Guest Photographer - Mark Williams

Today it is a pleasure to move from technogeekery of gear to the subject matter that we love and care for on this blog and hand over to Mark Williams for a guest blog.  It has been a while since we have had any guest posts and we welcome them from photographers whose work or approach we like.

I haven't met Mark in person, but we have 'met' through twitter and I have followed his tweets this year with interest. It seemed from his activities that he was always on 'Harewatch', a subject I have never had the patience to get to grips with so with that in mind, I thought it would make an interesting blog, so over to Mark for his story.

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'Hare watching'

Somebody asked me recently what it is that makes me want to go and watch and photograph hares and this got me thinking as to when my interest started with these enigmatic mammals.  I think it began when I first watched them from my parents' garden,  We used to see them in the field behind the house and there seemed to be an abundance of them, but the spectacle was short-lived as a new housing estate was built before I had even started my teens.

Living in Lincolnshire meant that I was in one of the last strongholds of an animal that was introduced in the country by the Romans.  The fields of our farms provided both shelter and food to these, our fastest mammal. 

Moving from Lincolnshire down to Cambridgeshire recently, I've experienced a steep learning curve.  As far as watching and finding hares is concerned, I was expecting a similar population to that I'd enjoyed just 50 miles away but was sadly disappointed to find the fields here are devoid of them - we can see the odd one or two, compared to up to a dozen previously.

Hares are creatures of habit and with a little patience you can soon see where they are located.  The most obvious signs of their presence are their droppings which are different from their cousin, the rabbit.  Hares are manily seen at dawn and dusk which, for photography is when we have the best light of the day, so it's an ideal time.

(An excerpt from an autumnal morning session watching hares)

There is nothing to beat being out before dawn to get the hide in place ready to photograph these animals in their natural habitat, listening as the tawny owl makes its last forays in search of food and then, as the sky turns grey in the pre dawn light, the birds begin the new day.  A distant screech from a buzzard comes closer at it circles over the field.  I can now make out the shapes in the field as the light gradually increases.  A pheasant calls with its strangled cry and a blue tit flies by.  The shapes in the field are now clearly hares and there must be half a dozen of them within a hundred feet of the hide.

The sun clears the horizon but its golden globe is immediately swallowed by the low cloud.  The hares are now running and jumping in the field, almost dancing to greet the dawn.  One inquisitive hare hops towards the hide and eyes it suspiciciously.  I hold off, resisting the urge to press the shutter button but it has spooked him and he turns, taking off at full speed across the field.  I stay in the hide hoping that the hare will come back but he's now over the far side of the field running with a couple of others.

A noise to the right of the hide has me craning around to catch a glimpse of the perpetrator but nothing can be seen as the woods are still quite dark at this stage.  The sound of a raptor nearby has me looking to the left of the hide, there's certainly a lot happening at the moment.  A buzzard has decided to use a post some thirty feet away to land on and he sits there, preening.  Again a noise from my right and the sharp report of a twig snapping and three Roe deer appear.  Looking around constantly, their ears moving to pick up the slightest noise, they raise their heads and sniff the air.  A hide not only masks your form but luckily your smell as well, these skittish animals would be away very quickly if they had my scent. They move out of the field but you can see that they are ready to move quickly if danger is spotted so I settle back enjoying the spectacle, as they are now out of reach of my lens and past experience has shown that even the mechanical noise from the shutter can have these animals fleeing.  It's not always about the image but getting out from behind my office desk  and enjoying nature - and especially the hare.

As Autumn moves into Winter and the days shorten, the hares will spend longer foraging for food as it becomes scarcer, so look to the fields and you may be lucky to spot one.  The shortening days also mean that my hare watching will mostly be confined to the weekends during Autumn and Winter, but when I'm out with them, I will be tweeting so look out for the hashtag #harewatch

Here are a few images from this year.

More work can be seen here, G900photography is Mark Williams and Alison Campling.

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Thank you Mark - that was a great blog, and I loved the way you related your experience in story telling mode.  It is not a style that we have seen much of on this blog, but it has certainly provided a great feeling for the experience you feel when hare watching.  

Mark can be followed on twitter as @gollum900, and I would recommend that you do if you are a tweeter.

If you would like to feature as a guest blogger and you have an interesting story or experience that you would like to share with us, contact us through the comments as the first point of contact, which we wont publish but will allow contact to be made.  We would love to hear from you and if we like your story, then you could be on here too.

Martin

Guest Blogger-Graham Goddard

 I am pleased to have Graham Goddard as todays guest Blogger, Although i have not actually met Graham in person i have watched his progression in wildlife photography through various forums and we have exchanged a few e mails about shooting fox and badger, A couple of things struck me about Graham, Firstly he has good fieldcraft-The most important thing for successful wildlife photography and like me he likes to go out and find his 'own' wildlife and has tackled some difficult subjects like kingfisher,barn owl and badgers with success which shows determination-all the traits that you need if you want to be consistently successful, Read on

I was very flattered to be asked to prepare an article for WATW, so a big thanks to Dave and Martin for asking me to do so.

I have my own blog  and write regulary on there, but at first, the thought of preparing something for someone else was a bit daunting. Should I write about some techniques I use, locations I visit or the equipment I use ? In the end, I decided to write about a project that I've found utterly challenging, but very satisfying indeed - more of that later though.

Firstly, a little about myself - I'm a self taught amateur photographer and keen wildlife enthusiast. I've had a life long interest in nature which I think I can thank my parents for - they own yacht which as a child I sent most of my summer weekends and holidays upon.

We cruised the Essex & Suffolk coasts and rivers and on main holidays, made our way to France, Belgium and Holland. My opportunities to get up close to sea and shore life was ever present and as a young RSPB member, ticking off my first Avocet sighting in Holland or my first Sandwich tern was exciting.

About 4 years ago I decided to buy a DLSR - in a slightly drunken moment, I bid on a 30D plus loads of kit on ebay. I won it, and have not looked back since.

The 30D (and all the kit) has since been sold off and upgraded as invested more and more money in this expensive hobby. I now spend a lot of my free time photographing, planning projects, going on trips and observing the wildlife in South-East England and East Anglia.

One project that I've devoted almost a divorce inducing amount of time to is Badgers, which is the subject of this piece.

I discovered a set a year ago. Having no experience of these animals other than on TV or from seeing the odd dead one at the side of the road, I had no idea how to go about seeing them, let alone getting any shots.

My discovery set me up for one of the most frustrating, but enjoyable projects that I've so far attempted in photography.

Enlisting the help of my friend Calum, I started putting a little food down for them so that we could at least confirm their presence.

We then started our vigils and I've lost count of the hours spent at that set last summer, waiting for darkness and straining to see any sign of movement in the gloom.

Over time, we got plenty of sightings - owls, deer, fox, hare, bats - even the odd bloke with his dog. The badgers were scarce and I was beginning to think that there must be and easier way to do this.

We did get badger sightings, but they were very brief, the badgers were very wary, and they usually appeared a long way from my carefully placed, pre focused and remotely triggered camera.

The set itself is on farmland that I have permission to access but what didn't help was that the farmer had planted a huge crop of sweetcorn adjacent to the set - so guess what, the badgers developed a liking for the corn and whilst we could hear them running around and eating it in the field, sightings were rare.

October arrived, the weather turned, and we decided to stop for 2010.

This year, we started the project again in April. Regular visits to place a few tasty morsels after work were shared between us and we were delighted that on our first vigil, we were greeted to the wonderful sight of not just one, but five cubs, all foraging for the peanuts we'd left for them.

As April and May have progressed, the badgers have got used to my presence, the shutter noise and crucially, my scent. I've been able to get closer to the set and, crucially, the cubs are now bold enough to venture out before sunset.

Just sitting and watching these super creatures is a pleasure and photographing them in broad daylight is an experience that will live with me for years to come.

I am looking forward to seeing the cubs grow as the year passes and if Dave and Martin ask me to write an entry again, I'll let you have an update.

I've a few more projects on the go at the moment, so check my own blog if you want to see the results of those

For now though, here's my favourite shot so far.

cheers


Graham
GJG Photography'

It would be great if Graham could do an update in a few months, i have mentioned in previous blogs that i tend to shoot in a project style i.e take 1 subject and spend some time shooting it over a period of time, Badgers can be one of the most difficult of subjects to shoot especially if they are nocturnal only animals-some venture out in daylight and some will only come out well after dark
Again thanks to Graham and look forward to the update

Dave

Guest photographer - Chris Jones

Regular readers and those of you who explore this site will be familiar with the link to Chris Jones blog here.  Chris is what I call a proper birder and you will see this come through in his site and this post.

Chris recently did a nice series on a trip to Morocco so I asked him if he would like to do a guest slot for us.
Happily he agreed and I am pleased to bring this to you.  Over to you Chris.

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Morocco - Agadir and beyond   22nd to 29th March

By way of introduction, I'm a "weekend in, weekend out" birder who has managed to convince his partner that holidays are not all about beaches but can provide an opportunity to increase the birding calendar and put to the test some of the dialogue you can find in many of the overseas birding guides.  So it was by this logic that in March this year we found ourselves, for the second time, boarding a flight to Agadir, bags packed with birding and camera gear and an itinery that would take us from a back street in Agadir to a couple of nights in the Northern Sahara situated on the site on an old Foreign legion fort.

When you arrive in Morocco from a cold winter England, things hit you.  Firstly the Swallows are in full muster and darting around like it's mid summer in the UK, Swifts are also about but not in great numbers.  Gulls are everywhere, mainly Lesser Black Backed and Yellow Legged.  Whether you are in your hotel or walking out you will hear loud melodious calls, your thoughts will go to exotic species, but you will soon discover that they are Bulbuls and they can be seen in the streets taking cover in the road side trees.  Finally you will look at the Sparrows and notice all is not as it seems because occasionally they will turn out to be House Buntings.  You are in North Africa.

Bulbul

House Bunting

The City of Agadir is a great base for the birder, it's far enough south to make the difference in the species from those you would easily find in the southern Mediterranean to those that only very rarely, or never reach European shores.  In the local vicinity you have the Massa (a prime, renowned birding area and one of the last outpost of the Bald Ibis)  Then inland, there are the paths and road of the foothills of the High Atlas Mountains and Paradise Valley.  It's well serviced by air and with your hire car you can bomb off further south and really take in some new stuff.

Bald Ibis

For the first day, we head to the Massa, waters are high this year and normally arid areas are wet at best and in a lot of cases under water.  There are Flamingos, Black Winged Stilts and Egrets as far inland as Arhbalou.  It is whilst taking in these sights we see Plain Martin amongst some Swallows over the water.  We head further on towards the coast. Northern Wheatear and Black Eared Wheatear are frequent along with numerous Larks, Warblers and Roussiers Redstarts.  On the coast at Sidi Ousassai, five or six Kestrels are pairing up and sorting out the accommodation in which to nest.  It is not far from here that last year we were shown four Bald Ibis feeding on an area of ground that was laying fallow.  Stone Curlew also breed in the area.

 Kestrel

Greater Flamingo

Greater Flamingo

Cattle Egret

The next three days of our trip (sorry holiday!) were to be given up to travelling south down through Tiznit and Guelmim to the northern extremities of the Sahara.  En route there was little in the way of birds but on the outskirts of Guelmim we had read about a good site to see Scrub Warbler.  So after over five hours on the road we pulled over.  Now I must warn you at this stage, that me and target birds do not go down well. in fact, I would go so far as to say that it  should be called the "Chris going to dip list".  Anyway suffice to say, no Scrub Warbler, but as a reward we did see Tristram's Warbler and Trumpeter Finch, so all was well with the world.

We then headed west, at first on pretty good roads and finally on a desert track to the hotel Fort Bou Jerif, picking up Marbled Duck, numerous Montague's Harriers, Honey Buzzard and White Crowned Wheatear en route.  We arrived early evening and were quickly shown our room, politely we enquired "was the bar open"......phew it was!  Over our evening meal of camel we enquired about hiring a driver with a more suitable vehicle to take us out the next day over the surrounding  desert.  This was negotiated and arranged in minutes.  The owner here is very "birder friendly" as they say.

So, at a very civilised time in the morning, we headed off with our local man and Land Rover, the only common language being hands and gestures.  It worked a treat!  During the trip, we reached the coast at Plage Blanc to see a lone beach fisherman and came upon Camel trains.  Birds bagged included Red rumped Wheatear, Black eared Wheatear, Short Toed lark, Bar tailed Lark,  Temminck's Lark, Rufous Bush Robin, Booted Eagle and Richard's Pipit.  It was so good to have someone else doing the driving in a suitable vehicle.

The final days of the stay were given over to travelling back to Agadir, visiting the souk, eating out in a very nice sea front restaurant with an Italian cook, sorting through photos and worrying, unnecessarily, about the state we got the hire car into.  Oh and one last trip inland to Imouzzer via Tamri.  On the mountain road we found Grey and Woodchat Shrike along with Melodious Warbler feeding in the valley.

Melodious Warbler

For those interested, here are few of the domestics.

Travel arrangements; we took a Thompson flight out of Gatwick to Agadir, booked it late in 2009 to get the best deal.  With respect to the car hire, again we booked in advance but paid when we got there, finding on the internet we used the "sixth" and picked it up at the airport without any problem, though they do take rather a large reservation on your credit card.

Driving is not a major issue; vehicles in the towns will go anywhere they choose and motorbikes will come at you on the wrong side of the road, but everything tends to happen slower in the UK, so you can react accordingly.

For hotels, we used the Petit Sued in Agadir, very friendly, clean, great breakfast and very good value.  In the northern Sahara, we use the Fort Bou Jerif, a little more expednsive, but check out the link for their website.  They live up to everything they say and more.

That's about it really.  Change your money out there and only Sterling cash is accepted in most banks, though cash machines are much more available than last year.  Traveller's cheques were not good news.  Take an international driving licence.  We were stopped twice and the IDL did the trick both times.  Pay the man who looks after your car when its parked on the street at night.  Take sweets or pens for the children you will meet everywhere and buy a packet of cigarettes for the kind men who talk to you while you are scoping or taking photos.  For most part they mean well.

For reference, I would recommend two of  the Dave Gosney Guides, "Finding Birds in Morocco - The Deserts" & "Finding Birds in Southern Morocco" and "The Birdwatchers Guide to Morocco" by Patrick & Fedora Bergier.

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Well what a great post for us. Many thanks Chris.  Great images and story and very useful planning information too.

Martin

Guest Photographer - Ashley Hugo

Today we are pleased to host our fifth guest photographer on the blog.  I bumped into Ashley via the blogosphere and a link from Bob Sharples great blog and it was while looking at some of the fine work that is being done down there in Cornwall by a number of photographers that I realised what a remarkable young man Ashley is. So having seen his work, and left some comments, I badgered him into doing a guest blog for us.  I will let his own words do the talking, because I think once you have read his words and particularly looked at his images you will come to a similar conclusion.

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First of all, thank you to Martin for inviting me to be a guest on the blog, I am honoured!

I am a 15year old wildlife photographer based in Cornwall, UK.  I have been photographing wildlife (mainly irds) for about two years now and I think I'm just starting to get to a standard where I can put my images on the internet.  I started off with an old Minolta film SLR a family member gave me; it had a 35-80mm lens which I used to take garden birds while I was saving for a better camera.  You can imagine trying to take wildlife with an 80mm lens, it was very hard.  I borrowed a few SLR's and bridge cameras until I had saved enough to get the Canon EOS 450D when it was first released.

After I got my 450D and Tamron 70-300mm lens I started photography properly. I would visit local nature reserves taking pic's of any bird that appeared.  This set up worked quite well for a beginner and I got used to all the different camera settings, modes etc.  After about 18 months of using the 450D/70-300 set up I was looking to upgrade.  After looking, researching and considering the different models I bought a Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM.  I thegot used to the 450/400 combination and for my birthday that year I got a Canon 1Dmk11!!

The 1D2 and 400mm f5.6 is my current set up for wildlife and I think it is great.  I mainly shoot birds because I have never got close to other stuff.  I spend most of  my time out photographing birds and even sometimes get a decent shot!  Next I'm hoping to invest in a hide and try to get close to some of the local breeding species this year.  Why not check out some more of my images on my blog here http://ashleyh-photography.blogspot.com  and www.flickr.com/photos/ashely-hugo

Below are some of my favourite images taken in 2009 and 2010

Red Kite, February this year at Gigrin Farm, Wales

Baird's Sandpiper, September 2009 at Davidstow Airfield, Cornwall - a very obliging bird

Little Egret, January 2010, Marazion Marsh, RSPB,  Cornwall.  Not the best of images but I like the warmth of the image (taken with a borrowed 500mm f/4 and 1.4 TC)

Tawny owl, February 2010, Screech owl Sanctuary, Cornwall.  Part of a Cornwall Wildlife Trust photographic group field trip (captive)

Little Owl, Screech owl Sanctuary, Cornwall. (captive)

Ashley

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 I am sure you will agree Ashley is both a very competent photographer and also amazingly modest as to his abilities from his words.  I know I certainly enjoy visiting his blog and seeing his latest work and contributions.  Really like the Black Kite images by the way Ash.

 I would like to thank Ashley on two counts.  Firstly for contributing to this blog (and being the youngest contributor to date)  and also for his regular and frequent comments to our posts.  We do appreciate them.

Martin

Guest Photographer - Mike Lane FRPS

It is my pleasure to welcome our latest guest photographer to Wildlife Photography across the Water - Mike Lane FRPS

Mike is local to me here in the Midlands and has been quite an influence on a number of wildlife photographers as a result of his publication 'Where to photograph Wildlife in Britain', sadly not available from Amazon anymore but he still has some copies available here.

I am grateful for the book as I have added a number of images in my portfolio from locations that Mike has described, such as the Red Grouse here.

Well back earlier in the year while shooting the images of Long Eared Owls here, I bumped into Mike on a very cold Cotswolds. We discussed the blog briefly and I said I would contact him at some point in the future - which brings us up to date although there is another tenuous link with Mike for both Dave and I, as Dave took me to the site where Mike took these images on Goosanders on Lake Geneva back in February 2008.

Mike has set out a great article below.

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I have many "rules of thumb" about wildlife photography.One of them is that you see more wildlife the less you move. Take a drive in the countryside and you will see lots of landscapes and some wildlife from your car window. Take a walk and you will see less of the land, but a lot more wildlife. Sit still in a quiet corner and you will not see much of the habitat, but the wildlife will start to come to you. take it one step further and sit in a small portable hide and you will start to see wildlife that you did not even know was there.

I am a great sitter. There can't be many people who spend more time in small bird hides waiting for something to happen than I do. It is my favourite method of photography. I liken it to a fisherman sitting quietly by the side of a river, very relaxing.

In my early days as a bird photographer we mostly worked at birds on the nest. My prime lenses were 135mm and 200mm, so getting close was vital. I did own a 300mm, but optically it was not that good and best avoided. Nobody owned a 500mm or a 600mm then. Using a hide was the only way of being close enough to the subject and I might have half a dozen in place at any one time as they had to be moved into place slowly over several days. This inevitably led to theft and I worked on the basis of having one hide stolen every year on average. old tatty ones were left in the most vulnerable spots and new ones built every year.

Today nest photography is rare and I have not had a hide stolen for many years. I do not tend to leave canvas ones out overnight nearly so often. If I have need of a permanent hide, at a winter feeding station for instance, I make them out of wood. Wooden hides offer far more comfort from wind and rain and do not get stolen as they are too heavy to walk off with. there have been a couple of occasions when they have been burnt to the ground by someone who thought that might be fun.

My early wooden hides were elaborate. I built them to bolt together quickly and to be foldable for easy transportation. That proved to be unnecessary and today I simply nail sheets of plywood together very crudely. All I need to do is hang a hinged door. Experience has taught me that once in place I do not move them much. If I need another elsewhere I simply knock one together. I have not paid for wood for many years either. It comes from factories who take deliveries in large crates and are then stuck with the wood.

Canvas hides I still use on a regular basis. I used to build them myself to suit my own needs on the basis that the more comfortable you are in a hide the longer you are likely to stay. I favoured the old fashioned British square bird hide rather than the quick erecting pop up hides. I use the simple four uprights and four cross pieces, covered in canvas.

We vary the height of our tripods to get the shot we want so it's obvious the hide also needs to be of variable height so each of the four upright poles is telescopic. Also it is rare that I put a hide up on level ground so the poles inevitable need to be different lengths.

The cross pieces simply push into plastic joints sold for the purpose so there is no time lost screwing things together. With the frame in position I throw the fabric over it and all is in place very quickly. I like to have a zipped entrance at the rear to help keep out the drafts. On the front of the hides and on the two sides are large apertures with a panel held in place by velcro. The panel can be completely or partially pulled away and replaced with scrim netting hanging down from above.

The lens is pushed out through the scrim and I arrange it so I can see out through the scrimming along the side of the lens. this makes it so much easier to find a bird through the lens if you can look along the outside of the lens first and line up roughly on the subject. birds can't see through the scrim into the dark interior.

Underneath the three removable panels are three pockets into which I can place spare camera gear. This is very helpful when the floor is too wet or muddy to be able to place a camera bag and also acts as ballast on windy hides to stop the wall blowing about.

Also for windy days are four tabs on the outside corners of the hide for tying guy ropes to, But it is rare these get used. if the ground is soft enough to be able to push the upright poles in deep then the hide is pretty steady.

I prefer to use heavy material for the canvas as the hide is more waterproof, stable and not prone to blowing about in the wind. There is nothing worse than sitting in a hide that is flapping about all around you. It means the hides are not lightweight, but I rarely walk far with them, usually getting the car close enough to where I am working. If I do need lighter hides I have them, but they do not get much use. I even have one that is very thin and feather light that I can take abroad with me when flying. The telescopic pole are also slightly shorter to fit into hold luggage.

The colour of the hide is not that important so long as it does not stand out too much in the countryside. I have some that are DPM. (disruptive pattern material) army camouflage and others that are just a drab green. To the wildlife it makes no difference; So long as they can't see the human shape that is what matters. Size does matter though. The smaller the hide the better, especially height wise. The lower you can keep the hide the closer birds will approach it. This is for the obvious reason that we are all less nervous of something small than something that towers above us.

I keep my hides as low as possible nd the width to about 33 inches, which is more than adequate.

The stool you sit on makes the difference to comfort. When I had a proper job I discovered that office furniture was sold to different standards. there was such a thing as 24 hour office chairs designed for places that worked shifts 24/7. Buy ordinary 8 hour office chairs and they did last so long. It is the same with small camping stools. Buy the small nylon covered chairs and after 3 months they collapse. Shakespear the fishing tackle company make robust stools which are well worth paying a little extra for. I have some with a backrest and some without.

It always amazes me how little birds are bothered from noise in a hide so it is rarely necessary to sit rigidly or still and quiet. I have a small radio with earphones and read books and newspapers while waiting during any quiet periods. However, I usually find there is enough going on around me to keep me entertained by just watching the wildlife that appears when I hide myself away.

Recently I decided I needed to replace some hides and since I no longer have access to a sewing machine have them built to my specifications. As always it is cheaper to get things made in bulk so I have had more done than I need. If anyone is interested I have some for sale.

Links to images can be seen here but here are few to see the general views and here for more details including how to buy.





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Many thanks for the article Mike and we wish wish you well with sales.

If any of our readers orders this or Mike's book, don't forget to give us a mention.

Martin

Guest Photographer - Tony Wharton FRPS

As I mentioned a couple of posts back, we would be running our second guest photographer slot on the blog today. So it is my pleasure to give over today's space, our 250th post ( I mis-counted a couple of days back) to Tony Wharton FRPS.

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I'm both pleased and honoured to respond to Martin's invitation to contribute to his blog by being his second " Guest Photographer", following an excellent contribution from John Bulpitt FRPS.

I'm afraid I cannot link my contribution to a recent trip overseas, as John did, since I haven't made any for the last three years or so, due to various health problems. I used to take groups abroad quite a lot, mainly Photo Travellers to places such as The Falklands, Galapagos, Antarctica, South Africa, Spain, Crete, Cyprus, Switzerland and Finland, although I have taken quite a few groups to East Africa under my own steam as it were. I have also led trips to India.

I took up photography in the mid sixties, when, as an avid angler, I bought my first camera to photograph the fish I caught. I was quickly bitten by the photographic bug and settled for natural history, a long standing interest of mine, for subject matter. There's more about that on the home page of my website, http://tonywhartonfrps.com

Over the years, I have been very active in the RPS Nature Group, did a two year stint as it's Chairman, and served on it's committee for twenty years or so, although I have now settled for a more comfortable rocking chair in the background. I'm very grateful to the Group for awarding me it's Silver Medal some years ago and making me an honourable lifetime member more recently.

Obtaining a distinction with the RPS appealed to me quite early on, and I gained an Associateship in the then pictorial section in 1971, followed by a Fellowship in the Nature Category in 1978. I took great pleasure on serving the Nature Distinctions Panel for many years and, for my sins, am currently it's Chairman. The RPS awarded me it's Fenton medal a couple of years ago, which I consider a great honour.

I first met Martin when he joined Smethwick Photographic Society, of which I have been an active member for over 30 years, being particularly active with it's International Exhibition. A few years ago, I started a Natural History Group in the Society and Martin has now taken this over.

One of my great joys is judging exhibitions. I've had the pleasure of judging most of the UK's International and open Exhibitions, some of them two or three times.

With regard to my own photography, I enjoy most types but especially nature. Asked my favourite subject I can only say that it is whatever I'm photographing at the time, be it a bird, mammal, insect, flower, fungus - whatever.

I hope Martin has continued success with his website and this blog, and most of all, his photography.

Here are some of my favourite images.

Grass Snake at Rest.
Taken during a Smethwick PS NH Group field trip.
Pentax *ist D with Pentax 200mm macro lens

Grevy's Zebra Quartet.
One of my favourite images. Taken in the Samburu in Kenya.
Pentax Z1 with Pentax 600mm lens.

Jay with Hazelnut
Taken from a friend's hide in Warwickshire.
Pentax *ist D with Sigma 50-500mm lens

Keys of Field Maple
Another of my favourite shots. Taken in the
Severn Valley Country Park
Pentax *ist D with Pentax 200mm macro lens

Male Brimstone Feeding on Knapweed.
The backlighting appealed to me. Photographed in
Trench Wood, a Worcestershire Trust reserve.
Pentax K10D with Pentax 200mm macro lens

Sticky Coral Fungus
Taken during a Smethwick PS NH Group field trip
to the Wyre Forest. Pentax *ist D with the 15-55 mm lens
and a 3 dioptre close up lens

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So many thanks to Tony for taking the time to send us some fine images, depicting the breadth of his Natural History photography. Tony is a genuine friendly, extremely helpful and amazingly knowledgeable about his subject. He has helped me out on a number of occasions either with identifications, field trips and with his amazing width of knowledge.

Tony is also very modest, so if you got the Digital Photographer magazine a few weeks back when it was printed in July, check it out as Tony was features in there. So we are honoured that he has supported the blog.

If you would like to feature as a guest photographer, then why not contact us, either via the comments on here, or via our respective websites. We would like to hear from you.

Martin

Guest Photographer - John Bulpitt FRPS

Today is the first of what will hopefully be a new features for Wildlife Photography across the Water with our first guest photographer slot on the blog.

John Bulpitt read this article I posted back in February and contacted me ahead of a trip he made to Africa earlier this year and we got into dialogue about digital storage. But before John's story her a few details and background on John.

John's Bio

I have been a keen sports photographer for more than 20 years and gained my RPS Fellowship in 2003 with a panel of athletics/track and field prints. More recently I have diversified into nature and street photography. Most action pics are taken with a Canon 1D mkII with either a 70-200f2.8L (often with a 1.4 converter) or a 300f4 IS. A Canon 40D is used for more static subjects.

I enter many National and International exhibitions and am an enthusiastic member of Cambridge Camera Club, click on the Gallery for some of my sports pics. If you can take sharp images of Greyhounds, birds in flight are straightforward!

John now takes up the story below with his article that was published in summer 2009 edition of "The Iris", the magazine of the Nature Group of the RPS.

Storing Digital Images on the move

On a recent trip to Tanzania with Mark Hamblin of Wildshots, I took about 8000 images. Some may find this excessive, but as a photographer whose main interest is action photography in all it's manifestations, I tend to hit the motordrive and only stop when the Bar opens. In any event, it does raise the question of how you back up and store digital images on a "big" trip. Over the past five years I have tried four different solutions. If I knew then what I know now my kids would (eventually) be far better off.

One could take a pocket full of CF cards. I tend to use Sandisk Extreme 11, 4GB cards and shooting in RAW on a Canon 1DmkII would need about 20 of these for the trip described above.

At the time of writing (April 1st appropriately) these would cost about £280 from Amazon. You could argue that fewer are needed because of the facility to edit in camera but I would counsel against this. You can't really see what you are doing and it can corrupt the card. However, the main drawback with total reliance on CF cards is that you can not take full advantage of the benefit of digital the facility to review a day's shoot and learn any lessons that need to be learnt in preparation for the next day. There are cheap CF cards but I wouldn't go there personally. You could also buy bigger capacity cards but I would be nervous about having too many eggs in one basket as it were.

The second possibility is a photo viewer. I think that today this is the most expensive solution. The Epson P4000 costs about £390 and holds 80GB. Other than cost I also believe that this can be the worse solution out of the four options outlined in this article. You can not back up and hard drives do fail. you cannot edit other than delete and downloading takes about 15 minutes for a 4GB card. Moreover the battery has a relatively small capacity. It will download two 4GB cards, but not three which can be a problem in places with an intermittent power supply.

Then there is the laptop. This may not involve additional expenditure because many of you may already own one. You can back up onto an external hard drive, DVD's or a number of 16Gb pen drives. it will also take imaging software, But of course Hard drives can fail..... The main drawback is that it takes a big chunk of your carry on baggage allowance and opportunist thieves can spot them from a thousand paces.

The final option and the one I have now decided on is the Netbook. Essentially this is a very small laptop. I have bought the Samsung NC10 (£380 from John Lewis with a 2 year warranty). It has a 160GB hard drive and comes with a 1GB RAM, but I have upgraded to a 2GB (about £20 from Amazon) I back up onto a Seagate external portable hard drive. £75 from PC World a few months ago but you can buy similar products today a much lower price. It all fits very easily into the outside pocket of my camera rucksack.

Of course the hard drive can fail... you know the story now! And it will not load Canon software because the screen resolution is 1024 x 600 and not 1024 x 768***. But it will take Breezebrowser pro (free 15 day trial download available). This enables me to review my images quickly but a full edit would be a bit of a fiddle and cuts down on drinking time. if you are still with me you may have concluded that there is no perfect solution and this is where i have got to, But in my view, the best solution at present is the Netbook plus a lot of CF cards.

I am most grateful to RPS Nature group member Martin Dyer for his help with my Netbook purchase and configuration. Martin co authors what, in my view, is the best wildlife photography website around.

Thanks for that John....... and of course we are most grateful for the kind words about our blog.

*** Note: I (Martin) have found a way round this now and will report in a couple of days time on how to get 1024 x 768 res. and unlock other programs.

And now for a few of John's favourite images. So for all lovers of African wildlife, here are some great images.

Taken in Ndutu where the migration reaches full swing on Jan/Feb. Shutter speed of 1/30th. Pan and blur is not easy from a Landcruiser!

Lake Manyara NP where unlike Ndutu you cannot drive off road. I think that backlighting often works well with small mammals but doesn't suit every subject.

Ngorogoro crater. Good numbers of these birds scavenge around the picnic area. The tatty tail feathers tell you that this bird spends a lot of time on the ground

Ndutu - my favourite place in Africa. We came across a mother and four cubs on four consecutive days and were able to photograph many different behaviours.

Lake Manyara. We saw the bird go into it's nest hole and hoped it would emerge quickly as we were blocking the road

Well many thanks for that great article John and the fabulous images. It looked like you had a great trip.

So finally a note to other wildlife photographers. If you would like to feature as a guest photographer, please tell us about yourself, send us some images and we will get you on the blog. Use the comments box if you want to contact us (remember we don't need to publish your contact note as the comments are moderated - so we won't be telling the world).

Thanks again John

Martin

Future blog posts

As I said in the opening post, we intend to post up daily content

To give you an idea of the key themes that we will be covering in the weeks and months ahead here is an outline plan

Kit we use and abuse

An item each week about the gear we use, bodies, lenses, flash, accessories, printers, bags - stuff we use and abuse on a daily basis. What works well an what doesn't - so we can save you wasting your money - learn from our mistakes!!

Long Lenses - and how to use them and support them

Staple gear of the wildlife photographer - it can be a big learning curve when you start to use large glass. We will tell you of our experiences. This will be set out in quite a few parts.

Trip Reports - where we have been and what we have seen
Dave and I will be doing a number of trips in our own and other countries this year. Keep watching , see what we have been up to and photographed.

From the Archives

We will share some of our favourite images from our past - stuff that you may have seen before and certainly some stuff that you haven't, with details of where and how we did it.

Software and Hardware we toil with
Dave and I use a number of applications between us - we will share us impressions, what we like, and how we manage some of our work flow. Some reviews of some of our kit like monitors, colour management, graphics tablets, archiving and storing images.

News, Reviews, Views and Links we like
Self explanatory - or maybe a day off

and finally
Guest Photographer slot

A shamelessly plagiarised great idea from another blogsite - check out our links to see which one. So we will be asking some of the photographers that we know and admire to come and share their world with you and us. If you want to be included , well then just contact us.

So we hope there will be enough there to keep you in reading material, entertainment, education and most of all enjoyment on a daily basis, so if you haven't subscribed, hit the RSS feed at the top of the site, or join us as a 'friend of the blog' to make sure you don't miss the posts

Martin