Czech Republic photography workshop
Prague bridges crossing the River Vltava at sunset
I’m in the throws of planning a 6 day photography workshop to the Czech Republic, taking in Prague and Cesky Krumlov, the latter being a beautiful medieval town with UNESCO world heritage status in South Bohemia. 3 nights will be spent in Prague and 2 in Cesky Krumlov. I haven’t booked the hotel or finalised exact details as yet, except for the dates, so I am just getting a feel for any interest out there before it gets put onto my website or advertised more widely.
Prague Castle
For around 5 years I made at least 40 trips to Prague and several to Cesky Krumlov, shooting images for my own library and agencies as well as for magazine articles (one of which appeared in Outdoor photography) and also for hotels in Prague. The result is that I know this place quite literally like the back of my hand and therefore know exactly where to go for dawn to dusk shooting. No time will be wasted on your part in getting your bearings, negotiating trams and the metro and potentially getting lost in the maze of medieval cobbled streets and alleys. This I would do on a regular basis for the first half a dozen trips to Prague!
Prague spires
Prague buildings
Prague at sunset
Accommodation in Prague and Cesky Krumlov will be taken care of as will transport to and from Cesky Krumlov. Numbers will be limited to just 4 participants to keep it small and friendly and it also means I can spend quality time with each person.
Cesky Krumlov at sunset
Cesky Krumlov
Dates will be September 6th to 11th 2010 and the price will be around £600 which does not include flights.
Please contact me to register your interest.
To see my full coverage of both Prague and Cesky Krumlov, please visit my website and use the drop-down Category box or in Collections.
Good month for coots
Well, more like a good month for my coot pictures really! It was very nice indeed to get the front cover of Birdwatch but to also get the inside of Bird Watching and a sale by my agent, all from the same session, was quite unexpected.
They were taken at Arundel WWT in Sussex, January before last. I spent much of the day photographing at the main lake, most notably wigeon, but as the day drew on I turned my attentions to a frozen pond harbouring mallard and coot. With the sun slowly setting, the light was perfect and for the next hour I lay flat on the ground with the 300 f2.8 lens resting on the ice in order for me to get as low as possible. As the coots are much darker than middle tone, I set the camera to deliberately underexpose by -1 stop.
Bird Watching
Snowy marshes
No ‘new’ images as it were from the last week due to the appalling weather so here are some from a couple of weeks ago. All taken over a course of a few hours. Once again, I had little to no expectations of there being decent weather. I left my home in cloud but 15 minutes later on the marshes, things were very different. Complete white-out one minute and sun the next. No time to set up a tripod as the light was changing so rapidly so shot away, often using a beanbag on the car’s roof or simply setting the camera to iso 200 and shutter priority of 1/30 sec or so letting the camera decide upon the aperture. This way I was sure there wouldn’t be any camera shake. I don’t often work like this as I much prefer to use a tripod but there are occasions when you have no choice. If I were rich enough to own a D3s I could have set the camera to iso 800 or higher, resulting in a faster shutter speed and smaller aperture, but I’m not, so you do the best with what you’ve got!
Romney Sheep walking across the marsh
Oaks
No sooner it stopped, it would start again.
Oaks in heavy snow
Eurasian Wigeon
It won’t be long now until the wigeon move northwards to their breeding grounds. With their high-pitched whistling call, the North Kent Marshes will be a quieter place.
Eurasian Wigeon landing
Reflection in puddle
The marsh was sodden with the mix of rain and snow melt which made the going hard at times, but the conditions that evening were fantastic. There are few places I enjoy more than this remote corner of north Kent, especially in winter
Tractor on the marshes
PC Problems!
My main pc is in for repair so the next post ‘proper’ will be this weekend. Saying that, the weather has been so atrocious, grey and rain and not a hint of snow (boo!) that photography has been rather thin on the ground. I’ll be posting a few images taken week before last of a rather snowy marshes.
New date added and spread for the Peak District photography course
Another date has been added to the Gritstone Edges of the Peak District photography workshop. There is just one space left on Saturday March 27th with Sunday fully booked. I have therefore added another date which will be Sunday April 11th. Two spaces have already been filled. If you’re interested please click here for more information.
Outdoor Photography magazine
The article I was commissioned to write for Outdoor Photography which has just been published and available in all good newsagents…..and bad ones!
Getting low
With a fresh fall of snow forecast last week I thought I’d give my laying-down hide a whirl. I’d been using a standard hide over the last month with a good degree of success but now it was time to get a different perspective. Using this hide is always a challenge for two reasons. Firstly, it’s quite a hassle setting it up and secondly, it’s darn uncomfortable! But, and I stress the word but, the resulting images can be very rewarding which hopefully makes up for the discomfort endured.
Male blackbird
I use a modified bivvy-style tent with a lens opening sewn in as well as 2 side viewing panels with one-way mesh. I first put down a length of tarpaulin which the hide lays on to prevent sticks, stones, thorns etc penetrating the nylon and a large piece of camo netting is then draped over and guy-lines secured. A rubber-backed picnic blanket is placed inside to silence any sounds from within which also acts as an insulator and then a roll matt or self-inflating mattress is put on top of this. In order to support the camera I use a foot square piece of ply with tent pegs in each corner and a 3-way pan and tilt head attached to this. It’s a very secure and stable platform from which to work and slow shutter speeds are not a problem with this. I guess you could use a beanbag instead but then that restricts smooth movement of the camera. Very important when shooting shy birds. To complete the set-up I take in a cushion to support my chest and to prevent the inside of the hide getting messy, I take off my boots outside place them in a bag and they come in with me. See what I mean by hassle?! Needs must though and once inside, movements need to be kept to a minimum since there isn’t a great deal of room.
laying-down hide
There wasn’t quite as much snow as I would have liked. A few more centimetres would have given a better covering, providing a ‘cleaner’ ground.
Robin
I have worked like this a great deal over the years, photographing rabbits and waders amongst others, sometimes for periods exceeding 12 hours. The negatives are obvious. The positives are aside from the intimate perspective you create, wildlife becomes accustomed to this low profile way of working far quicker than with larger, more conventional hides.
An unproductive week
It’s been a week of processing images with bouts of popping to the feeding station to top up the feeders and generally to stretch my legs. I know there is always something to do on the computer but I’m a photographer and as such NEED to be out taking pictures. The good news is that here in north Kent we are expecting more snow!
Robin in snow
Robin in oak
With it’s bright orangey/red breast (can’t decide which), the robin needn’t be prominent in order to stand out.
Elmley Marshes
Panorama of Elmley Marshes consisting of 8 upright images stitched together using PTGui.
Oaks on Elmley Marshes
It’s in conditions like this that whenever I’m out on the marshes I think of how farmers of yester-year used to cope in such a challenging environment.
Playing by the rules
On this day last year I fulfilled an ambition I had had for years, to photograph common buzzards in the wild, in Kent. Why? Well, up until 7-10 years ago they were quite a rare sight around these parts (North Downs) but over the years they have moved further and further east to a point that it’s unusual not to see one while out on the hills. There are now several hundred breeding pairs in Kent and I personally know of 3 nests which I am dying to work on over the coming years which will invariably require me to build a tree-top hide.
OK, so they are incredibly common in the west and north and hardly golden eagles but there is just something about them, the way they soar, their call…….. and as I visited my feeding station over the years to photograph woodland birds the desire would burn deeper and deeper to photograph this beautiful bird. I have access to a lot of land within their territory and so the previous October decided to commit the following six months to this project. But everything, and I mean everything had to be by the book. Birds of prey are notoriously shy and keen-eyed birds so unlike a blue tit at a nut feeder where you can come and go from your hide without them so much as batting an eyelid, with buzzards, in this part of the world, not a chance!
The following was then carried out.
* 5′ sq wooden hide erected at site under cover of darkness so buzzards didn’t associate it with humans.
* Hide left alone for several weeks.
* Stockpile of road-kill rabbits stored in freezer. Thanks Martina!
* December. Once a week. Rabbit put down pre-dawn in front of hide. At night, if rabbit not devoured by birds, was taken and put up tree to stop foxes taking it. Put back down following morning…….
* Wait for hard weather to commence photography
In mid January we had hard frosts lasting a couple of weeks so I took the opportunity to get some shots. I entered the hide 2 hours before sunrise. 11 hours later one arrived and fed but the light was poor. It got terribly cold in the hide, very rarely going above freezing. I would therefore occasionally ignite the stove for a few minutes, wrap a blanket around me and wear a balaclava. Winter, neoprene lined boots made by Le Chameau helped keep my feet warm (though they froze after 5 hours). I tried again a few days later and this time one appeared in good light but something was missing….snow!
Then, at the end of January we had heavy snow with poor visibility lasting for several days. I needed a break in the weather to entice the buzzard’s from where they had been sheltering from the terrible weather. I then had the forecast I’d been waiting for. A clear day, blue sky all the way. Perfect! This would surely tempt them out to look for food. I got everything ready the night before and woke at 3. With all the snow I knew it was going to be tough driving and there was no guarantee that I would reach the hide. I gingerly made my way to the spot where I needed to park the car but first there was a hill to get up. I had a bit of a run-up but the Mondeo only made it half way. Four attempts later it got me to the top. When I reached the hide, there was over 18 inches of snow. I staked the rabbit down (this is to avoid it being carried off), set up everything in the hide, took snacks out of wrappers (to avoid noise) and sat back waiting for light.
Then, at about 10 o clock one arrived and fed for over 30 minutes. It took my breath away to be this close (15m) and knowing that all the hard work had not been to avail. I got the low angle by using a ground-pod pushing the lens through a sleeve about 6 inches above the ground. I had installed one-way glass so I could see clearly outside without being seen.
Several hours passed and then an immature bird turned up and just like the one previous, spent around 30 minutes feeding, oblivious to the photographer, who at this point, was the happiest man on the planet!
To see a video of what I saw please click here. It was filmed on my point-and-shoot camera so please forgive the rather poor quality.
All images were taken using a Nikon D2x with 300mm f2.8 and 1.4x converter (sometimes without) with right-angle finder attached. I ached for days having spent several hours with my head between my legs peering through this!
Of all the projects I have undertaken this has certainly been the toughest but without question the most satisfying. Hamilton Holt’s quote comes to mind….”Nothing worthwhile comes easily. Work, continuous work and hard work , is the only way to accomplish results that last.”
Winter on the marshes
The weather over the last week has been dreadful here in north Kent. Ok, so snow makes the country grind to a halt but at least it offers possibilities for strong images but when it’s just blanket grey (sigh) what can you do? Well, I edit images and prepare them for the agent but eventually you just scream for sun! I went out at first light this morning hoping for some sunrise shots and the forecast promised a bright day. Well if it did happen, it certainly wasn’t anywhere near me! I did get my sunrise shots however and it was nice but it lasted all of 10 minutes and then the cloud rolled over. So I thought I’d dig out a few images from 3 weeks ago when the light was a little more interesting.
Around two months ago I secured permission from the Environment Agency to access their land which connects to a local nature reserve. It now means rather than getting so far on the reserve then having to turn back, I can now do a loop as it were. If only there wern’t so many gates! It was a bitterly cold afternoon, the ground was solid and the sky was clear. I had spotted this hawthorn some while back and waited for the right conditions in which to illustrate it within its habitat rather than a straight silhouette.
I know what you're thinking, the horizon's not straight! Well, if you use a wide angle lens and keep the camera level this is what happens.
As I drove slowly back across the marsh, light lingered in the sky and as I passed a clump of teasel I thought I would try something a little different. I enjoy this kind of work, mixing flash with daylight and always use off-camera flash to give the subject modelling. On this particular instance, with an exposure of 1 second at f8 and the flash set to Auto f8 (not TTL), I set the camera to self timer, walked around to the right then manually set off the flash when the shutter opened.
Stripped!
The 2009 wildlife Photographer of the Year recipient, José Luis Rodríguez, has been stripped of his title. Why? Evidence has come to light that the wolf pictured jumping over a gate was in fact a ‘model.’ Much has already been written about this, with particularly interesting views on Niall Benvie’s 3-way blog with Andrew Parkinson and Paul Harcourt-Davies. I won’t go into too much detail other than that the investigation first came to light in the Finnish magazine Suomen Luonto where they show striking similarities of the background between the winning image and that of the Cañada Real Center zoological park near Madrid and a tame wolf named Ossian. It was in fact other Spanish photographers that brought it to attention as they didn’t want the reputation of others tarnished.
The competition rules clearly state ”Images of captive animals must be declared. The judges will take preference to images taken in free and wild conditions.” The photographer claimed it was a wild wolf and indeed still does. Many had suspicions over the authenticity of the image, an overriding factor being that it was jumping over the gate as opposed to creeping through it, which would be much more normal behaviour for this notoriously shy species.
It’s a great shame that this has happened in the most prestigious wildlife photography competition and to be honest I’m surprised this hasn’t happened sooner. There seems to be an overwhelming desire these days by many wildlife photographers to succeed, whatever the cost. Whether it be by digital manipulation, using wildlife models (passing them off as wild) or photographing schedule 1 species without a licence, such as a kingfisher at the nest. Now, I’m not condemning the use of captive wildlife or falconers come to that. Indeed it is common practise to use them and you could argue that by using a controlled animal such as a jaguar or golden eagle you don’t disturb it in the wild. But it’s when it is passed off as being wild or when manipulation in the computer is such that it is no longer a true representation of what was seen that I feel the line has most definitely been crossed. Ultimately we can only look to ourselves and reach deep inside to our own ethics and morals before even thinking about entering a ‘dodgy’ image into a competition in the hope that no-one will ever find out. It absolutely baffles me. I’ve been photographing wildlife since I was a boy because I love to be outdoors and experience nature’s wonders first hand. If I happen to get anywhere in a competition then that is simply a bonus. When it becomes the sole purpose of your work, then I feel its time you choose something else to photograph.
About Robert Canis
Robert Canis is a professional photographer specialising in the natural world.
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