What to shoot (Photograph) in Autumn in the UK

Autumn is the time leaves start to turn all shades and fall from
Trees, a great time to get some Landscape Photography practice in, with late sunrises and early sunsets there's really no excuse is there.

Fungi starts to make an appearance on pastures and damp woodland floors.

Time to keep bird feeders and tables topped up as the birds start making more regular visits,
find a nice perch for them to land on before flying on to feeders and tables.

Starling murmurations start in Autumn, where flocks of Starlings gather and fill the sky with swirling patterns.

Migratory birds start to arrive for the winter like Whooper Swans and Pink Footed Geese and many others.




The Deer Rut begins with Stags clashing antlers up and down the country. To find out where to see this visit The British Deer Society







Grey Seal pups start to appear in late Autumn, a few places to see these are Donna Nook in Lincolnshire and Farne Islands in Northumberland.

August

Welcome to our August

Blog/Diary

 

03/08/2014

RSPB Bempton Cliffs, Bempton, Yorkshire, UK.

 

 

 Gannets

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07/08/2014

RSPB Old Moor, Barnsley, Yorkshire, UK.

 

 Dragonfly

 

 Honey Bee

 

 Holly Blue

 

Gatekeeper

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The Yorkshire Wildlife Park

Doncaster, Yorkshire, UK.

 

Lion

more shots from this visit HERE

 

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17/08/2014

RSPB Old Moor

 

 

Kingfisher

 

 



Why i chose the Canon 7D

Why I chose the Canon 7D

I Mainly shoot Wildlife and Nature so this was the best I could afford that suited my needs. Upgraded from a canon 350D. Below are some of the reasons why I chose it.

Tufted Duck in Flight captured using high burst rate
and a great auto focus system on the 7D

 

1. It's very robust magnesium alloy body resilient to dust, moisture and shocks.

 

2. Excellent choice of lenses available, my canon 100-400mm goes nicely with it.

 

3. High burst rate around 8 frames a second.

 

4. 100% viewfinder so you capture what you can see.

 

5. 19 focus points to choose from and a great continuous auto focus system.

Live View great for using on
Landscape shots

 

6. Spot metering.

 

7. Live view shooting which I like when taking landscape shots because the mirror is in lock up when using live view and it's better for judging exposure when shooting in manual.

 

8. Great customisation especially the customisable buttons.

 

Thanks for looking.

 



Photography Quick Tips, Shooting through Wire Fences

Painted Hunting Dog
taken through a wire fence

Just a few tips on shooting through wire fences at Zoo's and Wildlife Parks with a DSLR.

1. I would recommend a 300mm lens and up but this all depends on how close you can get to the fence, most places have a barrier stopping you from getting too close.

2. On full zoom try and get as close to the fence as possible, try and avoid any part of the fence that has direct sunlight on it because this will increase the chance of it showing up in your shots, so pick a spot that's in shade.

3.Manual focus on static subjects if your auto focus is picking up the wire, on moving subjects I use AI servo (continuous) focusing on my Canon 7D.

 

 



On this Jaguar shot that was taken through wire fencing moving towards me i was holding my camera in the portrait position, i chose a focal point closest to the eyes and put my auto focus on AI Servo to keep the Cat in focus.
                                                                                               Hope this helps.
Thanks for looking.

 





Bird Photography Tips

On the right is a shot of a Common Starling

Probably the most hated bird in Britain due to a group being able to clear a feeder
from full to empty in 60 seconds. This image was shot in my garden from the shed window, the camera was loosely mounted on a ball headed tripod giving me freedom to focus and recompose. So what do I like about this shot? I am going to break the shot down and hopefully your going to get something from this to help you get better bird and wildlife shots.

1. Composition: The bird is positioned on the left with negative space to the right where the beak is pointing. Always try and leave negative space for the animal to look or move into. ( A no,no for me would be to put the bird in the middle and have the beak nearly touching the edge of the image).

2. Background: Clear background with a nice bokeh affect from the sun hitting the leaves behind the bird, shoot wide open this was at f5.6 to blur backgrounds.(Try not to have branches cluttering up the frame, hard to do this with bird shots I know).

3. Lighting: This was shot in the shade to minimise any problems with highlight and shadows due to it being a very sunny day, still enough light to bring out the plumage colour on the Bird.

4. Interest: I usually look for several things, expression, on birds wait for the head tilt, when the bird gives you the eye press the shutter, catchlight in the eye always makes for a more pleasing shot, that goes hand in hand with eye contact. Try and shoot at eye level if possible and focus on the eyes or the eye closest to you.

Put all these things together and you should have a great image on you hands.

This Starling shot has been Published in Digital Photographer Magazine issue 149 it is also in RSPB Give Nature a Home 2015 Calendar and as had over 40 million views on my G+ Page.

July

Welcome to our July

Blog / Diary

 

07/07/2014

First off I did an interview for Craig Dingle at

Beyond Here Photographing the Journey.

 

We also had a good few hours at RSPB Old Moor

 

Here's what looks like a laughing Dragonfly

You can see more of what we saw on this visit,

HERE 

including shield bugs, caterpillars, speckled bush cricket

 and a first for me at

RSPB Old Moor a Kingfisher.

 

15/07/2014

My RSPB Giving Nature a Home 2015 Calendar came.

One of my Starling pictures was chosen for the

Month of March.

20/07/2014

A trip to Clumber Park, Worksop, UK.

Jackie Spent a few Hours taking some shots of different butterflies

she saw.

 

 Meadow Brown

 

 Gatekeeper

 

Skipper

 

 Small Tortoiseshell

 

Comma

 

 Small White

 

Mint Moth

 

Cinnabar Caterpillar

23/07/2014
Potteric Carr

I think a Horsefly on Jackies Head, Brave Woman.

 Dragonfly

and another Dragonfly

 

Thanks for looking.

June

What i've been up to so

far in June.

01/06/2014

First a couple of hours at RSPB Old Moor to try out

my new Sigma 105mm Macro lens.

I think this is a Birch Shield Bug

taken at Old Moor

More pics on this day Here

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05/06/2014
Happy to get a 4 page magazine feature in this months
Digital Photographer Magazine issue 149

See more from this feature Here

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15/06/2014
A visit to RSPB Leighton Moss

Swans.
Read and see more Here

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18/06/2014
A visit to South Lakes Wild Animal Park.
Brilliant!

Arctic Wolf
More pics Here

May

What I've been up to in May.

Cheers Al.

03/05/2014
First a flying shot of a Tufted Duck

Taken at RSPB Old Moor.

12/05/2014
Just got this Sigma 105mm Macro to try,
hopefully i'll get some pics with this soon.

18/05/2014
Here are some shots from my second ever
 visit to RSPB Bempton Cliffs
and this time the sun made an appearence.

Gannet

Puffin

More info and shots from this trip HERE...

European Robin in the Garden

European Robin

Equipment used Canon EOS 7D

and Canon 100-400mm L lens & Tripod

Location: Rotherham,UK

Photographer: Alan Hinchliffe

Thanks for Looking.

Little Grebe with the Catch of the Day

Picture of a Little Grebe after catching a fish.

Taken from behind the Reedbed Screen at RSPB Old Moor,Barnsley,UK.

Original Raw file was Cropped for composition and saved to jpeg using Canon's DPP.

Adobe Photoshop for fine tuning levels/contrast/saturation and sharpening.

Camera: Canon 7D.

Lens: Canon 100-400mm

Photographer: Alan Hinchliffe

 Manual Mode

Aperture: f5.6

ISO 400

Shutter: 1/800

Focal Length: 400mm

Manual Mode

Aperture: f5.6

ISO 400

Shutter: 1/800

Focal Length: 400mm

Thanks for Looking.

Shots from Chester Zoo 09/03/2014

Best of my shots from a day out at Chester Zoo.

Elephant

Meerkats

Kits

Cheetah

Serval

Red Panda

Thanks for Looking.