Planning to get some shots.

I am planning to go to Rutland bird sanctuary to try and get a shot of a hawk finch.  I am going there next weekend to have a look where the bird has been seen.  By going onto the Internet and doing some research I now know that the bird has been seen.  So I intend to go and see for myself, and I shell take the gear with me so I can hopefully capture the bird.  But if I don't then I will arrange another weekend to try and get the shot that I require.


This is going to take sometime to capture as first of all I am going to have to see the bird and fined out its habits first.  Then I shell come up with a plan of how to get the photo's that I want.  These are very shy birds and I will have to careful how I go about this task as not to disturb anything or any body.


I went Rutland at the weekend 3rd April in search of the Hawfinch but, did not see it.  I also asked at the centre if anybody had seen the bird but they have not seen them yet.  Brought a new card for the camera but, put it in when I got there and it didn't work.  Wasted journey really  but, had a good walk round to see if anything was worth looking at.


The Macro side of things are taking shape now, i managed to get a bee shot but, looking to get a better one looking to get a wasps head and eyes.  Good fortune there just happened to be a wasp in the office and have captured the shot I was looking for, so happy with how things are going with the the macro side.   Like the theme of the eyes I am doing I do have two shots of close-up flowers if I get the opportunity  I will try and get some more eye shots depending on the time scale.


I plan to go to Cakle Abbey on a regular basis, as I do not live far from there and I can look out for things to photo on the macro side.  I go most Sunday mornings, just looking and taking in the atmosphere checking things out to photograph.  Just basically observing things that are going on and that I could eventually photo.


I have also set my hide up in my garden, so that I can be ready to take a shot of something if I need too.


The technical side of the camera comes when you change the aperture, so you can control the depth of field. which means you can blur the back ground out and keep the subject Sharp.  This comes in very handy  when shooting wildlife.


By setting yourself an aperture of say F2.8 on a nice and sunny day this would give you a fast shutter speed allowing you to capture your subject in flight, and be nice and Sharpe.  Using the controls of the camera is whats its all about, you should be controlling the camera.  By doing this you control the depth of field, or blurring the back ground out, but, if you use an aperture of say F22 it is just the opposite.  This should make the the picture Sharpe front to back providing you use the camera correctly.  By doing this with an aperture of F22 you would need a tripod as this could give you a slow shutter speed, depending on the light and what effect you are after.  To make a very slow shutter speed you could use filters, warm ups, graduate, and Polarizer filters which gives you some fantastic  affects if used properly.


For this type of photography that I intend to do I shell what my 500-mm lens along with a good tripod for this to rest on, along with my D200 which will fire at 5 shots per second.  I shell set the camera at 4.5 aperture as the large lens does not go any further than that.

Mick Durham Wildlife and Macro Photographer.

Mick Durham is a professional wildlife photographer living near Dumfries in South West Scotland. He has been taking pictures for over thirty years, at least ten of those on a professional basis. Being based in Scotland gives him access to some of Britain’s wildest landscapes – ideal for superb close encounters with our native wildlife. 

Mick Durham trained as an English and Outdoor Education teacher in the late seventies and began taking photographs as part of his work in the outdoors. His first SLR camera was an Olympus OM1 chosen for two reasons – it was small and light which made it easy to carry in to the mountains and one of Britain’s best know bird photographers, Eric Hoskins used them.  It was then that he made the change to autofocus and like many professional photographers chose to use Nikon cameras. He now shoots digitally and at the moment uses a Nikon D2x. His wildlife photography really started as an extension to bird watching, quickly developing in to a passion and a profession. He still enjoy watching birds but more often then not this is done through a camera lens rather than binoculars. 

Mick Durham tries to do most of his photography close to home, going back to locations time and time again. In this instance familiarity means greater success. He travels around Scotland for some subjects; the west coast and islands and Shetland for otters and occasionally go further afield for his photography. Norway is a favourite country.

Mick Durham has been a professional wildlife photographer for about ten years but he as been taking photographs for a lot longer. Mick bought his first SLR camera when he was still a student in the late seventies However, his passion for wildlife and in particular birdwatching soon began to influence what he photographed and slowly a wildlife photographer was born.

Like many keen birdwatchers he always keeps a diary of what birds he has seen, what trips he had undertaken and now, being a professional photographer he has turned this into much more of a working document.  He now records details of photographic trips, ideas about potential locations and any other information that might be useful to him. Thanks to the digital revolution he now no longer has to make notes of how he took particular photographs.   All this information is recorded within the digital files on the camera.

The digital revolution has brought with it the ability to produce exhibition quality prints at home. Mick use a MacPro computer and an Epson 2100 A3 printer for all his printing. He restricts digital manipulation to an absolute minimum – retouching of blemishes caused by dust in the camera, balancing colour and contrast to achieve natural looking images and the occasional removal of unsightly background elements. Mick never adds anything to his images that was not there when he took the photo.

The change to digital photography impacted on Mick’s business in a major way. Mick originally sold most of his work through a small picture agency but the owner chose the switch over to digital imaging as the time to retire. It was time for Mick to reassess how his photography should move forward. In 2005 he bought his first digital camera and set up his own web site. This original site, ‘Kinharvie Photographics’ was very much a home grown affair showcasing his work to family and friends and existing customers. 

Unit 305 Wildlife Photography. (Bird life.)

My profession application in this course Will be Bird photography which I enjoy doing.  The reason for this is that I love being outside with nature and the great out doors.


The equipment that I shell be using will be a Nikon Body D200 with a Sigma 500mm 4.5 lens.  Also I shell be using Sony 450 Body with a Tokina 300mm 2.8 Lens, plus 2+2 teleconverter.


The lens on this camera is a 28 mm to 70 mm this i will use for landscape photography, along with tripods, monopods, filters and camera release cables. 

This the Nikon D200

This is the Sony 450.

This is the Sigma 500mm 4.5 Lens.

This is the Tokina 300mm 2.8.

I shell be using a hide, inside will be a tripod and monopod for camera stability.

This is my own personnel hide that I sometimes use.