Posted by John MacTavish on December 31, 2009 at 11:53 AM
Not done a tremendous lot of n/h stuff this year, but the past week has been good fun.
The full moon at the moment along with the prolonged cold snap have made for a larger than normal influx of woodcock to the estate here.
Hungry birds need to eat and they will tolerate human presence as long as they are not harassed and put off their feeding.
Same tactic as last time, watch where a bird flushes to and lie down/sit in that area until it emerges again.
This time light was very poor and even shooting wide open at f2.8 meant using an ISO of 1600 and a shutter speed of 1/40th
This is a shot I never thought I'd ever get, When they feed they really give it some with their beaks and only keep still for a fraction of a second when the beak is about halfway into the ground. Luck at this shutter speed as to whether I'd get anything useable.
Hope to do more n/h stuff next year, but unless it's something that means a lot to me I don't see me spending too much time at it.
Hope you all got the shots you were wanting in 2009 and hope you all have a very good new year when it comes.
Posted by Philip Newman on December 31, 2009 at 12:59 PM
Loved this series John and a great 2010 to you.
Posted by Rob Ashton on December 31, 2009 at 1:26 PM
Have a great New Year John and keep these sort of shots coming.
Rob
Posted by Craig Jones on December 31, 2009 at 1:34 PM
Loved all three of these beautiful shots of this very hard bird to find,like the feeding pose caught here,a Happy New Year to you John
Posted by John Robinson on December 31, 2009 at 2:07 PM
Have a good one and I hope you get a few more like this.
Great considering the difficult conditions and camera settings .
Good stuff.
Cheers
JohnR
All three of your woodcock series have been superb as it is such a difficult bird to work with. Top marks for field skills and nailing the images under tricky circumstances.
Discussion
6 repliesThe full moon at the moment along with the prolonged cold snap have made for a larger than normal influx of woodcock to the estate here.
Hungry birds need to eat and they will tolerate human presence as long as they are not harassed and put off their feeding.
Same tactic as last time, watch where a bird flushes to and lie down/sit in that area until it emerges again.
This time light was very poor and even shooting wide open at f2.8 meant using an ISO of 1600 and a shutter speed of 1/40th
This is a shot I never thought I'd ever get, When they feed they really give it some with their beaks and only keep still for a fraction of a second when the beak is about halfway into the ground. Luck at this shutter speed as to whether I'd get anything useable.
Hope to do more n/h stuff next year, but unless it's something that means a lot to me I don't see me spending too much time at it.
Hope you all got the shots you were wanting in 2009 and hope you all have a very good new year when it comes.
Rob
Great considering the difficult conditions and camera settings .
Good stuff.
Cheers
JohnR
All three of your woodcock series have been superb as it is such a difficult bird to work with. Top marks for field skills and nailing the images under tricky circumstances.
Best for 2010
Andy