Local Wildlife Portrait Photography
A wildlife photography blog by Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire based landscape photographer Rob Thorley Photography.
This morning I was heading off to Knypersley Reservoir for a little bit of wildlife portrait photography.
Being primarily focused on landscape photography I’m not sure if I’m disrespecting my local wildlife when I say I was pretty sure I knew what I was going to get from Knypersley as it (so far) has been the usual suspects. That said so far I haven’t had the desire to go and sit in a hide to photograph something a little more “exotic”. Although the one location I do fancy is Bempton Cliffs to photograph the Gannets and Puffins.
What I enjoy most about wildlife photography is having a wander and just generally being out in nature. Being on the hunt as it were I find I pay far more attention. I see more and as such I feel like I appreciate the environment I’m in more than I do when shooting landscapes. Photographing wildlife means I also enjoy travelling light. Staying local and I can’t lie . . . putting the camera in AF-C and firing off a few bursts is great fun. Whilst it’s not so much spray and pray (although I have been known to do that) I do like hearing the sound of the burst.
I wandered over towards the bridge which is usually where I start. A lot of people feed the birds at this spot, so you’re usually guaranteed to see something. It’s also a spot where Mandarin Ducks and Kingfishers hang out when they’re around, so you never know.
Sadly there wasn’t a Kingfisher, or Mandarin Duck to be seen, so I grabbed a few shots of the usual suspects before continuing around the reservoir. I like the shots I got from this spot. It was mid-morning, so the sun was well and truly up but being wintertime it wasn’t too harsh. For a few of the images the light was filtering through the tree branches quite nicely and I liked the contrast it was producing.
One of the larger birds that frequent Knypersley Reservoir are the Cormorants. It’s not often that I haven’t seen them on my visits. As I walked around the end of the reservoir there were six Cormorants perched in one of the trees. I’d purposely headed this way as it’s one of the spots where the Cormorants usually go to dry their wings but I wasn’t expecting to see this many, so it was nice to get something a little different.
Cormorants perched in a tree at Knypersley Reservoir.
I wandered around for a while longer but there was nothing else on offer that I could get on. I miss having a dedicated wildlife lens and plan to get a Nikon Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR at some point and the 1.4 teleconverter. For now though I’m just shooting with the 100-400mm in crop mode to get the 1.5x effective focal length. It’s okay for most situations but to coin a phrase, I’d like something a little longer.
Instead of doing the full loop I headed back to the car the way I came. As I passed the bridge again I took the obligatory shot of a Grey Squirrel before heading home.
Grey Squirrel foraging on the bridge at Knypersley reservoir.
It was certainly a nice morning to be out and about and whilst none of today’s photographs are going to win any awards i hoped you’ve enjoyed looking at them and reading along.
You can view more images from my gallery of other wildlife.
