a month on.

Sorry for the lack of postings, I still have no internet and work is very busy at the moment.
But good news, the Wild Wonders of Europe book has been released and you can get it for £25 through Peter Cairns

Spring is upon us so I have been down at my favorite gravel pits trying to get some displaying grebe images but it isn't going very well so have some coots instead.

turnstones.

The first time in almost two weeks that there has been sun and a low tide. But of course the tide was very low making it very hard to find any birds. All I could get close to was turnstone but I shot a whole role of 120 film which I am very excited about getting developed as the light was perfect.

Black & White Kites

I have been with out internet for a few days so I have had time to hunt the hard drive for something to edit. I found these red kite images which where all over exposed so converted to b&w and I really like the effect.
I have 2 weeks off, which will hopefully involve taking lots of images so stay tuned....

pagham sunset

It was a perfect sunset at Pagham last night, not a cloud obstructing the sun. Was pretty amazing to watch and it was also rather cold. A few knot put on a show but the image I have in my head involves thousands, hopefully I will make a visit to Snettisham later this year.

knots

I went down to Pagham Harbour this evening, it started off very bad as I had taken no images and was heading back when I saw some knot circling in the distance. A few more arrived before they were flying around me as the sun set. Amazing experience, hopefully I will have another go tomorrow.

turnstones

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I have tried to capture a series that tells a story, as well as trying to be completely different. I have ignored the rule of thirds on a few as well as trying to capture the birds in flight. I have a lot of oof images, so much so that I am considering an upgrade as my 40D really struggles with anything that moves fast.

Lambourn Hills

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Sorry for the lack of images, I have been very busy recently.

Here is an image taken this weekend on a farm in the Lambourn Hills that I am being allowed to photograph on. It has a healthy population of Barn Owls, so the plan is to capture some images of them hunting. Hopefully expect some more images.

starlings.

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Managed these this evening in Chichester, they were circling around for about an hour. Quite a few sprawks and peregrines having a go at catching them. I want to try and get a bird of prey in the shot as well but it may take some work...

climping.

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So I take a week off and it just rains. But this morning it was forecasted to be sunny so I was up well before dawn and went to my local beach, Climping. The tide was very low, as you can see in the above image so there was a bit of a trek before I found some birds.
When I eventually found some I was greeted with an amazing sunrise, I decided to shoot into the sun to try and show it off. A sanderling posed nicely in front of the light reflecting off the sea.

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buzzard behavior.

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I was finally able to use my new hide today, it involved an early start and a drive over to High Wycombe to use Marick Szczepanek feeding site for kites and buzzards.
I had only been in the hide 5 minutes before a Red Kite made a swoop on the food I had put out. But I was set up shooting through the tripod leg hole to get a low angle which made getting birds in flight impossible. I had to wait until the kites left before I could move so I have a nice selection of blurred photos to add to the collection.

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Once all the good light had gone a Buzzard dropped in and started feeding, it was only on the floor for a few seconds before it started to get attacked by Kites, above is an image showing the behavior. A few seconds later it flew off and so did the kites...

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snipe

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Everywhere is flooded at the moment so I had to go somewhere different this morning. I am glad I did as when I was walking across some flooded fields I walked into this guy. I managed a few images tryng to get as low as possible before leaving him in piece. Having live view helped a lot and meant my jeans where only a little bit wet!

I have just bought a hide, so I plan on experimenting using it over the next few weeks. It will be the first time I have used one so it may take a while to get use to it.

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more snow.

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Light was really poor so many blurred shots but I got a few I was happy with. The falling snow really helped in the crow images as with out it the impact would be lost, over the next few days I am going to try and get out as much as possible.

It looks like it is going to be sunny tomorrow morning so expect more...

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snow.

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With a lot of snow forcasted for tonight I had a look through the photos I took last time it snowed. This has to be my favorite mainly because it was probably the closest the Kites got to me.

I plan on sneaking a few images in, before trying to get to work tomorrow morning...

Brent

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Every year it seems Chichester Harbour is invaded with Brent Geese, I am not complaining as they can give some great photo opportunities. I still haven't got the image I am after but it seems being at the right place at the right time can prove important.

Some of my images are being used on the Chichester Harbour Conservancy website which I am really pleased about, a big thanks to Ed Rowsell who made it possible.

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2010

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I took a break from blogging mainly due to taking some time off work and not wanting to write anything. But I carried on taking pictures as I find that a lot easier. So I have a backlog of images to share, to start here are two from this morning.

I have lots planned for 2010 so stay tuned and happy new year!

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