Spectacular Wildlife Photos from a Local Photographer
[EDITOR: Stewart works in Wincanton with Graham Hiscock in Camelot Photographic, but the great passion of his life has become getting out into the Somerset and Dorset countryside to photograph wild life. Here he tells how it came about (scroll down for the photos).]
I first started to think about photography a good few years ago when I used to do a lot of camping and fishing, and on many a morning looking out on to a misty reed fringed lake I would see all manner of wild life. In fact on one such morning I was awoken to my electric bite alarm singing its happy song, and on getting out of the sleeping bag and looking out of the tent I could see the reason for it.
There perched on the end of one of my rods was the jewel of all water environments, the wonderful kingfisher, who had decided that a very convenient perch had suddenly appeared on the bank, namely the end of my rod, and as he was bouncing up and down, so the alarm was sounding. Anything that looks that good can be forgiven for dragging you out of your bed, and as I watched him I thought to myself, if only I had a camera!
In fact I did have one, but where was it? As I groped about in various bags at last I found what I was looking for. I turned to look out of the tent once more only to see and hear the sweet little chap or chappess zoom across the water and out of site.
Since then I have done a lot less fishing and considerably more photography and the challenge of finding a particular subject, and then getting a few decent images of it, is as exciting as catching a monster fish. You also learn so much about the environment that each subject lives in, as well as learning the most valuable lesson, which is "don't chase things around, wait for them to come to you" and if you are sitting quietly you can get what you set out for.
I used to travel all over the place trying to get all manner of images, and one day a lady I was talking to while walking my dogs said, "There's a barn owl in the field next to my house." This was about four minutes from where I lived, and she kindly got me permission to put up a small portable hide from the owner of the field, and I in turn got some of my most treasured images, which I shared with the lady and the farmer.
So for those who want the technical facts. I use only Nikon equipment. Either a D200 or a D2Xs, with a 300mm 2.8 lens, and very often a 1.7 tele converter as well. I also use a 105mm macro for a lot of the insect photo's and where ever possible I always use a tripod. I hope you enjoy looking at some of the natural history that has passed before the lens.
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Reply #1 on : Fri November 12, 2010, 11:11:25
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