More raptors

I can't get enough of em! I love getting close to these most charismatic of birds. And the recent Bird Fair at Middleton Hall gave yet another oportunity to add to the collection. The falconer and I leading a workshop to photograph kestrel, tawny and barn owl. If you want to join me to photograph wild ospreys check out the focus4nature link.

Raptors in Mid Wales

I will be running some bird of prey photoshoots for Focus 4 Nature later this year so went to Mid Wales for a reckie at the falconry centre. It was a brilliant day with lovely sunshine and a smashing set of birds including this wondeful male goshawk. The shot looks simple enough but it took a lot of time to line up the dark background and then wait for the bird to look around the tree.

Cairngorms

I love going up to the highlands but another very quick trip to the Cairngorms was dissapointing with poor light continually spoiling opportunities for landscape and wildife photography. I even spent an entire night in a hide waiting for dawn and a black grouse lek. The grouse arrived but the sun never pierced the clouds. Good fun watching them posturing and displaying though.

Exciting news

I have been invited to join a new Wildlife Photographic Tour company Focus4Nature and lead tours over the next year or so. The first tour will be a brilliant 6 days in Finland photographing divers and osprey and should be a rewarding trip.

F4N will be running tours accross the globe to some of the best wildlife locations and the price will include everything even flights. For more details check out the new website http://www.focus4nature.co.uk/ for mine and other exciting tours.

Golden eagle on the moors

A very enjoyable day last month saw me in some attractive moorland working with a small group of raptors on a bird of prey photography shoot. The beautiful golden eagle was the main target but a European eagle owl was also an excellent subject. One day (early retirement beckons!) I shall photograph eagles again in the wild but for now these shots will do.

Catching up and planning

This is a quiet time for my photography so I have started to catch up with processing the images from the year. These two were pleasing ones from the Shetlands. I never seem to tire of photgraphing puffins! Conversley these were the first decent common seal shots ever for me.

I have also done a bit of planning for the year ahead and booked some dates. I get very excited when planning projects and love having trips and local encounters to look forward to. 2011 is looking good too with a week in the Highlands, two possible trips to Finland and my first go at fish photography...watch this space!

Waxwings

With the waxwing invasion arriving in the Midlands and the sun shining, it seemed only right to don the gloves and head off to a rowan tree in Ludlow. Tricky light and very hungry and mobile birds meant that even with over a hundred to choose from it was hard to isolate any individual and capture a nice pose. I liked the background colour in this image though so worth the cold fingers!