Rabbits are often overlooked by wildlife photographers in favour of their more 'characterful' cousins, hares., but, as someone who has been photographing them, on and off, for 35 years, I find them incredibly rewarding subjects to spend time with.
The first image was taken many moons ago back in the early 90s and still remains a personal favourite. Taken in a field that I would (and still do) pass through to reach woodland I spent a couple of hours, late in the afternoon, lying up in the grass in the hope that the rabbits would appear from their burrows which lay beneath a small copse of horse chestnuts. It wasn't too long before they ventured out and since the wind was in my favour and I was dressed in dark, silent clothing they took very little notice of me. Anticipating the possibility of close views, prior to their appearance, I attached a short (8mm) Nikon extension tube to the 500mm f/4P manual focus lens which enabled it to focus from 5 metres to around 3. Boy, was I glad I did as a youngster, as you can see, came very close, and when a dog barked at the far end of the field it sat up for a few moments allowing me just a few seconds to take two photographs. I remember shooting in manual mode and exposing for the highlights which, with Kodachrome 64 gave me a reading of 1/125 sec. f/4. You're probably thinking I am speculating here but back then when working with transparency you really had to think hard as to how you exposed the scene and I would often take a notepad with me and jot down the settings and from where in the scene I obtained the reading. It's knowledge that I have carried with me since and is paying dividends now that I am using film more and more these days, but that's for another post! In the years that followed, human traffic increased across that part of the field and was later turned into arable so I was pleased to have taken the opportunity when I did.
This was my first success with a photograph of a rabbit earning me a Highly Commended in the 1992 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition in the Animal Portraits category. Sadly, back then, the competition didn't have all thew pazazz that it does now and so, thus far, I have never had the opportunity to attend the awards night at the Natural History Museum.
Proof! :) Ironically, above mine is an image of a hare taken by the brilliant Mark Hamblin.
The next was captured around the same time. I had spotted this young rabbit from afar in a local orchard and over quite a long period crawled towards it. As I approached I would take pictures at intervals in an effort to get it accustomed to the sound of the camera's shutter. Eventually, I got as close as I needed and was able to fill the frame of the now completely relaxed creature with my 500mm lens. I remember not bringing my beanbag with me and so as a substitute took off one of my shoes to rest the lens upon. KCPA, handlIt worked pretty well and I was able to obtain sharp images with a shutter speed of around 1/30th sec. using Kodachrome 64.
Awarded the Premier Award in the Kent County Photographic Association's Handley Shield, this was an annual slide competition incorporating all of Kent's camera clubs. A quick look on the KCPA's website and I see that I won it in 1993. I would have been 22 years of age. For those Kent camera club members among you, you'll be interested to learn that Sevenoaks Camera Club won the title that year with the highest accumulative score from its competing member's slides.
Fast forward 20 years and the following were all captured in a relatively small area on the North Kent Marshes.
Location, location, location. If you happen upon a site that has a healthy population of an animal, where you're likely to be working undisturbed and affords good light and backgrounds, work it! Such opportunities are rare so grab them while you can!
I was out one evening looking for something entirely different when, through my binoculars, I noticed an abundance of bunnies hopping around on a very exposed area affording great light throughout the day with some very pleasant backgrounds. It was on private land, too, so I knew I could just lie up and wait undisturbed. Fo the following two summers I spent multiple evenings laying downwind from the burrows in head to toe camo clothing with either the 200-400mm or 500mm resting upon a beanbag. I remember it being very warm, at times, and I don't mind telling you that it was such a pleasant experience to be there, in the sun laying down feeling the cool breeze coming off the nearby estuary, that I nodded off more than a few times!
One of the many joys of 'wait and see' photography is that you never know what else may appear. On one very memorable occasion, a hare ran straight towards me, stopped beside my right arm, nibbled on the grass, and bounded off, completely unaware of my presence. Marvellous! And, as illustrated by the image below, a shelduck flew in and walked straight up and around me.
Working late into the evening often produced some heavenly light.
If ever there was a genre of photography where you need the occasional great big dollop of luck it is wildlife photography. Taken in exactly the same position, but on different evenings, as the previous rabbit pictures, these youngsters suddenly stood on their hind legs when a marsh harrier flew nearby affording me just enough time to focus, compose, and fire off a couple of frames. It was awarded Highly Commended in the British Wildlife Photography Awards.
Content with what I had achieved with the sun over my shoulder, it was now time to work against the light. Moving just 20 or so metres and facing in the opposite direction I focussed my attention on a number of well used burrows located ontop of the sea wall. It was quite a breezy evening and as I lay on the grass I noticed that the seed heads from thistles were wafting across and catching upon the grass and nettles, resulting in the image, below.
Sometimes they would come very close indeed.
Although rabbits are active throughout the day, their activity, like many British mammals, peak from late afternoon through to morning and so it was important, I felt, to illustrate this with some dusk images.
One downside, however, was that as the sun went down the mosquitoes came out! A small price for time spent in nature.
