Nuthatch taken in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear.

Jaguar on the prowl

Nikon D3
Nikon 500 F4 VR lens
Gitzo Tripod and Wimberly Gimbal head

Sometimes everything works in our favour.

I went down to Paddies Hole for a couple of hours with my Dad so see what sort of sunset we could get.

I was also trying out my new Nikon 24 F1.4G and 85 F1.4G lenses.

Ive never seen the water at Paddies as flat calm as this before, it was like a millpond and the light was quite special.

This was taken as a 14 shot Panorama, handheld with the 85mm lens at f1.6.

I set the camera to 6 frames per second, prefocused and panned the shot while holding the shutter down. The 1/5000 sec shutter speed allowed me to take this shot handheld without the risk of any motion blur from my fast panning.

Depth of field you get at f1.6 when the subject is say 12 or more metres away was sufficient to give the front boats a little separation but to also provide enough sharpness to the rest of the foreground boats.

One of the highlights, for me, was the 10 week old Cheetah Cubs at Chester Zoo.

We got to the zoo before they opened on the Sunday morning and as soon as they opened the gates at 10am we went straight to the Cheetah’s. Light quality was great with the sun in the right location so all we needed were the Cheetahs to perform for us.

It wasnt long before the Female came out into the open and laid in the sunshine right in front of our viewing position which was unhindered by fencing etc. No sooner had she sat down but the 4 cubs came out and laid down next to her cuddling into her side.

We spent the next 4 hours photographing this Cheetah family resting, eating and playing.

This shot is one of my favourites but if you would like to see some more there is a gallery on my website.

Click here to go straight to the gallery

thanks for looking

best wishes

Colin

Mike Nicholas, Dave Phillips, Vic Nicholas, Dave Hughes, Keith Carter (Dad) and Myself went to this years Trackrod Rally in Dalby / Cropton Forests near Pickering, North Yorkshire.

It was a great day out and the weather was perfect

Equipment used in the group

Nikon D300‘s, 70-200mm, 70-300mm

Canon 1Dmk4, Canon 50D, 70-200mm, 24-105mm

Pentax K5, 70-200mm

focal lengths between 70-200mm seemed to cover most situations, with the occassional use of a wider angle lens

Most of us and our gear got covered in dust and mud during the days action

Ive produced a slideshow of my favourites from the day, the link is below and there is a gallery ln my website if you would like a look

My Slideshow

Just a single rose photographed against a black card background.

Nikon D300
Nikkor 24-70 F2.8G Lens
2 diopter close up lens screwed to the filter thread of the 24-70.
1 Sb800 Flashgun shot through an umbrella on a lightstand to camera right.
Flash triggered with Pocketwizard MiniTT1 and miniFlex units.

Managed to get some better shots this time on Bowes Moor of the Crossbills.

Mike and I got about 20 seconds of activity during the 7 hours we were sat in wet long grass under camouflage netting hoping that they would actually land on this tree where we were pointing our lenses at.

This was my favourite shot of the day and made all the discomfort worth it

Without doubt one of the UK’s favourite birds.

I photographed this little guy, named Spike, at Sion Hall Bird of Prey Centre near Thirsk in North Yorkshire.

Nikon D300
Nikon 500 F4VR Lens

It was a really wet day, but you never know what you are going to find. We sat in a hide most of the day waiting for something interesting to happen and it never really did.

Well as we were about to leave we spotted this fox wandering around the visitors centre. The RSPB have set up bird feeders and of course this attracts rodents eating the seeds etc that the birds have dropped.

This fox became the highlight of the day and didn’t seem too bothered about being in close proximity to us.

This is one of my favourite shots from the days shoot. There are a few more on flickr, if you would like a look. Just click on the photo to take you to my flickr site.

This shot was taken with a Nikon D3 camera and Nikon 500mm F4VR lens handheld.

I will also be putting some shots on my website in the next few days.

thats all for now

best wishes

Colin.

While Randy was over here visiting from north Carolina I took him to one of my favourite places, Sion Hall Birds of Prey Centre near Thirsk in the North East of the UK.

For getting head shots, like this one, of the awesome Raptors, this place cannot be beat. The birds are awesome, the setting is superb and the people who run the centre are amazing.

hopefully im going to organise another photoshoot there soon for a maximum of 10 photographers. These are always great workshops and everyone comes away with great images from the event and the best thing is you dont really need lenses over 300mm

check this place out by clicking the link below.

www.falconrycentre.co.uk