviously breeding and on one occasion, saw a large fish jump out of the water, so despite the some of the rubbish in the water, there must have been a decent ecosystem going on helped by passer-by's with bread crumbs.

St. James Park football stadium in the background

A Magpie making off with some bread

Despite the rubbish, this Coot seemed at home here

No shortage of Pigeons

Canada Goose chicks keeping warm

A Parent keeping a watchful eye

A Heron and some Rabbits

2011-05-22T16:00:00.001+01:00

It’s been a slow May so far on the photography front with the weather being distinctly not, late spring like, with very blustery cool winds, showers and generally unsettled. This weekend, with a decent morning forecast but changeable later, I thought I would pay a visit to the Rabbit warren I spent some time over Easter at.

On the way, I spotted this Heron making the most of the lack of dog walkers about, to do some early morning fishing. Herons are definitely one of those animals that has a certain tolerance circle around it – you know you can go so close to it before it will be off. I kept my distance and let it get used to me and hoped I would be able to have the time before the inevitable dog came along and scared it off - I waiting until it turned away or plunged into the water, then I could move closer. I was able to get a few decent images before it eventually moved away across to the other side of the small lake, so I moved on.

On arrival at the warren, I plonked myself down at my usual spot which was becoming more overgrown with nettles and thistles, luckily, I chose to wear my thick trousers today making it less painful from my last visit. The usual thirty or so minutes wait before the first head popped up and, as usual it was one of the younger ones braving it first. Despite this, it seemed more nervous than normal and stamped its feet at the beginning as an alarm. It went back in but another came out of another hole and while I focused my attention on that one I noticed an adult come out of the previous hole. This had to have been the biggest Rabbit I have seen. In the two pictures below you can see the first, younger one at the entrance and then the adult, taken at the exact same location and distance and it was too big to get in my frame and completely dwarfs the younger one.

This too seemed unsure of me, also stamping its feet, noticeably louder. I guessed on this day, the reason why they were more nervous than usual was due to the stronger wind that was gusting in all directions, so my scent probably added to situation. However, after a bit of a standoff it moved off and started feeding but keeping a suspicious eye on me, still not sure about me. I reckoned it was a grizzled old timer and probably survived this long through being cautious. With its size, it would have probably made a nice meal for the numerous predators around, though I bet it would have put up one heck of a fight if anything took it on.

After over two hours, my presence seemed finally excepted as half a dozen Rabbits were out and about feeding. I noticed the older one getting a bit closer and so trained my lens on it. It moved directly towards me, and following through my viewfinder, I figured there must have been a younger Rabbit it was maybe coming to stamp its authority on, but a quick look up I couldn’t see any, for some reason it was just coming to, seemingly, investigate me closer. But just as it was becoming too big to fit into my viewfinder, it made for an entrance, looked up and then darted into the whole. I looked up to see somebody's dog trying to get at the Rabbits. Despite dogs supposed to be kept under control in this wildlife reserve, I could see the owners a distance away uninterested in what their dog was doing.

After a two and a half hour uncomfortable sitting, getting them used to me so they would act normally, I wasn’t best pleased by this. I wasn’t keen on waiting another few hours so decided to call it a day.

On the way back I passed, what I presumed was the same Heron I saw earlier that morning, now relaxing around in a field being indifferent to the odd dive bomb by some nearby Lapwings, yawning and stretching.

High & Low Force Waterfalls

2011-05-15T17:30:00.001+01:00

This weekend I had a change of scenery (literally) as I took a trip down to photograph High and Low Force waterfalls with a friend. These are on the River Tees in County Durham and, although have been photographed over and over I thought I would give it a go.

The Journey there took us through some picturesque villages and countryside including one spot we came across in the image below, although my attempt at a panoramic of the view doesn’t give it credit. (click for larger image)

Not just a change of scenery, but a change in camera as I brought along my more pedestrian paced 5D instead of the usual, as it’s full frame and high resolution is ideal for landscapes and for wide angle shots. I tried different exposures and times, and, although the long exposure is a bit of a cliché, it seemed to work better than shorter shutter speeds for the most part.

While packing my equipment the night before, I decided not to bother taking a long lens, the idea being I would be concentrating on landscapes, already carrying the weight of a tripod and besides, there probably wouldn’t be much opportunity to get close to anything with a full frame camera where I was going. I did however take my macro lens and was in the process of taking a photograph at the waters edge of a large insect which I didn’t recognise by my feet - just about getting it in manual focus, when it disappeared. A Robin had flown in, took it from right under my lens, stopped off by a nearby rock looking back at me as if to apologise for the cheek of it, and flew off!

A black and white conversion of High Force further down river

A short trip further down river was the Low Force falls. I found them a bit more interesting to photograph due to their surroundings and shorter exposures gave some more varying images.

Although the falls are not exactly big in comparison to others around the world – just over 21 metres for the High Force – it was still quite an impressive sight and photogenic.

A few animal portraits

2011-05-01T16:55:00.001+01:00

My final foray of the holiday break produced only a few, but some of my favourite images of the period. A final visit to the Rabbit borrow required the same patience to get them to come out and relax around me and start feeding. I trained my lens on one of the younger Rabbits in particular because of where it was. I always try and notice what is in my viewfinder – not just the subject but also the background and foreground and how this will give the best composition. On this case it seemed perfect – the light wasn’t too harsh or dark, the background was nice with subdued shades of mostly green.

The first image had the Rabbit placed amongst some some twigs and it was facing the sunlight direction. The second, even when I was looking through the viewfinder seemed almost like a studio set up. I was willing it to continue moving to my right as there, was the bottom of the tree, covered in green moss which would have really set the image off, unfortunately, the image you see of the Rabbit standing on its hind legs was due to it being alert as moments later a dog scared it underground.

For the photo of a female Mallard Duck with one of its chicks, I deliberately focused on the chick but kept the mother in the frame but out of focus. The other way around and I don’t think it would not have looked right. The one with the chick by itself is for the ‘cute’ effect.

The final three images of the Warbler, I spent the best part of an hour trying to get. The air was full of their singing, announcing and fending territories, and watching them you could see that they patrol their own little patch, flying from one bush to another, then another before eventually coming back and starting it over again. Unfortunately, apart from being a bit skittish of my presence it was also windy so they kept under cover in the bushes unseen. On the rare occasion they did brave the wind and venture onto an exposed branch I was having problems keeping the lens still in the gusts as well as needing a fast shutter speed to freeze the swaying branches. Most of the images were either blurred or the bird was looking away from the camera.

A Mornings Walk

2011-04-30T14:41:00.000+01:00

Out for a walk this morning making the most of my continuing time off and decent weather, I had no plans to see anything or take any particular photographs and so decided to travel ‘light’, packing a 400mm, 105mm macro and zoom wide angle lenses along with the camera. Having been used to carrying around the 500mm lens, this seemed positively feather weight.

As it was early morning and overcast, I thought I could try taking some landscapes, something I haven’t done for a while apart from the odd chance one, but the sun came out making the light too harsh, so instead watched some Rabbits from a distance feeding in the tall grass. Two them disappeared leaving just one by itself, which carried on feeding until nervously, bounding ten metres away then stopping and looking back. I wasn’t really serious in taking photographs of them at such a distance and was just happy enjoying the sunshine and watching them, when suddenly a flash of reddish brown streaked towards the remaining one and chased it into some bushes – it was a Fox and I never even saw it coming!

Both it and the Rabbit disappeared into the undergrowth and it was over before I could train my lens onto the action. I waited thinking the Fox was likely to return the same way as I had seen a Fox here before and knew its route. I also felt the Rabbit would have probably been food for some cubs and didn’t really give much hope for its chances as it was heading away from the burrows when trying to escape and so had nowhere to go. Ironically, 30 minutes before I was in a closer position, where had I remained, I would have had a front stand view of the incident. A further 20 minutes and no sign of either so I went back to that previous vantage point hoping I might yet see the Fox returning.

Within minutes of being back in the position two Magpies were in the spot were Fox and Rabbit disappeared and both birds were making a typical warning sound so I new the Fox must still be around and so trained my lens where it might come out. Normally I don’t like Magpies (from a photographers point) as when they make those warning sounds it ‘s usually because of me and I’m pretty sure other animals recognise these warnings too and so they are warned of my presence. However, if I know it is not due to me then they can be a great help for finding predators, having seen Foxes and Sparrowhawks before due to Magpies mobbing them.

This was one of those times as, out of the bushes, came the Fox. Problem was I was upwind from it now and it must have got me scent of me almost straight away as it immediately looked in my direction, giving me barely a chance to focus and take one image, when it legged it across into some other bushes. I don’t like to chase after wildlife, but even if I had done, I wouldn’t have had a chance of finding it in all that undergrowth and so decided to have a walk around and return later. Had I been carrying around my camouflaged netting which I normally do, the Fox may not have been so spooked as at least I would have been hidden.

I returned back about and hour and a half later to the position I first saw the Fox as this gave me the widest view point. Within a short space of time I saw the unmistakable top half of a Fox in the tall grass going in the same direction it went when I spooked it. Either it had come back during the time I had gone or this was a different one. Once again I had picked the wrong spot though at least I was downwind now. I was starting to think packing ‘light’ was the wrong decision now – ironic since this was only the second time in over a year that I didn’t go out with the 500mm. I managed to rattle off a few shots before it once more disappeared into the grass.

In the photograph below, you can see the original bushes just above and beyond the top of the Fox, where it had originally chased the Rabbit into.

With the Fox gone I carried on walking around and nearly trod on this Toad. I wonder how many of us actually look around us and at where we are walking when we are out in the wilds.

With the morning coming to an end and little else stirring, I thought I would try my hand at some bird in flight shots. Something I’ve never really tried to do but with the a Mk IIn camera and Canon 400mm, renown for being ideal for photographing birds flying, I messed around with the different settings and practiced on anything that flew by. My feeble attempts at the Swifts didn’t go too well. It was hard enough just to keep them in the frame, never mind keep them in focus!

Photographing Crows and Rooks, which are black and Seagull, which are white also gave a few technical problems due to exposure and so tried compensation and spot metering. The bright sunshine at least help me keep a high shutter speed and stopping down the aperture for a greater depth of field. I hope to dedicate a few days out over the coming months to trying more birds in flight with the 400mm.

A Week in Spring

2011-04-28T20:09:00.001+01:00

With holidays taken to fill in the period between the extra long bank holidays, I’ve had an extra period of time off and with the weather also being settled, I’ve managed to get out quiet a bit and enjoy spring. This is a selection of the photographs taken around the Tyneside area.

A misty start to the morning along the banks of the Tyne

Sandmartins checking out possible nest sites

Mallard chicks

A visit to the woods and the new undergrowth of ferns is everywhere. Another month from now and these will be thick, high barrier hiding much of the local wildlife such as Roe Deer. The biting insects are also starting to make their appearance though not as prolific yet.

Bluebells

Peacock Butterfly

A Blackbird out in the early morning dew

Young Rabbits enjoying the sunshine

Warbler in full song

Male and female Roe Deer making the most of Spring food supply

Some more Bunnies

2011-04-23T21:02:00.000+01:00

Looking around the wildlife photographic community, you don’t seem to see much in the way of Rabbits – not quite sure why as I think they are photogenic and certainly have a certain ‘cute’ factor about them. This week I decided to re-visit a Rabbit warren I went to last week and again, with a lot of patience, managed to come away with some decent images as well as a bit of an insight into their lives.

I approached them in the same way as last week and sat in the same spot downwind and waited. This week, remembering how my arms ached somewhat after holding the 500 lens despite on the monopod, I decided to use my camera bag where lens and camera nicely balanced while I waited.

Again, it was around 30 minutes or so before the first head popped out of of one of the many burrows and again, it was one of the younger ones who spent about 15 minutes watching me, presumably, checking me out to see if I was a threat. Eventually, after much noise twitching, it went about its way and started feeding. An obviously older Rabbit that came out of another hole, didn’t seem so certain, obviously a bit more of a cautious veteran and after sniffing the air a few times decided to go back inside.

The image right shows my set up and on the right hand side of this photo, just before the clearing and below the final tree you can see one of the Rabbits at the typical distance they were from me, although some, like the one below, was closer. You can also see on the bottom right one of the many stinging nettles that were all around me, not to mention a few biting insects that are now appearing with the warm weather. Click on the image for a larger view.

Sniffing the air to check if it’s safe

I wasn’t the only one bothered by the insects – you can see a few around its head

After a while, even the older Rabbits came out and , like the one below, chased away the younger ones for the best feeding spots - in this case some leaves from low branches which it was just able to reach. One of the reasons I have been watching and photographing these Rabbits is because of the chances of Foxes paying a visit – at this time of year they will have hungry mouths to feed and these Rabbits, especially the inexperienced young ones, would be a large part of their diet. I will likely continue to spend a few more weeks yet watching these Rabbits, who knows what other opportunities may arise, even if no Foxes don’t turn up it’s quite interesting just watching the Rabbits and their behaviour and of course, they’re great as a photographic challenge.

This little one seemed to enjoy itself by just running around

Early Easter Bunny

2011-04-17T16:07:00.000+01:00

It’s been a while since I’ve tried photographing Rabbits so I thought I would have a go this weekend. I’ve normally found them quite difficult to do so as they tend to be nervous and, since small, you need to get close to them to get a decent size image in the viewfinder.

I sat downwind at a distance, from a active warren and made myself reasonably comfortable (there were nettles everywhere). It was around 30 minutes with just the occasional head popping up and checking me out – I didn’t try and hide myself, just kept a low profile – when they eventually came out, one at a time at first then suddenly there was around eight. Looking at them they seemed to be quite young one which is why maybe they were willing to tolerate me so much as they wandered around, though they were still easily spooked, as on one occasion a Crow flew over and they darted back into the tunnels.

From a photographic point of view I found it quite difficult due to the lighting. The Rabbits would move from bright sunshine giving me 1/2000 to shade at 1/320 and played havoc with the metering. I also found after an hour and a half my arms were aching a bit with the weight of lens and camera although the end of the lens was largely resting between my knees I was still holding the bulk of the weight in an awkward position.

A Day of two Halves

2011-04-10T09:11:00.001+01:00

For anyone who’s ever tried photographing Roe Deer they will know it can be difficult, not only because they are usually shy and nervous, but because they spend most of the daylight hours in the woods, cloaked by trees, underbrush and other vegetation. As if the poor light giving slow exposures wasn’t bad enough then, when you do see and train your lens on them there’s a branch or a tree in the way of a decent shot. Sometimes this can add to the atmosphere of the image but usually it will just ruin it.

Today was a good example. I arrived quite early – around 7.00 am – and almost immediately spotted a single female Roe moving away whilst feeding. I positioned myself and trained my lens at a relatively empty spot in which I thought she would walk into. This time it worked. Once she was in the right spot, I fired a shutter to get her attention and stop, then took two more shots whilst she viewed me with curiosity. She slowly moved on and I wasn’t able to get another clear shot.

My next opportunity had the deer in a clearing but only one shot was any good, with the others either blurred or had the head obscured by out of focus branches.

The differences between the image right and the one below is just a bit of good luck. On the right hand picture the deer is lifting its head higher as it’s more alert but has the head behind an out of focus branch. I couldn’t move to a better location without being spotted. In another photograph she is feeding at the bottom of the tree but the head is again covered by a blurred branch.

I later waited in another location for this and another deer it was with at another clear spot I hoped they would cross but with no luck.

I came across a further four deer sightings, each time obscured by the woods and each time a pointed my lens at an opening I hoped they would cross they would change direction. The three images below are of one of these deer who, had they moved a few metres closer my way, I would have got a good clear shot, as it turned out, the third one is the best I managed from the sequence.

Finally, just as I thought that was probably it for the day, I came across a single female Roe, slowly feeding and moving my way. I draped over a camouflaged netting I use to hide my shape and once again waited until it hopefully walked into the open spot I had hoped for. I was much closer than any of the previous occasions so was reluctant to make any noise.

When she stopped at the base of this tree she kept her head down whilst feeding and new she would soon move on out of the clearing, so took the gamble of shooting of a single frame (left) to get her to lift her head, which she did (below). After this, it was a case of waiting as she stared at what seemed an age, in my direction before eventually getting back to feeding and then moving on.

Whenever I photograph wild animals, especially deer, I like to leave them in the same way I found them – relaxed and going about their routine.

By midday it was getting reasonably warm, which means much of the wildlife is taking it easy. Out on the nearby lake was little activity apart from a few pruning and feeding Coots, the diet which included some insects which strayed too close. It would have been great if I had managed to get shot of the Coots with its mouth open but had my camera set to a low sequence of 5 frames per second and so missed it.

Out in the middle of the lake I noticed some splashing and through my lens could see that a Cormorant had caught what looked like a Perch and was struggling to devour it. The shots were taken with a 500mm lens plus converter but even so it was still some way off and I’ve only included some of the frames, but they give an idea of the on-going struggle. No prizes for guessing who won!

My last image was an attempt at macro photography. Something I’ve never really tried but want too, through it’s a whole new way of thinking and learning. Maybe as it gets warmer and there are some more insects about, I might give it a more serious go.

A Few Weekend Leftovers

2011-03-29T19:38:00.000+01:00

Having only now finished going through all the photographs I took over a busy weekend, I thought I would post some of them in a belated blog. Frogs spawning, Grey Squirrel and Male Pheasant.

A Red Kite Day

2011-03-28T21:38:00.000+01:00

A walk along part of the Derwent this weekend I had hoped to see, amongst others, some Red Kites, which seem to have been a bit few and far between recently. Since their re-introduction back into the Gateshead area in 2004, this has been a popular place to see these amazing birds of prey, which is almost a guaranteed place to spot them circling in the skies with their high pitched shrill. My first stop was the Nine Arches Viaduct which gives a good high view over the valley.

The air was full of the sound of a couple of Red Kites calling to each other, but were staying hidden amongst trees, calling from opposite ends of viaduct. As I approached one of the calls, which involved climbing up a steep bank, it stopped, so I returned back to my original location, only for them to start again. Suddenly I spotted one of them in the distance and whilst keeping my eye on it, I felt inside my camera bag to get my camera out (already attached with a 1x4 converter). Unfortunately, it was still just a small image in the viewfinder, when a shriek above alerted me to the other one almost right on top. Despite dialling in some exposure compensation, the bird still ended up quite dark plus the shutter speed was lower than ideal for hand holding such a lens on a moving subject. No sooner had they appeared, they both drifted off into the distance, so I tried a few other locations where I have regularly seen them.

With no luck at my second spot, I moved to the last one which, as I approached, I again heard their unmistakable call, but again couldn’t see anything. Eventually I could see the Kite making all the noise in some trees about 150 - 200 metres away being mobbed by a crow. Also noticeable was the numbered tag on its shoulder – 76. Going to Northern Kites website (http://www.northernkites.org.uk/) I could identify this particular bird as a male Kite released in 2006.

From a distance, I just sat and watched when another photographer approached after having recently driving past me and had walked back, presumably curious as to what I was photographing. Courteously he checked to see that he wasn’t disturbing anything, he pointed out in the field, what looked like a dead pigeon and another bird, which must have been put there deliberately, possibly by another photographer trying to bait them for a better picture, though he didn’t hang around long. It also occurred to me someone had put out some poison bait – a number of these beautiful birds have been deliberately killed by this means in the area.

Overhead I could see what No. 76 was making all the noise about – another Kite but with no tag suggesting a previous years hatchling. My guess was that 76 was not happy about the arrival of another Kite after this easy meal and went up to ‘greet’ it. After a few aerobatics, they both disappeared as did my fellow photographer.

Not long after 76 and the other Kite returned and it looked like they were going to make a grab for meal in the field, when suddenly six people complete with cameras long lenses strolled out of nowhere and stood up taking pictures of the Kites, shutter blazing. The other photographer must have been originally heading for the hide further down the road and when he found out what was happening, told the photographers in the hide who then came out on mass. Unfortunately, their presence must have spooked both birds as they drifted back up away from the commotion.

When I first started wildlife photography back in the days of film, I never saw another photographer. Since digital became popular there has been a massive increase in others taking pictures of wildlife. Maybe from a selfish point of view, I don’t think this is such a good thing, but I have also noticed that the etiquette, general understanding and wellbeing of the animal they are photographing is often not there. My worry is that my hobby and interest in photographing and watching wildlife that I love, will not be possible in the future because of the damage done by photographers whose only interest is to ‘get the picture’. I’m not saying that these half a dozen people are in that bracket or have any less right to enjoy photographing this subject, but I would have thought that a bird of prey such as a Red Kite which relies on having such a keen eyesight, that can find a small dead animal from high up in the sky, will probably be a bit nervous of a group of people standing out in the open, noisily talking to each other and so would unlikely come down a hundred metres in front of them to feed. So would they have also realised this and at least taken precautions?

76 and rival in some aerial sparing

I figured the Kites would return and the group would loose interest and return back to the hide so waited it out, which, after much discussion about camera equipment amongst themselves, did. After about an hours wait the Kites did return, slowly circling at first, then flying down to tree level, 76 again, making a run but pulled up, this time the arrival of a family walking down the lane, presumably to the hide, as it is otherwise a dead end. What a time for a usually empty, largely unused hide to be popular I thought! I decided, or more over my rear end did, that it was time to get up and call it a day. I could have happily waited another few hours for the inevitable snatch and grab that probably 76 would have made, but with all the disturbance, it may have been late in the evening or the next day before that happened.

I left with mixed feelings. On the one hand I managed to get some of the best views I have yet had of Kites, but I was disappointed with my own images considering the opportunity. Technically, they weren’t great and I most definitely need to practice more hand holding a 500mm lens with a converter on both in relation to focusing and exposure as well as preventing camera shake. Hopefully I will get more opportunities such as this one.

76 making a run at the food

First warmth of Spring

2011-03-20T10:39:00.000Z

I thought today, I would do a quick 3km walk along the cliffs from Souter Lighthouse to South Shields, with the weather looking to be sunny and reaching the heights of 10 degrees. I got there around two hours after sunrise so the sun was still quite low in the sky at this time of the year though it was quite strong – not good for photographing landscapes but giving me a good shutter speed for photographing anything else.

I soon came across my first subject to photograph, some Jackdaws on the cliff edges. They showed a certain wary curiosity towards me, not quite sure how they perceive me pointing a large lens directly towards them. There’s no doubt that some animals see this action as some kind of threat, the corvidae family are supposed to be very intelligent and these Jackdaws, after a while, settled down but would still every now and then just look at me as if to wonder what to make of me. The sun wasn’t such that it was too strong yet and was just at the right angle to make the birds stand out. I just had to make sure I waited before taking a picture, that the light caught their eyes.

A short distance on was Marsden Rock, a 100 foot sea stack near the cliffs. This was once quite a famous local attraction, up until 1997 being much larger with an arch which, with erosion and a storm, broke away from the main section leaving a small stack next to it which was demolished. It’s used as a nesting area for seabirds of which I could see Cormorants and various Gulls and the odd Fulmer.

Marsden Rock

A smaller stack near Marsden Rock

Further along the walk and inland next to the cliffs is an area of grass known as The Leas used for people walking there dogs, cyclists and just general walkers and at first glimpse, not much for wildlife, but I could hear some Skylarks. Unfortunately I had forgotten to pack my binoculars and lovely sounding birds were not in the air singing as you would normally expect but in the grass which in many areas just tall enough to hide them. After some eye straining, I eventually saw one nearby which popped its head up and was clearly responding in song, to another singing Skylark nearby. Obviously they were sorting out territories as the neighbouring one came over and a brief skirmish ensued. I didn’t manage to get anything in focus from this as I had a converter on and was manually focusing anyway due to the difficulty of getting a focus lock with such a small subject in grass.

Hearing Skylarks always make me think of warm, sunny summer days from my childhood and it gives me a good feeling.

Skylark song

No sooner had I just managed to get closer enough to get a reasonable size in my view finder when a dark shadow flew over and the edgy Skylark few off. I was just a few Crows. These seemed a bit more obliging to be photographed. Crows are very common in this country and over looked by me as a photographic opportunity. It’s not until you sit and watch them that you realise they are quite photogenic characters, though from a technical point of view, difficult because of the dark plumage – though nothing normally a bit of exposure compensation can’t sort, or some editing at the RAW stage on the computer.

My walk finished at Trow Quarry where I had hoped to maybe spot a Little Owl, but without the binoculars, I had little chance.

Braving the rain

2011-03-13T16:48:00.000Z

With it being another wet, dismal weekend weather-wise and the various forecasts contradictory, I flipped a coin to decide to go out. To be honest, I haven’t been too motivated as much this year with the predictable weather of wet, windy, greyness, it just demoralises me. Heads I go out in the cold and rain, tails I stay in the nice warmth and just relax. When heads came up, I was thinking of calling it best out of three.

When I left, it was raining a bit, by the time I reached the coast it was raining a lot. Things perked up when I quickly came across a mixed flock of Sanderlings and Turnstones by a rock pool and decided to sit back and just watch them for a while before getting close. They were right next to an area where people who had braved the weather were walking pass, so they would fly off to the tideline when someone approached then run across the sand back to where they were feeding. I waited until the next time they were spooked by a passer-by then positioned myself so I might get some shots, which worked. First, some of them approached, poking their head over the sand bank checking me out, then sprinted across in front of me to the rock pool. Despite the poor light, I was able to get a few decent images, though, as standard recently, the ISO was cranked up to 1600 so I could get a decent shutter speed.

Whatever they had found to eat amongst the seaweed, was worth their continuing flying off and then quickly returning.

I eventually moved off to another part of the beach and decided to have a closer look at mounds of seaweed to see what was in it as far as possible wader food and was surprised as to how much man-made junk was amongst it – netting, plastics, tin cans, bottle tops and bits of material. Some of the seaweed was quite colourful – to be honest, not something I’ve really looked closely at and noticed.

Stormy view looking across to Blyth

St Marys Lighthouse on a grey, wet Spring

With the rain becoming heavier, I wasn’t too concerned about my Mk IIn camera as it’s water resistance (I hope!) but I didn’t want push my luck with my expensive tele lens which isn’t, so packed up and had a wonder around to see what else was about. I thought the frogs might be around in the small pools of water further inland, as this time last year they were active but spring has been colder this year, so maybe next week.

Hmm…not quite in the spirit of the sign me thinks

Waiting for Spring

2011-03-06T16:16:00.001Z

I’m really looking forward to some much over due decent weather. So far this year there has been a couple of weekends without some amount of rain falling, not that it’s been a particularly wet year so far, it’s just that the weekends seemed to be guaranteed dull, damp and windy. Leaving early on Saturday the forecast for the day was at least dry though it was drizzling initially and had that damp coldness this time of year brings. Arriving on location it was very quiet as far as what could be seen and everywhere was muddy, very muddy and waterlogged from flooding.

Since I’ve barely been out with the camera at the weekends in recent months today was more about just getting out and relaxing and enjoying a bit of peace and quiet. After about half and hour, walking along a hedgerow I spotted a female Roe Deer followed by a Male. Luckily I was partially hidden by a hedge (like the one you can see in the background in the picture below) which was also on a higher level so I position myself where I could get my monopod and camera set up and with a clear view but still remain largely unseen hopefully by them. Luckily there was also no wind for them to catch my sent.

With the dull conditions it was hard to avoid camera shake with shutter speeds as low as 1/200 though this was with a converter attached and adding exposure compensation. Surprisingly quite a few turned out ok. As the deer slowly approached closer it wasn’t long that a dog walker came by with their dog, of course not under control (even though there are signs clearly telling owners to do so as this is part of a reserve). The dog came bounding over to me, the owner shouted at it, the dog ignored him, but the disturbance got the attention of the deer, who started to move off. In just over an hour this was already the fifth time an uncontrolled dog had done this, each time the same thing happened – the owner shouted at the dog, the dog ignored them until the owner had to shout louder or physically move them. After another four times of this kind of harassment over the next half hour, I finally had enough and left.

I wish dog walkers would try having consideration for others even if they do decide to ignore signs telling them for the sake of the wildlife, to keep them under control. There are some people who just want to enjoy a peaceful walk in the country or along a beach and don’t want their dog rushing up to them, barking or snuffing around their crotch! I wondered the reason for the lack of birds on the large pond, readying themselves for the start of the breeding season, was due the increased number of rampant dogs.

I decided to head up to Big Waters Reserve where at least some areas are no dog areas. A bit more lively with the wildlife though no sight of any Otters which I haven’t seen for a while, though talking to someone there, he said they were still making a regular appearance. Normally I would look for Gulls circling an area as a clue for an Otter around, but everything was quite sedate. Still no sunshine but at least it was a bit brighter enabling me to get down to a lower ISO speed and still retain a decent enough shutter speed, not that there was much movement just the occasional flyby from Gulls and Curlews (below). Ironically, as I left to head home for the day, a car drove by with the dog in the back, barking at me!!

Cormorants having a slight difference of opinion

Male and female Siskins

Sigma 500mm f4.5 - one year on Review

2011-02-20T13:39:00.001Z

With only two weekends so far this year when it hasn’t rained (so not getting out again this weekend) and it being a year since getting the Sigma lens, I thought I'd spend some time going through my thoughts of how it’s been so far.

Strangely, before buying this lens myself, I couldn’t find that much about it apart from the usual specs, there wasn’t many example images, especially any that convinced me it was what I wanted. One place I did go to was Pbase Sigma 500mm f4.5 unfortunately, the images are as only good as the person taking them and the equipment review part of the site is a good example of this with good images on ‘lower’ equipment and poor images on newer ‘better’ equipment.

I was lucky that I got this second hand and before the hike in photographic lens prices, but it is still considerably cheaper than the Canon or Nikon equivalents. The one thing that would probably put people off is that it has no image stabiliser, however, although it would be nice to have this, it would have meant it wouldn’t have been as cheaper lens and bigger and heavier. I only have currently one lens with image stabilisation so I haven’t come to rely upon this in my photography. I always carry around a monopod with this lens and if I’m not using this I will find something else to rest it on – my bag or knees or some other object that is around such as a fence. I always try and follow the guide of having the same or faster shutter speed as the focal length of the lens you are using and so, as you can see from the photographs below, I often shoot wide open and at an ISO of 1600 as I’d rather have a grainer picture which I can improve during the processing than one that is blurred and can’t be fixed.

Shooting at F4.5

I was pleasantly surprised to find that shooting this wide open still produced very good images and find myself doing so for more than 50% of the time without concern. (See Great Tit below) Just as well with the kind of dull, grey weather we get in this country and when I do shoot at narrower apertures, it’s usually to get a greater depth of field.

F4.5 1/800 sec ISO 1600

F5.6 1/800 sec ISO 1600

F5 1/5000 sec ISO 1600

Focusing

I use this lens with two cameras – a Canon 30D and a Mk IIn. With the latter it is noticeably faster obviously. Speed of focusing hasn’t been a problem unless shooting birds in flight in which case I will use the Mk IIn or the Canon 400mm f5.6. One of the reasons I don’t upgrade to the latest new camera releases, apart from the cost, is I feel I am more held back by my own ability and opportunities. The sequence of Turn shots below were taken using the Sigma lens and Canon Mk IIn, but I had to spend a lot of trial and error watching the Turns movements and practicing keeping them in frame.

F5.6 1/1600 sec ISO 800

Portability

When I first got this lens I thought I would struggle carrying it around as I like to walk a lot and so be portable with any lens and equipment I have. However, I straight away got a new bag for it – a Tamrac Expedition 7x – and this does a great job of taking away the weight of it and whatever else you are carrying on your back, so I can quite comfortably walk a couple of miles with it, I’m not sure I could do that with the Canon equivalent. This bag is also great for using as a camera rest (see Starling below) I will also often attach it directly to my monopod and sling it over my shoulder. One thing I have noticed, because it is a bigger lens and have missed opportunities that I might have otherwise go with the 400 or 300 lenses so the lens isn’t a walk around lens in that way and you really need to be in position, ready to take your photos with this.

Durability

Obviously I’ve only had this lens for a year so far although it was second hand, so I don’t know if it will have the lasting power of the Canon, but so far so good. I have actually dropped it from a short height, luckily it fell onto its lens hood which dented it, but the lens was fine much to my relieve. I have some covers on it so the complaints of the paint work chipping off hasn’t been an issue for me. Hopefully I will be getting many years out of this yet as it has taken over my 400mm as the main lens I use.

F6.3 1/1600 sec ISO 1600 Taken lying down resting on my camera bag

F5 1/1000 sec ISO 1600

F4.5 1/6000 sec ISO 400

F5.6 1/1250 sec ISO 1600

Image Quality

I’m most definitely not a ‘pixel peeper’, as it seems you either like the photo or you don’t, but I’ve included an image (Mallard Duck) typical of the ones above, where it was taken at ISO 1600, 1/1000 and f4.5. It’s not been processed, so there has been no sharpening or noise reduction.

You can see that, despite being wide open and at ISO 1600 the sharpness isn’t bad and with a bit of sharpening, improves greatly.

Click on photograph below to see the same full size cropped image processed.

Clicking on the image of the Pheasant will give a larger image and shows the detail in the feathers, again at ISO 1600 but stopped down to f5.6 to get a bit more depth of field.

Regarding any other image related issues with this lens, I have not come across any, certainly none that I have noticed but then, as I have said I am not a pixel peeper. I did feel the colours were a bit warmer but if you don’t like this it is easily changed if you shoot RAW.

x1.4 Converter

Being able to use a converter on this lens and still get good quality images was a big selling point for me. Researching online gave me contradicting, mixed opinions. I don’t know if this is down to the user or the quality of the individual converter or lens so I can only speak from my own experiences.

The Cormorant photograph right was taken using the Kenko pro x1.4 converter. It’s also been cropped quite heavily, as the original was in landscape. This converter works great with the Sigma lens as it does with my Canon lenses. It does slow it down, more noticeably when using my Canon 30D but it is perfectly useable, especially with the Mk IIn and even copes with larger birds in flight. I don’t hesitate on using the converter if it helps and will shoot wide open with it on.

Photograph left – ISO 800, f5 and 1/3200

Conclusion

I’m certainly glad I got this, particularly when I did as it’s now getting out of the price range of many enthusiasts even second hand.

It’s given me the chance to get that little bit closer to wildlife that I couldn’t with the 400mm lens even with the converter. With the converter on this, it’s a bonus. The extra amount of light it lets in at f4.5 makes a big difference compared to what I was used to at f5.6.

A Rainy Weekend…Again

2011-02-13T12:12:00.000Z

As I type this, the song ‘”The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore” by the Walker Brothers is playing on the radio which is appropriative for the kind of weather we’ve been getting this year so far especially over the weekends. Yesterday I was determined to get out, if only for a walk and despite it raining when I left home, I headed out to one of my favourite locations. The weather forecasters predicted the rain to clear early on so I timed my arrival for then – of course it was still raining when I arrived. Not deterred, I had a walk around and had borrowed a camcorder to have a bit of fun with. As it happens, it turned out a good way of showing how often in the woods you can spot deer but of the difficulty of actually photographing them.

Below is a short video I took of a typical sighting of Roe Deer that I came across, showing the problems of not getting a clear view and how easily they can disappear. They are remarkably well hidden in the woods with their drab colour and it’s often only their movement or white rump that will give them away. The image on the right was taken in my usual way which is sitting down with my back against a tree, overlooking an open area which I know they often will pass or cross over. However this takes a lot of patience…and luck!

Continuing my walk there seemed to be more to see in the flooded fields at the wood edges with large numbers of Swans and Geese making the most of the opportunities supplied by the large bouts of rainfalls of recent weeks. Large parts of the woods themselves were flooded and had become very marshy. After over an hour after the forecasters said it would stop raining, it did however in the woods it still felt like it was raining as all the water collected in the top of the trees and branches dripped down.

It was very quiet about with little stirring apart from my stomach as I had missed breakfast. I couldn’t help but think back to the story books you would get as a child where animals lived in little comfy homes with a log fire, pictures on the wall etc., and that’s where they were on this cold, damp morning, while muggins here was wandering around in the elements.

Some signs of a possible early arrival of spring as I came across some Snowdrops which came as a bit of a surprise as it seems such a long winter, though I think this may be a bit optimistic, barely being mid way through February and a forecast of another spell of cold weather for the next few weeks.

Towards the end of the walk I came across some signs that there had been some activity by Foxes as shown by this fresh Fox scat.

Sun, Sea and Sanderlings

2011-01-30T11:18:00.001Z

I’ve barely been out so far this month. A combination of dull, windy, damp weather that seems to time itself for the weekends and the general feeling this kind of weather, at this time of year can bring. This weekend, although more of the same was forecast, I was determined to get out, if only for a walk and exercise, so I got up before sun-up and headed for the Northumberland coast around Cresswell.

By the time I got there it was a sunny, clear day with a heavily layer of frost on the ground and clearly much colder than the forecast predicted which soon left me regretting not putting on the extra layer I would have normally have done with temperatures at around zero. I spent the first hour and a half inland hoping to see Barn Owls, but after loosing contact with my feet and only seeing flocks of Geese and some Lapwings, I decided to just go for a walk along the beach.

The coastline from Cresswell to Amble is part of Druridge Bay, an expanse of sandy beaches with sand dunes and at this time of the year, comparatively empty of people and it has a number of wildlife reserves. It’s a beautiful place just to go for a walk and clear ‘the cobwebs out’ despite the usual ‘dog problem’, it was very relaxing - just what I needed and by 11:30am, with the sun still shining brightly, it felt quite warm , helped with little wind.

Southern Druridge bay looking northwards

Along the way I came across a small group of of around seven Sanderlings so decided to set up my camera and see if I could get any images of these small birds. Conditions were ideal with the bright sunny light I was able to get 1/1000th and above to try and freeze their constant movement and darting backwards and forwards. Unlike my experiences at Whitley Bay, the passer-bys were thoughtful enough to kept behind me, so not disturbing the birds which also might explain why they seem to keep in front of me, going form one side then turning around and coming back but never straying very far from my location.

After about an hour I decided to head back as it was becoming more overcast and when the sun wasn’t out, it was noticeably colder, at least when sitting still. I walked a bit further on before heading back to Cresswell and then home. After finally getting out this month, I’ve managed to recharge my batteries despite being a little disappointed at still missing seeing and photographing any owls.

Slow start for 2011

2011-01-11T19:17:00.000Z

Finally, after three weeks I’ve been able to get out and about this weekend. I didn’t get out for the sole purpose of taking photographs, rather than to stretch my legs and get some exercise after such a while of inactivity. The weather is back to ‘normal’ – cold, damp and grey. I think I prefer the snowy weather, for some reason it didn’t feel so cold.

I basically decided to walk around and photographed whatever was about – which wasn’t much as seems to be the case at this time of year. The few animals that were around were less timid than usual so I could approach them quiet closely which is just as well as I didn’t feel like doing my usual hanging around and letting them approach me. Lots of Pheasants around sun up – ten at one time – but it was too dark to take decent images of them, only managing one who stayed still and posed for me as did the only one Grey Squirrel that came down from the trees.

Where I walked, it varied between sheltered areas still covered in snow, to heavy frost to open areas which were just wet and icy. All areas of still water were frozen over though the river was still flowing, which is were I came across a Heron which I approached slowly and managed to get closer than I would have at any other time of year, but it didn’t seem too bothered by me as it continued to preen, stretch, yawn and the occasional alertness when it must have seen or heard some possible prey.

Despite getting quite close I still had to put a converter on the 500mm lens and, although on a monopod, the lens was shaking quite badly as I was shooting in an awkward position due to having to shoot through branches trees which prevented a clear view and which the auto focus focused on so had to manual focus. I also had to use spot metering and exposure compensation due to the lighting conditions and light plumage of the Heron. After about an hour of obliging me with photographs, it eventually flew a hundred metres upriver and, although a better viewpoint for me, I decided to leave it in peace and called it a day.

End of Another Year

2010-12-29T17:28:00.000Z

With my being laid up with the Flu over the Christmas period, I’ve not managed to get out and about, but instead had a go at revamping the look of my blog. It’s become traditional at this time of year that television channels create cheap programmes by re-hashing what’s happened over the year, so unashamedly, I bring you 2010 through my Camera.

It’s actually been a disappointing year for me, especially from a photographic point, with many of the opportunities and sights available to me in previous years, not happening this year. This may have had something to do with the weather as the year started off colder and snowier than normal effecting the survival of many wildlife. With temperatures below freezing, Grey Squirrels were more approachable and very photo generic.

As usual, the beginning of the year was slow but I did get my first opportunity of seeing and photographing Barn Owls, unfortunately these were lost when my hard drive crashed before I had backed them up and no future sightings of this beautiful owl were seen.

Around the same time I made my biggest photographic purchase – a Sigma 500mm lens. A second hand copy came up at a bargain price and after initial doubts I took the plunge and haven’t looked back, it’s a great lens and does everything I could want of it going past my expectations. Since then, lenses, even second hand, have gone up so I was lucky to get it when I did. It’s opened up new opportunities for me allowing me to get that little bit closer to wildlife and yet not be too heavy that I can’t walk about with it.

A nice surprise in spring was to see Red Squirrels again on Tyneside. It had been a few years since seeing them last as the Greys slowly move northwards replacing them. Unfortunately, this was the only time I did see them this year with sights in Northumberland also becoming rarer. It seems inventible that it will become extinct from mainland UK.

It felt like I spent the first half of the year waiting for summer or at least some decent warm, sunny weather. With the end of May and beginning of June being promising and with ‘experts’ saying the last time we had as colder winter as we did was back in 1976 then if was followed by a hot summer, it seemed this might be a good year, but no sooner than the good weather came, it was gone again - back to a ‘normal’ June.

Despite being a little cool and often overcast, I made the most of the days I could with the coast being especially productive despite the endless stream of dog walkers ignoring signs and the enjoyment of others. Unlike other years previously, opportunities for photographing certain wildlife seemed scarce, particularly Foxes. I had particularly hoped to get the iconic image of Fox cubs playing outside their den and had the previous year, found out a quiet location. Unfortunately after spending many a mosquito ridden hour waiting, it was obvious that the den was no longer in use. However, one Fox encounter I did have was very memorable when one came up within close distant and, despite my being in plain sight, it didn’t see me and eventually went on it’s way. It was one of those times where just watching was more important than trying to photograph wildlife as using my camera would have scared it away.

With the summers breading season well in swing came opportunity of photographing this years young including one of my favourite places along the river Tyne where Sand Martins nest.

While still waiting for summer to arrive, spring came! With this came plenty of chances of colourful photographs and, for the first time this year I was finally able to photograph some Kingfishers. The last and best time came a week before the big freeze when a Kingfisher unexpectedly came within metres of me, but unfortunately had my converter on and was almost too close making a good sharp, clean shot difficult, that and having a slow card in my camera which soon had the buffer filling up.

Winter came early this year, ending 2010 much as how it started with record low temperatures and amounts of snow. I seem to be one of the few people around who actually has enjoyed the snow. However, it’s easy to forget how bad this can be for the wildlife not used to these kind of conditions. No doubt it will have a negative impact on the coming year, already owl sightings are down and no doubt Kingfisher numbers will suffer again. Plans for the coming year? I think I will spend more time with my landscape photography. Wildlife wise I’m hoping to photograph Short Eared Owls if they make a come back as well as Little Owls and Barn Owls. Foxes will be on top of my list as usual, especially cubs.

Hopefully, 2011 will bring new opportunities as well as a bit of good fortune.

Momentary Respite

2010-12-11T16:38:00.001Z

After over two weeks of snow, I got up early today to find most of it suddenly gone, just some compact icy parts which I had to navigate over without slipping and breaking my neck as I made my way in the dark down the street. It seemed strange to be able to plant my feet on real terrafirma instead of snow. It was almost a clear sky and a cool 3 degrees though still quite dark when I reached the coast and the sky was turning a beautiful orange colour as the sun started to rise.

I never get bored with watching the sun rise, there’s something special about it – the colours and you can actually see the sun rising. With the view I had I thought I would set up my long lens and try and photograph the sun close up, something I have never tried before, obviously making sure I didn’t give my eyes some ‘laser treatment’. As I waited for the big moment I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye and swung my lens around just in time to see a Fox bounding across a patch of short grass into some bushes. Unfortunately, my camera set up was for a small aperture in readiness for the bright sun and so I could only get a 1/40th of a second shot off in the gloom, before it disappeared.

Back to the sunrise, I was able to take a few images before the light became too strong, with the last perfect timing as some birds took to the air.

With the sun now well and truly up and the light improving I headed down to the waterline. I wasn’t expecting much as I new the tide was going out which is not the best time to photograph shore birds as they will be moving away from you, however, after settling myself down a few Oystercatchers and Redshanks came into lens range.

After a while I headed back to where I had seen the Fox in the off chance it may return, and had a sandwich to eat which attracted a Robin. I broke off some bits for it and left them close by which it soon came for though it was too close to photograph. The Fox didn’t return not surprisingly. Looks like I’m not going to get a decent shot of one this year.

The Cold Snap Continues

2010-12-05T10:32:00.000Z

There’s something about the woods in winter when there is snow on the ground, that I love. It seems more peaceful and quiet than normal, probably helped by being a ‘balmy’ –1 so nobody else seemed to share my enthusiasm for being out, but also there was no wind making it very silent but for some occasional bird sounds. From a wildlife photographic point of view, it was not so good and even the enticement of the nuts and seeds I brought along wasn’t having the effect I was hoping for though I would normally stay a bit longer so the birds would get used to my presence, but I didn’t bring a ground sheet along to sit on so I was only able to stop in places for short periods of time before the damp cold forced the need to start moving again.

I stopped off at a couple of places I new Roe Deer would cross on the way back to their daytime hold ups and on one occasion got lucky as two deer came out into the clearing and shooting my shutter was enough to stop one of these inquisitive deer to look my way and buy me time to frame and focus my shot before it indifferently moved on back into the trees.

Despite the seemingly bareness of the woods, everywhere I looked there were tracks. It’s not until you get a dusting of snow that you can really see the tail tell signs of just how much wildlife there really is living here though mostly nocturnal. In many places there wasn’t a spot which didn’t have some type of animal track of some sort – mostly Foxes, Roe Deer and Rabbits – some obviously very recently, others older.

This has definitely been the coldest and most prolonged snowy period in a long time, certainly since I have lived in the North East of England. Having this amount of snow seems to have changed the landscape, where normally you can see clearly defined parts of the wood or countryside, the snow has covered much of this – fences, hedges, boundaries have all been whitened out making it seem bigger and unrecognisable. Looking at the same spot in the above image normally at just about any other time of year, you would not see more than a couple of feet as it would be high reeds in marshy water.

Despite not seeing much wildlife if was a useful time out as I was able to find out what wildlife was around, where they normally travelled and their numbers, information I can put to good use during the rest of the year.

Early November Snow

2010-11-28T10:02:00.000Z

Well, winter’s definitely here. Normally, in this part of the UK when we get snow it’s around January. We’ve had over six inches of snow in recent days. Getting up early in the morning this weekend, the local radio station was saying if you don’t have to go out, stay in which seemed sensible advice with temperatures at around zero and planning on rising and with more snow on the way. However I like getting out when it is like this, as long as the wind isn’t too strong and you dress warmly in layers, walking around one of my favourite places will usually be quiet with fewer people venturing out and animal tracks all around plus the added bonus that much of the wildlife is less timid and spending more time looking for food.

So it was that I set off dressed up snugly with camera, lenses and food for myself and to entice some wildlife. Initially, it seemed very quiet with little stirring – amazingly quiet. When the wildlife started to appear it seemed very cautious and I could only get some long distance images. I also couldn’t stop long as there were few places that I could find that didn’t require my digging away the snow and despite my wearing two pairs of thick socks, I would soon find my feet getting cold.

Apparently, at this time of year the Robins we have are not our ‘local’ ones but visitors from places such as Russia escaping the cold weather there – not sure what they must think when they end up with this then! Anyway, they seem particularly friendly though this may may have something to do with any food on offer as whenever I did stop for any short periods, up would pop a Robin out of nowhere and although I couldn’t get them to feed out of my hand as in previous years they still came quiet close. Each location it was the same – first came a Robin then later, a few others and after putting out the last of the food I brought I decided to just walk around enjoying the sunny weather.

In some parts I went, it looked like somebody had let off a giant foam fire extinguisher with everywhere looking like it was covered in foam. Along the edge of a wood I came across some obviously fresh Fox tracks, as it had snowed heavily recently, so I new they had to have been made in the last hour – possibly the last few minutes, but they turned off into the woods. As well as other Fox tracks there were Roe Deer and other bird prints though no Rabbit. After around five hours I could see some very foreboding clouds rapidly heading my way and decided I really didn’t want to be caught out in another heavy snowfall and so made my way back.

From a photographic point of few, the day had been quiet difficult with, despite the sunlight, it was dark as far as the light getting into my camera was concerned and I had to shoot at 1600 ISO when using my telephoto lens. Surprisingly the battery held out saying it was still a full charge, usually the cold will drain them quickly, though I had two spares in my pockets being kept warm. Despite my telephoto lens having lens cover on it, it still had a bare handle grip which in these temperatures, even through my thermal gloves, felt very cold. Next time I will have to make some kind of cover for this to help prevent this. I’m sure I’m in the minority here, but I prefer this kind of weather in the winter than the ‘normal’ cold, damp and wet weather we would otherwise get.

Fresh Fox tracks leading along the side of a wood

A Wet day…again

2010-11-21T11:55:00.000Z

The plan today was, that I would head to Cresswell, Northumberland, in the hope of seeing and photographing Barn Owls. The weather was going to be very important as these owls do not like to hunt when it is wet, so ideal situation would have been a wet night and a dry day so they would have more likely hunted during daylight hours which they tend to do more anyway at this time of year as food becomes rarer. Leading up to the day the forecast looked promising until the day before when it changed with probable rain during the day.

Up at the crack of dawn and I could hear the rain outside – not too promising – still maybe the forecast will show an improvement – nope. I could either go back to bed which was very tempting, or I could venture out in the cold and wet to either Cresswell in the hope it improves or, I figured, one of the public hides situated around the region where at least I would keep dry. I chose the latter, to be exact, I decided to revisit Clara Vale in the hope I would get a better chance at photographing a Kingfisher. Ironically, the wet weather would be an advantage as their usual places along the Tyne would be fast flowing with the extra rainfall so they would be more likely to visit still waters.

On arrival at Clara Vale there was only one person there, someone who I often see when visiting local hides and have a natter with, the weather must have scared the usual crowd off. The usual birds were there again as last week only this time it was considerably darker and I started getting no better than 1/100th of a second shutter speed at 1600 – 3200 ISO which, even if I could prevent camera shake with this and a 500mm lens, the birds were moving too quickly. After about an hour, the familiar call of a Kingfisher was heard, but like last week it kept its distance and despite the improving light enabling me to attach my converter, I was lucky to get a shutter speed of 1/400, still, I managed to get a few, reasonable shots off if distant.

Kingfisher on an branch almost empty of its leaves

sequence of images of a catch

chaffinch

water rail

robin

male pheasant

In-between visits by the Kingfisher and with the rain changing between downpours and drizzle I attempted, with little success to photograph any other passing wildlife. After about six hours of the cold and damp and my regretting not putting on a thick pair of socks, I was, for the umpteenth time thinking of calling it a day, when the Kingfisher made a sudden and unexpected appearance on a perch close to the hide. Unfortunately I still had my converter attached and was almost too close to the bird, that and the fact I was using only 1/100th of a second at a focal length of over 800mm meant none of my shots were completely sharp. To add insult to injury, I was using my second storage card which was not a fast one so my buffer kept quickly filling up!

I was able to get a few images off, some of them showing what was by now, quite heavy rain. Although happy with the opportunity, I was kicking myself that I had my converter on and a slow flash card in otherwise the images would have been much better. Still, with the year approaching and end, I have finally managed to get some decent images of a Kingfisher in 2010.

One year on…

2010-11-14T10:44:00.000Z

…since starting this blog, with the original idea behind it partly being to motivate myself to get out a bit more as I was going through a bit of a slump, with work dominating much of my life. One year on and this has worked as I’ve been out much more, unfortunately, I have had less success than the previous four years – opportunities have just not been there for some reason, at least with my three favourite subjects, Foxes, Deer and Kingfishers. I could put it all down to bad luck but if I was being pragmatic then the reasons for my lack of success may a bit more tangible. Fox numbers, like most animals, will fluctuate according to their food source – in this case Rabbits which help make up a large part of their diet, and I have seen fewer of these over the last year. Having said that, I have seen quite a few Foxes over the past twelve months, just not where I have normally photographed them.

Most of my Roe Deer photographs come from one particular wood which gets little human disturbance making photographing this shy and very alert animal much easier, however I know that due to growing numbers and problems with rival males there was some form of cull planned so this might explain that. As far as the Kingfishers are concerned, we had one of our worst winters for years this year with many of the water ways frozen over leaving just the coast for them to fish at.

Having now photographed wildlife for four years, I’m seeing patterns form at the locations I go to, changing year to year. Some areas of water dry up at bit or become more overgrown, woodland change, some areas have more human disturbance, so it seem natural that animals are going to adjust accordingly as well as change their habits and territories. So I need to rethink my approach and also adjust. It’s ironic that I have the best equipment now than I have ever had, with my main lens being the Sigma 500mm which could have made a big difference a few years ago when I needed the extra reach and stops it has over the 400mm I was using.

Anyway, with my first blog showing Kingfishers and with regular reports about Clara Vale having them visit, I decided to head off there. I don’t like public hides at the best of times, but the this one can make me feel particularly uncomfortable as it is usually crowded with photographers who don’t tend to the quietest lot.

On this day a Kingfisher did make an appearance, in fact on and off for a couple of hours, but always at a distance and so I was only able to get some low quality images, still, I never get bored watching this entertaining little bird.

Initially, despite being a sunny morning, the lighting was poor as the sun was still low down and so had to use a ISO of 800 - 1600 for most of my images to get a decent shutter speed especially with the song birds which were constantly on the move, it was only in the last hour or so that the suns rays were finally reaching the areas I was trying to photograph.

One unusual bird to this area was a Water Rail, which, every time it made an appearance there was a sudden clamber of photographers moving to that side of the hide which then sounded more like a major press conference, the noise of continuous frames rattling off - it just lacked the flashes and questions! To be honest, although my 30D can do 5 fps and the 1D mk II 8.5, I rarely use this option unless I am trying to capture some quick action and then only if it isn’t going to have an adverse effect on the animal I am photographing. Someone commented that it didn’t stay out for very long, darting back for cover just as they were taking pictures…hmm, can’t understand that one! I think next week I will go back to a bit of solo therapy.

The Golden Hour

2010-11-07T14:26:00.000Z

Last week I tried to photograph woodland in its Autumn colours. This week, with the weather looking ideal, I thought I would give wildlife a try, hoping to give them an Autumnal backdrop. I decided to use the ‘Golden Hour’ – that period just before and after sunrise – and water based birds as the subject. Arriving just as the sun was rising, it was around 5 degrees but with no wind and a clear blue sky – perfect.

Over the water was a fine mist, unfortunately just dissipating, otherwise this would have given a great atmosphere. You can see from the first image that the sun was just hitting the trees at the far end of the small lake, the trees of which were ideally in their Autumn colours and reflecting beautifully on the completely still water. There were only four Mallards and a couple of Moorhens around but were perfectly posed within the reflection of the trees, which you can just make them out below. Combined with the early morning orange glow the images I was able to get were a spectacular colour which I have tried to recreate. It was just a shame there weren’t more subjects available and a bit closer.

After shooting a couple of dozen images, I had a walk around the area in the hope of other opportunities but with nothing there I came back to the lake only to find just two Swans left and the strong golden glow all but gone, so I moved on – next stop Big Waters.

Big Waters seemed initially very quiet. It’s one of those places where there will be nothing much to see then, if you’re lucky you might catch a glimpse of an Otter or Kingfisher. No such sights today but a large flock of Greylag Geese flew in, spooked by something in the nearby fields in which they were feeding. I had my 30D with Sigma 500mm plus 1.4 converter attached so trying to track these birds as they flew past wasn’t easy. Had I had the 1D mkIIn then I would have probably had more ‘keepers’ but I would have lost a little reach. Still, I was able to get a few shots.

In the middle of the lake were a couple of Cormorants, warming themselves up. For the most part they just sat on an old dead tree, but occasionally stretched themselves, opening their wings to make the most of catching the suns rays. Although now late morning, the sun was still ideal, being low down in the sky due to the time of year. The Cormorants turned out to be quiet photogenic, but eventually they flew off, leaving Big Waters very quiet again.

Autumn’s Colours

2010-10-30T19:19:00.000+01:00

Last week I tried to to photograph Autumn’s typical colours but without too much success, so I decided to try a local wood with plenty of deciduous trees. The day was forecast sunny and so I arrived early to get the best of the early morning ‘golden hour’ light, but had to wait a while for the sun to rise. As I sat in the gloom, one of the local occupants decided to check me out – a male Roe Deer, who kept coming up to a couple of hundred metres, looking at me intently, then running back barking, stopping, coming back again then repeating the whole thing again, doing this about four different times. Eventually he left continuing to bark, where I could hear him in the distance for a further 20 minutes. Unfortunately I only had a 300 lens and it was still dark – the picture below not really showing how dark – as the sun was only now just hitting the top of the trees. Taken at 1/40th 3200 ISO.

	Roe Deer Alarm call

With the sun only hitting the tree tops within the woods, I had a look at the lake where the light was creating a lovely warm colour on the far side. I had the wrong lens to photograph wildlife but did managed to capture an image of an adult swan with some of its youngsters. The various other waterfowl would have made great pictures had I had my 500 lens as the light was perfect, but I hadn’t planned on any wildlife photography today, wanting to instead travel light.

Returning to the woods, the sun had momentarily disappeared making the wood seem very dull. When it did reappear, it was only to light up the tops of the trees, so I spent much of my time with my camera pointing upwards. One of the things I like to try and do with my photography, particularly landscape and scenery, is to capture just what I see, the colours the mood, atmosphere, unfortunately today I failed miserably.

Some three hours after sun up its warm early morning glow was replaced by a much harsher light, though still the rays were only in places, hitting the floor of the wood due to the suns lower place in the sky at this time of year. Quite a bit of bird activity today, probably making the most of the last of the available summer food with still some insects about as well as berries and acorns. Only two further sightings of Roe Deer, though with the unavoidable noise made by the thick leaf litter on the ground, they could probably hear me coming some way off.

A few days off

2010-10-23T10:48:00.000+01:00

With a few much needed days off work, I decided to make the most of a break in the weather and headed off to one of my regular haunts along the Derwent. During the week there tends to be fewer people walking around the area so I thought I would see, and hopefully photograph, more wildlife, particularly so far this year, the elusive Kingfisher. After a cold three hour wait and not even flash by, apart from an overhead Kite I moved on.

I’m not sure why this year I’ve had no success in photographing the Kingfisher, the cold long winter, more disturbance from people or just changing their location. I am still seeing them flashing by and hearing them, they are just not stopping where they use to.

There are certain places along the Derwent where Kestrels perch which I always check before getting too close as they are easily spooked. From a distance on a pylon, I could see one right at the top. Still within its ‘comfort zone’ I thought I would see how close I could get and followed a line of bushes and trees that hid my approach but through a few gapes could see if it was still there.

On what was a very windy day I was amazed at what is a light bird not been blown away, perched at such a height. The images I took weren’t very good, taken at the equivalent of over 1000mm, hand held. The second image was taken after I managed to get closer and photographed through a break in the trees I was using as cover.

Eventually I had no option but to move out into the open so I sat down, letting it get used to me and every time it looked away, edged a bit closer. After about 45 minutes and half the original distance, it suddenly flew off, originally thinking I had pushed my luck but then behind me, saw some people out for a walk coming towards it.

As I followed its flight through my lens, I noticed a much bigger bird which I then tracked and saw that this was a Buzzard. I managed to get a few shots off despite hand holding the camera in windy conditions with such a long lens, one image which turned out quite good as it had its wings spread out in typical Buzzard pose.

I still have an old tatty copy of a Collins guide to Birds of Britain and Europe from my childhood in which it shows the then distribution of the three birds of prey I saw (below scans) – Buzzard, Kestrel and Red Kite. The Buzzard then quiet common in the west has now spread east throughout the country and is now very common. The Kestrel which was very common then is now apparently becoming rarer though around these parts it can is still regularly be seen. The Red Kite which was very rare after been hunted nearly to extinction in the UK, has now been re-introduced to various areas including the Gateshead area where you can almost be guaranteed to see it.

The day finished with a brief appearance of a male pheasant which seemed indifference to my being nearby with only my camera shutter noise getting its attention.

The next day saw me take the train up to a small place called Prudhoe along the Tyne. The hope was to catch the trees changing to their Autumn colours and as I would be doing a 4-5 km hike, I travelled light with just my 5d camera and 17-40mm lens. The weather was sunny spells along with showers and strong winds.

Most of the scenic part of the Tyne was the first stage between Prudhoe and Wylam as this is were most of the trees next to the river were, unfortunately they didn’t have the ‘golden’ colours I had hoped for. The trees were at different stages of changing, with the wind blowing those leaves that had already turned colour, off their branches. Still, there were some sections which were reasonably picturesque.

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Image 5 - Looking up towards Wylam Railway Bridge

Wildlife wise, there was little to be seen, justifying my not trying to drag along a telephoto lens though I did take the opportunity to look at what possibilities there might be and certainly there were plenty of Fox tracks.

There’s also a bit of history along the walk such as Wylam Railway Bridge, opened in 1876 and in use until 1968, looking like a small version of the Tyne Bridge.

Apart from the very strong winds which made keeping my camera still while taking a photo difficult, it was quite a good days shooting. Normally when taking landscapes I would use a tripod even during the day. Apart from keeping the camera completely free of camera shake (preferring to use a low ISO and f22 for maximum depth of field) it also means you can use long exposures for a different effect, and also slows you down when taking a picture, making you think a bit more about what you’re doing, however, this would have added to the weight I would have to carry.

By the time I had reached Wylam, I was in more familiar territory, just being further on from here is where I watch and photograph Sand Martins though, of course, they had long since headed for warmer, sunnier climes and with the skies darkening and the wind as strong as ever, I was wishing I could join them.

When I reached Newburn the journey had taken around three hours mostly spent on the first kilometre where I took most of the photographs.

Image 6 – fishing on the Tyne Taken from Wylam Railway Bridge

Something for the Weekend

2010-10-17T16:15:00.000+01:00

On Saturday I went with a friend and visited Low Barns Nature Reserve in County Durham for the first time. Although little to see on this occasion, it seemed quite an interesting place with a mixture of wetland and woodland and a number of hides. Although I didn’t get too much photographically wise this time, it was a nice Autumns day with the trees now starting to turn golden.

Perched precariously at the very top of one of the trees in the foreground in the above picture was a Cormorant, swaying in the wind. Not a very popular bird due to its veracious appetite for fish and, as you can see from the close up of the same bird below, the damage it can do to trees where they roost.

Mallard Duck flyby

With Sunday promising to be a sunny day and the tide and time just right I thought I would venture to St. Marys, Whitley Bay to photograph some shore birds. Anyone who has read any of my previous blogs of this excursion, will know that this tends to end in a lot of frustration for me due to the numerous dog walkers, however I thought I would give it a try anyway.

When I got there, there wasn’t many people around and on the beach itself just a fellow photographer with the same idea. I gave him some breathing space on the beach and set up about half way along this 200 metre or so stretch. There was plenty of birds coming in with the tide including Oyster Catchers, Curlews and Sanderlings. After about an hour of waiting, (the other photographer had gone by now) and expecting at any minute to see some dog bounding up the beach whilst its owner shouts at it, some of the birds started to move closer with the incoming tide, in particular a crow that strutted about.

After another half hour the Sanderlings started to come into range. I'd previously attached my 500mm lens to my camera and, with great annoyance with myself, realised I had forgotten my 1x4 converter. I had chosen to use my 30D which is a crop camera, instead of my usual 1d MkIIn. The focusing wasn’t as fast but it does give a little more ‘reach’, ironically, about the same as having the 500mm with the converter attached to the MkIIn. For most of the time, the birds kept either side of me with the occasional Sanderling running quickly past to get to one side or the other, but gradually a few of them came in close and so I was able to get a few decent shots. Slowly the larger birds were getting in close too.

Of course the inevitable happened – not a dog owner but a couple of numpties who chose to walk the 3 minutes to the dead end of the beach, of course past in front of me, scaring off the most of the birds, then walked back as there was nowhere to go and nothing to see at the dead end, followed by a bounding dog that chased after the remaining birds!

At least, I thought, I had managed to get a few decent shots and over an hour and a half without disturbance, though I still left in disgust of the selfishness of some people.

Walking back, past St. Marys wetland, there was a number of birders/twitchers. It would seem there was some rare bird(s) around about. I can’t imagine that it would want to hang about with a whole lot of people chasing after it. Too be honest I’ve never personally, fully understood the idea of chasing after a particular species of bird, to me I like wildlife – all wildlife and I enjoy watching it, ideally in peace so being apart of a group of 20 or more others clambering to see an elusive bird, just isn’t for me. I wonder how many of them noticed the Fox prowling in the long grass, right under their noses or the Kestrel hovering overhead.