River Allen

Hello Everyone,

I know its been ages but here is a little update on one of the projects I have been working on. The river Allen is a stunning chalk stream very close to my home in Dorset. I had never really looked in depth at the wildlife there before, but I wanted to start, and I wanted to get to know this amazing waterway in more detail.

I started by putting a stick across the river and waiting. 

It wasn't long before one of my best friends, mr Kingfisher turned up! I went to the hide every morning and slowly started getting to know the birds a bit better. There were two chicks in the area, however it wasn't long before they were kicked out by the parents. They must have only just fledged the nest when I started at the site, so I only saw them for about 5 days before they were gone. 

The next thing I started working on was the underwater life of the River Allen. The river is full of fish, and heaps of other life. I started by placing a GoPro camera onto a rock and just placing it in the river and hoping for the best. Despite the fact its a very hit and miss process some of the results have been quite interesting. 

Lady of the river - Grayling 

Pike 

I have got better at learning the preferred habitats of the different species and I know where best to place the camera now to get better results. 

Pike 

One evening I was filming in the river and something caught my eye flying over the far bank, a Barn Owl!!! I got my stuff and got out of the river and up on to the bridge and watched the owl hunting the meadow on the far side of the bank. Over the next few evenings I spent time waiting and filming the Owl when it made its brief appearances. On one particular evening the conditions where perfect and I was very happy with the results. The image below is only a screen shot from video so not a high res file. 

Barn Owl

I have also filmed Eels is the river Allen. Eels fascinate me as their life history is remarkable. They are born in the Sargasso sea in the Bahamas, then travel across to the UK as tiny 'glass eels'. Once they reach our shores they then travel up our fresh water systems, where they can live in our rivers for up to 20 years! Once they are ready to breed, they TRAVEL BACK TO THE SARGASSO SEA to breed. Its a crazy journey for such a small animal. I felt very privileged to have one in front of my camera.

I have recently uploaded a short film featuring a lot of filming from this project. If you want to have a look, please follow the link bellow. 

"   http://vimeo.com/71697900   "

I hope you like the video and images within this post. I will be updating the blog more now as I am working on a number of projects. The main one being camera trap photography. As soon as I start getting results I will let you know!

Sam 

Kingfisher Update

I thought I would do a quick update on my Kingfisher project. Things have been going really well since my last post and I have been able to really push the photography forward and try for new and original images. 

The main reason the project has progressed so well, is due to the site its self. The river runs through the middle of a field which means there are very few over hanging trees. The banks are also only 2 foot tall. This situation means that I can get images quickly by placing a perch out in the the river. When she next does a fly by, she lands on it every time, without fail because there is little else to land on on this stretch of the river. 

I have tried wide angle images, by placing my camera on a tripod close to the perch and wiring the cable release back to me in the hide. I then waited for her to land in postion and then fired away. 

She was,  and still is, completely oblivious to the shutter, it has never effected her. I do however wait for her to settle on the perch for a few seconds before I fire the shutter. I usually do one or two, to remind her of the canon shutter noise, then its fine after that. 

Tamron 10-24mm @10mm full frame 

I love the wide angle images, I am just waiting for nice blue skies to capture them again. Or perhaps some misty winter mornings at sunrise. We will see!!! 

Sigma 120-300mm @120mm full frame

Simga 120-300 @300mm full frame

Sigma 120-300mm @300mm full frame

The following image is so far my favorite from the project. It was taken by pre setting up a 10mm wide angle, on an area I 'hoped' the bird would fly. after three hours in the hide, the bird flew back up river and I jumped out of the hide, I checked the camera and was very pleased with the image on screen. 

Its by no means perfect but its in the right direction. 

Tamron 10-24mm @10mm full frame 

Water Voles

Hello all,

I have been looking in to a new Water Vole site over the weekend. Thanks to Stewart Canham for a great introduction and showing me my first Water Vole!!!

The Water Vole is very much in trouble. With a 90% decline in population in the last 40 years, there are not many places that these can be found. However they are great to find and when you see them through the viewfinder it makes it so special.

Staying still and quiet is very important when it comes to photographing these guys. Also its important to find out where they are going and which holes are being used the most. Yesterday we saw three all go to the same small section of bank, so I will be focussing there next time.

My aim is to film over the summer and really try to get some interesting shots that are unique and different to what I have seen before. Im not sure if this is possible however I feel that it is, if I put the hours in.

Short Eared Owls

I have been working on some different stuff this week/ weekend so I will be catching up this week.

The first one is a short eared owl site I have been researching on the internet for ages and finally managed to get to it at the end of last week. It was cool to finally see it after months of google maps. 

However it is very late in the season for short eared owls, and so they were very close to migrating back to there home land......

I managed to get to the site for a few evenings and each I was able to see them but got some distant shots. Next year I am going to try to keep off the shutter until the last minuet, because they tend to keep there distance after they heard the camera. 

Stay tuned for next year. 

Otters, Mother and Cubs

On my way back from Cornwall I decided to stop in at my local site for Otters. It was really quiet and there were no dog walkers or anything so it all seemed a bit strange. However I pressed on and walked the length of the footpath looking for anything going really. I came across a couple of kingfisher on the far bank and some different ducks and moorhens. When I got about 10 mins in to my walk I heard what sounded like 3 kingfisher all calling and splashing in the shallows. I thought it might have been a couple of males fighting so I got to a good view point and suddenly saw what was making the noise. Two Otter cubs!!! The were sat on the bank waiting to be fed by mum, who was out in the middle of the river hunting for them. 

I only had a D90 and my (very old and very worn) sigma 150-500mm. It soon decided that it did not want to work and so OS, AF, and the control of Apature soon stopped working all together. I tried my best with it and I am happy with the shots considering the circumstances. I would have loved a 500mm f4 but I didnt have one so there is no point in me getting pissed off. Having said this, at the time I was fuming, because im not sure how soon an opportunity like this will come up again. 

OH WELL......

Have a look and see what you think, 

Cub hiding against the river bank 

Cubs playing in the water 

Cubs following mum 

Cubs playing on the river bank 

Cub entering the water 

Cub with mum 

Cub waiting for food 

Cubs with mum 

Urban Kingfisher

Today I though I would post a shot, of a great species, in a not so great habitat. Its never nice to see wild animals using manmade objects however it must have been in just the right place for fishing.

I tried to get something different with this image. Usually kingfishers are always sat on nice clean branches, so I wanted a shot of one perched somewhere different.

Another Otter

Hi Everyone, 

Today is a shot taken a couple of days ago in Dorset. The otter was hunting a few meters in front of me and catching fish on almost every dive. I managed to get a few shots of them with the fish in their mouths, however I like this angle as the view into the mouth is awesome. 

I am hoping to get back to the site over easter to try to improve the images. 

Otters

Today, I had the privilege of photographing an otter at close quarters. After only about 10 minuets of arriving at the site, I saw a lone Otter dive in the middle of the river. It surfaced on the far bank and proceeded to climb up the side of the river. It rested for a while before returning to the river to hunt.

I found a low level platform in front of it and got into position. It soon was diving and catching fish regularly right in front of me. I was at a really awkward angle and so I was not able to hold the lens very well however I am pleased with the results.

I am hoping to return to the site soon (ish) to photograph the female with cubs that has been reported in the area.

Here are two images, I will upload some more over the next few days. 

Otter

This shot has got mixed opinions recently. I love it because it is very different to what I have uploaded before and that its a behaviour that happens about 1/10 sec after the otters surface. They raise their head straight up just after a dive and shake their head to rid of excess water. The whole process is very quick and it took me a lot of attempts to capture it and when I did this is what I got. What do you think? 

70-200mm @ 200mm f3.2 iso 800

Another Otter

This image was taken on sunday in Dorset. Once I had found myself a low level platform I was able to wait and shoot when the otters returned to the surface. I had to learn how to track them underwater by using their bubble trails and pre focus before they came up. Quite hard to master but I was just about getting there when the sun set, so soon I will have some more shots for you. 

200mm f2.8

Otter

Here is a shot of an Otter that I took yesterday. I am going to be studying them over christmas and I hope that I will be able to get some interesting results. 

I am changing my third year final project slightly, to study the human conservation work that has helped to monitor and protect some of britain special wildlife. I hope to look at why there has been such a rapid increase in the numbers of Otters in recent years and how humans have played a part in this.

I will also be looking at some of the other species that have benefitted from healthier rivers in recent years.   

Continuing with Grey seals, I hope to follow one pups journey through rehabilitation and try to show just how important this work is to the survival of the species both locally and internationally. 

Please let me know if you have any suggestions and please let me know what you think