On luck
There's a lot to be said for luck in wildlife photography. Most of my photos I don't plan in advance, and I just take what comes. I react to what's…
Another handful of Geelong birds
It was Dad processing photos for a blog this morning that reminded me I didn't have anything written. It's nice to be home, briefly, for the holiday season. I'm still…
Portraits from Geelong
I stuffed quite a bit of photography into my brief time in Geelong - both during the conference and after it! A lot of what I've been doing this year…
Get distracted
Photography is about focus. I'm not apologising for that pun. Obviously images being sharp is a good start. But to get good, sharp images, it's also important to be concentrated…
Thoughts on Birds in Flight
Can you tell this blog was written today, in a bit of a hurry? Usually I have a buffer of blog posts that are scheduled to run - at the…
Western Springs
Western Springs is very close to where I live in Auckland. It's a big park with a (kinda nasty in places...although not too nasty because there's eels in there) lake…
Motuihe
I spent last weekend on Motuihe looking for penguins. Because my own fieldwork isn't tiring enough, obviously. The great thing about helping out with other people's fieldwork is there's no…
The Ethics of Wildlife Photography
This week BirdsNZ - the Ornithological Society of New Zealand - released a set of guidelines for bird photography. It's a really good document that covers the welfare of both…
Piece by piece
Remember the Wave? One of the risks of visiting wild places is putting your camera gear (and yourself, more importantly) in the way of unexpected events that can sometimes prove…
The best thing to do in Dunedin
Without question, is a cruise with Monarch Wildlife Cruises. Dunedin has a lot going for it (and I'm seriously considering moving there in future...), but if you're like me and…
Photos I wouldn’t have taken
I've been looking through old photos recently, from when I was first starting to explore the world of nature photography. The bird photos are interesting, because they're all very similar.…
Birds in motion – Panning
Birds in flight are up there with tricky subjects to photograph. They're fast moving, often erratic, and keeping them in the narrow field of view of a telephoto lens requires…
A quick Tiri trip
Every time I get out into the Hauraki Gulf, I'm amazed. It seems a little bizarre that so close to New Zealand's biggest city, there can exist this absolute haven…
The Why
Why do I take photos? Why do I carry around heavy, clunky gear to wild places, to be battered by the elements? Why do I then spend time sitting in…
Recently: Gannets and Staying Creative
How many ways can you photograph the same subject? I've been out to Muriwai so many times over the past few months, and while it's always different, the main subjects…