Wildlife Photography across the Water: starlings

Showing posts with label starlings. Show all posts

Friday, 21 January 2011

Starling Phenomenon

It is around this time of year that I usually manage to see the flocking Starlings as I reported here from a trip I took to Slimbridge last year.

This natural spectacle is always stunning to watch and with lots of birds and lots of flocks it is really exciting as they wheel around the skies.

So it was with great pleasure that I was able to see it from my living room window last weekend, albeit it on a smaller scale. We had a couple of flocks of about two hundred birds each, flying and wheeling overhead. Truly beautiful, in a bijou sort of way.

Here is an image that I took a few years ago, also from Slimbridge that I was quite pleased with.

It would great to hear from you if you have seen any such flocks this year and whereabouts

Martin

Friday, 29 January 2010

Starlings at Slimbridge

As a promised in recent posts, I said I would put the Starling images up, but Dave has been putting up so many great images recently, I wanted to wait until he had reached the end of that series, which I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing, and judging by the many comments so have you. Keep the coments coming we do welcome them.

I missed the starlings for the last two years at Slimbridge but they were back aplenty when I was there at the beginning of the month.

What a spectacle, it was worth the wait, and I have to say I was well impressed with the 1Dmk111 AF acquisition in near darkness. Why cant it work light that in better light? :-)

All shots were at ISO3200 with the 70 - 200f2.8 IS L at either f2.8 or f4, with shutter speeds as low as 1/60 on the blurry one, but I liked the effect.

It was good to get in a warm car after this as I was frozen

Martin

Saturday, 13 December 2008

From the Archives - Starlings at Twilight

Here is a sight that is truly spectacular. Taken a couple of years ago from the car park at WWT Slimbridge in Gloucestershire, UK. Using my Canon 1Dmk2N at ISO1600, my 70-200 f2.8 IS L wide open at f 2.8 I managed to capture the split flock. I needed to use noise reduction software to keep the noise out of the sky, but given that it was almost dark it shows what can be achieved with older generation kit.

Martin

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.