Update.

Firstly I have my new camera.
Wow.
Is how I describe it. It is a true monster. I am not one to name things but I really feel like she deserves a name.

It is actually a very hard thing to describe something that I have only known for a couple of months and have used its functions to only a mild degree. But there is one thing I am still unsure of and that is the Full frame. When I have the full quota of lenses it really should show its full potential. Right now its only being held back by me. I feel like all this filming that I have to do is really not helping me do what I want to be able to achieve or have in my head for my photography. Do not get me wrong this is an amazing camera it has such features that she should be able to get me to where I want to go. I have huge hopes for this camera and for me. Over the next year I should be able to get to grips with it and wrestle this camera to do what I want it to.

The starlings. Again, Wow.
I have never seen a natural event that I want to witness every day. I am really struggling to find words to describe what I saw. The pictures that you see in the newspapers or on the TV. We went 2 times in the same week, I intend to go back many times in the near future and over my life time. When we first went we had no idea where the murmuration was. We got off the train and wondered aimlessly around trying to find a good place to see them fly. Eventually after much debate and wondering, some locals walked pasted and said where they would be and let us follow them to where we needed to be. It was just a shame we were directly underneath them. It was like it was raining, their droppings falling all around of us. At first we were to mesmerized by the thousands of tiny dots above our heads. Then we started to take notice of their droppings spattering our bags, cloths and some times cameras.

Well That is about it for now. Soon I shall be making a film about how hard it is to film wildlife, I have already had a brief go. Man am I lucky that I prefer photography. I have always seen how hard it is to get good quality footage of animals. Now I have even more new found respect for those guys. 

Comming up.

There are several exciting things coming up in my life.

These are all rather exciting and I am trying to save my creativeness for when these events breach themselves upon me. It is very difficult to keep ones excitement burred down deep with in them. Mine is very close to bursting. This is like the steam venting before a kettle stop boiling. I must tell this blog what these events will be so then my excitement is not being built up enough for me to burst like the proverbial balloon.

Event 1:

This event isn't actually that big, it is just the first one in the series. I am getting a new camera body, and depending on how much money I have left a new lens too. See how small that is compared to the other events coming. The reason for this purchase is that my old camera had developed some problems. Like when humans get older, their hearing goes, they start to ask many many questions and things start to leak. Well my camera has developed problems. So it seems like a perfect time for an upgrade, an upgrade to (this is where the light shines down from the sky and a choir sings) Full Frame.


Event 2:

I will soon be heading off with a couple of friends to go and see the starlings at Gretna green. Having never seen Starlings do their murmurations this will be a first time for me. It is one of the most exciting things this year that I have wanted to do.


Event 3:

The 3rd event is about filming kestrels. ( I will update as things progress on new blogs)

Event 4:

Expedition to Scotland. This is the big thing of 2013 in my life. Except for the next event. This trip to Scotland is going to be really really fun. I use the word 'fun' because it is the simplest way of putting what will be being had. I will be going to two people whom I want to go with, (whom don't want to change things for their own personal gain but for the gain of everybody), this makes the expedition much more enjoyable as we can all (3 of us) enjoy each other company and learn of each other and just have fun.


Event 5:

Trip to Gambia. This is a big one. After we return back from Scotland we will be jetting off to Gambia to do a field studies trip. Personally I am not too interested in the whole surveying and doing too much actual work. I'm more interested in going out and birding. Having got 2, yes 2, bird books for this trip. I feel smugly confident that I can identify a fair few birds. Having learned so much so quickly on my last birding trip, I am sure that I can pick up this kind of birding just as quick.


These are the events that will be going on over the next 6 months of so. Well up until Easter anyway.

Sorry

This is just an update blog. Nothing more. Nothing less. It probably wont be too long.


I have started my university year now and have just had a week long induction to biodiversity monitoring. Wow has it been a good week. Full of stuff to think about and try and master in such a short space of time. I am really up for that challenge.


Learning how to monitor different kind of habitats and animals is really interesting. Simply as I have never thought about it before. So having lots of lectures tell me about them and get me to think about finding signs for animals has really brought me into a good place. I will defiantly be working out side for my job.

Told you it wouldn't be long just trying to keep these going and be up to date n things that I am going to be doing!

Next week I will try and talk about some photography or something interesting that has happened to me.

Thoughts so far.

Now the summer of 2012 is now over. Autumn is finally upon us. If the predictions are right, we are slowly heading for the death of the world and everything in it.

Depressing isn’t it. Now I am usually a pessimist but I have been thinking a lot over the last few months. Its not about the end of the world, its about the start of my life. I have spent years being at school learning about subjects that I would never use again. Being at university is not where I saw myself going when I was a spotty teenager. Simply because I thought it was full of clever rich kids. Some of them are, most are full of normal people who just want to get a degree and succeed in their chosen path. It may be a profession or it may just happen to be working in a place where they are happy.

         This is where my thinking has taken me. As my brother has just finished his MA and got his first job, I started to think what I wanted to be in 10 years. Assuming we are not all dead in the coming months. I have to say it does feel apt that I am listening to ‘Heroes’ by David Bowie. It is making this blog seem like it is going to change me in some profound way. Back to my point, my broth seems to have a job he was born for. Working in a bookshop. It is perfect for him and I am very happy that he has found something that he will grasp with two hands. Will I be able to find this when I leave university? Will I have the credentials to get a job that I will be able to enjoy and really make myself happy?

Those who read this blog on a regular basis will know that I am an avid bird watcher. I don’t know why but I have more books on Birds than anything else. I am just a bird person. They are fantastic aren’t they? Having the freedom to just fly away if it gets too much for them. The beauty of flight, the melody of their songs, their perfect plumage and for me it is the way they take my breath away when they are close. I recently purchased a copy of the animated film ‘Rio’. I actually cried in that film not at the end but during it. I felt anger. I was so moved by that film, I cannot put into words how pleased I am that it has. It has given me a motive to do something about birds being taken from the wild. To do something that will give something back to the creatures, which have held me in their spell for over a decade and will continue to do so for the rest of my life. I have no doubt on that.

So my thoughts over the summer have been what should I do when I leave university in 2 years time? I do have one thing on the cards, which is a self-funded expedition around the UK going to RSPB reserves and helping the BTO with information gathering. Then what? What is there after that for Dominic Boulding? Back to the film I spoke of just a second ago. Should I try and become an ornithologist? Get a doctorate in that? Go to far-flung place to gather evidence of disappearing species or the emergence of species on the brink of extinction? I want to give a lot back to my feathered friends but I am not sure of how to do that. I have ideas and thought of what I want to do.

With those thoughts milling around in my head for the past several months I will try and get them in an order I think I can cope with. I do know that in a month or so there is a big series of talks in London, I hope I will be there. These series of talks will be hosted by some of the best wildlife photographers, filmmakers and editors the world has seen. This is where I hope to be able to get my inspiration of what to do and how to do it. I hope to also pitch my idea of the trip to the BBC or some other influential organisation. This is not to further me in a selfish act. I do not want to do anything with that motivation, it is not the way that my parents brought me up. I want to do something that I have pride in doing because I can see the results, I can see change for the good and I can see the happiness that it give my friends and family to see me enjoy what I do. They are the people whom have given me the support that I really need.

I am also going to be Vloging and Bloging every week with my goings on. Any developments in what I will be doing what I am up to, and if anything really takes my eye I will be talking about those subject. Bird related topics and suggestions are most welcome.

I would how ever like to quickly say something about the badger cull that is rampaging through the country. I use the word rampage simply because it is a much debated topic on social media sites. I don’t pretend to be on the fence. I don’t like the badger cull. I do not pretend to know all the facts and figures. I make no reservations in saying this is a cruel way of trying to save cattle from TB. Personally if every farmer had 1 wildlife person on their farm that would trap the badgers and inoculated them, I would pay more for the meat that I buy. Why? I would rather pay more for food and save an animal than have cheap meat. I find that food prices are one of the stupidest things; it is something that I have to live with though. If there was a way to stop this badger cull then I would be happy to out my meaningless name to it. With enough names to any cause anything can be done. Whether it has been women wanting to vote, stopping genocide and even saving a species. It is not the big name that makes a cause worth wile. It is the anonymous names, ordinary people who want to fight to keep their morals. We are the dominant species, which has grown a conscience. It is up to us to save the things we find beautiful in this world.

Groombirdge Place and The Raptor Centre

FIRST please visit the raptor center website:
http://www.raptorcentre.co.uk/
 THANK YOU


The other day I went to visit Groombridge Place. The reason I went is to go and visit ‘The Raptor Centre’. Normally I don’t like falconry centres, BUT this isn’t. It is, as Eddie Hare proud owner of the Raptor Centre and employer of these bird’s states, a sanctuary. This is different; he takes injured or abandoned birds in and then employs them in his shows. Whereas falconry centers use birds to hunt for sport, Eddies ‘Raptor Centre’ is a place where the birds have free will and a freedom which falconry do not.

Now I do have to say that the way Eddie talks and acts is second to none, he is confident that his ‘employees’ will do as he asks and his payments and incentives are enough to keep them with him. They are free to leave if they feel like it; they don’t because Eddie pays well. They are indeed free as he talks about in his flying displays.

Eddie is a very good presenter of not only himself but of what he stands for. It made the 30 minuets fly, if you will excuse the pun, by. His presentation of the birds is, I think, unique. I think that the entire operation of the Raptor Centre is fantastic. Publicly funded, no support from any big contributors, it is all funded though the visitors of Groombridge Place who put their donation into some wooden boxes.

Which to me sums up the whole meaning of the Raptor Centre, not to be the biggest. As the demonstration are all done by the single staff member, Eddie and his bird employees, they are conducted in a well thought out way not only theatrically but also to show that the birds are not dangerous. They hunt because they have to. Eddie explains this comprehensively and in a way so the audience understands, as most of the audience is under the age of 12.

After the demonstration Eddie opened up the weathering ground. This is where a few of the other birds are. It is also a chance to see their beauty - normally you only see birds along way off and it is hard to see them. Having the weathering grounds offers a close up experience with out touching them. It is also a chance for the audience to talk to Eddie about the birds and get to ask burning questions they have about birds of prey.

At the end of this little complex there is a building where Eddie has put up pictures and a little history about himself and the Raptor Centre. Along with this there are facts about birds of prey, common misconceptions of them and some sheets about telling birds apart.

Personally I thoroughly enjoyed watching the birds, being a bird watcher anyway makes it all the more exciting. Words and photographs really cannot beat actually seeing thee birds in flight and hearing Eddie’s explanations and convocation. I have such a passion for birds; it makes me really happy to see someone who loves them as much as me put in their life and soul to see them become healthy and well cared for birds. 

Eddie does such a fantastic job and deserves a lot of credit. I hope if Eddie reads this that he will thank the birds, which flew on Friday for us. Because they understand him a bit better than me (he also has their bonus).

To follow up there are a few other shots of the birds and some flowers from the beautiful gardens surrounding Groombridge.

New gear, More motivation.

I have recently purchased a brand new lens. Its a piece of kit I can tell you.

I might post a picture of what I brought after I have posted images of the picture I have taken with it. For any one who is interested which will be few seeing as my single follower is probably not much into photography gear as I am. They are probably more about the picture!

Sorry it has taken a long time to get a post out, but I have had to get used to it.

Here is the blog where I can show off what I have taken.  But before I parade my photographs in front of your eyeballs. I would like to point out that I do have a REDBUBBLE. Its like 500px but not. The web address is:

http://www.redbubble.com/people/dboulding1

Just for those interested in a possible purchase of some images, but it is where I put up the best ones.


BACK TO THE BLOG.

So my new purchases is a 300mm prime. To be exact a AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/2.8G ED VR II (I will add a photo if asked for one). Along with a 1.7 Tele-converter.


I went on a walk with a good friend of my mother and my mother, to a reservoir near Tunbridge. I had mainly gone there to see what my new lens could give me but I got carried away taking photos. As per usual. Any way I left the two women for their walk, I then settled down right by the edge to get close and at close to eye level as I could without going swimming.


While I was waiting for the several great crested Grebe's to become accustomed with my presence. I nearly got covered in first Greylag geese, and Canada Geese. Then I was confronted by The Swan. He just swam silently round the trees and then there he was, I just couldn't resist getting a head on shot. I've always liked head on shots of birds, makes them seen evil some how.

Having been out on the common on several sunny days with only my 300mm and not my macro, (although I will be returning to macro soon), I saw this guy and couldn't miss the chance with the grass pointing on way and the ladybug looking the other way.

Again another shot which would be a better macro, but when you don't bring a macro lens with you. You can only use the lens you have on your camera. But I think it works its a nice side of a spider, its the other side of photographs I like. Not always shooting the front, sometime you have to shoot what is there. Even if it is a bottom.

I took my grandad out the other day, only for an afternoon. But we had a very poor start, not may birds around it was blisteringly hot and not a cloud in the sky. It was a long afternoon. After taking the long way round to begin, we then went onto the hides. Again very poor sightings of anything this was only because the management had changed the pool set up. Separating a very well used island where med gulls and black headed gulls would have been, along with an often used tern island. Then the second hide, there the terns had made their nests. Some still with chicks. Any way, the terns were just hovering before landing.

This is a new set up on my blogs now, keeping the best for last. 

This was one of the grebes who took to me sitting on the shore. And although I though of doing a nice flat landscape shot. I went for a portrait which I think gives the Grebe character, and also he is looking through the photo it give a direction to the image.

Now in my new house my garden is a welcome oasis to the urban fox, several of them. Today there was two, and older and a young one. This is the older one. I was shooting through a window, but he didn't take too much notice to what I was doing. More inquisitive than scared. As this shot shows. Nice and calm and not disturbed by my clicking camera but interested.

 
Now in a blog before I mentioned that I had taken what I considered my first pro shot. I was wrong. I believe this is my first one. The eagle eyed followers and readers will notice that it is in fact the same fox as above. I managed to get up on him. Rather than keeping eye level I though that he might be less inclined to disappear if I was higher. I was right he was clearly happy with me being out side and around that he kept his distance but was never disturbed by me. I think I might have captured his curiosity rather than the usual interpenetration of a sulking scavenger.

A Beautiful summer so far.

Found this moorhen being chased off by another, I was taking macro shots but they ran around me. So I took a few snaps and this one was looking at me perfectly

These are Beautiful Demoiselle (Calopteryx virgo). These were flapping around my garden today. I though that they were nothing special. I then got told by my grandfather what they were. And aren't they. Beautiful.

The frond is just me playing around with macro and that's what came out not great but good and a nice shot anyway.

This guy had huge legs, I tried to get them in but also keep the subtly try and make it interesting. Keeping the flower in and also contrasting the bright beetle properly rather than loosing it in the background.

This is my prize shot so far. I have always wanted to see this fly, I have never seen it until today. I found it I was so happy. Then I took several pictures and got this. I was actually punching the air in happiness when I took the picture, I didn't care if it was bad. I kept on shooting while they, yes they, were still visible and active.

 

This spider is clutching his or her egg sack. But he or she was HUGE compared to the others that were scurrying around. So was his or her egg sack. It also was the most tolerant of the hundreds that  were to finding a new home for their eggs.

 

Now I wanted to show this meadow grasshopper in a different light not to get it full focus, but to give it a grass like quality. Also not to get the eyes in focus, but for it to be about the shapes in the image. I rather like it.

The next few weeks

Over the next few weeks I shall be moving house so I will not be able to post as much stuff as I would like to. So here are just a few things that I have done so far in this summer holiday.

I think this is the first one out! Well that I have seen at least!

Who is this looking at you from the shadows?

 

Here he is! Two big eyes in the gloom.

My second expedition

My next expedition was to see some Mandarin ducks (Aix galericulata), I arrived early in the morning around 8:30am to stake it out. I got there with plenty of time to set up my equipment, but I hadn’t for seen that the ducks were not to play ball with me. I sat there for a good 3 hours with nothing to show for it.

I decided to take a walk, as I knew that if the ducks were to return they would do so in the early evening. So I set off round the fields lugging all my gear around with me. Just in case I saw anything interesting.

After I entered the route that I would take I started to think to my self that I would just use my small lens and try some HDR and panoramas. Although later I though that the panoramas were not good enough so just had to settle with HDRs. 

 

 

As I started the walk I was greeted by Green finches (Carduelis chloris), Gold finches (Carduelis carduelis), Blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus), Great tits (Parus major), Coal tits (Periparus ater), Pheasants (Phasianus colchicus), Rooks (Corvus frugilegus), Jackdoors (Corvus monedula) and to my surprise a Jay (Garrulus glandarius) whom was hopping around on the floor looking for nuts to burry for the winter.

This walk was new to me so I didn’t really know what to expect, so as I crossed the fields I was interested that the walk goes through a range of different habitats. I had gone from open farmland into managed forests. In the forests I wasn’t able to do as much photography as I would have liked because it would have been shots of trees, consequently it would have been very generic.

I did how ever find an old gate, which was on a hill leading up to a conifer forest. This was startling although clearly a plantation it was managed in an interesting way. There were huge trees, which have been ripped out by their roots. Now this is very strange because on closer inspection of the trees some of the bark very low down on the tree was missing. Almost as if a chain had been there and had pulled the tree down, it was very strange. 

Once I had passed that I then continued, eventually stumbling upon a hop farm finding some old abandoned lodgings and storage sheds. It was here were I spent most of the day listening to birds and doing some HDR I generally don’t like that kind of photography. The abandoned building kind, I think it is last photography there isn’t much else to do but find an old building. The photographs came out OK but personally I am not a fan. 

After than I found the hop farm, it was a shame that the hops were not yet planted and growing it would have been amazing to wonder through the corridors made by them. So instead I pulled out my camera much more interesting, except that the ground was parched and there was nothing growing, it wouldn’t have looked out of place in Chernobyl. 

Then it was back into the fields and back to those ducks. It was a shame as when I got to the pond they still eluded me. Leaving straight away after that I encountered a Coot (Fulica atra), Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus), Nuthatch (Sitta europaea), Treecreeper (Certhia familiaris), great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) and a Green woodpecker (Picus viridis).

It was a nice end to my mini expedition, but as I walked along the path above the pond I saw on the pond my elusive prey. I have already seen them before but the Mandarin duck is spectacular. I managed to get a shot of it. It’s a record shot, but I got one.

Bewl Expedition

 




I went to visit the reservoir at Lamberhurst, Bewl water. This reservoir supplies most of the south east of all its water, so it is relied upon a lot, which is a problem. I arrived there early morning around 8am. The light was not grate so I waited and then it cleared up and I set off at 9.  This was the first time I would set eyes upon the water since I was last down in Kent, which was just before September. Seeing how high the water was, I was taken aback. It was and still is incredibly low. The reservoir is a man made one, so there used to be a village where the water now is. Talking to my granddad he told me when he was a boy he delivered papers there, and when it was build (the dam and reservoir) and there were hot summers you could see some of the old houses. I though I might be able to this time but no luck.

As soon as I arrived at the Bewl trees and birds singing in my ears, surrounded me. Chiffchaffs (Phylloscopus collybita), Blackcaps; my first this year (Sylvia atricapilla), Wrens (Troglodytes troglodytes), these birds don’t usually like to be seen and keep themselves hidden away in brambles and thick bushes. This was the case today as well; keeping hidden in the shade on a hot day was just what was needed for very small birds. I Also had the usual suspects as well, Robins (Erithacus rubecula), Sparrows (Passer domesticus), Blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus), Great tits (Parus major), Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos), Coots (Fulica atra), Blackbirds (Turdus merula), Moorhens (Gallinula chloropus) and a Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus).

As I have mentioned the water was very low, so I decided to see how low it was. I left the track and headed down the slop to the waters edge. This picture shows how low the water really is and also where it should at least be. The dead weeds and underwater plants, which usually make up the murky edge of the water and now dry and burnt brown. It has been that dry that there is even new plant growth in amongst these dry plants.

While walking around this exquisite countryside I was taken aback at the varsity of the reservoir and how much the water had gone down. It was only really after my first stop off to have a drink and a snack that I really got time to look at how low it was.

It was not long after this stop that I reached an overflow pond. Which was empty. Completely empty no water, no new life. It was like a small crater on Mars. It was a very surreal moment. 

About an hour and a half later I herd some Herring gulls (Larus argentatus) cawing and making a big fuss about something. Thinking nothing of it I dismissed it, then coming to my senses I the looked round and saw them mobbing an Osprey (Pandion haliaetus). This was something I was not expecting to see. So I did not get a picture of it, as I was on the walk for landscapes and to see how low the water, I was not expecting to see this monster of a bird fly right past me.  I am glad that I am a birder (ornithologist) before a photographer because I really got to enjoy seeing this majestic bird close and with no pressure to photograph it. As the osprey evaded the gulls it then fell into the clutches of 4 Buzzards (Buteo buteo), and got hounded by them for a couple of minutes before gliding gently off behind some trees.

After this the walk became the same as before, full of chiffchaffs and blackcaps and the low water still making a full point.

This was an amazing walk it is a shame that I didn’t get a shot of the osprey.  But I am just very happy to have seen one this year, this was a very successful expedition, as I got more than I had bargained for.

Spring

 Seeing as spring has come upon us early I decided to go and get some shots of what ever was out there! The shot above is of a pond scater. I really enjoy this picture as it make me want to walk on water as they do.

 This flower really is a good sign of spring, just waiting to burst open and who its beauty to the world.

This moth was just lying in wait for the darkness. So then it can fly away and settle some where else and possibly look for a mate. I think the way that the antennae are folded back to make it look like the bark of a tree.

 

This spider has got a very nice shape to it, a star. Although shooting with my macro I was just trying to show off how beautiful it was with out spoiling the depth of field and ruining the image.

 Lady birds are classic signs of spring. This one had just emerged and was bustling about. So setting my focus to manual I just waited for him to come into my focal plane.

 Another shot of a spider, but there were loads out, trying to get to eye level with him to show off how special these creatures are.

Trying to find a red object in among the green of grass, is actually much harder than it looks like. However it is a nice picture as I like how the grass is blurred but yet gives it a nice soft filter.

Here are just a few more interesting shots.