Wildlife Photography across the Water: Another Quick session

Saturday 9 April 2011

Another Quick session

I havent been down to the private land for some time even though i try to keep food there its not there enough, I think Raccoons have found the food source and after a day/night the food is zero, When i arrived every bit of food was gone and the hide/blind had been raided, My food containers were on the floor,open and empty, Only a raccoon could do that, I had an image in my mind of some wild party going on in the hide with 3 or 4 raccoons having a great time, Anyway i havent been very happy with my perches, They seem kinda bland so i cut a small branch from a small tree just coming into bloom in my garden and used that for small birds and then cut some vine and wrapped it around my woodpecker branch to add some colour, The vine stayed good for around anhour before wilting even though the end was in water but by then i had some hairy woodpecker images, The red bellied woodpeckers arrived late and the vines were all but dead but i think maybe still be there than not, It was a slow session with bouts of action which was fine and i now need to keep the food going in as the birds are paired up and probably on eggs, A small amount of effort now could pay dividends soon.
Closer to home the raccoons have been coming into my garden going into my new pond for food that i have placed on a rock in the middle and the other night one climbed up onto the garden fence and fed from my bird feeder for about an hour, I now have a few images that i have in mind and i am sure will happen over the coming weeks

I only took the D7000 and 600 and the woodpecker perch is too close for the red bellied woodpecker with this set up-you can see that its very tight in the frame so i will move it back and add a 1.4x for the hairy woodpeckers, I have to admit that although i had some misgivings with the D7000 its still my camera of choice for this type of photography, The AF is very good and grabs the subject quickly, I shoot in manual mode and the files look very nice, For the money its a bargain and offers great IQ when used with a quality lens, One thing that i felt lacking was the SD cards, although it has 2 SD cards are slow compared to CF cards until now as Delkin have just bought some very fast SD cards out, I hope that Sandisk are close behind as i have 100% trust in Sandisk, I hope that they are reading this as i would like to test any new cards out, along with my USB3 laptop it should make life and downloads much faster

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.