Too close to a Roe Deer?

It's been a while since I've been out to photograph my roe deer, having other wildlife and landscape subjects to concentrate on. With a good forecast I decided to set out early in the hope of a successful stalk that would lead to good pictures. This particular morning I got lucky, spotting a lone buck resting in the long grass. I stalked nearer using the hedgerow, then carefully crawled between the barb wire of a fence. Finally I was at the edge of the meadow and could see that the buck was sleeping. I was already pretty close but needed to get a little nearer. A minute or so later, after dragging myself through the wet grass, I was ready. Now was the time to rise above the grasses. I rose up and made a noise. No reaction. I did it again. Nothing. Finally after getting louder and louder the deer opened its eyes and looked in my direction. By this point I was half stood, ready with camera. I fired the shutter as he looked my way, and then quickly he was up on all fours. I was in fact too close!! I fired just two frames before he fled, then watched him leap towards the wood, barking gruffly in annoyance. From the two clear shots I took, one had the antlers out of frame: the other was perfect. I had got lucky..

Photographing Insects - Hand-held Photography

In terms of wildlife, insects are probably my least photographed subject, so this year I really wanted to try and get some decent images - namely butterlies, dragonflies and bees.A recent trip to a nature reserve proved to be a little quiet for butterflies and dragonflies, but there was a good number of buzzing bees and hoverflies to practice on.

There are different techniques when it comes to insect photography: some photographers prefer to search for their insects early in the morning and get up close whilst they are still resting. This approach is great - if you can find the insects roosting! The other method is once its warmed up - by waiting by a productive spot, then capturing the insect as it visits a flower head or returns to a favoured perch. Whichever method you choose, insect photography is a real challenge. Shoot at first light and you can find yourself with very low shutter speeds - and moving in a tripod can easily disturb the subject. Photograph later in the day and you almost certainly have increased breeze, along with much more active subjects making them difficult to track. Lighting is an issue too: once the sun is high in the sky, the light becomes too harsh for my liking. After a couple of days photograping the same patch - I think I've decided my prefered technique. The best conditions, I believe, are warm days with high cloud. This gives good quality of lighting whilst still giving you reasonably fast shutter speeds. In addition - the insects seem to slow down, as opposed to a day of bright sunshine. On one particular afternoon the light was rather overcast, but it was still very warm. The many bees, hoverflies and gatekeepers were still active, but they definitely seemed to show slower movements, making it much easier to get close.

 Hand-holding the camera is simply the best option in this kind of situation. Even if you are waiting by a favoured patch of flowers, you never quite know where the insect will land - and you may want to adjust your position for a better composition. Rating the ISO at about 400 can give you an aperture of around f8 with a shutter speed of around 1/250 if the light is right.

 These images were taken in more overcast conditions with shutter speeds down to 1/100 second in some cases. Even then - with little breeze, a lot of care and continuous firing, I was able to gain some pin sharp images which proves that it is possible to capture insects without extremely fast shutter speeds - and hand-held.

Encounters with a Sparrowhawk

I've always had a particular love of sparrowhawks - and to this day a sighting of this raptor fills me with excitement. It was whilst waiting by a pond for water voles to appear that I had an amazing and quite unusual encounter with this sparrowhawk. At first it was a typical glimpse - the bird shooting low over the reeds and quickly changing direction. To my surprise though, this bird banked back round towards me and landed in a tall tree - just fifty yards or so away. I expected it to stop briefly and then move on - but it actually stayed a while. I was even able to change lenses and take my time to get a shot.

After 5 minutes or so it took flight, passing ridiculously close, before disappearing somewhere in the trees. My attention was drawn elsewhere and after a few more minutes I walked closer to the pond, only for the same sparrowhawk to suddenly shoot up from deep in the reeds and land in another tree at the edge of the water. Although the plumage was more like a male, the size suggested that it was a female - and clearly it was hunting something specific. No doubt it was one of the many coot or moorhen chicks in the reeds, and it seemed that this bird wasn't going to leave until it had got its kill.

I have heard stories of sparrowhawks finding a nesting site and returning repeatedly to raid the site, picking off one young bird at a time. This might seem evil, but quite simply it's smart. With its own chicks to feed a sparrowhawk must take every opportunity and easy pickings should be exploited. For me I was just lucky enough to watch an often secretive predator at incredibly close quarters.

Photography Workshop at Fairburn Ings

I thoroughly enjoyed yesterday's photography workshop at Fairburn Ings. I think everyone got some useful tips and thankfully the weather was great too. A bit quiet on the butterfly front, but pleny of plants and flowers to practice on. As for dragonflies - the darters were out in force but the bigger hawkers just didn't seem to want to come close enough.

Thanks to the group for making it such an enjoyable day - everyone was really enthusiastic and keen to have a go at new techniques. Examples of particpants' images can be seen in my Flickr group. I still have a few places on the 6th August photography workshop - contact RSPB Fairburn Ings for information.