This image of a Turnstone was taken at Godrevy. It provided some light entertainment as it tried get every last morsel of meat from a mussel that was washed up on the beach.
I though i’d venture down there one last time before heading back to Worcestershire for Christmas. I will be looking forward to the possibility of some snow. Some scenes renew there value in extreme weather. So stay tuned for some fresh images in the next week or so.
A few more from Colorado, not my best but i thought it would be nice to show them.
All my spare time that i have whilst being on my MA is spent outdoors finding new opportunities for both film and stills. My main commitments are building up a collection of images ready for entering into Wildlife Photographer of the Year and British Wildlife Photography Awards etc.
I have recently entered the International Garden Photographer of the Year. Short listings will be announced after the 12th Dec, so not too far away.
Anyway here are some images that have been take in the last few weeks. Enjoy!
Curlew silhouette taken just after sunset at Godrevy
Old lifeboat station, Lizard Point
Purple sandpiper, Godrevy
Autumn leaves on pool, Kennel Vale
It’s the first time i’ve been back to Godrevy since finishing my university project back in the early June. Godrevy is a great place to kestrels. I managed to get eye level with this one and include the sea in the background which set as a nice backdrop.
It’s been too long since i last updated my blog. Since my last update i’ve been to Colorado for two weeks and the then have started my MA in TV Production at University Collage Falmouth as soon as i had got back. So recently have I been getting to grips with the new course and its workload.
A highlight to the last few weeks was coming 3rd place in the Royal Horticultural Society competition with this image.
From this, I was asked by the RHS to appear on the Alan Titchmarsh Show with my image along some of the other winners. So i headed to London to the ITV studios on the Monday 10th Oct. The show should be broadcast in November. I will post a more refined date when i know more.
Feel free to look at some of my images from Colorado in my recent image page.
For the whole of the summer these wasps have been building a nest in my attic. When I first noticed them going into a hole under the guttering in their masses, their nest was only small. I would often see them collecting the wood they use to build their nest with. Such as wood from garden tables, window frames, benches and basically anything made of wood in and around my garden.
They really are amazing creatures, and it’s only a shame that so many people will kill them on the spot. When you see a wasps nest you will realize how incredible they are and how the can even create such a structure with being so small and fragile.
Enys Gardens in Cornwall is probably the best place i know to see a perfect carpet of Bluebells. It was the first time i had been and seen this amazing spectacle which only lasts a short amount of time. The whole field looks amazing but photographing them to really show the display to the best of it potential is another thing. For the good of the flowers, the only places you can stand are along a long strip that runs down the side. Sufficient enough for most, but to get that image you have pictured in your head, it always leaves you wanting more. But with natural history photography, its making the most of what you have that makes it challenge and always a pleasure to do.
I took this image a while ago in Godrevy, Cornwall and recently found it again in my Lightroom collection. Even though this shot is not something I would not use in my portfolio it still nice to see something different.
The Arne Peninsula in Dorset has to be one of my favorite spots in the UK. I’ve only been there a handful of times but it’s really one of those places that just grips me every time I set eyes on the place.
This time I went, I was taken away by the amount of colour in the landscape, from the purple and pinks of the heather to the greens and browns of the bracken. Even though the heather and other small flowers were through their best, they still had a huge affect from when I was there before in late June.
My main attraction in this location was the Raft spider. There were lots of other interesting subjects there but I really wanted to concentrate on the Raft spider.
I only spent one day photographing in Arne and the weather was perfect as it was a bright overcast day with very little wind. By the second day the wind had really picked up and the light was just too harsh. Anyway here are some of my results.
The last few days at home have really felt like autumn is here already. It was a cool crisp day and a lot of the trees are showing signs of autumn colours. In places some trees have already shed a carpet of leaves. It gave me flashbacks of photographing mushrooms and fungi. So i trawled through Lightroom once again to see what images i had that resembled autumn.
I found this image (still to be identified). It was taken on the 2nd of September last year, which is only a week away from now. Im looking forward to what photographic opportunities are waiting to be discovered this autumn.
This is probably one of my favourites from my collection of raft spider images. It was taken on an overcast day which meant there is a nice even reflection on the the surface of the water, really making the subject stand out. These spiders are such a joy to photograph especially when they rest on the surface such as this one. The ambient light gives a pleasing effect with the surface tension. From my observations they don’t stay long in this position, they prefer to have contact with over pond material such as sticks weeds and other vegetation (this can be seen several blog posts back).
To get this shot i had to kneel at the side of the pond and lean over. Using “live view” on my camera i was able to hold my camera at arms length and fine focus.
Shot at 1/80 sec f9 ISO 800. Another benefit of using “live view” is that it is the same as mirror lock up, so you can get vibration free images an lower shutter speeds.
Every now and then i will trawl through the 22,000+ images that are sitting on my computer and cull as many as i can. Oh the joys of digital happy snapping!
I’ve had this image of a kestrel on my computer for a while now. Every now and then i will come across something worth wile. I had about twenty variations of this image, just each one slightly different, after all you have to make sure you get that one picture that ticks all the right boxes. With so many of the same image i sometimes get put off editing them, as it takes a good amount of time to go through them and check them all at 100%. Most of them were perfectly focused and exposed which put me off wanting to delete them. But one of them was enough, so the rest had to go.
I find that some days are best spent editing what you already have. Theres always something lurking amongst the countless pictures on a hard drive.
Every night i try to get a different picture of the mice, that i have been watching for the last few weeks. Following on from my last blog, i’m trying to fill in the missing images in my picture story.
This image show one of the mice gathering grain. Each mouse will spend about five seconds collecting and storing the grain in there cheeks before sprinting off back to their food store.
The mice will take most things that are easily accessible. No matter what size, they will eventually make it disappear into there homes under the slabs. I’ve even seen a baby mouse collecting dried slugs on several occasions. The adult mice don’t seem interested by them.
The other day i placed some large pieces of bread out. As seen from previous occasions a mouse tackling a large piece of bread is always an amusing situation.
So here it is, a mouse with a piece of bread nearly as big as itself. Nine times out of ten the mouse will use the same route to and from its home. So i positioned the plane of focus where it it would usually go. A challenge in itself as the plane of focus on a 500mm lens is pretty much a hairline. Once in position i lock off the tripod head movement and wait for the mouse to cross the cameras field of view. The challenge is to the get the mouse nicely framed without the tail or anything else out of the frame. This usually lasts about one picture. So timing is of the essence.
The shot i got was pleasing, but still room for improvement.
I have been watching this family of mice for a while now. They live under the slabs outside my kitchen window. Every night around 7 o'clock they emerge from under the slabs. They have several entrances to their tunnels including one thats under the roof, just above a honeysuckle bush. I wanted to show the stages of their routines as they collected grain from under the bird feeders.
The mouse listens for while
The mouse cautiously emerges
The mouse sniffs around to check everything is ok
Mouse pauses, to check the coast is clear
The mouse returns with a mouthful of grain
There are some images that i still need to get, in order to fill in the gaps. This means a setup in another spot. I tried to do it on the same evening but the mice did not like being disturbed and were reluctant to come out.
To get these shots i used a 500mm at f11 and 2x 580ex flashes remotely triggered with radio triggers. I pre focused on a designated spot and released the shutter when the mouse came into position.
The journey down to the feeding station was looking promising, there was a dark, moody sky and light that lit up the whole hillside. I had the perfect picture in my head that I wanted to achieve from today. But upon arrival I realised that this was not going to be the case. When there is no sign of any red kites or (any birds for that matter) during feeding time you start to feel a bit unsure that anything is going to show. If you have ever been to Gigrin Farm you will have noticed the hordes of birds that surround the area before feeding time.
Anyway… after waiting an hour and half we saw a few red kites along with the odd corvid. The rain that came made an interesting backdrop.
An awesome find today. I found this Nursery Web Spider carrying an egg sack on some gorse. It was tricky getting my tripod in amongst the gorse without knocking the branch where it was resting. I found it annoying how no matter where it went it always had its rear right leg higher than the rest. But this is all part of the challenge of being a wildlife photographer.
The other day i decided to give my ghillie suit a go, since i hadn’t used it since being back home. I was in the mood for photographing foxes after seeing them several days in a row, whilst on walks in the field at the bottom of my garden. They seem to come alive once the grass has been cut and bailed. It’s almost like they have been given a new play area. I watched them as they rolled around in the cut crass and chased birds and rabbits and generally having a nice time.
The day i went out with my camera i couldn’t see any foxes so i thought i try my luck with a rabbit. I lay down and gradually crawled towards it. Whenever it became suspicious I froze. I got fairly close to it and then suddenly realised that i was being watched.
A fox was sitting quite away from me watching me and the rabbit. As i turned to photograph it, I saw two more foxes were chasing each other. I tried to turn my top half while prone. I managed to get some useable images but nothing spectacular. If only they had been closer!
However the rabbit was so relaxed with me being there that it allowed to get nice and close. It turned towards me for about five seconds enabling me to get this shot.
A recent trip to the the Arne Peninsula in Dorset was well needed break after finishing my degree at falmouth. So myself and fellow photographer Liam Marsh went for a week to see what we could find. I had been itching to photograph Raft spiders again since visiting the area just over a year ago. I was looking forward to heading out with one subject and one lens in mind and concentrating on studying one thing. But Arne is a place that just keeps on giving (subject wise). So i had to cater for all subjects. I’m so glad i did. On arriving at the reserver (RSPB Arne), the wardens had a spotting scope aimed on Tawny owl snoozing in oak tree above the car park. It was the first time i had ever seen one, so it was awesome start to the trip. I returned later when the light was in the perfect position. Just lighting up the owl and highlighting the leaves that framed it.
Our luck with the Raft spiders wasn’t as good as it was the year before. This time we could only find juveniles an the occasional young adults.
