Nature

Different level Stephen and I mean photography …. not ledges on cliffs!

Again at Bempton Cliffs but on this occasion I under exposed the image. Great advice given by Jack Lodge at a recent event where I met him.

Gannets at Bempton Cliffs. The light was so bright I had to experiment with over exposing the images to achieve an artistic portrayal of this amazing bird.

Time well spent I would say Paul. Great inflight images.

Target species for the day found and captured (photographically of course). These really are the most comical little bird that we see in the UK.

Hopefully I have a memory card full of images to remember my couple of days at Bempton Cliffs

A day with House Sparrows.

What do you do when you have to stay at home to wait for a tradesman and the weather is perfect for wildlife photography?

Answer: try to capture Sparrows in-flight as they leave their nest in a hole in the neighbour's stone cottage.

Above: When they leave there is no peeping out to look around for danger. They just shoot out of the hole. This is the paler female emerging.

I tried to listen out for the feeding twittering to stop and set off a burst of shots.

There are a lot of shots to delete!!

Above: First near miss!

Above: Launched but wings not deployed!

Above: Further into the initial rocket launch with wings about to deploy! (Female)

Above: First wing flap. (Male)

Above: Well under way. This shot is at 1/2500th sec and ISO 200

Above: Undercarriage up and maximum thrust!!

Conclusion: You don't need exotic subjects to set a challenge and have some photographic fun!

No doubt it was useful practice for future wildlife photoshoots.

Hope you enjoy these!

Fantastic photos, Paul. I very nearly went myself on Friday morning, but had an awful night's sleep, so didn't bother. Seeing your photos I wish now that I had made the effort. But like Steve, I'd be happy to join you or anyone else, on a future visit.

Just on those photos, I think it would be really helpful to others (like me) if you could add the camera settings in the caption, like they do on many sites.

I echo Mats point Paul. I’m happy to join you sometime and always up for an early start.

Great photos.

These are great shots, Paul. I’m not sure about the Cetti’s. They have an incredibly loud song that tends to act as an ambush - startling for such a small bird. I’m hopeless on most warblers, but I’m off to Blakeney today where I’ll have to make an effort! If you fancy some company on these trips let me know, I’d love to join you ( despite the hour!)

Another early morning visit to RSPB Ham Wall this morning arriving at 06:30.

I like walking the loop track away from the hides (I think it's called the Walton Trail) and it paid off with some wonderful encounters.

First I startled a deer and thought it's hind quarters disappearing into the long grass would be my only sighting.

However just around the next corner I froze on the spot as a young fawn walked in my direction in the middle of the track and I managed to capture the image below.

On the insect front there were clouds of Four-Spotted Chasers everywhere in the reeds and trees (see photo of one sun bathing on a reed).

Had a flyby treat of three Canadian Geese and the AF reacted quickly enough to latch on to them before they disappeared.

I also spent a long time watching a Grebe family with ride-along chicks and breakfast freshly caught for the youngsters.

Almost back at the car park I managed a shot of a Warbler and wondered if it is the elusive Cetti's Warbler I keep hearing other birders yearning to photograph.

I'm no expert and it could very well be a Reed Warbler or similar.

Well this is a whole new ball game Paul!!!! I have enough trouble coping with modern lenses never mind antiques - sorry vintage. They are great images and it is so rewarding isn't it when you get something you were aiming for. The art is to really just sit still in one place and wait. I must dig out some of my last year's pix

During the recent, most enjoyable, photoshoot at RSPB Ham Wall I decided to set myself an additional challenge of trying to capture images of moving birds with a vintage 300mm f/5.5 telephoto lens. It is manual focus (pre-dating the invention of AF) and has a 42mm screw thread mount for which I needed an e-mount adaptor to connect to my Sony A6000 mirrorless camera. The beauty of this camera is it can display 'focus peaking' by highlighting on the digital scene which parts of the image are in sharpest focus.

To add to the difficulty there is no image stabilisation in this lens or camera combo so I sat myself down in the Avalon hide with Paul Meyer and Wendy for good company and tried to get some decent shots using a tripod.

Although it doesn't compare with modern lenses in term of sharpness and image quality I did manage to pan with a Cormorant as it set off into the air and got a burst of shots, the best of which is below.

I'm so chuffed to have captured the wake in the water left by it's tail as well as two splashes where it used it's webbed feet to push forward and gain take-off speed.

The conditions were fairly bright so I believe my aperture was set to f/8 (not recorded by the camera data). The shutter speed was 1/500th and with the ISO set to auto, it is recorded at ISO 200 in the meta data with the image.

I'd be interested to know if any other members have tried vintage lens on their digital cameras?

This particular lens cost me £20 on ebay so I thought it worth a try!

If nothing else it shows how far lens / camera technology and quality have come in less than a life time.

To preserve my sanity I was also shooting (hand held) with my Canon and a 55-250mm image stabilised AF lens, when not messing around with antiquities.

PS: please excuse the green chromatic aberration at the top of the image which I thought I had successfully removed in post... but obviously it needs more tweaking!

Here’s another shot once airborne…

Thanks for this Steve. It is difficult get birds in flight to be sharp and the other obstacle is being well positioned to pan with the camera. I have found on occasion that using my biggest zoom lens is all very well but it becomes quite heavy after a while!!! The images below were taken last summer: the curlew was with my Canon 80d using the Canon 100-400mm zoom at 280mm F6.3 1/1600 sec ISO200. The lapwing was the same camera and lens on F7.1, 1/4000 sec ISO400 at 400mm. I never cease to be exhilarated trying to get a good image of a bird in flight. I remember once being told by a judge that you get extra points for photographing an animal or bird with its mouth open!!!!!!!!

PHOTOGRAPHING BIRDS IN FLIGHT

One of the most satifying parts of bird photography is to capture them in flight. However to do this takes a little bit of knowledge and technique.

When I attempt images of birds in flight I usually opt to put my camera into shutter speed priority, or if I am feeling a little more adventurous I will set it to full manual.

The key to getting a crisp image of a bird in flight is getting the shutter speed correct.

I would recommend setting the shutter speed at between 1/1600 second and 1/2500 Second. For smaller birds however you may wish to consider an even quicker shutter speed to freeze their wings in flight.

It is also essential to pan with the bird in flight. This can take a little bit of getting used to but I have found that with practice this does become second nature.

I do always get asked what ISO setting I use , but my answer is always the same. Within reason I set the ISO to whatever is needed to get the shot. Shutter speed is the primary factor for consideration for me.

Many cameras will have auto ISO settings and some will allow for the user to set a maximum ISO. My preference is to set the maximum ISO to 1600, but with improvements in cameras, processing software and the introduction of DENoise this can be stretched even further and still manage to capture a great image.

Having said that shutter speed is everything some interesting images can be captured by reducing the shutter speed and capturing movement in the birds wings. All this comes with practice.

Nature photography is a very popular genre in Sherborne Bradford Abbas Camera Club. 

But a question we get asked all the time is what equipment do you need to take great nature photos.

This is a very simple question with a complex answer.  However, in brief any photographic equipment is suitable to take Nature photos.  Many smartphones offer zoom and macro lenses these days, and with practice these will often produce great images.

For those who are more advanced and wish to explore this area in more details and who have a DSLR or Mirrorless camera (of any type) there are numerous lenses for each make of camera. For environmental nature images, often a lens such as a standard 24 – 70 mm or 24 – 120 mm will get you great results.

For those wishing to have a little more reach, then a 70 – 200mm (plus a teleconverter if you have one) will provide excellent opportunities, but then there are the 500mm and 600mm lenses.  These all come at a cost and as such I wouldn’t suggest jumping in to these until you are sure that this is a style of photography that you really wish to pursue.

If this is a subject that interests you then the best way forward is to come along to a club photoshoot event where we concentrate on nature photography and to ask to be buddied up with someone who has some knowledge of this style of photography.

This is great as seeing a good image will hopefully encourage people to use their gardens and not necessarily feel they have to go out.

Peacock butterfly- not so many around this year!