Pennington Flash wildlife

I visited Pennington flash today, just off the East Lancs road near Leigh, to continue with the theme of wildlife photography. It was bitterly cold and virtually all the open water was frozen, so there was a distinct lack of water birds. The only location that provided any action was the bunting hide, which is also a feeder station. Although there were quite a few species feeding, it was late afternoon and the light was dismal.

Blue tit: 1/80s, f4.0, ISO 1250, 280mm (EF 70-200mm +1.4x) heavily cropped as it was too far away to fill the frame.

Robin: 1/125s, f4.0, ISO 1250, 280mm (EF 70-200mm +1.4x) heavily cropped.

The flashes will be worth re-visiting, especially in about 2 months time when spring has arrived and when the light is much better. If I continue to photograph small things from a distance, I will have to fork out for some new fixed focal length lenses. A 300mm f2.8L IS and a 600mm f4L IS would be nice. I'll just check under the mattress to see if I have a spare £8000!

Wildlife Photography

I was invited out on Saturday to do a bit of wildlife photography in Northumberland and along with a couple of experts, we headed down the coast from Bamburgh Castle to see what birds had flown in. As this was a first for me in this genre of photography, I did not have the right lenses for the distances we were shooting from and even my f2.8 70-200mm with a 1.4x converter was inadequate for the task. However, I captured a few wider views of some lapwing and golden plover whilst at a hide in Cresswell. A black-headed gull presented itself and I couldn’t resist the shot. It’s not exactly a rare bird but it filled the frame and I now have another photo to add to my stock library. If you want to see a proper UK wildlife photographers website, visit Andy Rouse's site.