Wildlife Photography across the Water: Little and Large

Wednesday 18 March 2009

Little and Large

The last couple of days have seen me shooting Ospreys and tiny yellow rumped warblers, I went down to the lake yesterday to do a recce and see if i could get in a decent position to get shots of the osprey on the nest,I took the dog (mistake) and grabbed my D300 and 200-400 plus a converter, I wasn't going to shoot but if you don't take the camera something will happen, I managed to find the nest and i should be able to get a reasonable angle to it, The Osprey was on a post above the nest and watched as i approached, I was still some distance off and slowly made my way down, It was obvious that i would need to use the converter so i quickly put it on and took some shots at distance then all of a sudden the bird flew off the nest and come over to check me out,The focusing seemed horribly slow and i grabbed a couple of hand held shots and then left, When i got home i downloaded a load of rubbish, I didnt have time to set the camera up and the shots were under exposed and then realised that i had grabbed the 1.7x instead of the 1.4x-No wonder the AF was slow and i wasnt suprised that only a couple of the shots were sharpish,Not a problem for web use but really only fit for the bin-will write 100 times 'must keep standards up',It wasnt a wasted trip and i may leave it a couple of weeks until she has eggs before i shoot properly,

I was in my local supermarket a couple of days ago and noticed that they had some pussy willow for sale for a few dollars so i bought some and yesterday when i returned i strapped some next to my feeders and within a couple of hours the birds were landing on it and using it as a perch-Great, I wanted some shots of the Yellow Rumped Warblers now that they were getting their breeding plummage so decided that i would try today,The weatherman predicted an early fog that would burn off to a sunny day-He was correct and first thing i popped into the hide that i had set up yesterday,The fog was quite heavy but burning off giving a nice diffused light, I knew i wouldnt have long so kept my fingers crossed, I had set up the hide at minimum focusing distance and put on a 1.4x to get the bird a good size in the frame, I noticed that the ends of the willow curled towards me and and were too close to focus so i put a 12mm extension tube on and that corrected the matter, I managed about an hour before the light was too harsh, I got a couple of nice shots but noticed that the background wasnt quite how i wanted it so when i finished i moved the hide 3 feet to the right and will try again tomorrow-weather permitting

Dave

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Bio's

David Courtenay, a self taught wildlife and nature photographer, has been capturing images for over 30 years. He has had a passion for wildlife since early childhood and remembers being glued to the television whenever Survival, Wildlife on One and other natural history documentaries were shown. In the 2006 he swapped his established career for the life of a wildlife photographer, such a move demands a measure of uncompromising passion and commitment.

David has travelled extensively throughout Europe as well as spending more than 7 months in India working with local guides and trackers in search of Bengal Tiger, Asian One horned Rhino and Asian Elephant. He has also photographed Wildlife in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra, Africa, Canada and America. Working closely with Conservation companies he tries to raise funds to help Wildlife that has been put on the endangered list by poaching and habitation loss

Martin Dyer has had a passion for avian wildlife since childhood, particularly raptors. Photography was also another keen interest and it was with the specific availability and control of the whole process that digital offers that Martin was then able to combine the two in 2003. Based in the UK, Martin is a regular visitor to Scotland, specifically the Isle of Mull to watch the Eagles resident there. Other trips to Europe and around the UK are usually part of Martin’s agenda in a typical year.

However, as a firm believer on making the most of the local patch, Martin has spent a lot of time and hard work creating a wildlife garden which is reaping the rewards with many new species and varieties of wildlife. A keen member of a number of wildlife photographic groups, Martin is keen to expand his portfolio into other areas of wildlife, and has already established a wide portfolio of images of fungi.