Mute swan in flight again 2

lol, they keep flying and I keep taking them, got lucky with five sequential shots in a row. Hit an old lens often enough and sometimes it does start working again. ;)

 

Not really sure why I keep taking shots of swans, there really isn't much challenge in it for me any more, but theres just something about their aspect, to see something so huge on the wing, and the light plumage means you can really indulge the cloud forms without all the usual exposure problems of silhouetting, and achieve good sharpness because you can keep the shooting speed fast that makes them just a prime target for creative flight photography. This shot, simple though it is, is probably a bit of a favourite for the month. I was asked the other day what my favourite natural shot was, and this is pretty close to that, but thats a bit like asking someone who their favourite child is.

 

And no, that doesn't mean I love them all, oh no, I'm far too judgemental to be happy with that kind of thinking, especially as regards my own work, it just means I change my mind a lot according to circumstances and mood. Then of course there are the days when I wake up, and in a spoilt 80's way- "I just hate everything!". lol. I sit there wish for cameras and lenses I will never have, and shot opportunities I will never get. Then another day I get up and can't wait to get out there, and get photos of something, anything. There are even those odd times when I look back through my old shots, giving myself a bit of critique, looking for mistakes, thinking about how to improve, and I will come across an old picture and think "That wasn't too bad, why did I hate it?".

 

Such is the contrary nature of ambition I suppose, anyway, I like to think it keeps me improving. I was also asked recently what if I could shoot anything in britain would I shoot? Well I have to admit at the time I was stumped, what do you choose?

 

Then later on it dawned on me, whats in britain that I really want to shoot? Well typically enough they would be difficult cos I like a challenge and I havent got the kit for it, but a night shoot of bird predators namely owls, barn owls tawnies etc, that would be amazingly cool, bats too would be excellent, theres an image in the life on earth book of a bat skimming for fish, and I suppose the british equivalent of that would be a bat taking a moth, and that would be very cool, perhaps do some stuff in scotland like capercaille's, deer etc, or something that I imagine is easy to get a site for but hard to create a good tonality, exposure and composition, and thats some of the marine mammals. Not necessarily the big crowd pleasers like killer whales and dolphins, but seals. I think i'd like to experience getting close to a colony of seals and trying to reveal something about their life that perhaps I havent seen before.

 

The closest I got to that before was a holiday on scilly, I was in a jet boat which hung around for about five minutes, in a very rough sea indeed, and all my shots, taken with a bridge camera were crap, but there was massive potential there if only someone had dropped me off on the rocks for ten minutes. I'd love to take some of british fish underwater, stuff that doesnt get much of a profile, big wrasse, dogfish, butterfish, sea snail (a fish not literally a snail) , maybe a strange little lumpsucker, or even the amazingly weird gurnard, anything thats new to me first hand and perhaps even common, really see how the state of seas are, see whats changed, how bad or good things are, and see and bring to people stuff that doesnt get much of a media profile.

 

Weirdly it was suggested to me a few months back that images of lampreys are needed because some are under threat. Now normally I have what can be described as a mild loathing of and equally morbid fascination with parasitic animals, but a lamprey is actually pretty interesting, primitive, elusive, and Ive never seen much of ones lifestyle on tv, its usually thrown in as nothing more than a 5 second waypoint in the evoluton of fish, but there has to be more to them than that.

 

Bagging a cool shot of a basking shark would put me into a headspin, but generally visibility for that sort of thing it would probably be a non starter. I've done gigatons of birds lately , but theres a few I would like to get closer to, bittern , egrets, and even water rail. I also would love to get a wild peregrine, golden eagle, marsh harriers have evaded me for so long I'm starting to take it personally.lol. Of course theres a myriad of seabirds out there, all the classics, puffins , terns, and even marine ducks I want to see in the wild, like king eiders, that would be cool too.

 

On the land mammals I just don't know, I definitely want to go and do boar in the forest sometime, but I'd love to get close shots of a weasel, I worked with foxes, squirrels, deer and badger quite a bit while working in rescue years back, and while shots of those are always nice, I've sort of seen them a lot.

 

TBH i'd be happy shooting natterjack toads, various bugs, and even a night or evening shoot of badgers would thrill me enough. It may be humble britain, but its still like being a kid in a sweet shop.

 

Anyway, I have finally come to a personal top twenty of british wildlife I'd like to get in my sights.

 

1) Dormouse (that surprised you didnt it?)

2)red footed falcon- something ive never seen outside a book, and its one of the most beautiful birds for me.

3)common seal- I just want to get to know them, take on the composition challenge, use the water, the rock, the sky etc. They sit pretty still so I could be tempted to try a subtle HDR. The possibility intrigues me.

4) osprey fishing- all that panning practice and water exposure practise- pass up a chance of that? Never!

5)long eared bat catching prey at night, probably a strobe job, havent got one, but by god I'd love the challenge.

6)red throated diver- just an amazing bird, and some mating behaviour would be massively cool.

7)longtailed ducks- never seen one, find the idea of marine ducks bizarre and would love to see some on the sea. I'd love to do little auks too, but I suppose the chances of that are near zero.

8) marsh harrier- love to get some behavioural stuff.

9)barn owl in flight (night) - that ghostly ethereal bird hunting at night, is there anything more supernatural in the animal world?

10)waxwing, its just gorgeous

11)bearded tit, same reason

12)sand lizard- kind of the holy grail of british reptiles to me. Once into herpetology, always into it.

13)natterjack toad (especially in water during amplexus and mass matings)

14) lamprey- just because nobody does.

15) corkwing wrasse- ive only ever seen these shamefully dumped as bycatch by net fishermen, I managed to revive a few and put them back, along with a couple of just about alive dogfish when I was in devon, I'd love to see how they really live.

16)puss moth caterpillar- its got to be an all time classic subject for macro

17)glow worm (really serious macro of one glowing would be the dogs proverbials)

18) water spider, just that transition of an air breathing spider with a nest underwater,I have to have a go at that.

19)water rail- again I nearly got a good shot of one two years ago, and now its starting to annoy me that I can't seem to get another chance.

20) kingfisher, just because its law to get a shot of one, I always know where some are and I never have a lens that reaches. A fishing shot obviously...

 

I could easily have extended the list but thats stuff I realistically have a chance of getting anyway.Tbh i'd be perfectly happy to be dumped in scotland or in the orkneys and just see what turns up. I never get a chance to shoot northern wildlife. I would have had otters in the list at about no5, but ive sort of done them by photographing an identical species at slimbridge, but how I want to photograph them in the wild is basically almost impossible - i'd want to do it underwater! Unfortunately I know bugger all about diving so thats probably never going to happen.

Done