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February 2012
Hi Everyone,
The month of January has been a memorable one for me in several ways – some sad, some bad and some pretty good. In between I have been trying desperately to re-vamp the website as some of you may have already realised when you visited a page that was in the middle of being updated. Right now we are working on the new home page images and these, I hope, will go up soon. We are almost there now and would welcome any comments or criticisms you would care to make on the changes, ease of use etc etc. Also the workshop newsletter has now been put on a commercial distribution basis and this will shortly include card payments, in the mean time you will have to carry on sending cheques.
Inspiration
I have always had a love of wildlife and the countryside that I acquired mainly through my passion for fishing during which time I never owned a camera. My inspiration to photograph birds came after attending a talk at my local natural history society in the mid eighties. The celebrated speaker, Dr. Nowell Peach, was a GP practicing in my home town of Horsham in Sussex and that evening I sat in the dark totally mesmerised by his fantastic bird images. At the close I got to speak with him and discovered he actually lived less than 100yds away from me albeit on the other side of the road!
We got on well following that first meeting and often photographed together with me learning so much. In modern parlance you would say at the time I was getting fast tracked by one of the best. He subsequently introduced me to the Zoological Photographic Club and The Nature Photographers Portfolio and it was in the latter that I met another notable in the bird photography world, Harold Hems who lived up in Norfolk. Both men died last month ironically on exactly the same day, the thirteenth of January; Nowell was 98 Harold slightly younger. They will be sadly missed by those of us fortunate to have known them and had the good fortune to have seen and learnt from their work and experience.
Such is life!
On a somewhat lighter note I was raking leaves in my garden last week when one of my neighbours leaned over the fence and said “Call yourself a photographer? You missed a really great shot the other morning, the barn owl was actually perched on your roof”.
So if you have booked on a garden bird and hide photography day with me remember to keep your eyes open as they hunt the flood meadows and occasionally come into the garden. No money back guarantees of seeing them though!
A fishy tail or should it be a fiscal tale?
The next day I left home before first light as I was working on some of the local wild foxes. I had returned by 10 am and had just started browsing through the images when there was a knock on my office door (my office is separate from the house). It was the teenage daughter of angler I knew who was fishing the river that runs at the back of my garden albeit separated by my neighbours’ field. “My dad has caught a really big fish” she said “Will you come and photograph it?” I was somewhat reluctant to leave my new fox images as you can imagine but, hoping it wasn’t a wild goose chase, I set off for the river.
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Lionel and the 28lb Monster |
As you see it most certainly was not. Wow - it was a fantastic pike weighing just over 28 lb, an enormous size for a river fish. It was real pleasure just to see it, let alone take the cheque for the prints he subsequently ordered. Sometimes it can be a hard life being a professional wildlife photographer!
Park Cameras
Now to my main news this month that directly affects you and it is that I have finally withdrawn my services to Park Cameras following a series of frustrating problems. I have no wish to list them here, but simply point out that we now revert back to the good old days where you have to deal directly with me again to book your workshops.
Wild Foxes
Remember I said I had been working on some wild foxes well one day, I think it was the 15th of Jan my local weather forecast had predicted freezing overnight conditions with clear skies leading to blue skies and sunny conditions the following morning. Sure enough as I sat on the frozen ground with my back against an old oak tree conditions were perfect and there was hardly any wind at all. The light direction (I had calculated previously of course) was perfect and shining directly towards the earth, around 80-100 yards away from me.
I waited about one and a half hours before I saw one of the foxes returning. It was the vixen and she looked glorious, well filled out and with her coat and brush shining with condition in the early morning sun. I had put out some food when I first arrived hoping to stop the foxes going straight underground and she soon found this, eating some and then caching some, often taking it up to 40 yds away from the earth to do so.
Slowly I began taking individual shots using a hand-held canon 400mm F5.6, an old favourite of mine despite not having image stabilisation, not surprisingly she heard the sound of the shutter immediately, this was the critical time. She stopped dead still and looked directly towards me but there was nothing for her to see, I was ‘bagged up’ in wildlife watching supplies bag hide and camouflaged. The end result was that she carried on, pausing occasionally and looking in my direction. Without knowing it she was actually posing for me.
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As the light comes up the stunning vixen returns to her earth. |
I think she is the best looking fox I have ever photographed in the wild. I will now stay well away from the earth, no more photography, occasionally just watching with bins at a distance and only putting down some food if the weather gets really hard. I am hoping of course that she will eventually give birth to her cubs there and only then will I return hopefully to photograph them. Watch this space as they say.
Bag Hides
Some of you will not be familiar with bag hides but I have used them for years. They are so useful and easy to use in the situation like that described above. They are, as the name suggests, the equivalent of a large bag made from camouflaged material that you drape over yourself effectively breaking up your outline. Built in are two openings, one for the lens with Velcro tabs to secure it in position and one for viewing out of. They come in a variety of camo patterns, my preference being for the Advantage Timber design. They are very easy to use and will cover yourself, camera, tripod and a seat if necessary. You just throw it over yourself and there are no poles or pegs to worry about. When you are finished you just stow it away in your bag.
Now, as a Wildlife Watching Supplies distributor I have negotiated a deal for my workshop clients whereby I can offer you 10% discount on any of their products. Simply click on their banner on my home page and study the product range, get the name and ref of any item you wish to purchase and send it to me. Do not send in the order yourself saying, “I’m a mate of George” because you will not get the discount, they might commiserate with you but that’s about all!
Still lots of fungus around
Cutting logs using my chainsaw today I happened to look down and saw this tiny fungus, quite a feat of spotting as I had on the compulsory safety gear of helmet and face mask. I was delighted to find it flourishing in my garden. Further searching brought forth more clumps basically growing on dead twigs and wood shavings from previous cuttings. My question to you is what is it – I know but do you? It's pretty small and for this image I used my 100mm macro with a 12mm tube. I will reveal all in the next newsletter together with the names of those who correctly identify it with both common and Latin names please. So remember to bring your macro lens if you are coming to do the Garden Bird workshop as hopefully it will still be here and definitely a good one to have in your image library.
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Can you name this Fungus? |
The Raptor Break
Finally, going back to my workshops, the Bird of Prey and the Red Kite workshops in March I have very few places left on them despite me booking the second tower hide at Gigrin. So if you are thinking of joining me on these you really need to act fast. Remember I have what I call “The Raptor Break” where if you do both courses I reduce the price of the BOP workshop from £160 down to £135 obviously saving you £25. Also I negotiate a group rate for an overnight stop at a Premier Inn about ten minutes drive from the BOP Centre for which I am currently being quoted £34 for a double room. Note that accommodation is not included in the Raptor Break price but I will happily arrange your booking for you.
This allows for a nice convivial evening of wildlife photography discussion between the two workshops plus a nice meal and the odd pint or two. I did not stay here last year but if they have the facilities I will bring a projector and laptop and give an illustrated talk. The following morning we have breakfast and then a nice scenic and relaxed drive to get to Gigrin for midday, actual feeding taking place at 2pm. If we have half decent weather I guarantee you will learn a lot, you will have a fantastic experience and return home, chilled out and with some great images.
So email me now if you want to “bag” one of those last 3 remaining places.
I look forward to seeing you in the field.
George McCarthy FRPS
Rivermede Cottage Wychwood Lane Brighton Road Shermanbury West Sussex RH13 8HE
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