wildaboutphotography

Otters in October

2011-10-04T11:15:00.000-07:00

European Otter

2011-10-01T04:23:00.001-07:00

Wildabout blog now from I phone

2011-09-21T12:15:00.001-07:00

Well now no excuses for not keeping this blog up-to date-as the Blogger app now on I phone-so new excuses on a postcard please
More later

Spring-2011

2011-04-26T06:40:00.000-07:00

Spring 2011
Somewhat a mish-mash of projects lately, with Marsh Harriers in Norfolk, Landscape and leking Black Grouse in Scotland, Fritillary’s in Oxfordshire-and even a few Oxford city-

scapes
A few miles on the clock, and a few images in the bag. Less travelling for a while as insects and Orchids will feature highly in May along with some arty macro (hopefully)

Property in Turkey

http://www.spotblue.co.uk/turkey-property-for-sale/villa-in-alanya-ala274/

Scotland in February

2011-02-22T08:21:00.000-08:00

February 2011
The long drive north. When on the long nine hour drive to the Cairngorms I have started to wonder if it is getting longer or are the mountains getting higher, and as neither of these are possible it can only be me getting older!!
All this soon goes away with the abundance of photographic opportunities that can arise in an area where you can have all four seasons in one day, and a short distance can separate sun from near white out conditions. A bright landscape can turn into a storm laden one, even before you have set up to take it
Concentrating mainly on wildlife, the only miss where Ptarmigan, as on the day I set out to go the weather was too bad-tried and decided go back now and survive to return to the mountain another day

Property in Turkey

http://www.spotblue.co.uk/turkey-property-for-sale/villa-in-alanya-ala274/

January-2011

2011-01-31T09:08:00.000-08:00

Again another year when I have not kept up with the Blog as intended (last January) on a roughly monthly basis

A new year and another try. Slightly different start to my normal imagery, as moving house pre Christmas kept me pretty close to home –So a few Oxford images, and some geese and ducks, which I never seem to spend enough time on, but lots of local hot spots – A handy escape when you are getting a little “stressed out”, with all the hassle that moving entails (Not doing that again)

September 2010-Red Grouse in Yorkshire

2010-09-06T12:11:00.000-07:00

A trip early this month ,to a well known and well photographed grouse moor ,was very productive.Wanting images of grouse in flowering heather,the timing was right and there had only been a couple of shoots,so plenty of birds photograph-able from the car window,although this will change as the early shoots take a lot of birds(out of the picture ,so to speak).A shame ,but the moorland here is managed specifically for shooting ,and the birds would probably be few and far between without this management,as it is some years grouse numbers can be very low.
Also this month Kingfishers (images later ) close to where I live are very active so I shall spend quite a bit of time on them this year

Photo Elargements of quality acrylic prints canvases from wwwwtheimagebox

2010-08-16T20:47:00.000-07:00

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Fine quality prints ,canvas and enlargements ,for the discerning photographer

16 August-the spread of Mink

2010-08-16T15:50:00.000-07:00

During the last thirty years non native American Mink (through release from fur farms ,as well as escaped.They are no a significant threat to our native wildlife ,which have no protection from what is a ruthless and adaptable hunter.
Preying mostly on water based wildlife ,they will travel vast distance in search of fresh prey and hunting grounds.With there inquisitive nature and lithe bodies they are able to follow prey into the smallest hiding places,giving them little hope of escape.

That being said watching them for a while,you cant help but to admire there will to survive,and now have colonized most of our waterways -to one degree or another!and will be almost impossible to eradicate.they are heavily controlled on conservation sites ,where attempts to reestablish the Water Vole population are being made,and I was allowed to photograph these animals by a man who has spent many years working on such aproject.Looking at the proposed cost of culling Badgers(a native species of this country) total controll seems prohibitivly expensive and unlikely

Amazon Ads

2010-07-07T04:07:00.000-07:00

Amazon adds, as you can see the site now carries Amazon adverts, in the form of “relevant content “for the nature of the site. You can however search directly any of Amazons products via the “search boxes” which have been placed on some of the pages (contact page, links page and the two Vodaphone article pages on the front (or home page)
It is not like Google ads, pays per click,-if someone searches and makes a purchase from a link on wildaboutphotography –I get a little commission-A kind of Carl does catalogue thing if you like!!
The blog version is in US dollars and www.wildaboutphotography.co.uk carries the pounds sterling version

Oxfordshires wildflowers

2010-06-24T19:26:00.000-07:00

The Orchids at Warburg
Deciding to photograph a few wildflowers, for a new greeting card collection, Oxfordshire did not strike me as the best place to start looking. A county with large farms, and the small fields and family run farms of yesteryear long gone, and consigned to history.
But a quick look through search engines on the internet brings forward a whole host of small groups of people looking after and managing areas of land as a network of small nature reserves and green spaces for the benefit of all.
In the main these areas are very open to the public/local residents and visitors alike, and for someone like myself, the people running them, could not be more helpful ,with advise on where to find subjects ,and often the best few days to look and find them at their best(one particular wildflower I was looking for ,I was told get there before a certain date ,as that was when a crop of hay would be cut , and the flowers gone for another year)
A few useful contacts for people visiting, researching or just wanting to know what’s about in Oxfordshire as they pass through the area.
Berkshire Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire wildlife trust
Trust Head Office
The Lodge, 1 Armstrong Road, Littlemore,
Oxford, OX4 4XT
Tel: 01865 775476 Fax: 01865 711301
Email: info@bbowt.org.uk
Oxfordshire countryside commission
Countryside Service
Oxfordshire County Council
Holton
Oxford
OX33 1QQ

Tel: 01865 810226
Fax: 0845 6069614
http://www.oxfordcity.co.uk/info/green_spaces.html Oxford city councils green spaces web pages
Are a few of the many organisations in the area, I have found helpful

Harvest mice

2010-06-20T12:59:00.000-07:00

Harvest mice
For a while now I have been involved in several schemes to reintroduce, or top up harvest mice populations, which have in many cases vanished from large areas of their former range, or have not coped well in a modern world.
Most of these schemes involve Nature reserves, or areas of land managed for small mammals-where people are starting to realise these tiny creatures make for healthy populations of species such as Kestrels and Barn owls, where they are an important part of their diet .And although, along with other small rodents are at the bottom of the food chain, it is an important part they play to the species at the top of the chain.
Land owners, or nature reserves, who may be interested in setting up such schemes, can find my details on the contact page of the wildaboutphotography website, and feel free to get in touch

June2010

2010-06-20T03:46:00.000-07:00

June 2010
Well again since the last update, and no images to go with this one. I have a little ongoing project to watch/monitor a small group of Roe deer that live close to my home. I photograph them regularly on summer evenings and started to wonder where they where the rest of the year, is it me not visiting the area during the rest of the year –or do they move elsewhere in the spring or winter?
So I thought I would spend a little of what spare time I have finding out.
At present one of the does has a fawn hidden in a particular area so I deliberately keep away, and don’t attempt to get close, and know from previous years, as the fawn gets a little older, it will appear feeding alongside its mother.
Whilst I keep a distance, it disturbs me how many people (who know there are deer in this area) quite happily let dogs run loose and, allow the dogs to chase them. But to watch one evening as a couple walking a dog thought it would be fine to approach, dog off lead to see if they could find the fawn, I found unbelievably stupid. And in my slightly less than diplomatic way, pointed out, that the dog not only should be restrained, but they where maybe not actually bright enough to own a dog in the first place!!—countryside code

Reptiles on The Welsh border-March 2010

2010-03-22T08:03:00.000-07:00

A trip mid March to photograph Adders on the Welsh border, proved very fruitful, at the time of year when they are starting to wake from their winter slumber and the temperatures are still on the chilly side means all cold blooded creatures need to find an open warm sunny spot to warm up to a temperature that enables them to become active and start to hunt or find a mate, so this time of year is ideal for reptile photography-later in the year they can bring their temperature up earlier in the day ,and so are more difficult to find and thus harder to photograph, as they are not still for long enough,and even when found basking they can quickly get away from anything they see as a threat

Flatanger,Norway

2010-02-09T08:34:00.000-08:00

Flatanger, Norway February 2010
A trip to Flatanger in Norway, mainly for Eagles, proved productive with the weather bright on most days and snow on some it was a good mix for photography.
The Golden Eagles came to the hide every day I was there, so an awful lot of Eagle images to wade through and process. The Goshawk, I only went for on one day, as I have found the hides in Finland are better positioned, which is not too surprising as the Finns where probably the first to set up purpose built baited hides for this attractive raptor, and any wild images at one time would have come from these hides, but now hides are available to use in several countries and a secretive bird like the Goshawk has now become easy to photograph-this is good in some ways as a lot of people can now get good views and images of this bird, but sad as it takes away a lot of mystery that surrounded this most elusive winged predator.
It must be very difficult to take bad images in Norway in the winter, with stunning scenery for landscapes- and the snow acting like a giant reflector, throwing light up under subjects, solving contrast and shadow problems in mammal and bird photography

Red seals in the sunset

2010-01-18T06:22:00.000-08:00

Red Seals in the sunset
Well sunrise actually(artistic licence).After several years of not going to a well known hot spot for seals, because of the amount of people photographing them during October and November, a need for some different shots had me back there on a very cold morning in January, with not another sole on the shore(great).The particular images I had in mind where with the rising sun reflected across the wet mud and the seals in silhouette, so no one else around made it easier to get a clean stretch of beach ,with a single seal in the shot.
To do this I walked out across the mud flats when it was still dark, not something to recommend people to copy as you really need to be aware of exactly where you are, as it can become quite disorienting when all around you is a vast expanse of mud flat and a tide that can turn quickly and cut you off. It is however safer doing things such as this in the morning, when it is going to get lighter, than the evening when it is only going to get darker!!

2010-01-04T03:31:00.000-08:00

January 2010

Well another year and another decade-New Year’s resolution to try and keep a little more up to date, with both this Blog and the wildabout web site.

Sounds remarkably easy to do, but an awful lot easier to let slide, with all the various other “bits and pieces“that seem to need doing, and with the age of digital well and truly upon us ,a lot more time is spent on the computer than in previous years. So now (along with the image of the month on the web site),I will endeavour to update this blog on a monthly basis(and we’ll see how long I can keep it up),so until later in the month I shall log out

Autumn in Kent

2009-11-20T03:00:00.000-08:00

Autumn in Kent
Late October and November is a great time to visit Kent, from a photographic point of view. Although many parts of this County, often called the garden of England, are well manicured, it does have its hidden gems-with clean streams and some quite well wooded areas, many of which were managed in the past for woodland crafts (now nearly all gone), such as coppicing of Hazel and Sweet Chestnut for hurdle making and other fencing materials, a good variety of wildlife can still be found

http://www.spotblue.co.uk/turkey-property-for-sale/villa-in-alanya-ala274/

Kingfishers and Harvest mice

2009-09-22T11:39:00.000-07:00

September 2009-09-22
Kingfishers before breakfast, Harvest Mice before dinner
Rising at 5am on one of the nicer days of the month, decided to try a small stream, which because of the last couple of really wet summers had not been accessible armed with a nice looking stick to use for a perch and a little trial and error, eventually managed to find a rather obliging Kingfisher that seemed to like the stick as much as I did, so over the following weeks-time and weather permitting it was an early morning ritual (me waiting for the bird-the bird waiting for the fish) ,the sort of morning ,when it all comes together your glad you wear out and about and not having a lie in!
That being said these moments only lasted for short periods of time, sometimes it would sit and preen contentedly for up to half an hour ,other times a few brief moments and off it would fly-what to do with the rest of the day Harvest Mice, which must be the friendliest and trusting rodents on the planet-considering the way they have been treated down the years
Enough of my ramblings look at some images instead!

Holland & Bulgaria

2009-07-20T17:01:00.001-07:00

Well I haven’t kept this blog as up to date as I had hoped! Mostly as for the last several months I have been away rather a lot, with Holland and Bulgaria being the two most recent trips, so without further ado I will say a little about these two wonderful Countries as far as wildlife photographyHolland was a few months ago now, but I was lucky to be there at the time when the Avocets where arriving and starting their courtship and mating displays, this was on the small Island of Texel off the coast of Holland. Other species that where still present at the time included Brent geese, which had not flown North to their breeding grounds and Ringed Plover which nest on the small shingle islets in the lagoonsLeaving for the mainland the star species was Black-necked Grebe and Black-tailed Godwit, but an abundance of other birds such as Purple Heron Spoonbill Bluethroat Reed Bunting where also present in good numbersBulgaria is now one of my favourite photographic countries, as the abundance of bird and animal life is outstanding, with different species at different times of the year, you could never come home empty handed. I was there in June and that is the month when many birds are on their breeding territories, and in large numbers. The only problem is the amount of different species, I found the best method, rather than take lots of “record shots”, was to concentrate on a smaller number of species and cover them better, thus getting more commercial/saleable images.During the time I was there I travelled from the Black sea coast to the Rudolpi Mountains on the Greek boarder and across to the Balkans-and there is a lot more of the country I shall return to.Species that I concentrated on during my stay where Wallcreeper, black Woodpecker, Suslik, Hoopoe several species of Lark, Black-headed Yellow Wagtail, Red-rumped swallow, Buntings and Penduline TitI have added several of the images, and hope you enjoy looking through them

2009-01-20T02:37:00.000-08:00

Caerlaverock –January 2009
A trip this month to Caerlaverock, in Scotland, for Barnacle geese roved very fruitful. Large numbers of geese from Svalbard in Norway spend the winter in the area, and can be viewed from the hides at the Wildfowl and Wetlands reserve, where they spend the days feeding in the surrounding fields.
The hides hear can be tricky to photograph from, as the openings are too narrow for long lenses, however the birds do on occasions come quite close, and by lying in the hedge on the road into the reserve, it is possible to get some good images.
Whooper Swans are also present during winter months along with waders, such as Curlew. Small birds such as Yellowhammer are present in good numbers, and sites nearby include a good site for Goosander and one of the largest UK Starling roosts

Exmoor Ponies

2009-01-01T04:31:00.000-08:00

Exmoor Ponies January 2009
Exmoor, in January can be a very cold and bleak place to want to go, but for images of the ponies, exactly what I wanted. Picking a bright cold day allowed for backlit shots as well as images with lots of frost in them, which I think sums up the hardy nature of the “free roaming “ herds that spend all year on the open Moor.
Taking the road from Dulverton (following the signs for Stepp Tar) you cross a cattle grid, with a small sign to the right “Winsford hill”, which is where I found the Ponies on this particular day. On the day I visited I was lucky to find them quite close to the road, but it is a very large area and they can be anywhere.
Further information on visiting Exmoor can be found via the website http://www.everythingexmoor.org.uk/ which is a community based web site full of information both for residents and visitors alike.

welney and the Ouse Washes

2008-12-24T08:04:00.000-08:00

A trip to Norfolk just before Christmas to photograph the Whooper Swans, that spend the winter months feeding on the Fens and vast arable farms of the area found me at Welney WWT late in the afternoon. To pass the time until the swans fly in to spend the night on the Ouse wash the main hide provided good opportunities to take images of several duck species such as Pochard and Widgeon, which are quite photogenic, in the reflections of the reeds in the low winter sunlight. The swans arrive at dusk and make for some dramatic images as they fly in-Mute and Bewick swans can also be found in good numbers, but the Bewick’s tend to be a little distant.
On this little winter jolly I spent the morning at nearby Hunstanton, where Purple Sandpipers and Turnstones can be fairly approachable on the beach, which consists of broken shells, shingle and low groins, which are again very photogenic

2008-12-09T08:15:00.001-08:00

Ponies of the New Forrest –December 2008
A nice cold frosty spell took me to the New Forrest, on an early morning search for the ponies that roam freely (except for the cattle grids) over most of the New Forrest area. I decided to concentrate my search on the triangle of roads between Lyndhurst, Brockenhurst and Bieulie.Taking the side roads off these main through roads, the ponies where a lot easier to find than I thought, and dotted with small lay-bys, which made parking easy. The ponies where near to the road and if you didn’t want to get out of the car you could have obtained images just as easily.
When I first arrived it was just getting light and ponies had a coating of frost, which with the early morning light made for nice images of these extremely hardy animals

2008-11-24T11:22:00.000-08:00

Bats: November 2008

Although I prefer to take images of wildlife “in the wild”, now and again you have to do some species in controlled sets (posh way of saying captive subjects).So this month I visited the Cotswold Wildlife Park to have a go at the fruit bats. Several companies do organised trips, but as you can only photograph them through the glass, it is debatable if it’s worth paying the extra money for this.
Exposure is the biggest problem, and it can take a bit of playing around with exposure compensation as well as the flash compensation-On my Sony cameras under exposing the compensation by three stops and boosting the flash compensation to around plus two, gave good results with the ISO set to 100 depth of field at F11 and a shutter speed of 250(camera set to fully manual mode)

Birds of prey

2008-10-26T01:23:00.001-07:00

October 2008
Birds of prey in Wales,
This month saw me in Wales, taking images of some of the birds of prey that inhabit the mountains ,valleys and farmland s of Wales-many of them persecuted for years by estate owners ,farmers and gamekeepers are now starting to make a reasonable comeback in large areas, due to large and small conservation groups and a general public awareness that many where on the verge of extinction-and once we have lost them (like the Dodo) ,they are gone forever, and the only place people will see them again is stuffed and mounted in museums

Gorrillas ,with Vic Sharratt

2008-09-26T06:07:00.000-07:00

Well ,It's September,and not being realy into Zoo photography I was not sure about photographing Gorrillas in a zoo,but my friend and fellow photographer Vic Sharratt,who runs workshops at Port Lympne zoo talked me into it.And it provided a surprisingly good days photography,with close access to the animals via the keepers feeding points-not accessible to the general public.Sevral species are very photographic hear,Maned wolf and Red River Hog ,being two notable ones(the Great Green Bush Cricket ,just happened to sit on the wall next to me ,and watch me working with the Gorrillas).Vics new web site is worth a look,as he runs trips and photographic days in Africa ,USA Europe and the UK visithttp://www.vicsharrattwildlifeimages.com/html/intro.html for futhrer details.

Must admit I am seriously looking forward to October ,as I will be photographing Harvest mice,which I am looking forward to ,also Fungi and Autumn colours-see you next month -Carl www.wildaboutphotography.co.uk

2008-07-26T03:59:00.000-07:00

July 2008

2008-07-26T02:52:00.000-07:00

July 2008
Welcome to my blog.
Based in Oxford, which speaking from a nature photographic point of view, May not have the rugged cliffs of Cornwall, the moors of Yorkshire or the vast reed beds of Norfolk but it does have very good access to the motorway network that allows me to be any ware in the country reasonably quickly, and Oxfordshire does have its own little hidden gems, of which I will tell more in future postings.
Although I travel all over the place in search of images, I still like to do some photography locally,(no petrol or flight costs),you can spend time working with a particular species over extended periods of time, and get to know when and where they will be at different times of the year and when and where migrant species are likely to turn up. But it doesn’t always go according to plan! This month is a good example of this-having spent a lot of time stuck processing images on the computer I was suffering a severe case of cabin fever ,and decided to do some early morning stints with the local Kingfishers was a good cure. Last year one particular bird was so easy to photograph there wasn’t anything challenging in it ,I could literally go out and within an hour or soothe images would be in the bag(or memory card),but this year they have been proving very difficult ,and I have spent many hours trying different perches, different heights different locations etc,all for a very small number of images, but I’ve had more fun(sounds daft I know),but I have learnt so much more about their behaviour and habits
Another example of this is the Nuthatches at Shotover Country Park(see the Shotover diary page on my web site- www.wildaboutphotography.co.uk ), I know where they usually are, but when I have been out to look for them-not a bird any ware to be found, but that’s wildlife for you!.
Camera Stuff
For old die hard Minolta Dynax 9 users like myself Sony, visit www.sony.co.uk are now heading in the right direction with the latest addition the Alpha 700.With reduced shutter noise and many controls very similarly placed to the Dynax 9 it makes for a very easy jump into the digital age.They also have announced the release of a full framed 24.6 megapixel camera ,later this year along with several new lenses from Zeiss-so look forward to some new toys to play with!
Other useful links
www.photoclubalpha.com
Firmware upgrades www.sony.co.uk

2008-07-25T04:41:00.000-07:00

wildaboutphotography

2008-07-25T04:22:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the www.wildaboutphotography.co.uk Blog.I will be posting images of nature and general blogs ,on a monthly basis,to do with the natural world(as seen by me)Sony Alpha and Photoshop.Hopefully the first post will be up over the weekend