Wildlife Photography across the Water: Weekend bits and bobs

Sunday 13 November 2011

Weekend bits and bobs

Its been a bit up and down the last couple of days, I have continued to watch and put a couple of sessions in with the opossum and i have been doing a fair bit of homework on the opossum, Here are some interesting facts that you may find interesting and make it more of an interesting and often overlooked subject
1,Opossum fossils have been found dating back to the dinosaur age, So its a great survivor
2,Its has over 50 teeth, More than any mammal
3,When it feels threatened it foes into a non induced coma that lasts from 40 mins to 4 hours, Thats where the saying 'playing possum' comes from
4,They are immune from snake bites and can eat a rattle snake
5.They dont get Rabies
I set up the other evening using the D7000 and 600 as i wanted big in the frame images, I used a SB900 and SB600 set up but got it slightly wrong as when i took a shot the foreground was a bit dark and the background over light, I kicked myself but there you go, We have to make mistakes to learn i guess and there will be other opportunities,I had a play in PS but its not that good

The background is just too bright,
Saturday morning we awoke to a beautiful if not cold frosty morning, I was sitting in bed drinking a coffee when my wife said that there was a deer in the garden, I had not seen a deer here in daylight and soon realized that it was a male (Buck) with a nice rack, It was followed by another similar sized buck, They were in transit and were gone within a minute but what a great sight to see from your bed, I made sure that there was extra corn in the garden incase they come back.
I had a quick play with the New Acratech head and leveling base on my Manfrotto 055Pro tripod with the 600 with and without the 1.4x, We had 2 nuthatches in the garden and i slowly edged out of the back door and managed a few shots before they went, Firstly its no Wimberley but then i knew that, It needs to be set pretty tight to stop a big lens flopping back or forth, No problem there, With the 600 even locked down tight you could easily induce a rocking motion, So good technique is needed, On the plus side its easy to use and very smooth, I dont intend to use it with the 600 and as i said before its really for the 200-400 and smaller which i am sure it will be great, the light was quite low and the shutter speeds were around 1/100 so i was asking alot but i did get some sharp images so cant complain,More later

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.