Good to be back…

Well it’s great to be back on the site with the first new blog, but was also great to be back in the hide. After a few busy months finishing off the new site, printing stock for the county fairs and entering the National and European competitions, it was nice just to relax.

Time in the hide with a good friend always makes it better. I met up with Michael Weeks, in a small Wiltshire village in the dark, to make our way to the hide. Always best to get settled in the dark, less disturbance to the wildlife. Today’s subject was Red Kites and Buzzards, with some pheasants place around the site there were plenty of options to capture great images. I have been to David White’s hide before, this was a new hide, different backdrops, perches. Love the new setup, two comfortable hides, one way glass, yes I was a little worried about shooting through glass, but I have to admit the images looked very clean.

As the sun rose and the ambient light increased, we could see the first stirrings of the kites, coming across to the top of the downs, then gliding down the hill to the site and the bait.

At first most just perched in the surrounding trees behind the hide, in no time the first had landed and started to pluck the carcass. An hour later there were 8-10 birds across the area in front of us, some metres away. I did have a little chuckle, I couldn’t believe when ten pheasants turned up, a few sat with one of the kites on the fence, six inches away, the others wandered between the kites while they had pheasant for brunch. Not sure of the average IQ score of a pheasant, but guessing it isn’t very high. 

The day was perfect, with mainly sun, but conditions changing, so did the colour in the backgrounds but also how the subjects were lit. As the day went on, the cloud grew, with break of light coming through, this was the time to capture the flight shots, a few minutes the subjects would be perfectly lit, while the dark clouds gathered behind. Perfect to help your subject pop.

The equipment for the day, it was a good day to tweak the R5, with the 600mm f4 lens it proved the correct combination, with perfect eye tracking as the birds came in. The R5 has become my go to camera when it comes to wildlife, the accuracy and speed when focusing has helped so much.

The day continued with plenty of action shots, from the odd fight that broke out, with plenty of action in the sky. Sometimes the best things about these days, is just to take five minutes to sit and watch.

We finished at 4, just as the light started to fade, it had been a long day but well worth it. With 8000+ images it was time to get home and start the process of finding some goodens..

A few of the images from the day are below, one of these and many other Red Kite images are available from our shop. Thanks for looking… 

Red Kite Incoming – Colin Brister Photography