Crossbill

I can thoroughly recommend David Whistlecraft's woodland bird hide, here's some of the images I took on my visit.

http://www.djwimages.co.uk/

Owl photography

If you want to learn the best ways to photograph wild owls without disturbing them why not book a full days tuition, e-mail me for details.

Winter gems

A long time since my last post on here! I was not out as much prior to Christmas due to having what seemed like a chesty cold, it turned out to be a lung infection that resulted in low blood oxygen so I ended up in Hospital and unwell over the New Year celebrations, I'm bouncing back to full fitness now though.

I really like the winter, it's the time to spend at a feeding station, mine is now very busy with lots of common woodland birds coming to get photographed, a great reciprocal arrangement, I help them survive the long cold nights by keeping them fed and they pose for pictures! The Robins are now getting ready to pair up for spring, I have one who poses to sing ... next years Christmas cards perhaps!

The other good thing about Winter's short days is that you don't need to get up as early to shoot the sunrise, this puddled farm track is near Burwell in Cambridgeshire.

Below are some more feeder site birds, the Nuthatch is at one of my sites, but the Wren is at David Whistlecrafts Norfolk woodland hide, I have been there to photograph the Crossbills and Siskins that come to his pool, more on that in the next post.

Another great thing about the winter is the influx of Short-eared Owls that arrive from Scandinavia and beyond, these are a joy to photograph usually. However this year I have been appalled by the behaviour of many of the 'birders with with cameras' that have literally crowded out some of the sites these birds depend on for winter survival, the constant noise of talking, slamming car doors, mobile phones and pagers is bad enough, but several of these idiots spend time hounding and chasing the birds in vain attempts to get close up images. The lack of fieldcraft, general stupidity, complete disregard for the birds welfare, and utter disrespect to other genuine and careful photographers is contemptable!

For just a few days each year the sun rises in a position that allows a clean unrestricted long telephoto lens shot of Ely Cathederal from far away, the longer the lens the bigger the sun will look, I used 840mm (600mm + 1.4X) to get this image.

Close to home

I usually check out the dung heap in autumn, just to see what is returning back to wintering areas, I haven’t seen much there as the dung seems to have migrated too, its not there! But there was a Wheatear or two finding plenty to eat at the site.

 The other images are local landscapes in some fairly dramatic weather conditions, all taken during some of the brief bits of spare time or on the way to/from various other projects.

Waders

This year is flying by, almost Christmas again and I am already fed-up with piped carols in the supermarket, glad I don’t work there!

 The seasons are passing on and I nearly missed the main wader passage due to other work commitments and frankly some very crap weather, it seems to have been wet and windy whenever I have been free to head out with the big lenses.

 I did get away to the coast though, one of my main target species was Curlew Sandpiper, I have many pictures on file but thus far have never managed to find a really confiding bird that I can shoot from right down in the mud, with it! Part of the problem now is that you can’t go anywhere without there being crowds of people, and amongst them is always another birder with a camera, usually one who makes more noise that a one-man-band in hob-nailed boots!

 Well I found the bird, a 1^st year juvenile with a fine peachy flush of colour to its breast feathers, and after a little while stalking carefully I dropped to my tum and started shooting, soon the bird was used to me enough that I could get closer, however , dashing across the shingle I could see disaster looming, I’d been seen and another camera toting person was heading in my direction at breakneck speed…… fortunately once he was closer I recognized who it was and after a few hand-signals and whispered instructions the chap got down low and moved in slowly, he also waited until I was happy that I had the images I was wanting before joining in, It was so good that there are still a few who respect other peoples ‘finds’ and show some etiquette rather than bulldozing in, generally spooking the bird, leaving no-one with shots! Many thanks, you know who you are!

 On other days I had to myself a very confiding Purple Sandpiper (above) and an equally tame Golden Plover, it posed for me for about 2 hours....... 

 .......and also I caught up with some Sanderling, practicing ballet and running in the surf on the beach at Titchwell.

Lots more images on http://www.flickr.com/

Farne-tastic weekend!

A blinding weekend, two days on the Farne Islands with Steve Blain and Paul Hackett, the weather was pretty much perfect except a strong swell on the sea made the timings a bit outside what we had hoped for, but in the end it was a photographically productive trip.

 I came home with all the target shots I had wanted, mostly that consisted of more and better Puffins in flight with bills full of Sandeels, Close ups of Shags showing the irrescent green colour better, Razorbills, I had perfect light for them on Saturday morning and a real poser to work with too.

You can find many more images from the Farnes on my Flickr pages click here .

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1 to 1 photography tuition

I am now available to take bookings for full day photography tuition (1 or 2 pupils) again, so if you are struggling with understanding your camera's settings, controlling exposure, fieldcraft and composition why not e-mail me for details.