Dalmatian pelicans

Lake Kerkini in Greese is a well known destination for Dalmatian pelican photography in January and February. They are numerous and used to the fisherman throwing away a few fish so come very close to people. I was a bit disappointed with my Panasonic 14-40mm lens at first, but it was sharp enough when in focus. It is the slowest focusing lens I own and I was not giving it enough time initially.

Full trip report at here.

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Dalmatian pelican, Pelecanus crispus, group of birds, Greece, February 2020. Olympus E-M1x. 400 iso. 1/5000th at f5.6. 14-40mm lens at 14mm

Yellow-crowned night-heron

My favourite image from a trip to Mexico. Many of the birds there remind me of Florida, which is not surprising, and they can be equally tame. The night heron spent several minutes catching and tearing this crab into bits and I had to make a choice. Video or stills. I took stills.

Full trip report here.

 

Yellow-crowned night-heron, Nycticorax violacea, Single bird catching crab, Baja California, Mexico, January 2020. Olympus M1x. 300mm lens with 1.4 extender. 800 iso. f5.6 at 1/3200th.

 

 

Coots fighting

The poor man’s Black grouse. If Coots were rare photographers would pay a fortune to sit in cold, damp hides to photograph them. If Coots had sharp talons they would be rare as they would slice each other to death.

Olympus Em1x and 300mm f4 lens and 40-150mm lens. 120 fps which is 5 times slow motion. I film in slow motion almost all the time now. I love the effect.

Stonechat

Stonechats find a tray of mealworms very quickly and are easy to attract. I used a hide for the first few days, but they quickly became very tame and I could just sit on a stool in the open. The male was very prone to hovering over the tray, but is was very brief and never in the same place twice so this was my only successful flight picture.

Stonechat, Saxicola rubicola, single male in flight, Warwickshire, November 2019. Olympus M1x. 300mm. 1600 iso. 1/20000th at f4
Stonechat, Saxicola rubicola, single male on branch, Warwickshire, November 2019. Olympus M1x. 300mm plus 1.4 extender. 800 iso. 1/125th at f8

Drone first flight

I am enjoying shooting video so much that I made my first showreel lasting 10 minutes. I even enjoyed the editing, which surprised me as I expected it to be frustrating and tedious.

The next step will be a 10 minute film in slow motion, but beyond that I would like to do a short film on the land where I do much of my photography. I have started to edit it and could see it needed some aerial shots from a drone. After a bit of research I opted for a cheaper model at £225. It would take my Gopro camera so I knew I would be happy with the picture quality.

This is my inaugural flight. I have much to learn and next month I will need a licence to fly it.