Tales from a honeypot – another one! AP.
In the light of Niall’s recent post on the ‘Vivaldi-isation’ I have, due to its topical nature, brought forward a post from one such honeypot site, Gigrin farm in Mid Wales. For those of you with suspicious minds, no this is not a digital composite, nothing has been added and nothing taken away, what you see is what I saw and it is this kind of phenomenal wildlife experience that will keep me coming back to Gigrin if and when I feel the ideal weather has been forecast. That and the fact that I grew up just a few miles from Gigrin, Llanidloes to be precise, and it is where a lot of my family still live. For this and other reasons I will always have a great passion for a species that has become something of a Mid Wales icon, as well as a conservation success story.
I also hope that this image raises a few eyebrows and perhaps reminds a few of the ‘red kite, blue sky’ brigade that there are other images of kites to be taken, different weather conditions to work in though on this particular occasion other photographers were conspicuous by their absence. My motivation for visiting Gigrin on this occasion was simple, as someone who has never worked with captive subjects Gigrin remains a great place to try and produce images of raptors in the snow and yet it was this image, which simply presented itself as the kites began to gather, that is the one with which I am most pleased. The kites, photographed against a colourless, overcast sky are lit by reflected light bouncing off the snow on the ground which it what gives the image a slightly ‘unreal’ look.
The other images below are a little more conventional but again their strength lies in the quality of the reflected light that only occurred because of the marginal conditions in which I had chosen to work.
So what’s my point, I don’t really know to be honest! I guess it would be that whilst I agree wholeheartedly with Niall about photographers trotting out the same old stuff from honeypot locations I will continue to visit them for a few different reasons. The first is that these sites often offer a spectacular wildlife experience and whilst more and more are becoming over-run with aspiring, and occasionally irresponsible photographers, there is always a new way of working, there are always new images to be captured and new stories to be told, I just have to keep visiting these sites to try and work out what they are.
Well good for you Andy! Oh my goodness – the first picture is something a bit special. Not sure why it appeals to me so much ; – ) . Have you tried it within a fine black keyline to help make sense of the birds that are cut off? Gigrin is pretty special, but I don’t believe it is the only place to photograph red kites!
Best
Niall
Hi Niall
As soon as I posted it I thought that it needed some kind of line to separate the image from the rest of the page, unfortunately being a bit of a computer novice I am unsure of the best way to do this.
I agree wholeheartedly that Gigrin is not the only place to photograph kites, nor are the feeding sites in Brecon and (can’t remember the name, main road from Llangurig to Aberystwyth!) but like any raptor project it will involve a substantial investment in time which for next year at least is something I will struggle with.
I can remember how much work you put in to your beautiful wild buzzard images from OP years ago (I’m like Rain Man when it comes to remembering good images!) but I already have a lengthy raptor project set up for next year so for the time being at least the feeding sites are going to have to do. Glad you like the image anyway and I’m sure it has nothing to do with the white background!
Best wishes as always
For me, Gigrin is a useful first stopping place en route from Pembrokeshire to Scotland, so I spend an hour or two there once or twice a year. And inevitably I have similar pictures, though last time the light was so bad that I used the video camera instead of stills. If nothing else, Gigrin is a very useful place to practice photographing large birds in flight, so that by the time you go out for the “real thing” you know what settings you need on the camera, etc.
I think that, rather than putting a black line around the first image, I would erase the parts of kites from the edges and leave the picture open as a cloud of kites.
Understated plagiarism ?
I’ll stick to commenting where the replies are not amended .
The images here are to aspire to and adapted to other species . Where else to get good practice for Flatanger ?(Yes I am going back.)
A small question …where does the money ,enthusiasm and attendance come from to make these sites so productive? We could all go off wondering around the countryside adding to our carbon footprint in search of alternatives and in the end would they produce anything different than at a honey pot site given similar circumstances?
On your border ,if perplexed , personlly I dont think it needs one ,but in PS select all >edit>stroke pixels 10 to 50 colour black ,location inside click ok . Select >deselect.
I’m still polishing the brown stuff.LOL
Niall
You are right its not the only place to photograph red kites in fact its not even the best place believe it or not. That must go to the original release site in the UK of the Spanish birds namely Watlington Town Centre, Oxfordhire in the Chilterns has on a bad day some 80-100 birds flying over the main high street and up to 160 birds apparently is not uncommon and just how many fly over the nearby farland is anyone’s guess. A truly remarkable conservation or maybe that should read re-intoduction success.
Seasonal greetings from snowy Kettleshulme.
Geoff
Lovely image Andrew, these really are inspiring and the reason I went to the Chilterns this morning to try and capture these amazing birds.
Geoff, I think you might be over estimating with 80-100 birds as I pass the town on my way to my favorite spot and you would be lucky to see more than 10. Stokenchuch is closer to where the Kites were originally introduced. But I do agree with you, there are a lot of kites in the area almost every field you pass you are guarantied to see a kite.
Liam