Birds In Flight
A wildlife photography blog by Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire based landscape photographer Rob Thorley Photography.
Whilst landscape photography is my passion, nature and wildlife photography are an occasional mistress.
I’d been flicking around YouTube like you do for some landscape location inspiration only to find myself distracted by nature, and wildlife vlogs. I filled my boots, and came away inspired to try and get some bird in flight images.
Armed only with my enthusiasm, the D500, the 200-500mm and my YouTube crash course I headed out to a local nature reserve. I decided to go to Whitfield Valley, which is a short 5 - 10 minute drive from where I live.
I opted to shoot around the Ford Green end as there were plenty of Black Headed Gulls flying around. Along with the usual fair of ducks, geese, Coots, and Moorhen’s it looked like I’d have plenty of opportunities.
The weather was good. I’m not sure what a wildlife photographer would have thought about it, but I just thought I could crank the shutter speed up, keep the ISO down, and that was good enough for me. With the sun at my back, and some settings dialled in I began to fire off a few bursts.
I’m sure it wasn’t long before I started to “spray and pray” rather than shoot in a composed manner. I didn’t care though I was having fun. Maybe it’s the landscape photographer in me, but I find there’s something satisfying when shooting bursts. Hearing the shutter slap as I rattle off loads of shots is music to my ears. Sorting through the hundreds, if not thousands of shots afterwards though . . . well that’s not so much fun.
A couple of hours later and with my memory card brimming I called it a shoot, and headed off home to sift through the debris. All in all a great morning, and I was pleasantly surprised with some of the images I managed to get.
You can view more images from my gallery of other wildlife.
