Major Project The Farm and inital findings

Today's Antics.

Farm Wildlife Day 1

Today I decided to start the farm project, this I wanted to do as before when I have been on the farm. I decided that I would establish some feed stations on the farm to see what birds come to them. The location of the farm I will not divulge on here, however it is near a RSPB reserve so there should be a lot of wildlife in the area.

I decided that I would establish them in the wood next to the barns. I decided to do some scouting about around the rest of the farm, whilst doing this I found a tree that had been pecked by a Woodpecker. Excellent I thought, it was ideal for establishing a feeding station and a hide, the problem was that there are someone else's horses in there so I had to abandon that one. This will keep for the future.

I went into the ash tree plantation and found a few ideal places to establish a hide. The main concern for me was light. At the end the plantation was a clearing which was ideal. I decided to establish my first feeding station here. There were plenty of very photogenic perches there and there were many that I could put into place as well.

Further in to the wood I started to see some tracks. I think from a fox as the grass was not disturbed. Following these tracks led me to a bank which I climbed and found another tree that had been pecked by a Woodpecker. As there was a clearing there I decided to establish the second feeding station here.

After establishing them I decided to look around the farm to see what other wildlife was about that day.

I found a small roost of about 100 starlings that were flying oblivious to my presence.

I saw two Red Kites

On the edge of the boundary next to the forestry plantation, I discovered the following wildlife:

Long tailed tits

Goldcrest or a firecrest

Tree creeper

I saw a potential site on the edge of the reeds to place a hide to get shots of birds of prey with some feeding done.

And this is only day one.

I will leave the feeding stations for about 4 days and then go to check them, if they are not touched I will think about moving them up to the top of the farm.

Point to note:

After watching Simon King's programme on BBC2 about wildlife in Scotland, he said when establishing a hide two of you should go there and then one leave. He said the birds will be none the wiser as long as you are quiet.

New work

Over the last couple of weeks I have been speaking to photographers such as Danny Green and he has told me to find a niche and also be creative in my work. I thought that i would post this image. Let me know what you think.

It was taken with a F4 lens at the F4 end of the lens. I was panning with the shot with the help of a Wimberley Head.

Latest images from gigrin farm

I thought I would post my favourite shot from my latest visit to Gigrin Farm. This shot was taken with a my 300m lens with a 1.4 converter attached with the exposure at f8 1/3200 over exposed by 1/2 stop of light.

Gigrin Farm, Tower Hide.

Finally at the beginning of May this year I was able to get into the Tower Hide at Gigrin Farm at Rhayader. This gave me the opportunity to test my 300mm to its limits. I had heard a lot of good things about this hide. The inspiration for this shoot were from the World Renowned Photographer Andy Rouse. I regularly read his blog and remember coming across images that he took at Gigrin during february this year. ( I very nearly went there that day, I was totally gutted.)

You can see the images that inspired me on his blog at http://www.andyrouse.co.uk/blog.asp?offset=55

On this day I set myself some goals for this day they were as follows:

• A Red Kites Diving.
• A Red Kite in the Landscape.
• A Red Kite flying towards me.
• A Red Kite eating in the Air.

If I got any of these I would be happy. The main one that I want is a Red Kite diving and that was my main aim for the day.

I found this quite a challenge at first as I was taking the photographs with the Camera attached to the wimberley head on my Gitzo Tripod. I found that as the birds are so fast I had to take the Camera of the tripod and handheld it. This was quite hard as the lens got heavy quite quick. The way I got around this was to watch the birds habits and when they started to dive, I would track one bird then wait for it to dive and take a few frames. Although the success rate was not very high I came away that day with images I was very Happy with.

Gigrin Farm, Gateway Hide 2.

As promised some of the images taken in the Gateway Hide.

Camera gear used.

Canon 1d mk11n

Canon 300 f2.8 IS

1.4 converter

Wimberley Head mounted on a SLIK 700DX tripod.

Camera settings used

ISO between 200 - 1000 depending on the lighting conditions. I was aiming to get a shutter speed of between 1/500 and 1/1000 second anything more was a bonus.

whitebalance was set to sunny.

Metering spot.

Camera was set to Aperture Priority Mode (AV). I find this mode gives me the control over the camera I need. If this fails I will take a spot meter reading with my light meter and dial it in manually and leave the camera set to that.

The camera was also set to Alservo mode with just the centre point active. By doing this I know that if I focus on the head of the bird it will be in focus. Although only the centre point is active, in the camera settings I have made active another 13 points around it. This is a major advantage of owning a 1D series camera.

Exposure compensation was set to 1/3 under.

Gigrin Farm, Gateway Hide.

As I said in my last blog. I find the Gateway Hide very good for getting images of the Kites in the air. What I really like about his hide is that there are a maximum of 5 people allowed in this hide so you have plenty of room. Another good feature is that you are able to use a tripod and that you have plenty of vision of the birds as well.

Some people that I know think that capturing

images of Red Kites is easy. I would like to tell you that it isn't. The thing that is challenging is to isolate the birds from the others as there can between 200 and 400 birds there at any one time. The trick is to follow one bird and then photograph it when you have it isolated from the others. This on times could mean you following a bird for a couple of minutes. Another point to note is that don't keep pressing the shutter release all the time. Think about what you are photographing and you will get better results in the long run. Whilst taking these photographs as well, keep checking the back of your camera, looking at the histogram to see if you are getting any of the highlights burnt out. The way I overcome this in my photography is to underexpose my shots by 1/3 of a stop to prevent this. I would like to thanks Andy Rouse for that tip.

Another good investment I made recently and I would recommend them to anyone that has a big lens is a Wimberley Gimbal Head. I managed to find a bargain on Ebay (they are not on there very often). This has also improved my photography as it allowed you to track birds easier, the main advantage of it as well is that you mount it on a tripod and this gives you a steadier platform. Therefore taking the weight of the camera and lens off me.

Best investment that I have ever.

Gigrin Farm, Red Kites

This place is probably the best place in the UK to see Red Kites.

Over the last couple of years I have visited this place at least twice a year. This year however already I have visited the place at least 4 times already and it is only spring. I find the place very addictive and if you want to really test your photography skills this is the place to do it.

Late last year I invested in a Canon 300 f2.8 Image Stabiliser lens. Thank god I did it before the price went up as it would have cost around £100o pounds more now. The lens is awesome, and until recently I have only really used it to photograph rugby, the results are excellent. I thought that if I really wanted to put this through its paces Gigrin was the place to do it. The things about this place is that last year they made the place more appealing to photographers as they built two new hides. The Gateway Hide and the Tower Hide.

These were specifically aimed at photographers, the thing about them is that you have some much more of a view of the birds and you can use a tripod as well. I have always found that using a tripod slows you down and it makes you think more about what you are photographing.

Having used both hides now I find both of them have there advantages. The gateway hide I find better for taking photographs of the Kites in the Air. Where as the Tower hide is better for getting the birds in the landscape.

I will post my images in the next blog.