My Number One Tip for Wildlife Photography

Excuse the slightly clickbait-y title, but this is a pretty excellent tip for anyone wanting to get more into wildlife photography:

Get a ghillie suit.

Seriously, if you haven’t already, you should. They’re amazing. You can pick up something like the above for around £25.00. It fits in your bag, it’s easy to put on over the top of your usual clothing, and it greatly reduces your chances of being spotted by wildlife, in turn greatly increasing your chances of seeing wildlife up close.

Case in point; this wild hare. I was walking up through a spot of woodland, when much to my surprise as I reached the corner of my path, I could see what I initially thought was a muntjac deer, given the sheer size of the thing. Soon I realised it was a huge hare.

Luckily I was wearing the jacket part of my ghillie suit, so quickly crouched down, pulled the hood up and started snapping away.

Then, in a moment of great excitement/panic, it became clear the hare was heading straight in my direction, so I quickly optimised my settings for the shot (expecting some pretty swift movements), and tracked it all the way.

Sure enough, it came casually sauntering up the path towards me, completely oblivious to my presence (- stillness really is your friend in these situations). It was only when it was within around 12 feet that the hare realised I was there. Had I been in the full gear and hidden within the bushes - instead of on the open path - I dare say it wouldn’t have realised, even then. At this point it darted off out of the woods immediately, probably trying to work out what on earth it had just seen.

This ranks as one of my favourite wildlife experiences. It might sound corny, but it always feels like a real honour and privilege to be in the presence of truly wild animals like this.

I’ve had several experiences a bit like this over the years, largely thanks to the camouflage afforded by the ghillie suit, so again, I can’t recommend them enough to anyone wanting to get closer (quite literally) to nature.

The above were shot with the Nikon Z 400mm f4.5 at 1/1250, f4.5, ISO-25600. As such, I put them through DxO Pure Raw 4 for some subtle noise reduction (people really overdo it on these programs I find) before editing in Capture One.

Light and Flight

This week on a post-work walk around the lake, the sun hit a window in the restaurant at the foot of the lake, so that the reflection created brilliant ripples on the water where the gulls were circling back and forth, eating flies. I took a little while to try and line up some bird in flight shots just above the golden patterns on the water’s surface.

It was definitely a bit of a challenge to consistently track the subjects, but these ones came out pretty well I think.

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.

Bird in Flight Photography

One of my photography goals over the last 6 months has been to do more bird in flight stuff. I’ve been a bit limited in terms of my longest range until recently (that being the Fuji 50-140mm f2.8 plus 1.4x teleconverter), as well as the continuous auto focus ability of that particular combination (- let’s just say the 1.4x converter definitely doesn’t help matters…), but I’ve managed a few shots I’m really happy with regardless -

I’ve also developed a new-found fondness of the 16:9 ratio it would appear.

Over the last few weeks I’ve sold all my Fuji gear (it was a good innings, from 2016, with lots of fun along the way, we’re still friends, but I wanted to see what the competition had to offer) and have found myself with a Nikon Z 400mm f4.5. I’ve only taken it out on two walks so far and been getting used to the new system, setting the camera up to my liking, but I think it’s going to do juuuust fiiiine -

Snooping on Foxes and Fox Cubs in Warwickshire

A few years ago I had an amazing experience where I stumbled upon an area of wasteland full of fox holes carved into a stretch of sloped woodland. By sheer luck and good fortune I encountered a group of fox cubs playing in the afternoon sun. They allowed me to get really close and either didn't notice my presence or didn't seem to mind it. I only had my phone with me but made sure I took loads of video footage of them darting in and out of their hole and chasing each other around. It left me feeling privileged to have seen it and was easily the best wildlife encounter I've ever had.

Then, disaster struck (and a lesson learnt) - when upgrading phones and after backing everything up to my PC, I formatted the phone memory card, convinced everything had been transferred to the computer. But... it hadn't. 😭 The videos were missing and the phone was now wiped. Gutted was an understatement.

Each April/May since I've returned to the same spot in hopes of seeing more fox cubs, but so far I've had no luck. A few weeks ago, however, I visited the area again with a sense of optimism and anticipation.

Suddenly I heard a series of terrifying screeches and squeals in the distance, so I headed slowly - covered head to toe in camouflage - in that direction. The sounds got louder and after my eyes adjusted to the scene I could see glimpses of movement up ahead, but I still wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. I knew that foxes sometimes sound like babies crying when they fight, but these were closer to the kinds of noises a pig would make when scared.

But sure enough, after a little while I noticed three fox cubs darting in and out of their den, chasing each other and rolling around in the dirt.

The light was terrible and shrubbery was very much in the way, so I didn’t get any of those actions shots. I was sitting a fair distance away on this occasion, too, so the photos are cropped to all heck, but I was very pleased to get them anyway.

The first two photos of the adult fox were taken about two weeks prior to those of the fox cubs, in a slightly different area, but I suspect they are they same family.

Wild Welsh Ponies on the Long Mynd, Shropshire

I was lucky enough to chance upon the wild Welsh ponies living atop the Long Mynd earlier this year. It’s always a pleasure to see them living naturally without (much) human interference in the wilds of the Shropshire Hills.

They tolerate their human observers pretty well and don’t seem to mind having their photos taken. A few of the mares looked to be heavily pregnant with large round abdomens; this was back in September, so I’m assuming they’ve had their offspring by now. Hopefully they won’t get too cold up there over the winter time! Although it would be lovely to see them in the snow, thinking selfishly as a photographer.

All wild Welsh pony photos were taken in Shropshire.

Please visit the rest of my website, www.lukebennettphotos.com for much more content, including further landscape and nature photography from the UK and visit my Print Gallery to buy high quality prints of my UK landscapes.

Also, if you would like me to photograph your wedding or event in Solihull, Birmingham, Coventry, Warwickshire, the Midlands or Beyond, please say hi!

Badger Watching in Warwickshire

A few years ago I had an amazing experience whilst walking through some hills in Warwickshire where I stumbled upon an area of wasteland full of fox holes carved into a stretch of sloped woodland. By sheer luck and good fortune I encountered a group of fox cubs playing in the afternoon sun. They allowed me to get really close and either didn't notice my presence or didn't seem to mind it. I only had my phone with me but made sure I took loads of video footage of them darting in and out of their hole and chasing each other around. It left me feeling privileged to have seen it and was easily the best wildlife encounter I've ever had.

Then, disaster struck (and a lesson learnt) - when upgrading phones and after backing everything up to my PC, I formatted the phone memory card, convinced everything had been transferred to the computer. But... it hadn't. The videos were missing and the phone was now wiped. This has been a source of regret for me ever since.

Each April/May since I've returned to the same spot in hopes of seeing more fox cubs, but so far I've had no luck. Last week, however, I visited the area again with a sense of optimism and anticipation.

Suddenly I heard a rustling in the distance, then in my periphery vision I saw an unusual shape that took my mind a few seconds to decipher... This badger! I spent a fascinating hour watching him (or her, I’m no badger sex-er) from a distance rummaging around the undergrowth, oblivious to me watching.

Whilst not what I was looking for, it was a really welcome substitute and a great wildlife experience. I’m particularly pleased with how these turned out given I don’t have a true wildlife lens so had to gradually get as close as I could without being detected.

All badger photos were taken in Warwickshire on the Fuji X-H1 with the Fujifilm XF50 - 140mmF/2.8 lens, processed from RAW with Capture One.

Please visit the rest of my website, www.lukebennettphotos.com for much more content, including further landscape and nature photography from the UK and visit my Print Gallery to buy high quality prints of my UK landscapes.

Also, if you would like me to photograph your wedding or event in Solihull, Birmingham, Coventry, Warwickshire, the Midlands or Beyond, please say hi!