Regents Park & British Wildlife Center

I hope you all had a great Christmas, I had a great time catching up with all my family and friends and find out what they have been up to during 2013.

Even during the bad weather we have been having over the last few days I have been able to get out and about and get a few photos, my favorite of these were taken in Regents Park, London which I traveled up to with Dad on our way to the Natural History Museum where we were looking at the images from this years Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

These images of a Great Crested Grebe were all taken on the large lake by the cafe in Regents Park and by using my fold out screen on my Canon 60D I was able to hold the camera just centimeters above the water giving you this view across the water. In my eyes I much prefer images taken like this as it draws the attention straight to the grebe and by using a wide aperture it has minimized the depth of field meaning only the grebe is in focus.

On Sunday I was with Jack again, on a Workshop at the British Wildlife Center. This gave him a chance to put the skilled he learnt in his first workshop into practice while using my equipment. We also looked into how these same skills can be transferred into his own camera and how with a few little things he can improve his photography massively.

After the workshop I just caught the start of the owl display, so I decided to go and practice my own photography on the owls as they flew by. During the display they showed 5 of the 8 species they keep at the center, below I have included two photos one of a Barn Owl in flight and the other of a Short eared owl.

Red Sea 2013 - Taster Blog

Hi Everyone I'm Back,

Now where to begin.......in a word it was amazing. I was in the water everyday and saw some amazing fish species in a variety of different shapes and colours, each as eye catching as the next. From swimming above the coral to swimming along side Green Turtles. It was amazing over the next few days I will be putting together a full blog post of all that I got up too, so think of this as a little taster into what is to come!

Below are just three of the images I took on the trip, don't worry there are many, many more to come and I can't recommend highly enough how much I suggest you all plan your trips there.

A family of Humbug dascyllus

Squaretail Coralgrouper

Porcupine fish 

Back in Horsham

I got back to Sussex from Cornwall on Saturday and straight away on Sunday I was setting up shots from my shoot at Rangers Lodge Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre where I was photographing two of their rescued Hedgehogs in scenes which show one of the threats that they face in the wild.

While there I photographed them next to a fork, with slugs and slug pellets and more. I will be editing them all over the next day before I go to Egypt on Wednesday so keep an eye out for more of these images and take into account the threats that these wonderful creatures face in the wild and more importantly from us.

Today I was out at Park Cameras where I have invested in a GoPro strap from the Red Sea, before I left Falmouth I borrowed a GoPro Hero3 white edition from a friend. This will be my first time using one so could be interesting and take some time to learn about the gizmos on it to capture some great footage of me snorkeling when I'm away.

After Park Cameras I headed too Arundel Wetland Center, just outside the center you go down a road with a stream down each side as we drove down there I said to Dad, I have never seen any Water Voles down here even though we always see them at the center. Just after making that remark I spotted one and we quickly pulled over and got out and started photographing the little guy. As he seemed so quite friendly I wanted to try taking some with a flashgun. Below is one of the results.

After we took some photos of the Water Vole we moved on to the Arundel WWT where we made our way around the reserve to see what we could find. The main thing we were looking for were the Water Rails, which eventually we found and one that swam right in front of us and into the reeds before we could get any photos. Our other "targets" lets say included Snipe, Kingfishers and the Bittern which of the three we saw two, the Snipe and the Kingfisher sadly both too far to photograph from the hide.

Tomorrow I will be packing for Egypt and if I have some time photographing a Hyperlapse of my car so I can practice ready for doing some when I'm abroad.

Below are two links to my favorite time-lapses that I have found so far:

One of the desert:
http://vimeo.com/14352658

Probably the best time-lapse made to date:
http://vimeo.com/76440793