A startling perches on the aerial of next doors house.

I quickly went in grabbed the gear and out on the 2x.  I also set up my 3 Legged Thing Dave at almost full height.  This proved to be a VERY precarious setup so I can’t wait to get the Gitzo and Wimberley now.

I kept an eye on the spot I had seen the chick and took shots as it appeared from the nest.   With the combo of (wobbly) tripod and VR I tried to keep the shutter speed over about 1/200 ish as I wasn’t needing to freeze the parents motion.  This meant for a while I could keep the aperture stopped down to f7.1 to grab back some sharpness the teleconvertor stole.

A starling chick looks out from the nest whilst waiting for it’s parent to arrive with dinner.

As the light faded the shaded area the nest was located became problematic so I turned the l turned the light upon the collared doves sat on the roof.  These where still in the light meaning I could drop the ISO a bit, and should have more looking at the EXIF data, and still get good shutter speeds.

A Collared Dove sits on the roof line in the fading light.

To close out the evening I took the obligatory “I’ve just got a new long lens” shot of the moon.  Whilst still a heavy crop I get about 5 megapixels at the end which is far better than what I was getting with a D50 and 70-300 lens which was 5mp before the crop!

Obilgatory I got a big lens moon shot (still cropped)

Finding the moon at 600mm was tough, a combo of the difficult tripod setup and the fact the 300 seems to be focusing WAY past infinity, which doesn’t seem normal.  I need to investigate this as it may mean a trip up to Nikon in Kingston.  While this would be a complete pain for such a new lens the plus side would be I could get the D7000s sensor cleaned and have it checked for back focus with the 17-55 whilst there.

Pretty such that’s not meant to happen.

Update:

Thanks to David Lloyd it seems I don’t need to worry about the focus travel on the 300mm. He pointed out to me that in AF the travel is much shorter but if you grab the manual focus ring you can go far past infinity.  His 400mm 2.8 is the same.

The first time I took it out about a week ago I went to see the roe deer and took a monopod to help with the mass.  In honesty it seemed to make it worse as the load is so top heavy, meaning I couldn’t keep the lens still enough for even the VR to take up the slack.  The end result was I didn’t really get anything worth sharing.

The positive side of this outing was I met the ranger who was kind enough to point out the site boundary which I have never been sure of and also confirmed my suspicions on the location of the Barn owl nest in previous years.

Yesterday I went out to try and get used to the lens again, this time however I took the tripod.  A 3 Legged Thing Dave, with an older model 3LT head on it.  While this holds the lens up it’s clearly not the best solution and something sturdier and easier to use will be needed.  So if some one would like to send me a Gitzo and a Wimberly that would be smashing and save me a lot of expense!

The roe deer where a no show but that’s wildlife photography for you.  Even the birds where pretty scarce.  Clearly the indecisive weather is having an effect, I just hope that with the cows now moved on the grass will grow.  This should bring back the small mammals and so the bring the predators with them.

After a while I decided the clouds looked a bit too much like rain and it was time to head back.  I started to pack up but decided to keep the lens on the camera, but put the TCs back in the bag.  The tripod also went back on the bag.

On the way back out I saw a fox at the far end of the field, disappearing into a thicket so decided to follow it.  I managed to get the image below but it’s a hell of a crop, which goes to show the quality of both the D7000 and the lens.  Ideally I would have had the 2x converter on for this, but there was no time to get it out and fit it.

A fox hides in a thicket

Sadly the evening was dampened by the discovery that some one had decided that right by the hide on a nature reserve was a great place for a fire, with some burnt bottles on the hide steps and a big burn mark up the side.  I’ve reported this to the rangers so hopefully they will be able to keep an eye on things.

There’s a lot more learning to be done with this new set-up   I need some more strength to help hand hold it but I also need to work out what’s a good shutter speed with and without VR and also what the teleconvertors do to the image quality and also to the look.  I also took some photos at a family wedding and this has made me think the D7000 is back-focusing so a tuning session is in order at the weekend should the time be available.

Upon arrival I was quickly deflated as the cows where still in the field the deer frequent meaning I was probably out of luck.  However I have often seen them along the river so decided to try the tow path along the other side to see if that worked.

On the walk round I spotted this Small Tortoiseshell butterfly, a sign that spring really has sprung.

A Small Tortoiseshell butterfly at the side of a path at SWT Manor Farm.

Slightly further round I heard a rustle and then noticed a deer was stuck between a laid hedge and the old fence.  It soon jumped out and disappeared off into the woods.  I don’t know who was more startled me or the roe!

Once on the other side of the river my gamble soon paid off.  I spotted a lone doe feeding in the long grass.  She was aware of my presence, thanks to 1 badly placed step, but soon settled down back to feeding.

A roew deer doe feeds on a wooded area between a river fork.

After a while she moved off into the woods.  Further down I found 4 more deer, one was probably the doe from before but it was hard to tell.  I tried to get a few images but the combination of distance and deer placement just meant nothing really worked out.

Deciding it wasn’t working I left the deer in peace to feed and carried on down the path as I’ve only been down it once before and not this far.  I found a SWT labelled gate and decided to follow it to see where it went.  Turns out it comes out at one of the work areas for RHS Wisley Gardens, and also quite near my house.

This route lead me down a section of the river Wey I’ve not been down before.  I’ve heard talk of kingfisher and this area looks promising with high mud banks and overhanging trees to fish from.  Once the river calms down a touch and the water clears I’ll be back to scout.

Nearly home there was one more surprise.  In the final field I pass before coming back out into my road was a dog fox, just sat watching me.

A dog fox sits watch as I walk past.

After watching for a bit longer I saw a vixen in the long grass.  She was spooked by me initially but soon relaxed again and headed off into the field to hunt.

A dog fox sits watch while a vixen crosses a field.

What looked like it would be a bust actually came out quite well.  While I’m not overly happy with the image quality due to the lens, it now looks like I might be in a position to upgrade my lens soon

The lone female was feeding on the grass near the river. She moved closer at times but eventually drifted to the far side of the field.

Here she was joined by the single buck I’ve seen recently with the lop sided antlers.

He seemed to be aware of my presence and stood guard over his female.

Eventually both the deer began to drift to the back of the field and behind the shrubs out of sight so I called it a day.

Near the start is a small ring of brambles with a grass opening in the middle.  There are a few clear animal tracks in the grass so I followed one and heard the rustle of an animal moving in haste.  I backed off and decided to try look from the other side.

After a brief walk I heard the noise again and there in the undergrowth a fox looked back at me.

A fox hides in thick brambles and stares out at me.  This was manually focused as the camera wanted to focus on the brambles.  Easier said than done on my Sigma 70-300.

I sat and watched the fox for a while until it got bored of me and disappeared into the undergrowth so I moved on to search for the deer.

I found them in the bottom field. I tried to move along behind the field border as quietly as I could stopping when they looked up and eventually got to the bridge to their field.  At this point I began to crawl as close as I could, about 30m according the exif data (however I’m not very trusting of this as the shots which where certainly far closer also read 30m).

After crawling as close as I can a group of roe deer hear me before they can see me.

I stayed in this position and watch and took a few images as they looked up.  After a short while the began to move to my right and closer to my position.  It wasn’t long before the buck was close enough to hear the shutter firing and he began to look to where I was.  Initially he seemed confused but this soon changed to posturing and aggression.

Seeing as I was lying on my stomach on the ground I stopped shooting and stayed still hoping he’d back down rather than charge as I couldn’t do a thing to stop him.  After some more calling he apparently decided he’d made his point and after a few more calls took his small herd and ran off to the next field over the fence.  I think at his closest he was a mere 10-15m away.

After walking towards my position a roe deer buck sees my position and begins to posture.

If you look this is the same buck I posted last week. He has the same lopsided antlers, it will be interesting to see if I can document him over the course of the year.

I took this as a sign my luck was out and started to head back home, but had a look back in at the foxes location and kept an eye out for the barn owl I saw last week, sadly with no luck.

Saturday didn’t start off too well, a full lap of the reserve hadn’t shown much.  The fields where heavily waterlogged which lead to a fairly large discovery: my boots leak. I was okay in wet grass, but the standing water got in eventually.

As I was getting ready to leave I decided to take a 2nd look into the first field I pass again.  There where 3 roe deer right infront of me. I spent some time trying to get some images of these deer, not very successfully, when some thing caught the corner of my eye.

A Roe deer at SWT Manor Farm

A barn owl was hovering over the path on the far side of the field. I managed to empty the buffer on it before it landed on the fence behind the hedge out of sight.  Flipping through the images I could see none of them are anything overly special but the sequence of the bird looked quite impressive.

An animation of 8 frames from my D7000 shot at 6FPS and played back in real time.

This was motivation enough to get me out again on Sunday.

Once again I started with a full lap of the site seeing little of interest other than the cows. I took a detour on the far side to investigate the river path.  The water was very high and fast moving so I think I will head back once the rain finally stops!

Back at the same spot I saw the deer and owl I stopped to decide if I should do a 2nd loop or go home. A dog walker spotted me and told me of a spot where kingfishers have been seen in the summer. He also had much sharper eyes than me and saw 1 maybe 2 deer at the far corner of the field.  This turned out to be the same 3 deer from the previous day. Maybe it’s time for new glasses.

A Roe deer at SWT Manor Farm

I spent some time going up and down the field trying to get a good shot without getting too close and spooking them.  Finding this point was hard, but after they spooked the 2nd time I decided to leave them alone for the day and headed home.

This weekend has taught me a fair bit:
1 I need to get waterproof boots if it keeps raining or I will get wet feet again. I also seem to keep getting exposure comp the wrong way round for back lit shots, this will come with practice I hope. I also learnt just how dark an over cast day can be when you have to be stopped down to get something close to sharp, shutter speeds head south pretty quick.  Combine this with some suspect focusing skills and a lot of what I shot was soft. The latter I can work on, but the former will require some spending.  I hope to get at least a Nikon 300mm f4 this year, maybe something better if I can, but time will tell on both of those.

This seemed ideal based on the specs. Room for a pro body, I used a gripped Nikon D7000, with a 70-200 on it (which I don’t have, yet), a spare lens or two and a few pockets for the other required odds and ends you need for a days shooting.

Lowepro product page link

The first thing that struck me about that bag was the odd way of getting into the camera section, the product images did show this but I managed to miss the fact the flap wasn’t open.  Normally you’d expect this under the flap, but on this bag it’s a large zip along the top of the bag, the flap just covers 2 inner pockets for things like pens, a notepad, memory and so on.

The camera section has an expander zip under the flap which means it can take a pro/ gripped body or a non-gripped body and not have lots of slop. The reality of the matter is a gripped body is tight, and can be a pain to get in or out unless the zips undone all the way. A normal body fits fine and a proper pro (D3/4 or 1D etc) may fit a bit better as they are not quite as big as a gripped standard body.  The next size up, the 250,  would probably also fix this issue.

The other issue that niggles me is the strap pad is fixed, you can’t slide it if you change sides. This can be a problem as when fully loaded the bag can be quite heavy and it would be nice to be able to change sides and adjust the pad to suit. As it is I have it adjusted to sit on my left shoulder bag behind me on the right, so changing sides feels odd.

While they try sell you on the bag being stealthy and doesn’t look like a camera bag, it does. It’s the same ballistic nylon all technology bags use, if you want truly subtle you need some other material.  The ThinkTank Retrospective series comes to mind here.

While this may seem a bit scathing, I do quite like the bag. Theres room for the bits I need, it seems durable enough and will protect your kit. The included weather cover worked great in the recent snow, but does need the strap to be unclipped to fit it. The accessory pockets are large enough to fit whats needed, but not so large you end up taking the world with you.

Overall this is a good bag, especially if you don’t use a gripped body.  The niggles while real are just that, niggles.  Most of the time they won’t be an issue, and when they are they slow you down or aren’t as comfortable as you’d hope.

The last year has proved to be somewhat mixed as proven by the fact I’m sat posting this in the famous St George’s hospital waiting to see a neurosurgeon.

‘Fudge’ the Ferruginous Hawk is a captive bird displayed by xtreme falconry. This image was taken prior to a display at RHS Wisley Garden while the birds rested under a canopy.

The year started well with several trips to see a small group of short eared owls near Woking, Surrey. While I didn’t get many images, never mind a good one, the trips where worth it just to see these fantastic birds hunt.

A short eared owl flies past just before dusk.

Once the spring came I began to make trips to a Surrey Wildlife Trust site in walking distance to where I live. On reading the log book inside the hide I was full of hope at some of the fantastic species listed: barn owls, deer, various raptors even a few mentions of a kingfisher.

A roe deer in the long grass at Surrey Wildlife Trust Manor Farm reserve

The reality was more of a mixed bag. My first few trips revealed nothing of note but soon I was lucky enough to see roe deer on several occasions at some quite close distances. As dusk approached one evening I was considering heading home when across the fields flew what I had been waiting for ever since I first saw it in the log, a barn owl and it was carrying a kill.

A barn owl flying over Surrey Wildlife Trust Manor Farm reserve

Sadly this was all brought short as the summer came and with it came the rain. Months and months of rain. I took a few chances to visit but nothing much was showing.

During the summer I took the girls to visit Whipsnade Zoo. This presented a chance to see some marvellous creatures I haven’t seen before like lynx and some brown bears.

My favourite animal at the zoo was the silvery marmoset. These small Brazilian monkeys proved to be fascinating to watch as they roamed free around the trees outside their enclosure. After watching for a while I captured my favorite image of the year of a marmoset sat on top of it’s enclosure.

A Silvery Marmoset at Whipsnade Zoo stands watch from the top of it’s enclosure.

And now we come to my reason to my current location. In early October whist diving to work one morning, I suffered seizure. A short stay in a local hospital revealed the cause to be a malformation of the blood vessels in my brain. This has essentially near grounded me ever since, the upshot of which being I need to be supervised at all times, meaning no more photo trips.

Ferrari 458 Italia rear badge

However one chance came about curtesy of a close friend. He had arranged to take me to an event by motoring website piston heads. Known as a Sunday Service these gatherings are made by the forum members who bring their cars along. This ranges from fairly standard VWs right up to Lambos and Ferraris. My favorite car was brought along by the McLaren factory themselves and was a heavily optioned up MP4-12C which I was allowed to take a seat in. Other than sitting in £1/4 millon sports cars I got to try out some automotive photography which was a nice challenge.

McLaren MP4-12C MSO

My final real photo opportunity of the year was a vist to Marwell Zoo in Hampshire. This wasn’t a true photo trip but I still came away with my second favorite image of the year, a Snow Leopard.

A captive snow leapard at Marwell Wildlife in Hampshire England takes a rest.

So with 2012 at an end what might 2013 bring?

Well Christmas brought a nice new body, the Nikon D7000. I now have no more excuses about bad light, frame rates, focus points or any of that sort of thing. I’m still getting to grips with it but I do hope to treat it to a new 300mm lens this year, but not sure on which yet.

I also intend to spend some more time at SWT Manor Farm, the local reserve. I hope to spend some time searching for where the deer are and also where the barn owls hunt with the goal of setting up a hide. I also would like to try see the Kingfisher here, though I also know of a second possible site to visit.

But first I need to find out what this neurosurgeon has to say, have a good 2013.

Snow Leopard

I first encountered the Marwell snow leopards at about 11 months old on a boxing day visit.  Due to the low volumes of visitors it was that day the keepers decided to allow their new snow leopard cubs out for the first time.  I was apparently enthralled with these small killing machines and some thing about them even now still draws me to them over any of the other big cats. I could have spent far longer watching these than we did.

This image took a bit of trying to get as the glass we filthy.  Once I had discovered a clear bit it was simply a case of waiting for the cat to look the right way.  My 1 regret is I was a touch loose with the zoom which meant a small crop in post.  I would like this printed one day (along with my silvery marmoset) and this small crop will cost me in print quality.  I long for more than my meagre 6 megapixels, this crop only giving me 4.6 of them left.  Hopefully with a small amount of interpolating I’ll get away with a nice 10×12″.

If you wish to see the full gallery of images from the day then these are currently on my flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/themaninthesuitcase/sets/72157631913862550/

Lamborghini Aventador

There were several special cars including McLaren MP4-12C brought down from the factory by a man from MSO, or McLaren Special Operations.  Essentially a customising and tuning division of McLaren.  Kindly they let us ask lots of questions and even take a seat, in a car costing £170,000 before you tick any of the many options this one had, including many that are MSO options only (and so very expensive).

McLaren MP4-12C MSO

My other favorites where from well known Italian marque, Ferrari.  The fabled F40 and their current top sports car the 458 Itaila, with a 599 and a Dino also on display.  Never before have I been allowed so close to this legendary car, to be able to do so and see just what made this car what it is was a privilege.  No velvet rope here.

Ferrari F40

The day was a opportunity to get out in the fresh air with a camera for the first time since my brain injury at the start of October.  While a bit rusty at cars, and the sun dipping out which made things complex at times I came away with some nice images.

Ferrari 458 Italia wheel detail

Backgrounds at these events will always prove to be difficult with people milling around, and not a lot you can do to hide bad backgrounds when using a wide angle.  The sun was also proving a problem when it did come out giving too much dynamic range, meaning some shots juts got given up on until it went away again!

Automotive photography has never been a strong point, and there are limits to what you can do at static shows, but it’s certainly something I’d like to try some more of.  Maybe I should get my ’79 Mini Clubman estate finished off and get that out for some nice images, once I get my license back of course!