May 2023 Viewfinder
It’s all about the (10,000) small steps in this month’s Opposite View Wildlife Photography newsletter.
It turns out that taking 10,000 steps a day is indeed a challenge.
This is particularly true when you spend your working day sitting in front of a laptop and your lunch break standing as still as possible while photographing roe deer. So, when I signed up to do the Step Count Challenge with colleagues, I didn’t fully appreciate how big a task I was taking on.
Around a week into the challenge, which began on the 1st of May, I also began to suspect that counting the number of steps I was taking and trying to reach a target number also went against everything I had told you in last month’s newsletter. There I was preaching about slowing down and stopping to take in the wildlife on your local patch in April, and then as soon as May arrived, I was marching down the road checking my Fitbit watch every 30 seconds to see how many steps I’d clocked up. I wasn’t exactly taking my own advice.
By the time the middle of the month arrived, I was feeling a bit grumpy about the whole thing. It wasn’t just the step challenge, either. I was acutely aware that my lunchtime walks were going to become more impractical from a wildlife photography point of view; poor light, more people around, and the fact that the field with the long grass where the roe deer liked to hide with their babies last year has now been munched down to the roots by a herd of hungry highland cows.
So, I decided to try fitting in an extra walk around my local patch, either in the morning before work or the late evening after work. This meant that if I stood still for half my lunch break with the camera, I could always get some dreaded steps in later. And if I missed the wildlife on my first walk, I always got a second bite at the cherry later in the day. This may sound like a doddle, but when you are juggling a busy day job, family commitments and all the other life stuff, it tends to feel unreasonably hard - as I’m sure many of you are only too aware.
The good news is that, with the days getting longer, I’ve found it to be workable most of the time. Bizarrely enough, the deer seem to prefer hanging around in their usual spots at lunchtime (go figure), but the additional walk allows me to get in around 10,000 steps a day. It also means that I am getting to revisit spots on my local patch that photographing the roe deer has made more difficult. Usually, I would have to choose between visiting the deer or heading to the river, but now I can do both. And that has led to another happy discovery.
Back in the post-covid (well, not really, as it turned out) pre-roe deer summer of 2021, I was told about the location of a kingfisher nest and was contentedly photographing the parents flying backwards and forwards to it. Before any of the eagle-eyed among you start to wonder about me needing a licence to photograph kingfishers at the nest, this particular nest could be photographed from a busy pavement next to a road into a park without causing any disturbance. Anyway, I got some ok images, but I saw it as the start of something and planned to return to photograph the kingfishers in the summer of 2022. However, the local council had other plans. They were developing the local park; vegetation was cut back so that visitors could better see the river, an electric bus stop was built near the spot on the pavement where I would stand and photograph the azure and tango-coloured wonders, there were a lot of workmen trudging around. Needless to say, I didn’t see the kingfishers last summer. I wondered if I’d given up too easily. Then I spoke to a friendly photographer the other day who sadly confirmed what I’d suspected - the kingfishers hadn’t nested in the usual spot last year.
He had stopped to chat with me while I stood on the same spot on the same pavement with my lens pointed at…an azure and tango-coloured wonder! A female kingfisher had returned. And nearly every lunch break I have spent in that spot during the past couple of weeks, she has been there. I’m starting to wonder if she has access to my work diary.
So, rather than being a reason to stress about numbers and whether I’m letting my team down, the step count challenge has gifted me the opportunity to change a tired routine. I’m now taking small steps to get images of subjects I thought were lost to me.
If you’ve got some tips for changing things up that have made a difference to your photography, let me know in the comments - I’d love to hear from you
I’ll leave you with one of my favourite images of the female kingfisher, although I’ll hopefully have many more encounters with her over the coming weeks.
Oh, and for those who are interested, I’ve taken over 220,000 steps since the start of the month.
Best wishes,
Rhiannon
Opposite View Wildlife Photography
Through my lens
Paying attention to wildlife for awayday photography
In a recent blog, I explained why slowing down the pace of your walk on your local patch can help you spot opportunities for photographing springtime wildlife. Not only does a slower stroll keep you cool as the weather warms up, but it also gives you the time to notice the wildlife springing into life around you.
But what about when we aren't in a local spot we know well? How can we make the most of a couple of hours of wandering in a new location? With spring rapidly turning into summer and holidays and days out rightly taking priority, it can be tricky to capture wildlife images when you're taking short trips to new locations.
In this blog, I explain why being guided by nature can help you to spot opportunities for wildlife photography in a new location.
Species Spotlight
Common darter - the dragonfly that lives to surprise
If a common darter dragonfly were a film director, it would be the master of the jump scare. As its name suggests, this insect will hover before suddenly darting forwards to grab its prey. Pretty terrifying if you are a tiny insect. But this widespread (as the name also suggests) dragonfly also surprises in other ways.
In this blog, I explain why the common darter dragonfly can be a surprising subject to photograph and share images of behaviours like mating.
And finally…
As summer approaches, I thought I’d share a video with a few top tips for successful nature photography on your local patch during the summer months. SPOILER ALERT: it may not be what you'd expect! It also includes photos of the kingfisher nest in 2021, which I mentioned earlier.
Summer can be a tricky season when it comes to photographing wildlife in your local area. Subjects that were easy to spot when the trees were bare may now be obscured by all the greenery. The light is often harsh and bright unless you're lucky enough to be able to go out with your camera at dawn or dusk. The ideal locations for your local wildlife may have changed due to the breeding season. And that's before we even start thinking about sunburn and midges!
If you're struggling, hopefully my suggestions will give you some ideas. Please let me know what you think in the comments.
Keep in touch
Thanks for reading this! If you have any comments or questions, opportunities for photography or if you would like to use any of my images, please leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you.
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Really enjoyed your newsletter Rhiannon, so informative.