Saturday 1 May 2010

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.

Thursday 1 April 2010

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.

Friday 19 March 2010

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....


Monday 8 March 2010

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.


Saturday 6 March 2010

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

1/400s f/5.6 ISO400 400mm

1/500s f/5.6 ISO800 400mm

1/640s f/5.6 ISO400 400mm

1/640s f/6.3 ISO400 400mm

1/500s f/5.6 ISO800 400mm

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.

Sunday 28 February 2010

Lambourn Hills

1/500s f/5.6 ISO200 400mm

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.

Friday 19 February 2010

starlings.

1/50s f/5.6 ISO1600 400mm

1/15s f/3.5 ISO100 28mm

1/20s f/2.0 ISO1600 28mm

1/60s f/2.2 ISO800 28mm

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...

Wednesday 17 February 2010

climping.

1/100s f/6.3 ISO400 28mm


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.

1/500s f/10.0 ISO200 400mm

1/1000s f/6.3 ISO200 400mm

1/1000s f/7.1 ISO200 400mm

1/800s f/7.1 ISO200 400mm

Sunday 31 January 2010

buzzard behavior.

1/640s f/5.6 ISO400 400mm

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.

1/640s f/5.6 ISO400 400mm

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...

1/640s f/5.6 ISO400 400mm

Sunday 17 January 2010

snipe

1/400s f/5.6 ISO500 400mm

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.

1/400s f/5.6 ISO500 400mm

Wednesday 6 January 2010

more snow.

1/500s f/6.3 ISO400 400mm

1/320s f/6.3 ISO400 400mm

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...

1/500s f/6.3 ISO400 400mm

Tuesday 5 January 2010

snow.

1/1250s f/6.3 ISO200 400mm

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...

Monday 4 January 2010

Brent

1/400s f/6.3 ISO400 400mm

1/1000s f/6.3 ISO200 400mm

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.

1/640s f/6.3 ISO320 400mm

Sunday 3 January 2010

2010

1/200s f/6.3 ISO200 400mm

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!

1/200s f/6.3 ISO200 400mm