Photography Day

Hedwig, Snowy Owl

Last Friday a good friend of mine, Darren Rowley, came along to one of our owl photographic days. Darren helped me when I first started getting in to photography with all manner of things, and even came with me to a shop to try a few different cameras out before I settled on Nikon.

Having not seen Darren for a while, I freed up the day so I could tag along for the photography and of course to catchup. Here are just a few of the photos I took.

We currently use a few new places/perches for out owls. A few reasons for this, but mainly it saves walking to the very far end of the reserve when there are plenty good enough perches in the woods half way along!

As always, we try and place the owls in two or three different areas each for variety, and try and keep the perches as natural as possible.

We only fly the tawny owl and barn owl on our photographic days. Time is the main reason why we limit it to these two, but they are also the most used to flying "off-site" so to speak.

Our barn owls are currently flown over our wetland area, but once our wildflower meadow is in full flow it will be stunning to see them fly above the colour of the flowers.

Unfortunately our gate has seen better days... or more accurately, has seen our three highland steers! We can still make use of it however at the right angles.

Of course, you have to finish the day with Ethel! :-)

Once the day was over, Darren and I decided to stay on and do a bit with the mammals and the soft evening light. I do love the owls, but I am a mammal man at heart... and I always think that shows with my photographs too.

We spent a bit of time with McTavish, including having trainers slashed and bitten!

Finishing up at the foxes and catching the late light before time beat us.

The sun went behind some clouds and the evening was over, but I went back a couple of nights later to catch the very late light in our deer paddock. I didn't get exactly what I was after, and had seen the night before, but I was quite pleased with these two.

I have been working with the pine martens a lot recently. Photos of them coming up later this week.

Thanks for looking :-)

iPhone

McTavish, the Scottish Wildcat

While I was testing the Samsung NX1, I was also playing around with another camera... My iPhone!

Earlier this year I treated myself to my first smart phone ever, boy... it takes some getting used to, and I still haven't fully set it up, but I am having great fun with it. The reason I wanted a smart phone was for the camera. I have missed on so many occasions over the past few years little things that happen around the Centre, and found myself saying... "I wish I had my camera with me". So I thought it would be nice to always have a camera in my pocket, but didn't want to carry an extra thing around all the time.

The other keepers all have iPhones, and I saw the photos they were taking, and thought they were plenty good enough for simple record shots of things, so took the plunge. I decided on an iPhone 5s, simply because I already use macs for my photography work, so thought it would be easier to set up and use etc. Expensive, but I have not been disappointed... In fact I have been amazed at the quality of photos it is capable of, keeping in mind it i still only a phone with a little lens and sensor in it!

Above is McTavish, and the first animal photo I took with the phone. 

As mentioned above, the main reason for the camera on the phone was for simple record shots like above. Plenty good enough for the files, and saves carrying my DSLR around and all the editing involved with all that. 

But I really have been amazed at the quality it is capable of, for a phone. Of course it can't compete with a DSLR or even a pocket camera... but for a phone!... Come on, it's pretty good :-)

Above is one of a harvest mouse on a daffodil I took little while back, and is one of my favourites so far with the phone.

This is Dale, the red squirrel... you have to get pretty close to the animals to get anything , but luckily most of our animals allow me to get that close.

And another animal one here. This time one of our water voles on the feeding island.

I imagine most of you will already know this, but I was surprised to see the phone could also take panoramas. It takes a while to get used to panning the phone smoothly, but I am looking forward to playing around with this in the future.

Of course the main thing about a camera phone (so Daisy and Meg keep telling me) is to take selfies! So here is one of me with Clyde. The front facing camera is nowhere near as good as the main one on the back, but still passable for things like this and web use.

After I got my phone, I bought a pack of three lenses for it through Amazon. A wide angle, fisheye and macro all for jut over £5 the lot! I thought they would probably be pretty rubbish, but for a fiver if they gave me half an hours fun trying them out then all would be good.

So are they any good?.. Well, the wide angle above, is pretty poor. The quality is not great, and to be honest it doesn't really make thee view that much wider than with out the lens. Not only that but it even captures the edge of the lens within the picture. I can't see me using this at all.

Above is a lego Eskimo, taken through the macro lens. I don't know about you, but I think this is pretty amazing for a phone and a cheap lens! In reality I probably won't use any of the lenses much, if at all. If I have time to find, and clip on on to the camera... I probably have time to get my Nikon, but I was very impressed with the macro lens and may play around with this in the future too.

And finally the fisheye lens. It does exactly what you would expect it too. It shows the lens on the edges, so could only be used for quirky fun things, and the quality is not amazing, but certainly better than the wide angle. And it could be used to create some fun, circular pictures.

Before putting them away I thought... can these lenses also be used not he front facing camera?...

Turns out they can :-)


It is also pretty good at videoing, and I really like the slo motion video capture you can do on it. If you want to see some that I have shot, take a look on my youtube linked in the tabs above, and when I have enough I may do a little compilation slo-mo of the animals the Centre and share it on this blog.

Anyway. I am going to set up an instagram account, and then hope to share the photos I take with my phone there. As soon as it is live, I will put a link in the tabs above, so keep an eye open for that if you wish to follow.

Thanks for looking :-)

Few from Spring, 2015

Bess, the Border Collie

Here are a few photos that I have taken this year but have yet to share. They were taken with my Nikon, hence why you have not seen them yet :-)

I was hanging around one evening at work, and we had the first decent spell of evening light so I took advantage and took a couple of portraits of Bess.

A few weeks a go now our red deer cast their antlers. They do this every year in the Spring, and then over the next 16 weeks grow a brand new set... usually larger than their previous set! Remarkable really that they can grow them that fast.

Above is Albus Dumbledeer on the right, and Olivandeer on the left... Do we have a Harry Potter fan at the Centre you may well ask?.. Well, yes... we do :-)

As you can see, they don't always cast their antlers at the same time leaving them looking a little silly...

... but not as silly as when both have cast. They then just look like a big female until their new antlers begin to show through.

Walking over to work one morning, and came across this little fella on the path in the rain. Took the opportunity to take a quick photo.

Where does the "Badass problem solver" go when he has things on his mind?.. He turns to nature. It has an easy way of simplifying things, putting things in to perspective and making you appreciate everything. I like a place that only I know, and this is mine.

Fawkes is a short eared owl. Not many are on display in Britain, and ours is one of a handful that can be used for photography workshops. He is beautiful!

The short eared is my favourite owl in the world, so when I tagged on to the owl day a couple of weeks ago to get some in the bluebells... I also made sure I was their for when they did Fawkes.

I am very picky with my photographs of Fawkes, and got some strange looks when I placed him on the gravel in the middle of nowhere... but by framing it right and using the right angles, you can really make something out of nothing.

Full facial disc.

And the back of the head... Yes I did mean this... their latin name is Asio flammeus, named due to their feathers looking like fire and you can see why above.

Thanks for looking :-)