Canada Geese

I have owned a Gopro Hero 2 for a number of years, but not taken many pictures with it as I was never happy with the image quality. However, I have now tried the Hero 6 and it is much better and with important controls over shutter speeds and ISO settings, which was not possible before. I am still learning the settings, but would like to get a set of bird images taken with it although I will start with the easy ones such as Canada geese and Mute swans.

Canada goose, Branta canadensis, birds by water, Staffordshire, December 2017. 3.1mm lens. 100 iso. f2.8 at about 1/1000th. The camera was running in time lapse mode at 2 frames per second and left sitting in the water. It runs for almost 2 hours before the battery goes flat.

Magpies

I have been feeding Magpies in a local park for some time, but they never became reliable or started to recognise me as a source of food. Eventually I gave up and tried another park and the results were almost instant. By just the third visit they had accepted me and seemed to be awaiting my arrival. I would like a shot of them flying head on towards me with tail and wings widespread. So far I hav enot got that sharp.

All taken with the Olympus Em1 Mk2 and the 300mm f4 Olympus lens. 3200 iso and at 18 fps. Shutter speeds usually around 1/4ooo th at f7.1.

Magpie, Pica pica, single bird in flight, Warwickshire, November 2017

Magpie, Pica pica, single bird in flight, Warwickshire, November 2017

Deer rut

The last time I visited Bradgate Park for the deer rut was 2010. Thirty years ago I would be there all by myself, but in 2010 there was about 30 photographers gathered pre-dawn by the small bridge over the river. This week I went along and judging by the numbers of vehicles in the car park an hour before sunrise I thought it would be even more crowded. However, when I reached the bridge there was nobody present, which was easily explained by the lack of deer in the field. This was for many years a favourite spot for deer and photographers.

I went off walking around the rest of the park and although there were plenty of photographers they were well spread out and I was able to photograph by myself mostly. The deer performed well and I enjoyed it more than I expected. I also enjoyed the fact that I was only carrying the lightweight Olympus MFT gear and not humping my heavy Canon gear around.

All taken with the Olympus EM1 Mk2 and a 300mm f4 lens.

Red deer, Cervus elaphus, single female backlit on ridge, Leciestershire, October 2017

Red deer, Cervus elaphus, single female backlit on ridge, Leciestershire, October 2017

Red deer, Cervus elaphus, single male on rocky outcrop, Leciestershire, October 2017

Red deer, Cervus elaphus, two males fighitng, Leciestershire, October 2017

Red deer, Cervus elaphus, single male, Leciestershire, October 2017