So spent Saturday and Sunday morning at my lek with my friend Even and we alternated between the two hides I have set up. I had birds around me for a couple hours on the first morning but they were either obscured by some vegetation or my tent. So I made some small changes to the position of the hide and tent and removed some dead branches and windfall. The next morning, with Even now using this hide, he had a great time with a lot of activity out in front of the hide and very close at times.
Even had also had some good opportunities on the first morning and by the end of the weekend he had taken around 800 images, while I on the other hand had taken just 8 images of capercaillie. I was very happy for Even who had never taken any photos of capercaillie before this weekend.
However, I was hoping that all the hard work I had put in during the early part of April would result in some new images for me of this magnificent bird. Looking at the weather forecast for this week I decided to take Monday off work and headed back into the lek on Sunday night. I was hoping to have a morning of high activity like Even had had.
Well I finally did get some photos, although the activity wasn’t anything like the day before and the bird around my hide had once again slightly changed its patterns and didn’t give me the opportunities I was hoping for.
Light was also an issue, had to use ISO 3200 for most of the morning and then I still only had a shutter speed of 1/60 sec or less, so many images weren’t sharp enough and all have little bit more noise than I would have preferred.
That’s all for now, will being giving the lek one more go this coming weekend, although I have a feeling the best of the activity could possibly be over before then with female birds already on the ground during this past weekend.
So here a some images from this morning.
Canon 1D Mark IV with the 70-200mm f/4L IS + the 1.4x teleconverter @ 280mm. ISO 3200. 1/60 sec @ f/5.6. Handheld.
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Well I’m back from 4 days in the forest with not a lot to show for my efforts. Activity on my capercaillie lek is variable at the moment. I had one day of high activity (although no photo opportunities) followed by two days of almost no activity at all. Hopefully things will get better next weekend.
Anyhow as promised here is Part 4 of my New Zealand trip.
During the 4th week I set off on my second ‘photographic’ mission. The basic plan was to head south to meet up and stay with long time friend and fellow photographer Ross Curtis, catch up with him and his family and set off on some photo missions together when he had the time.
We covered a fair bit of ground during my stay and I took a lot of photos, far to many to share here and I’m still in the process of going through them but here are a few of my favourites so far…processed pretty quick and dirty…remember to click on the image to see a larger sharper version.
Called into the see the Crested Grebes again on my way down south.
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Posted April 9th, 2012. 2 comments
So week 3 on my New Zealand trip was over the Christams period and as such much of my time was spent with family. However I did get out for a few days fishing with long time friend and fishing buddy, Dave Tasker. Unfortunately the fishing wasn’t that great for the first two days but on the third, when brother-in-law Chris joined us, we had much better success with 6 brown trout landed and released between us. Chris (the beginner) catching 3 of them and the first brown trout of his short fishing career.
Sister Emma and little niece Evie opening her first Chritmas presents 
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Some images from last weekend, taken at Østensjøvannet. Spent two mornings there just concentrating on getting some coverage of the goldeneye’s courtship display. It a pretty amusing display to watch and it was the first time that I’ve been able to get close enough for some photos.
Heading back tomorrow morning hoping to get some really low angle images of them displaying; lens just above the water. Then in the afternoon I’m heading into the forest to my capercaillie lek, getting my hides all setup for the next month or so.
Will post the weekends results next week and also Part 3 of my New Zealand trip.
Three males trying to impress a female nearby. Canon 1D Mark IV with the 500mm f/4L IS + the 1.4x TC. ISO 800. 1/2500 sec @ f/8.
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Magazine Covers
Nice surprise for me this week to see two of my roaring red stag photos being used on the cover of two magazines; one here in Norway and other in New Zealand. Still get a buzz from seeing my work being published.
New Zealand Guns and Hunting Magazine Cover March/April 2012
Jakt Magazine Cover March 2012
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Posted February 29th, 2012. 2 comments
