Tuesday 25 July 2017

Photographing wildlife - or not

A quick Google image search brings up as many exquisite wildlife pictures as anyone could want. All I can say is that the photographers probably sat for three weeks waiting for the perfect shot. We've published some great photos taken by Carl the angler, as he sits quietly at a swim with his camera equipment and fishing rods, waiting for a carp to bite or an interesting bird or amphibian to come within telephoto range. Capturing moving wildlife with a mobile phone is much, much harder ...

Take yesterday, for example. While we were sitting at the cabin watching the rain, a large heron flapped south along the length of the pond. Determined to get a snap, I trudged the length of the pond to find him, without success. No sooner than I had come all of the way back, than he flapped past again, this time heading north. I set out to the top of the pond and found him up to his knees in the shallow water where the stream empties into the pond, fishing with great concentration.  Hiding behind a tree, I managed a quick snap. As soon as I moved to get a better shot he spotted me and flapped away.The result is below - another one for the series of out of focus pixellated wildlife.
The white blob on the left is the heron
The long grass up by the entrance car park is alive with butterflies: ringlets, gatekeepers and meadow browns. I thought they would make easier photographic candidates, but even they weren't simple. When one landed I would lean in for a photo, but usually they folded their wings, or shifted beneath a leaf. Or just flew away. However, half an hour's patience did produce a few shots.
Ringlet

Ringlet on a thistle
Gatekeeper

Finally, in case you're wondering, this what a heron sounds like when he is flying away from you.

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