Bee Eaters in Spain

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Wildlife 2019

So, I’ve been to Spain on numerous occasions - and have seen the beautifully coloured Bee eaters sitting on the telephone/ power cables but have never had the kit or time to go photo them. I discovered that they tend to nest and are more active April to June time so planned a wee trip out to find them.

On arriving at La Paz (www.lazyolive.co.uk) we saw a few flying around, and our friend there said they were further up the road, in the olive groves. So next day I took a trek up the hill to locate them, immediately saw some on the wires, it was then a case of stalking them to see where they preferred to sit, and get close enough to reach them with the 600mm (300mm & 2 x tele) . Tried a few times during the day but found mid morning was the best time, it was too hot afternoon and early evening. I did trek around to see if i could see where they were nesting (holes in mud banks) but couldn’t find any where close by. So settled for sitting on wire shots for now.. - next time i’m hoping for flight shots and on branches near nesting / colony sites.

Canon stuff: 1DX 300mm x 2 extender, 1/1000 - 1/200th sec, F8 iso 400- iso 800

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Studio with Elaine

Studio time

I’ve been really busy with Gymnastics shooting for the last few months , along with various wildlife trips, i needed to get back into the studio to get the mojo back. I was looking in a few books from great photographers and came across “Shadows on the wall” by Peter Lindbergh . I really like the natural style, and grainy feel to the prints. He gets his subject to be as natural as possible, and seems to be against posing for posing sakes. So Elaine was free for a couple of hours and we had a go, as usual Elaine was amazing.

I lit the scene with a Godox Ad200 firing through a light-blaster projecting a blurred image (via a 85mm lens) on the background (for seperation) and had a Godox 600 in a large octa to Elaine’s left , really close and low powered to give a soft wrapping light, a reflector to right to bounce a little light back into the shadows. Shot on the Fuji XT3 with 56mm and 50-140mm lens - ISO 200 , F2.8 and 1/250.