12/01/2021: Speaker – Paul Bingham

The talk this week was entitled 'Birding With My Camera'. However, Paul's first interest is not photography - in fact it comes in at least third behind wildlife and climbing, with the camera being taken as almost an incidental piece of kit to record various bits of wildlife seen while pursuing his wildlife and climbing activities.

Having said that, Paul's pictures are not just 'snap' shots of birds, animals and plants. Consideration has been given to exposure as well as the composition. And these are not just 'birds on a stick' either, which seem to get a bad press in competitions. They show them in their natural habitat doing what they do - raptors carrying off fish or attacking other birds for food, others camouflaging themselves from predators or simply just being in their natural environment.

So how do you start in wildlife photography? Well, probably the best place to start is not in the wild, so it would appear! Try your own back garden. Set up a couple of feeding stations, a couple of perches, a hide (depending on how big your garden is - mine certainly isn't big enough for one) - or the comfort of a room that overlooks the garden and have a lot of patience! You could even set up your camera on a tripod with a remote trigger.

Hone your skills here then take them out into the wide blue yonder - rivers, ponds, nature reserves - then further afield, moors, woodland, lakes, the coast and of course overseas (if we ever get back to doing that sort of thing again - but I'm not going dwell on that).

Learning about your subject is key as well. Feeding birds for example will perch before going to the nest to make sure there are no predators around and it is safe to go to the nest. They will probably use the same perch on each approach so focus on this an wait. It's no good going on your Covid walk (oh, there I go again) and expect to capture decent pictures of wildlife - you have to be regarded as not being a threat and this will only come with time and patience.

There are also a couple of things you have to be careful of as a photographer, don't scare the wildlife to a point where the young could be out of reach of the parent leaving it open to predators and, probably the most important find out which birds are classed as 'schedule 1' birds! Why? Because it's illegal to photograph these birds at or near their nests. And I would guess ignorance would not be suitable defence! Not now that I've told you anyway.

So not only do we photographers have to create a technically correct image in terms of composition and exposure, we also have to give sympathetic consideration to the subject as well as the environment.

The coast is always a good place to capture (in the photographic sense only) congregating flocks of birds. They will gather as the tide comes in as the space between the shore and the sea gets smaller. So keep a tide table handy - it will also stop you getting stranded and in deep water!

Another way to capture wildlife, particularly if you are not the most patient of people, is to use a camera trap! But this is a bit contentious as the photographer was probably nowhere near the location when the camera captures that award winning image of, say, a tiger hugging a tree! But that is probably a discussion for another time ... !

17 January 2021