Back to Basics

A quick venture out on a cold Autumn day helped produce a bit of success to my lagging photographic ‘loss of mojo’ that I’ve been suffering from over recent months.  Sometimes it’s best just to get back to some basics just to have some kind of success.  Recent hopes of the subjects I’d hoped to see and photograph haven’t come to fruition which has dented my confidence and motivation, on this occasion I decided to have no expectation and just enjoy the sights and sound and capture whatever strayed in front of my lens even if not what I’d hoped for. Three hours in the morning enabled me to see ‘run of the mill’ subjects with at least one image I was particularly happy to get – the Moorhen – because it was a bit unusual perched on a stick and the sun was just at the right direction to give the colourful background.  The second image of the Moorhen was taken later when the sun went in and shows the difference that can make to the colour and the three dimensional impact of the image. This time of year and over the coming months is a good time to take pictures of many animals, especially small song birds as they can be seen more easily without foliage and are more tolerant of human presence due to there being less food around. I think a few more ‘basic’ outings is what is required for the rest of this year, which will hopefully get me back on track.

Read More

A Wet day…again

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.

Read More

One year on…

 

…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.

Read More