Drimnagh Birdwatch: Sycamore Hill-Wicklow

Showing posts with label Sycamore Hill-Wicklow. Show all posts

Tuesday, 25 September 2012

Eric/ John's Advanced photography course

A year on from Eric's Beginner photography course was today's 'Advanced' photography fieldtrip, again at Sycamore Hill, Wicklow.
I left Drimnagh just before 7.30am and was at Sycamore for 8.15am, a coffee and away to Wexford.
Well that was the plan, but I decided I'd stay behind with Katie and Celia who were there for a beginner lesson with 'Wings' magazine front page hogger, John Fox.

The plan was to join Eric and the others down in Wexford once we'd finished a quick overview of camera settings, fstops, shutter speed, all that fun stuff, but as it turned out, once we'd finished our class, we decided to stay local and practice some photography round the house with a drive down to Killoughter to possibly see the juv Osprey which has been seen around Broad lough.

Celia and Katie putting John's teaching to practice on the birds in the garden.

After another coffee (thanks Hazel), and having asked John all the questions we could think of, John drove us down to Killoughter so we could practice some more 'in the field photography'.

Killoughter Railway station, Co Wicklow.

Depth of Field Lesson.

This photo was taken at f5 (iso 320, 1/640 speed). I focused on the larger stone in the centre of the photo. As you can see the depth of field at f5 is very shallow, only the immediate area I'm focused on is actually in focus and there's a soft blur everywhere else. This is the setting most birders use. At f5 you get a lot of light hitting your camera sensor, so you get a quicker shutter speed which allows sharper photos. Ideally you'd use f4, but my 150-500 lens only goes to f5.

I took the same shot for every f stop on my camera, the final fstop being f22, this is the f22 shot. Still focused on the larger stone, you can see that the smaller f stop of 22 gives a much larger depth of field and now nearly everything is in focus. This f stop is pretty useless for bird photography as the shutter speed slows right down, so any movement at all fro the bird will turn out blurred. (this was 1/30 compared to the 1/640 at f5)

Once you cross the railway line at Killoughter, you turn right towards Bray, walk down some fields, past this derelict building, on a bit further and the lough is behind some hedges on the right past an old gravel quarry. I'd never been before, so it was nice to go somewhere different. Thanks to Hazel for showing us how to get there.

Derelict building on way to Broad lough 'End Garda intimidation disband special branch'.

Unfortunately I didn't actually get any decent photos to show off what I learnt today from John.

We also did manage a far away sighting of the juvenile Osprey flying over the north end of the lough, it started to look as though it was going to fly right over us, but instead turned away and flew back behind the far trees.

Juvenile Osprey at Broad lough, Wicklow. It's assumed from Southern Europe on migration to Africa.

When the Osprey disappeared behind the trees we waited another 45 minutes, taking photos of some far away Bartailed godwits, Ringed plover and Dunlin, when there was still no sign of it returning we decided we'd leave and see what was down at ECNR.
2 minutes after we left Broad lough, the Osprey (apparently) re appeared, swooped over the lough and grabbed two fish, one in each tallon.
That's right, an Osprey swooped over the lough and caught a fish in each tallon.
We could have seen it if we'd waited another 2 minutes.
But that's how it goes!

Gutted.com.

this Ringed plover was -0.3 (iso 320, f6.3, 1/1000), nice, but a little too dark

and this juvenile Stonechat was -0.7 (iso 320, f6.3, 1/320), which actually doesn't look too bad in this photo.

Male Stonechat, great to see them about again. Iso 320, f6.3, 1/160 - very slow shutter speed.

I think today was the second of several other courses being run at Sycamore hill from now until December.

There's more info on all Sycamore Hill courses on Eric's 'Bird's Ireland' website here: http://www.birdsireland.com/workshops

I'd obviously recommend all of them having already taken most of the courses at this stage.
Huge thanks to John, Eric and Hazel for creating such a lovely learning environment.

Wednesday, 29 February 2012

Eric's Raptor Workshop - Sycamore Hill, Feb 26th 2012

Over the weekend just gone, Eric held a Raptor wknd workshop down in Wicklow.
With the Iwebs workshop on Saturday I couldn't go along for the full weekend, but Eric was good enough to say I could join them on the Sunday down at Sycamore Hill then go onto Tacumshin to look for Raptors.
There was a group of about 15-20 people (I didn't count) who on the Saturday were lucky enough to see Red kites roosting in Avoca, Wicklow.

Down at Tacumshin, Hen Harriers were the object of desire and that desire was quickly realised.
No sooner as we'd parked up and pulled our scopes out of cars, female and male Hen Harriers were flying over their hunting ground in front of our eyes.
In fact the Hen Harriers seemed to be out for the day, we saw quite a lot of them - to see a male and female was fantastic.

We saw a Kestrel hovering as well and Sarah found the skull of a Red breasted merganser near a post which Eric said was probably the remnants of a Peregrine feast.
I wish I had taken a photo of the skull for people to see, it was interesting the way there was still some red on the beak despite the rest of the skull being bleached white from the sea air.

The bird I didn't see, which I personally would have liked to have seen more than 20 Hen Harriers put together, was the Bearded Reedling which put in a holy appearance for some but not others. Some even managed photos, whereas others (me) only caught a glimpse of a shadow as it mystically disappeared back into the reeds.
Eric kindly let us stay around at the 'Bearded Reedling rock' for quite a while, he knew everyone wanted a good view of this unusual looking bird, but eventually we moved on to get back to the Raptors.
Proper order.
I suppose.

The photos I managed of the Hen Harrier were poor, the Harriers were far off in the distance and there was quite a gust of wind blowing, but I'm including them just because you can get a faint idea of its shape, size and colouring.

Eric Dempsey and his Krew

The Carty sisters (trouble).

Female Hen Harrier, Tacumshin, feb 2012

Kestrel - looking extremely tatty and worn looking - Feb 2012, Tacumshin

We ended up back at Sycamore Hill about 7ish after a full on Raptastic day.
Eric is running more courses over the year, you can check Eric's website for courses and dates.
Thanks as always to Eric and Hazel, Sarah for driving us and Anna for her company for the day.

Saturday, 1 October 2011

Sycamore Hill

Last Saturday I was one of the lucky few (let's just say 'elite') to get a place on the very first 'Bird Photography' course run by the wonderful Eric Dempsey and John Fox at Sycamore Hill, Wicklow.

Feels like we've been on at Eric to run a Bird Photography course forever - something where we could learn about the technical side of photography together with 'in the field' photography skills, so when Eric finally said the course was happening, hats were thrown in the air and places were booked.

A photography course led by two of Ireland's most respected birders/photographers might leave some nervy, but Eric and John's easy going natures meant it was easy to relax and mess around as if you were with friends.
In this relaxed mood, and encouraged by the sentence 'There's no such thing as a stupid question', f-stops, ISO settings, shutter speeds, meter readings and exposures - all the boring stuff - became interesting and shed their technical mystery. For the first time in years, and I'm talking about 3 years here, it all finally made sense and that's 'Really saying something' (thankyou Bananarama, wise words).

There's no doubt that what helped most, was the session after lunch (the Most Amazing lunch!) - when John and Eric went round all of us individually, watched as we took our photos, then checked all our settings and showed us where we were going right/wrong. That was a great help. 'Hey Siobhan, your exposures are spot on'. Get in.
It also helped that they kept the numbers on the course to 12 of us.
That Nikon training course I got free with the camera had about 90 people stuffed into a room for 3 hours. Got a question about f.stops? Tough luck.

So, what did I get out of the course?
Well - in a nutshell - everything I had wanted to learn.
Should you wish to know, I can now tell you the difference between spot metering and centre weighted metering, all about changing and checking exposures, I can even tell you what that histogram thing is for on your camera and why it's important to keep checking it.
I can tell you why F4 gives you a shallow depth of field as opposed to F32 giving a huge depth of field. Oh I could go on and on. Make sure you stand next to me on a night out, I'll be great fun.

The move from the easy 'Auto everything' to Ap priority isn't for everyone and is obviously quite daunting which would explain why I haven't had the nerve to do it for the last 3 years.
I've a small brain, it's not able for much and I am a little scared someone's going to find me melted somewhere, camera on floor, muttering 'peregrine... couldn't get settings right... missed it... peregrine....'
but the more I get out and practice, the better I'll get, so everyone says. We'll see.

Anyway, for starters, here are some of my very first shots from the afternoon session, where I chose my own ISO settings, f.stops, exposures and shutter speeds.
I even looked at my histo (yeah, histo) after most shots.

Aswell as camera settings, we also learned some field tricks for getting good photos. This is Eric showing how a car can make one of the best hides. With scrim netting and a bean bag to steady your camera, the birds forget about you and move closer (well, so long and you're quiet and still).

Out in the field, the same scrim netting can be thrown over yourself so the birds relax and you get great shots.

John gets great shots at the bird's eye level by using an adaptor he has fitted to his camera for when he doesn't want to be fully lying down taking photos.

Sarah and Russell can't believe the migrant which just landed in the garden

Checking shots and histograms, Jim is also in shock at seeing the yank migrant.

'John, is that the migrant I think it is?'

'Yes Eric, I'm just going forward with the frying pan now, sliding in closer to get a better shot, think I'll be getting another Front cover of Wings with this one'.

'Cool, got the sun and wind behind me, got the catchlight in the bird's eye, this is deffo another shot for my next posh photography coffee table book.' (coming out just in time for Christmas people....)

Passing migrant - Ap Priority, ISO 320, f/6.3, 1/640 sec - Sycamore Hill, Wicklow. Could have done with stepping up the exposure Or stepping around to get the sun behind me.

Brendan's spotted something.

Shot's in the bag

'Yep, the red belly and yellow chin are the giveaway'.

It's a bit early for the Redbellied Yellowchin isn't it?

You never know what's going to turn up at Sycamore Hill. Probably flown down from the mountains and heading on to Kilcoole and then on to South Africa.

By the time 6pm came around, I was zonked.
Usually with Kilcoole/ Newcastle 5 mins away I'd pop over for a walk and a look, but I was so tired, I just drove home.

I want to give a big mention here, the Biggest mention - Hazel and Geraldine.
You know when you meet sound people and they make the world feel a bit better? The whole day's mood was given an extra a lift by how well we were all looked after by these two. The lunch Hazel, Geraldine and Sarah made was so amazing, the teas, coffees, home made biscuits and cakes! It's a good job we didn't have to move too far for the afternoon session, because a lot of us (well, the greedy ones (me) who took too much of everything), we couldn't walk!
I do love my food.
Anyway a huge thankyou - it was all very much appreciated.

Next day - Sunday 25th Sept 2011
7.45am the next morning and I'm in the car driving back down to Wicklow.
Near empty M50/N11, sun shining, blue skies, autumnal leaves, day of birding ahead = heaven.

From Wicklow we drove down to Tacumshin, Co.Wexford (carpooling - thanks for the lift Tom!). This was to be our 'full on field skills' day. But you can guess what happened - it started raining.
Not just any rain.
Torrential rain.
So we actually had to finish up at Tacumshin pretty quickly and eventually move onto Lady's Lake when the weather was slightly better.

Here's some photos from the day - again all on Ap Priority and my own settings etc.
Eric and John both said the light was crap for photography and they probably wouldn't bother if they were on their own, but we still had a go - here's some from the dry spells:

Get down low when taking photos - this makes you less threatening to the birds.

If you can, get in the grass, next to trees, next to rocks - anything to disguise your silhouette

Birders getting their sights on the 12 Buff Breasted Sandpipers which were kicking around. (Niall Keogh and Papa Keogh turned up later and recorded 24 BBSandpipers!)

Right, I'm not great on my waders, but lets see if I can get my id's right on these.

Apparently - if you know the i.d of a Dunlin, you're sorted for telling others waders apart..
So....

Dunlin

Dunlin in flight

Whitearsed Dunlin

White WagDunlin

Scraggedy Dunlin. This is my Arty Shot. I like how the yellow flash is same colour as the dandelion flowers and the white feathers are like the flecks of dandelion seeds.

It's clear how the different lights really do make such a difference.
The sun came out for a millisecond for the Wheatear - and you can tell.
All the other photos of the Dunlins were in light most photographers wouldn't bother with, but that would leave my blog imageless given the weather in Ireland - so I'll have to push on with bad light shots.

After a while we called it a day and drove back to Wicklow where we had a final coffee (and cake!) and roundup of the weekend.

I got a lot out of the weekend.
I think anyone who wants to learn how to step away from Auto would benefit from this course - and the bird photography field skills were a huge added bonus, which you'd never get from a 'normal' photography course.

Eric is going to be running more courses over the next few months, they'll no doubt fill up quick enough and given the quality of this first weekend course, Sycamore Hill is going to earn the respected reputation it completely deserves.
Like I said earlier, there were only 12 people on this course, but plenty more people were interested, so instead of jamming more people onto the course, Eric and John have run the course again this weekend.
Here's the link for all Sycamore Hill workshops http://www.birdsireland.com/pages/workshops/workshops.html

So thankyou again and good luck to the Sycamore Hill crew - not that you need it - you've got it all going on anyway.