On a recent visit to Slimbridge Wildfowl Trust (9 miles away) I was told about the Frampton clay/gravel pits. That didn't sound very inviting but I went and they aren't my idea of gravel pits atall, they're very large lakes. I eventually found my way to one side of the longest lake. Please bear with me as this is the first time I've tried to photograph flying swans and geese...and dragonflies. Can you imagine trying to photograph a hovering dragonfly with a heavy (3.1 lbs) 100-400 lens and the lens on manual, turning it to keep the beastie in focus as it flittered here and there..mainly there. A kingfisher obligingly flew from a nearby tree and sat on the protective fence around the sapling out in the open . A friend has told me that the reason it's 'soft' -out of focus I thought - was the heat haze. He could see it's shimmer and he said he has the same problems when digiscoping. Mmmm. I'm not so sure. I had the red centre focus point on the bird but it was so small the red focus point veered onto to the post - anyway as I left I went the wrong way back to the car and happened to go too close to the Manor house whereupon the Lady of the Manor came out of it like a trap door spider about to pounce upon prey and asked in a very 'english' tone, "Excuse me, do you have to have permission to photograph and you're on private property, the public footpath is over there." ...sorry ma'mm. Lol.. I asked her if I had to have permission to photograph the ducks , swans and geese..."er...no".she said, in a lowered tone, I couldn't help myself..I said, "You see your first question should have asked was, 'what are you photographing ?' or "are you photographing the Manor house and grounds ?" That didn't go down atall well and she merely reminded me that I was on private land and the public footpath is 'over there by the lakes.' Off I went rejoicing ! lol. (hope you enjoyed that little sojourn..lol ) BTW. I then had to take a different route back to my car and indoing so came across the two wild bee nests. About 10-15 flew from it and around my head- I was only a couple of feet away but stayed there and they didn't do any more than that- probably warning me not o get any closer- unless , of course,someone on here knows differently and I actually had a lucky escape.
I'll write the settings under the photo. I've just read that when photographing flying birds (BIF) it's best to have all the 9 (in the case of the Canon 40D) EF points lit then as it flies one and another will pick it up but I found this out yesterday so I need to go back and try that. Any advice..CC welcome as usual.
285mm 1/320sec. f6.3 ISO 200
Juvenile Mute Swan...400mm 1/1250sec f5.6 ISO 400 (100 metres)
Juv. mute swan..same as above...200metres (?)
Barnacle geese. 50 metres.. 210mm 1/5000 sec. f5 ISO 640
130mm 1/4000 sec. f5 ISO 500 (over water, 5 metres away))
400mm 1/8000 sec. f5.6 ISO 800 (10 metres away )
photographed for the ripple pattern. The 'bee' crash landed onto the water.
Green Woodpecker. 400mm 1/1000 sec. f5.6 ISO 400
