http://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Photographers-Stories-Behind-Greatest/dp/288046689X

Not Happy....

After getting back from college last night and went to bed my house was broken into and after taking things like the car and laptop they also stole all my camera equipment. So as you can guess I am not happy as this may hinder my work going forward. However I thought I would blog this as I am sure restrictions on working away from the college is a criteria I need to tick off.

Adrian Steirn

Whilst searching the Web for wildlife photographers I came across Adrian Steirn. He was born in Australia however now lives in Cape Town. I guess this helps him access the fantastic subjects he uses in his photographs.

I am not sure I am going to spend much time researching him as a photographer as I feel he is too contemporary however what has drawn me to his work is the use of black and white he uses in his photography. I really like a lot of these photos and having them black and white really gives the photos more atmosphere.

I am interested in my next photo shoot in taking some photographs with the intention of turning them into black and white. It maybe then I could use some of these in my Final portfolio.

Frans Lanting

In my research into Natural History photographer I have come across Frans Lanting.

I have got a book from the college Library called "Eye to Eye" by Frans Lanting and there are some really good images in here that have given me some ideas for my own photographs and my portfolio for this course.

Frans Lanting was born in Rotterdam on July 13th 1951 however later emigrated to America and now lives in Santa Cruz, California. He has worked in various places all over the world taking photographs of natural history. His photographs are often printed by the national Geographic for which he is a photographer in residence.

Over the years he has won numerous awards such as the "World press photo" of the year in 1988 and 1989. He also won wildlife photographer of the year in 1991.

He has also been credited as being a photographer for over 13 books since his first book "feathers" in 1982.

According to the BBC "Frans Lanting has set the standards for a whole generation of wildlife photographers.

To learn more about Frans Lanting click here

One thing I have read in the book about Frans is one of his guiding principles in photography is getting past the feathers, fur and scales of an animal and getting up close to the animal. This is interesting as it is also a sentiment echoed by Eric Hoskins who I looked at earlier in my blog. Eric also said he wanted to understand and get to know the animals he was photographing to help him get better pictures.

I have noticed in myself from taking the bird photography I have done so far I have a greater understanding of my subjects and found myself taking a greater interest in them. Not only from just being able to recognise the birds but also knowing what birds will be the first to the food I am putting out for them and what birds like what food. I know this is not the same as Frans tracking Bonobo through the amazon for months but it is showing I am starting to think like a wildlife photographer.

From the pictures I have shown here from Frans I am really interested in trying out some of these photos for myself. I really like the close up of animals faces (some shown here) but also more in the book really focusing in on the animals faces. When I next get to Twycross next and also when I am out taking pictures I will try and get a series of these photos to hopefully go towards my portfolio.

Another Image Frans has produced is the silhouette of an animal (Elephant in this case) this is also something I am interested in producing as I have seen this used by quite a lot of natural history photographers and I think it gives a very striking image and I have tried to copy this in a couple of photographs I have done at earlier photo shoots.

Below is a silhouette taken by Frans Lanting of an Elephant.

The next two images have been taken by me earlier in the course and although nowhere near the standard of the elephant above this is something I want to look at achieving for my final portfolio.

Branston Waterpark (again!!)

Whilst doing my fill in flash photography today I decided to take a break for an hour or so from the set up of using fill in flash and remote shutter and go for a walk and use the camera handheld. I wanted to get used to using my new 100-400 lens (also to be honest I wanted to get warmer as the hide is in the woods in shade and you are just standing still so a walk into the sun would defrost me!!!). I am really happy with the results of this walk and photos as although the birds are not rare and as we know Robins will get closer than most birds to humans I am happy that I am getting good photos from easier subjects than poor photos of hard subjects. Also the Coots and Canada geese being black and white would really test my settings on the camera as these can easily be under or over exposed. I did go back to the hide for another hour before I left the water park to try some more fill in flash and high shutter speeds.

To see the photos click here

Fill in Flash (take 2)

I returned to Branston Waterpark today to try and get some improved shots using fill in flash. After chatting with Steve last week I changed a few things at set up which were.

• Concentrated food in small area to get the subject where I wanted.
• Used suet food as well as seed so the subject would stay for longer.
• Zoomed in tighter to get better composed shots.

For this I also used my new Canon 100-400 lens to allow me to get really tight shots with the camera about 5 meters from the subject. I also used my tripod (although needed to be tightened up more due to the heavy lens). I still used my wireless shutter release so that I was hidden behind the hide. This allowed me a wider view of the target area so could spot the birds coming into land and press the shutter at the right time (well nearly the right time).

What I wanted to try and capture this time was some shots of birds in flight as shown by the photographer Eric Hoskins as I really like this kind of shot. When I did this last time I had the shutter speed set between 1/320 and 1/500 however with the small birds I am trying to capture this is not quick enough. I decided to therefore use a shutter speed from 1/1000 to 1/1600 and then set my aperture between f5.6 and f8 to allow as much light in as I could. After a few test shots I then settled on a ISO of 1600 which is quite high and the results do show noise at close inspection but I am happy with the results.

My first few shots were very poor because I set focus point for the seed I had put down, but the birds were landing just beyond this and because I was set the aperture at f5.6 I had a really shallow depth of field so the first few shots are out of focus. To compensate for this I propped a stick up at the back of the log used auto focus to focus on the stick and then switched the camera to manual focus. I then removed the stick and went back behind the hide, the next set of shots were better focused but still not ideal so I went back and set aperture to f8 to give me slightly more depth of field.

Although happy with a lot of the shots there is quite a lot not in focus and out of frame, I think next time I try this I will zoom outs slightly to allow me to stand a better chance of getting the bird in flight. As trying to time the shutter release at the right time is very hard. Another trick I tried was also adding a small amount of food to a bird table to the right of the log as I thought the birds would land here first see the food on the log then fly in from the right hand side which is what I had set my camera for. (you will notice the log is in the bottom left of the shot giving a bigger area to catch the bird in flight) I am not sure this was foolproof as birds flew in how they wanted but it did work quite well.

To see the photos click here

New Toy.... I mean Lens

Whilst at the Focus on imaging I purchased a new zoom lens for my canon 500d. It is a Canon 100-400 IS USM L f4-5.6 lens. I chose this lens for a few reasons.

• Canon L series optics
• USM canons ultrasonic motor for smooth auto focus
• IS it has a 2 stage image stabiliser stage 1 for still shots and stage 2 for moving targets
• f5.6 aperture at full zoom which is quite fast for a 400 lens
• 400mm zoom should allow me to get closer shots of my subjects

The image stabilizer should really help out with hand held shots, although it must be turned off when using a tripod.

There are a few things I need to get used to with the lens which are:

Weight, it is very heavy which will take some getting used too, although with its weight initially it feels that it is a lot steadier to use. It does come with a tripod adapter so this makes it more balanced on the tripod.

Slide out zoom which is different to the twist style I am used to, this seems to be easy to use however need to keep the tension tight when not using the lens so it does not slip. Below is a picture showing the lens at its full 400mm zoom.

Large Lens as it is 77mm and my existing lenses are only 58mm and this should allow for more light to get in. I am hoping this lens will give me some great wildlife shots and will post them on here soon.