📷 2nd Time Out Wildlife-ing ... Perfect Conditions But a No-Show/

I was out early this morning meeting up with my mate Ben Kapur for some more Wildlife Photography down at the local reservoir, and hopefully another chance at photographing the resident Kingfisher.

Conditions were incredible!

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A cool start to the day (3 Degrees Celsius) brought with it the most amazing mist across the water surface, and the most amazing light as the sun crept above the horizon. Photography or not ... it was just a treat to be there.

Despite the perfect conditions, activity on the water was exceptionally quiet, and almost 2 hours in, it was no-show from the Kingfisher.

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Still, with it being only my 2nd time out photographing wildlife, any time with the camera in hand is a good thing, and I did manage to capture some images I'm actually really with of a Heron, Great Crested Grebe and a Black-Headed Gull.

This time I was using a table top tripod fitted with one of my spare video heads (3 Legged Thing) which made a huge difference, working with the big lens (400mm f/2.8).

All taken with my Canon R5 Mark 2 and the Canon EF 400mm f/2.8 III and 1.4x Converter

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Here’s the table-top tripod set up I’m now using, which is

SIRUI AM-223LS Mini Tripod with Bowl Base for Camera，Carbon Fiber Traveler

Amazon

First Time EVER Photographing Wildlife 🦅

Now that my new kit has arrived, I’ve been out the past couple of days getting familiar with it, and I’m genuinely loving it. On Saturday I photographed the spring tide, and then on Sunday morning I headed out early with my mate Ben Kapur to photograph wildlife down at a local reservoir.

Once we got to the hide, Ben checked over my camera (Canon R5 II) and helped set it up for bird photography, dialling in a bunch of settings and assigning the Fn buttons and dials to specific tasks so I could change things quickly without looking away from the action. He saved all of this to a custom mode, and then it was a case of me getting to know where everything had been assigned.

In no time at all the Kingfisher arrived. WOW! Only the second time in my life I’ve ever seen one, and this one was up close. At one point it flew right past the window we were sat at and landed on the roof of the hide above us.

It then flew down onto a branch at the water’s edge, where I started taking photographs while Ben read its body language and told me when it was about to dive ... and sure enough, it did. I managed to get shots off, including some with the pre-capture function, but my ISO was too high for those and an egret decided to photobomb 😃 so I won’t be working on any of them. The light first thing was quite dull and uninteresting too.

As the morning went on, though, I became more and more familiar with what to do and when, practising on herons and egrets as they calmly paced around, and on gulls as they flew around.

Having NEVER done this before, I was like an excited kid at Christmas, seeing how incredible the technology is at recognising the subject, locking on and tracking it. Pre-capture too ... amazing.

I can’t wait to get out again and again and put in the practice, at the reservoir, in the back garden and down at Seaton Wetlands. This is so much fun, and I LOVE that there’s always something new to learn.

KIT
Canon R5 II
Canon EF 400mm f/2.8 IS III USM
EF to RF Converter
1.4x Extender

Capturing STUNNING NATURAL WORLD PHOTOGRAPHS in your BACK YARD | Tim Oliver

Watch the recording of this LIVE Broadcast as I chat with Photographer Tim Oliver and discover his tips and techniques for capturing stunning wildlife photographs in particular of birds but also the natural world. PLUS the Gear / Kit he uses, uncovering how he approaches retouching, printing and selling his work.

links mentioned in the video

Tim Oliver’s Website: oliverimages.com

Tim Oliver on Instagram: @oliverimagesaz

Discount Code: Use code GLYN50 on Tim’s Website for 50% OFF Prints and Gift Shop Items