Long Tailed Tit image Highly Commended

My image of a long tailed tit braving a snow storm was recently highly commended in the 'International Garden Photographer of the Year' competition. Thousands of entries came from all over the world for this prestigious competition. It is particularly satisfying to see a common British species make it this far. The image is without doubt one of my favourites from last year, and it goes to show that making that extra effort can make all the difference, whether it be lighting, composition or weather conditions...

Click on the link below to see my image along with the other commended photos.

www.igpoty.com/competition03/gallery_LifeGarden_6.asp?parent=gallery

More Birds from the Cold Snap

Taken over the last few days of snowfall...

Photographing birds in the snow is great fun, but actually shooting whilst snow is falling can be a real challenge. In order to protect my camera, I used a home-made sleeve on my lens, with a waterproof cover over the top. Even so, it can be tricky to keep everything dry. These shots were taken on a beanbag using a tree stump as support. The difficult part is getting sharp images: some were taken at ISO 200 but at times the light levels were so low that I had to push up to ISO 400, which I try to avoid. Still -sharpness should always be the foremost consideration. Shutter speeds were often around 1/250 although I have found it possible to get sharp images even down at 1/60 - but it reduces your hit rate a lot.. The beauty of many of these pictures was the blanket of snow acting as a giant reflector and bouncing light back to illuminate the underside of the birds. The other tip is - take a lot of pictures..! In just a couple of hours I shot over 150 images.. this is not unusual..!

Winter Jays

The last few days have been simply glorious, with one of the coldest December weeks we've had in years... must be all that global warming I presume..? Heavy snowfall is one of the things I live for, and when the forecast comes, I make sure that I'm ready. From thermals to hats and gloves, and making sure batteries are charged... there's plenty things to get in order, and then there's the question of: "what do I photograph?" In answer to that question, I decided to endulge myself in pure wildlife photography. So it was back to the park to capture some more birds, and hopefully get some classic jays amidst snowflakes. These shots were taken on the first day of snowfall over 3 or 4 hours. Yes, I was cold by the end of it - but the pictures more than make up for numb fingers and toes. Enjoy...!

Clockwork Kingfishers

Location is the key for so many wildlife shots, and these kingfisher images are certainly proof of that. My friend who works at my local RSPB reserve had told be about a pair of kingfishers that were regularly fishing from the beck - often along the same short stretch, providing incredibly close views. I was more than delighted when my first morning provided a number of kingfisher sightings at fairly close range, but not quite close enough to photograph. My second visit was similar, but you can't fail to be overjoyed at watching these birds - and the fact that they were so regular made it even more amazing. The kingfisher was never away for more than about 15 minutes, and every time it was back to one of the same perches... you could almost set your watch by them..!It was third time lucky for these pictures, when one beautiful frosty morning, this female kingfisher decided to perch on just about the only clear branch close enough to photograph. I saw her heading for the perch and was ready. The next few seconds were manic as I fired off exposures, bracketing and re-composing to make sure I didn't end up with the miss of the year!! She stood still... posed, turned around, posed again and then finally flew off. A stunning experience - whether with or without a camera.!

The Snow that Was..

Finally I get round to posting this blog - this should really be February's post, but with one thing and another it's now mid-March... Anyway, the main action in February was at the feeding station, with cold weather bringing in good numbers of birds... and yes, I was lucky enough to make the most of that incredible snowfall - the best I've seen in years! Although I only managed one day in the hide whilst the snow was still falling, I was able to get some cracking winter images of long tailed tits braving the blizzard - with a nice stem of red dogwood as the perch - giving a much needed splash of colour.


This is one of those images I never get bored of.. and I've learnt something new - long tailed tits actually have a yellow eyelid - something you'd never see unless you photographed them up close.

The woodpecker has been a real star too - or should I say woodpeckers, seeing as there have been both male and female down to the food. One of them has slight reddish feather on the top of the head, so I'm thinking this might be one of this year's youngsters in its first winter.This is one of the first images I got from the hide -

Time to tail of the food soon, although I may try putting out some nesting material in place of the food for some behavioural shots... With a project as satisfying as this, it's certainly difficult to tear yourself away..!!

Next few week should see more trips to the dales, and hopefully some new frog/toad images - fingers crossed...