I'm afraid there won't be too much writing on this blog, as it's quite late and I'm trying to post this around the time I promised!
The first sunrise seen from our cottages and it was stunning. There was some great colour at first light (which I may have been asleep for), but I managed to get up just in time to get the morning light hitting the fells opposite. Using an ND 6 stop on 70-200mm and D800e, to have a shutter speed of around 10 seconds and a very high resolution final file (150mp).
For two hours at 07:30 we found red grouse and used the mini-bus as a 'hide' to get close to the subjects.
The first sunrise seen from our cottages and it was stunning. There was some great colour at first light (which I may have been asleep for), but I managed to get up just in time to get the morning light hitting the fells opposite. Using an ND 6 stop on 70-200mm and D800e, to have a shutter speed of around 10 seconds and a very high resolution final file (150mp).
For two hours at 07:30 we found red grouse and used the mini-bus as a 'hide' to get close to the subjects.
| By laying down on the floor it was possible to throw the background out of focus and obtain some really nice colours and an uncluttered backdrop; which really helped to both show the grouse in detail, whilst giving an idea of how its plumage matches its surroundings very well. |  |
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After each arriving back from our morning shoots (some doing red squirrels, others black grouse etc), we all headed out to Loch Garton in search of crested tits and landscapes.
It started off positive! We heard that a crested tit had been visiting the feeding area only ten minutes before we arrived, however it was quite a wait for it to return. After an hour or so it was back, but with only a couple of fleeting visits before a few of us went for a walk through the caledonian forest.
This was one of my favourite captures - there are more, but I'll save them to post another day. Shooting these small birds on a full frame camera (even at 500mm), I am still having to crop to around 50% unfortunately.
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Walking through the caledonian forest gave some stunning views and David seemed to find the best angles were directly up!
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So; Red Squirrels, Black Grouse, Red Grouse, Crested Tits and loads of other small birds made for a great morning. The final stop of the day was at Loch Eilean.
 | You can see the foreground part of a vertical panorama which I am yet to stitch on the left. The Loch was a great stop, other than some minor mini-van damage due to an unfortunately placed rock! The forests surrounding the lake make great panorama compositions, but I'm yet to edit a few from there, so I imagine they'll be up tomorrow! |
 | Richard wasn't quite content with the days shooting, and after spotting some roe deer in a field nearby he went out stalking. He wants to be heading out again soon to capture the herd in good lighting, so stay tuned for that! |
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