Birds! Birds! Birds!

This month, I have been mostly photographing birds.

Followers of my Instagram page (@luke_bennett_photos) may be aware that one of my photographic missions this spring is to capture a nice photo of grebes doing their little mating dance ritual. I had some success with this recently; just in the last few minutes of daylight I witnessed a minor courtship display. It petered out very quickly and didn’t fully develop into anything much, but I captured what looked a little bit like a bird tango, with each grebe passing the side of the other, wings-a -flutter in charming choreography.

It wasn’t exactly what I had envisioned - I’d been thinking more along the lines of the classic face-to-face mirrored head and body movements - but it was still lovely to see. The mission continues…

On the same evening, in the last moments of sunlight I also had some fun playing with the ripples and reflections on the water and lining up whatever happened to be nearby. In this instance a solitary greylag goose.

When not walking around the lake near me, I’ve enjoyed watching the garden birds outside my window, taking advantage of the bird bath and feeder.

Birds (mainly herons!) in Flight

I’ve just been looking at some bird edits from the last 12 months or so and collated what I think are my most successful bird in flight images to date. As mentioned previously on this blog, it’s something I’ve been trying to do more of and improve on.

It seems, I have a bit of a leaning towards the heron, which forms most of the images below. When I think about it, it’s obvious why - They’re big, they fly low and close, they fly slowly, and they’re not at all uncommon. Luckily for me there are at least four that like to hang around the lake near me. Even better, they omit a loud, high-pitched squawk before taking flight, as if to let you know to get your camera ready!

Wildlife in Warwickshire

This week, I have been mostly photographing wildlife in Warwickshire.

The kestrel, fallow deer and grey squirrel were all found on one outing, at Charlecote Park; a place I love to visit semi regularly, precisely because of these kinds of photographic opportunities.

The fox was found elsewhere (location to remain secret). While walking through the undergrowth, I suddenly saw a hint of movement and colour and realised there was a fox to my right. It was walking very close by, but quickly through the adjacent field and well hidden by the fence and shrubbery.

The settings on my camera were not optimised for this particular shot, so it’s one of a burst taken at 1/100 of a second (far too slow), and the only one remotely sharp or correctly focused as a result. The foliage in the foreground immediately next to me and that surrounding the fox made this a challenging photo to take in the split second opportunity provided, but I feel lucky to have got one worth keeping at least.

Black and White Horse Photography

I’ve been continuing to learn and enjoy my new camera system over the last few weeks. Most recently I’ve been had fun viewing the horses during my evening walks locally.
I feel like I’ve caught a few interesting stances and expressions in the shots below. I processed the first one in black and white eventually as I felt it suited the mood of the portrait; the horse looking powerful and aggressive (for that split second in time at least). The edit ended up suiting the rest, too, so I made a series.