London’s parks have a lot to
offer wildlife photographers, from the novice to the expert. The animals have
become habituated to the presence of people and allow a close approach, whilst
many birds have become reliant on us for free hand-outs of food. Many wild
ducks, such as pochard, spend the winter here after being attracted by the
presence of other ducks in the collections at St James’ Park and Regents Park.
Some, such as tufted duck and mandarin, stay on to breed.
Hyde Park hosts some 50 species
of breeding birds during the spring and early summer. These include the great
crested grebe, a fish-eating, diving water bird that nests on the Long Water.
Normally these grebes are quite timid, but in Hyde Park they allow a close
approach and attract some interest from both amateur and professional
photographers.
There are several reasons why
great crested grebes make good photographic subjects. They are an attractive
looking bird, especially in summer plumage, their courtship displays (in
particular the “weed dance”) can be spectacular and the adults have the
endearing habit of carrying their young around on their backs for their first
few days of life. I spent a few hours photographing grebes on a sunny day in
Hyde Park on 11 April 2014, hoping to capture some action and, in particular,
to attempt to photograph their courtship displays and isolate a “decisive
moment” (Assignment 2, Project 8).
Photography
A pair of grebes was holding territory
next to the road bridge that separates The Serpentine from Long Water. Another
pair of grebes was a few hundred metres away on Long Water. Standing next to the
bridge and using my Nikon D7000 with Nikon 70-300mm zoom lens I was able to get
some good, albeit rather “standard” portrait shots (e.g. Image 1) of the closer
birds, which sometimes approached to within a few feet of where I was standing
and generally ignored me. Usually one bird would sit and preen, whilst the
other was more active; the birds rarely swam or dived together and
unfortunately no courtship behaviour was witnessed during my visit.
Image 1
Occasionally one of the birds
would show some aggressive behaviour towards other birds; this was particularly
noticeable when one of the second pair of grebes approached too closely.
Capturing these isolated moments of aggression required complete vigilance: not
only did I need to react quickly, but as the action was occurring close to
where I was standing I had to rapidly zoom out to capture the action within the
frame of the camera. On a couple of occasions I managed (just) to keep the bird
within the frame (Images 2 and 3) but on both occasions there is a little
action blur and the bird is given no space to move into.
Image 2
Image 3
Whilst “my” grebes were not
courting I was able to photograph a brief courtship display by the other pair
of grebes, although they were a long distance away and the results were not
entirely satisfactory, from the point of view of both their technical quality and
interesting behaviour. My favourite from the set of around 12 images (Image 4)
is shown below.
Image 4
Whilst I was photographing the
grebes I witnessed (and photographed) a lot of other activity, including coot
chases and goose flights. Ultimately, however, only one image from the day’s
output was selected for use in my assignment work. The grebes spent some time
“loafing” under the bridge, where the shaft of light from the other side of the
bridge picked out some of their features in what was otherwise a very dark
area. I took several photographs (deliberately underexposed) of the grebes,
from which I selected one (Image 5; see below) to convert into a black and
white low key image. The resultant image was one of the two low key images
selected for Assignment 2, Project 3 (link here).
Conclusions and Key Learning Points
This visit to Hyde Park (one of
several undertaken in the first few months of 2014) was enjoyable. I got some
good (but not great!) photos of great crested grebes and was able to use one of
them for my assignment work. I love taking photographs of wildlife: it always
gives me a “buzz”. However, to improve my photographic output for future visits
of this kind I should consider the following learning points:
·
To get good images of (for example) the
courtship ritual of great crested grebes I would need to show patience
(possibly spending a couple of days, rather than a couple of hours at a
suitable site) and vigilance: even then nothing is guaranteed!
·
I should use the Nikon 300mm f4 lens (possibly
with a second camera body) to achieve greater photographic quality for the
portrait images (and more distant courtship rituals), although there will be
occasions where the greater versatility of the 70-300mm zoom lens is needed.
·
Detailed study of the behaviour of individual
birds and a realisation of the use to which surrounding structures (such as the
bridge in this case) could be put enabled me to obtain an image that was of use
for my OCA assignment work.
There are many books that can be
used by wildlife photographers to help improve the quality of their work.
Perhaps the most useful (and relevant to this type of work) that I have in my
collection is: “100 Ways to take better Nature and Wildlife Photographs” by Guy
Edwardes (David and Charles; 2009). The quality of Edwardes’ work gives me a
(distant) target to aspire to and I try to incorporate many of his common sense
suggested improvements into my own efforts.
Image 5
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