The usual

As usual, I was at Richmond Park again on Saturday morning. Despite the good forecast, most of the mist evaporated fairly quickly, but I still managed to get some shots. There were a pair of stags rutting out in the open, so I waited for the sun to come up and started shooting them.

I then spotted a stag in the distance, and by shooting almost directly into the sun, it was surrounded by a golden glow.

 I moved on, and came to a stag in some longer grass which looked very nice in the early morning light, and even nicer when it bellowed!

After he had walked off into the trees, I found a young stag, and did something very unusual for me at this time of year; I took one with the light behind me!

That's all the images I have for today. If the forecast is good next weekend, I'll be back there again; hopefully there will be some more mist though!

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WWT Photography Competition

I am pleased to be able to announce that two of my images have won two regional heats of the Under 18s category in the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust Photography Competition. The images will now go to the national finals later in the year.

This image won the winter heat at Martin Mere.

And this one won the Summer heat at the London Wetlands Centre.

Here is an article on WWT's website about the Summer heat: http://www.wwt.org.uk/visit/london/news/2012/09/wwt-london-news/photographers-get-closer-to-nature-to-win-prizes/

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Deer and more

Here are the rest of the shots from last weekend at Richmond Park.

As I was walking towards the exit of the park, I saw this Kestrel perched on top of a tree. I moved to get the sun behind me, and, amazingly he didn't fly off!

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More Deer

Just a couple of Deer shots from Richmond Park taken yesterday morning. I'll post the rest tomorrow or the day after.

I got there before the sun came up, and while I was walking through the park in the dark I spotted a Badger running across the road in front of me! It was only the second time I've ever seen one, so I was pleased already!

The light was superb, and I positioned myself so that I could shoot into the sun and tried to capture the breath of the stags. In the last one I wasn't so bothered; I just wanted to get a picture of it standing in the rays of sunlight! I should try and do some with the sunlight next time maybe...

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Some more Deer!

On Friday evening I saw the the forecast was for clear skies, so that meant I was setting my alarm clock to get up at 5am on Saturday for another dawn trip to Richmond Park. I hoped that there would be as much mist as there had been last time, and when I arrived, I saw the low-lying areas carpeted with a thick layer of mist, although it quickly disappeared higher up. I couldn't see much through the mist, but could hear a Stag bellowing, so followed the sound to find a large group including two stags. After I had walked through a small copse to get ahead of them and so that I was shooting into the light, the two stags started to square up.

And it wasn't long before they started to go at each other.

After the two stags had moved off into the woods, I focused on taking some shots of the young deer that were around.

And of this young Stag as he walked through the long grass.

I then noticed that Jackdaws were jumping onto the backs of the Deer.

The rut is gradually getting started now, so if the forecast is good next weekend, I'm bound to be down there again next weekend.

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Deer

I was at Richmond Park last Saturday for dawn, and the light was superb. To give you an idea, here are a couple of shots:

It's getting to that time of year when the park becomes heaving with photographers who have come to photograph the deer rut. Last weekend I only came across another two photographers, but I have a feeling that if I'm there tomorrow I might see a few more!

Anyway, here's one of a group of geese flying through the mist, and a Fallow Deer stag in the mist, before sunrise.

The long grasses were covered in spiders' webs, so while I waited for the sun to come up I took a couple of shots.

 As I was walking through the bracken. I heard a Reed Bunting calling, and found it perched on top of the vegetation. I wanted to get it with its beak open, but it wasn't going to when I was pointing my camera at it, and I was handholding!

Just as the sun was breaking through the mist, I found a group of Fallow Deer in a small copse. The sun was starting to stream through the trees, and I noticed a spot which the sunlight was about to hit. When a fallow deer mother and fawn walked into it, I started taking pictures. On hearing the shutter, both looked up at me, and I took this.

I also found two stags standing next to each other in the mist.

I'll be back there again tomorrow morning as the forecast is good, so hopefully will have some more shots to post next week!

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More good news!

After my last post regarding my success in this year's Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012 competition, I can now also announce that the image below has been highly commended in this year's British Wildlife Photography Awards! To say that I am pleased would be an understatement, and it means that I have been highly commended in the last 4 competitions that I have entered, so I must be doing something right!

The winners and other commended images can be seen here: http://www.bwpawards.org/page/2012_winners

Congratulations to all the other winners and highly commended photographers!

I was at Richmond Park a couple of days ago, so that will be the subject of my next blog post

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Puffin

Just a quick post today to keep the blog ticking over, as I haven't got out much with the camera recently, here's a Puffin from Skomer in July. I saw this one perched here, and I wanted to include the out of focus flowers and frame it with vegetation so I got down as low as I could and took the shot when the bird turned its head around.

 

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