Fish-Eye Lens

Otter on Ice - Highly Commended, BWPA 2012

I have a few different lenses for my camera, of which my 70-200 is by far my favourite. If I could only keep one lens, that would be the one, and is on my camera by default. However I do have a soft spot for my fish-eye lens.

The fish-eye lens seems to have a mixed reaction. Some like it, some don't and some really don't. Personally I love it!

When I first heard about the fish-eye lens, I asked a few people what it was and had the same reaction... Quirky little lens, no good for wildlife... after that I wanted to prove them wrong, and did with the photo above..

The photo of this otter, Lilly, is still my highest awarded photo being Highly Commended in the Animal Portrait category in the BWPA back in 2012.

BWPA 2012 Gallery - Taken by Izzy Coomber

Of course I had to have the obligatory cheesy photo taken with it in the Mall Gallery in London... I know what you're thinking, good to see he smartened himself up for the award ceremony!..

It was great to see my photo displayed alongside so manny other truly amazing photographs of British wildlife, and alongside other great amateur and professional photographers.

Badger through Fish-Eye

The fish-eye lens is a bit hit and miss. By this I means it doesn't always work... due to it's uniqueness, it is quite a niche area of photography, and of all my lenses I use it is the one I have the lowest success rate with. But then when it does work, I think it really works well to create something a little unusual, quirky and different.

HEDWIG!!!

Perhaps the most fun can be had with quirky portraits. You can see above with the badger and snowy owl, it really distorts the proportions. The closer you get with the lens, the more distorted the photo is, and you can get within an inch with it still focusing.

British Fraggle Centre - 2014

The keeping team of 2014.

Harvest Mouse

The photo above is not the best, but it shows how the lens works. You can see with the sky how it really distorts and bends the picture at the extremities.

Fallow Deer

It is all about how you tilt the lens. Tilting it down slightly will give you the effect of a upwards curve on the horizon, as it the animals for example is on top of the world. You can see this slight effect above, and more extreme on the otter at the top of this post.

Bungalow Foundation Digging

Keeping the camera level gives you a level horizon... it will still bend the extremities, you may be able to see this in the trees on the right and the chalk line at the bottom of this photo, but it is less obvious in the sky where there is nothing to show the curve.

Incidentally, this photo is of the foundations being dug for my bungalow. I was standing only a couple of feet away from the chalk line, so you can see how wide the lens really is, almost taking in 180 degrees!

Deer Paddock in Autumn

Tilting the lens the other way, upwards, you get this downwards curve of the horizon...

Deer Paddock

... and of course the more you tilt, the greater the effect as above. All this means I get some funny looks while taking photos with this lens, as most often it looks like I am pointing the camera in completely the wrong direction!

Fallow Grazing

When ever I do a shoot, I always try to get the fish-eye lens out for a bit unless it is obvious that it really won't work. The one above and below are ones from the fallow deer shoot I did a month or so back now for David.

Fallow Deer

The first a true quirky portrait, and the one above a much more subtle use.

Harvest Mouse

And my most recent fish-eye portrait that I am fairly happy with. A harvest mouse on a sprig of corn. Looking at the harvest mouse photos, I have an idea for a great fish-eye portrait, but it will take a bit of setting up. If I get it, I will post it.

Thanks for looking.

Common Dormouse

Common Dormouse, Muscardinus avellanarius

The Common Dormouse, also known as the Hazel Dormouse, is on of our most asked about animals in terms of photography. Unfortunately though we can not offer them as part of our itinerary on our photo days. Our breeding ones, in our outside enclosures, we leave well alone so as not to disturb them while they are hopefully breeding and rearing young... and so of course this means we don't wish to wake them during the day just to be photographed. This leaves our educational dormice, but they live in our nocturnal house. Although they are awake during the day, it is dark in their enclosure and we feel it is unfair on them to bring them out in to daylight for half hour or so and then put them back in the dark again.

All this means that I have rarely been able to photograph them myself, and usually when I do it is of one curled up in a ball while sleeping/hibernating if we are moving or checking up on them. A couple of weeks ago though, as we were changing the hazel in their enclosures, one of them was up and about and so I made the most of it and spent twenty minutes photographing her before putting her back in her pen with some nice new fresh hazel!

Peeking

Considering time was limited, the area we did it was not ideal and the conditions and light were far from perfect, I am really pleased with the photos I managed to get.

This one above of her peeking through the leaves I possibly my favourite of the shoot.

The Set

You can see from this photo where we were. Literally in the double door bit of the breeding pens. Very tight, not much room, but we had to stay somewhere completely safe in case she decided to jump from the hazel.

She was good as gold though, and was happy to explore a bit and sit and pose. A nice steady hand from Lucy obviously helped.

Common Dormouse

The biggest obstacles, apart from it being so dark, was the backgrounds. It was very tricky to avoid showing the wire mesh.

Common Dormouse

Or the wooden support beams of the individual beams. Still, I think they are blurred enough to get away with... especially for use at work.

Stay True

Then when I did manage to avoid these, of course she sat behind a small sprig on the branch while looking straight at me. Beautiful pose... oh well.

Common Dormouse Portrait

I managed to get a few varied shots with the limited time.

The Feet of a Dormouse

This one was taken to show off her feet and does so well and the adaptations of their toes in particular.

Beautiful Whiskers

And this one is another of my favourites, showing off their whiskers which are truly incredible!

In the Light

Eventually the sun moved round in the sky enough to fall on half of the double door bit. I like this one above, but to be honest preferred the ones in the shadows. She was also getting a little tired and so it was time to put her back.

Me with Dorris - taken by Meg Buckland

She was very relaxed throughout though, and spent a bit of time on my back. Meg was on hand to take some snaps.

Disappearing Down the Pocket - taken by Meg Buckland

At one stage even decided to take a breather and hide out in my shirt pocket!

Hiding Out - taken by Meg Buckland

Seemed quite comfortable there, but Lucy had finished redecorating her home so it was time for her to go back.

Edible Dormouse, Glis glis

We do have another dormouse in this country, the Edible Dormouse or Glis as they are often known. Edible dormice have been introduced to the UK, and are now spreading and causing  a lot of trouble. They are so different to our British common dormice in both looks and behaviour.

Edible dormice can be quite aggressive, noisy and bite hard. They cause a lot of disturbance where you find them and are considered a pest. The common dormouse on the other hand is quiet, very rarely bites, docile in nature and no trouble at all.

Our British Dormouse, the Common (Hazel) Dormouse

In terms of looks, the edible dormouse is considerably bigger as you can see from the two photos above, and grey in colour. The common dormouse is much smaller and a glorious golden colour.

Incidentally, fuchsia background in this photo and the one on the BWC blog was simply done by hanging a towel of that colour up behind the dormouse while photographing them. The dormouse above only has half a tail, and is one of our educational dormice now found in our nocturnal house... These are old photos.

Pre Hibernation

And I love this photo, the angle makes it appear much bigger than he really is, but this is right before hibernation when he would have been at his heaviest and fattest... plus I believe she is in one of Katie's little hands :-)

Thanks for looking

Bess

Bess

In my last post on Cinnabar caterpillars, I mentioned I spent half an hour on the reserve with Bess and the caterpillars... I thought most of those who look at this blog knew who Bess was, but I had a few raised eyebrows. So for those who don't know, let me introduce to you my loyal companion and best friend "Bess".

Playing Frisbee

Bess is a border collie, or sheepdog as I prefer calling her as she is from true working stock lines. Her claim to fame is that her great grandfather "Wisp" won the International Sheepdog Trials back in 1992.

The photo above is one of my favourites of her, back when she was still young, and before I really took photos. When I first got her she didn't know how to play, and I had to teach her. It took a while, but eventually she got the hang of it, and frisbee used to be her favourite game... she is a little too old for that now though.

The photo was a fun one to get. I had to throw the frisbee, then quickly grab the camera, focus on her and hope for the best.

Bess

Beautiful isn't she? I call her a semi-rescue. She didn't come from a rescue centre, but she was unwanted. From the little I can tell from the paperwork that came with her, she was born in Scotland, passed on to a farm in Norfolk, passed round a few more until she ended up at the BWC owners son's farm.

He wanted to train her up to be a working dog, but just didn't have the time to do so and was happy to give her to a good home.

Bess

I went to see her one Saturday, not expecting too much as I had always had dogs (males) and that is what I was looking for. Also I had never taken on an older dog before, she was a year when I got her. When I turned up on the farm, Jules showed her to me and let her out of her shed, and she just ran off!..

... I thought, oh christ!, but then I just kneeled down watching her in the distance, and she turned round and ran the length of the field back, sat next to me and rested her head on my lap! Jules said he had never seen her do that with anyone... and maybe he just said that to make my mind up, but I do still believe him as she is still very nervous of new people to this day.

Either way, that was my mind made up, and I told him I would be back to pick her up tomorrow (on the Sunday).

Herding Sheep in the Summer Evening

I spent a lot of time with her in the early days training her, so much that she seemed a different dog when Jules came to see her just a month later. We were all very happy, so it was a good decision made.

I did train her with sheep a little, and she knows, or did know it's been a long time, her left and right and stand etc. The basics. But she is really just a companion, but with an active lifestyle. She is always out with me around work and has become the BWC dog in this sense, often following the other keepers too if she thinks they are doing something more interesting than me to watch.

On the Club Car

Most of the time she is with me though, and even travels on the vehicles. It took a while to train her that they were safe, but she got there in the end and soon jumps on for a journey.

On the club car she knows that she is not allowed off if in the deer paddock, but is allowed off around the Centre if we stop.

Riding on the Dumper Truck

She will even ride around on the large dumper truck with us, although at her age now she needs a helping hand getting up there.

Taking it Easy

If you are a visitor to the Centre, you may have met her already. If not, then you would not of been far away. While we are not open she is allowed around the Centre with us. But once we are open, or have a booked group in, she stays behind our yard fence with us where we prepare the food etc.

Shaking Off

When I first had her she was scared of water, petrified in fact, but now she loves it and always jumps in when we are on the reserve.

Bess in a Mess

And she is not afraid of getting dirty!

Bess in the Snow

Here are a couple of photos of her in the different seasons. The snow above and bluebells below.

Bess in the Bluebells

She is an old girl now, and you can see it in the way she moves, how she has slowed down, and the grey in her face. But she is still full of life and enjoys working closely with us all. She really is part of the BWC team!

The Keeping Team, 2014

Below is one of the first photos I took of her when I first got her. It was on an old Sony mobile phone, but still one of my favourites of her.

A Young Bess

Thanks for looking.