Birds of Prey

I promised my youngest daughter a while back that I would take her with me on my next photo excursion, and knowing her fondness for animals, thought she might enjoy watching Birds of Prey flying. I figured it would also be a new challenge for me. As a kid, Birds of Prey were my first real interest, and being able to see them close up like this was something I was really looking forward to.

The Birds of Prey centre in Kirby Wiske, North Yorkshire, is a small place and you’ll get round it in about 15 minutes. The birds look quite miserable, it has to be said, sat on their perches or in their cages. Then again, you don’t go to see them, you go to watch them fly. They do three displays each day and they fly five birds each time and it lasts for about an hour. Stunning isn’t the word.

White tailed Sea Eagle — Kyla, the White-Tailed Sea Eagle, comes in for a landing.

Misty, the Great Grey Owl. (Yes, he was coming straight for us.)

The flying displays were all I’d hoped they would be. The pictures, were all I’d expected!! These things are fast and close and the D90’s auto-focus struggled to keep up with both the 18-105 and an old 70-210 attached. Not only that, but I just wasn’t quick enough adjusting the zoom, so there were a lot of clipped wings!

Each of the birds has its own personality, none more comical than Grim, the Vulture, who was quite happy sitting next to you.

Grim the White Backed Vulture. Quite a pleasant fellow.

For many though, the star of the day was Muppet – a tiny Little Owl that earned its name because of a habit of trying to take on some of the bigger Eagles – that the kids were allowed to hold.

How can you argue with an adorable little thing like that!

Walls

For a while I lived in Scunthorpe. To say the landscape in North Lincolnshire is a bit dull is an understatement. It be flat. So I would often venture North into Yorkshire. Much as I like Scunthorpe (yes, I really said that, and I really mean that) it was wonderful to be back in the land of dry stone walls.

The two images above were taken at Thruscross Reservoir in North Yorkshire. The image below was taken at Bolton Abbey a year later. All of the scans came out quite flat and needed a bit of digital tlc. The image below needed a little extra tlc.

Tree stump in wall — Ilford HP5, inverted softglow filter

Now I live in the land of dry stone walls, and it feels good to be home.

Brough Station

These scans are taken during college evening classes taken a few years ago! This was an evening out shooting at Brough railway station. This was my favourite from that night. a long exposure as the train arrived and a second long exposure as the train left. It always reminds me of a classic black and white movie.

The second image kind of sums up the style I had at the time. I was mostly about shades, shadows and textures, and I loved how this turned out.

Both shot on Kodak Tmax100 and when printed up on Agfa paper looked nice and punchy.

I do miss playing around in the darkroom.