Support

One of the things that many people forget when buying a large telephoto lens is that they normally need to upgrade their tripod/ head combo to get the best out of it. No point spending several grand on state of the art glass & then skimping on support. I have been asked several times about tripods, so decided to write this piece to help you decide what you need.
A decent leg set & head can add another thousand or so to your budget, but once purchased, you will reap the benefits & you will not regret it.

So what to get?

The main consideration should be the maximum load you are going to plonk on top of it. When you know that, double it & bear this figure in mind. This is a general rule of thumb which has served me well.
The next should be the height at maximum leg extension. If the model you are considering has a centre column, leave it down! An extended column will flex & introduce vibration. Some tripods have a flat top plate which the head fixes straight onto. This is my preferred method. Remember that a head will add around 4-6 inches to the max height quoted in the manufacturer’s specifications. Also, does it allow the legs to splay out for low level shooting? How low will it go?

What are the legs made of?

Aluminium was for years the only option (apart from in the Stone Age when wood was a widely used material). Relatively light though strong. Now we also have carbon fibre which has the advantage of better vibration dampening than aluminium. You would also think that it would be a lot lighter as well. This is not necessarily the case. To gain the rigidity required, the wall thickness of the tubes is greater than aluminium legs of the same diameter, so the weight difference of the two materials is minimal, though carbon fibre is generally a bit lighter. If you can afford carbon, my advice would be to plump for that, if only for the superior dampening.

Which head?

Below : Sigma 500 f4.5/ D2x on Wimberley sidekick & Kirk BH-1 Ballhead.

For long lens work, you basically have three choices- Fluid video head, ball head or a gimbal. The ball head is great for static shots, but not so good for moving targets. You also run the risk of your pride & joy flopping over with disastrous consequences if the tension on the ball is not tight enough & you are not holding on all the time. Fluid video heads, such as the Manfrotto 501, were popular a few years back because of the smooth panning & tilting actions, which made them ideal for moving targets. They could also be locked off if need be. Again it pays to keep hold of the rig to stop the lens succumbing to gravity when unlocked. Some heads have an adjustable counterbalance to counteract this, or at least to slow the impact with earth. The third option has become very popular in the UK in the past few years. The gimbal type head. These work by allowing the lens to tilt around its centre of gravity. When set up correctly, you should be able to point the lens in any direction, let go & it will stay put. Pan & tilt are smooth & effortless & adjustable for drag. The lens effectively feels weightless. It takes a little while to get the balance right the first time, but gets simpler every time thereafter. I use a Wimberley gimbal head & I am very pleased with it. I have in the past used a Wimberley side kick which turns a ball head into a gimbal. It was fine with my old Sigma 500mm f4.5 & could handle a Nikon or Canon 500mm f4,but I would be a little worried about mounting a 600 f4 or 800 f5.6 on it. The advantage the ballhead/sidekick combo has is its flexibility. Remove the sidekick & you are ready to use the tripod for landscape or macro work.
A decent ball head, such as the Kirk BH-1 & sidekick, costs around the same as a full Wimberley.

Quick release clamps & plates.

Below : Jobu long quick release clamp fitted to Manfrotto MN393 head.

It obviously pays to have the same type of plate on each of your lenses. A long lens plate allows you to slide the lens in the clamp to balance it perfectly. Remember, if you add or take away teleconveters, your centre of gravity will be affected & the lens will need to be moved to compensate. A long plate allows plenty of movement as well as room to mount accessories such as flash brackets. You will also get more than one fixing to clamp the plate firmly to the tripod foot & prevent twisting. Wimberley, Kirk, Really right stuff, Jobu, Acratech all produce clamps & plates in the Arca-swiss style. All are interchangeable with each other & any combination of plates & clamps from any of these manufacturers is compatible. I have Arca-swiss compatible clamps on all my tripod heads & I have recently fitted a jobu clamp onto my Manfotto MN393 head. This is mounted on my monopod. Two new holes were drilled & tapped to achieve this & now I do not need a separate Manfrotto plate to fit the 600 onto the monopod.

Minor considerations.

Below : 600 f4 on Wimberley mk2 with Jobu flash bracket.

A fluid or gimbal head will need to be level to allow panning which stays in the same plane. You can adjust each leg until the spirit level is in the centre, or you can save yourself loads of faffing & fit a levelling base between tripod & head. Usually around 15 degrees of movement each way is enough. I now have fitted a Gitzo 5121lvl levelling base on my 1548 tripod & can have it all ready to go in seconds with little effort. Although a great asset to have, this is a luxury & not strictly necessary, but am I going to send it back......no way!
Weight. This is very important to some people. Ideally what we all would like is a tripod & head that weighs less than 1kg, is tall enough for Martin Johnson to use without stooping & can carry a max load of 25kg. Forget it, it ain’t gonna happen! Go to the gym or get someone to carry it for you if you can’t handle it. But I suppose that if you are prepared to lug a 600 f4 around, a couple of extra kilos is not going to bother you.

Left : 600 f4 on Wimberley mk2 with Jobu flash bracket.

Below : Wimberley Mk2 on Gitzo 5121lvl levelling base (Gitzo 1548 tripod).

Bottom : Manfrotto MN393 head with Jobu quck release clamp, on 681B monopod.

Kingfishers 0, Woodpeckers 37

I have been meaning to go to the Wildfowl & wetlands trust at Slimbridge for a while. The weather forecast on the web looked good for today & I had a free day. An added incentive was that an American wigeon had been reported on the grounds between the river & the center. Never seen one in the wild before so this was a must see duck. Also a Long-eared owl had set up camp a few miles north of Slimbridge. The plan was to see the owl, hopefully photograph it & then nail the duck after the trust opened its doors at 9:30. Simple!
After turning down several tracks, that werent the correct one, i eventually found Splatt bridge on the canal in Frampton on Severn. A 300m walk south along the towpath turned up a couple of other birders staring into a bush. A quick scan did not turn up the bird, so i had to ask- Is the Long-ear still about? One of the chaps ushered me to his scope for a look. I still could not see it. Then like one of those magic eye pictures, the cryptic camouflage failed (it moved!) & i could make out its back, bottom of its face & then an eye. This is the third LEO i have seen & they are always a challenge, No chance of a photo though. No way would i have found it on my own & my thanks go out to the birders from Bath that pointed it out. How the bird was discovered in the first place i dont know!
On to Slimbridge. The Zeiss hide was the place to go. Around 300 Wigeon were grazing on the grass beside the hide. I was roughly half way through the the flock, when something unseen put the whole lot up & onto a small pond behind a stand of reeds.....doh! This turned out to be a godsend as the duck swam through my bins onto the only bit of open water with a clear line of sight. A few long range record shots were taken with the 600mm & 1.7x teleconverter, the best being shown here. The large white patch on the flank was the first thing i noticed. It also appeared larger than Eurasian wigeon, but not quite as big as a Mallard. The greyish head with a creamy forehead stripe was also in contrast to the chestnut bonce & yellowy stripe of "our" birds.
Now for the rest of the day...... Two good birds ticked, now off to the Kingfisher hide, to hopefully get some shots of courting Kingfishers. To my amazement, the dark little shed that used to inhabit this position, has been replaced with a much larger brand-spanker hide with larger windows, individual moveable stools & a load of bird feeders to the left. Well the Kingfishers put in a couple of brief appearances & i only took one image, which i then binned! The hide is too far away to capture decent images of such a small bird, even tooled up with a 600 & converters. The visit to this hide was saved by the feeders though. A pair of Great-spotted woodpeckers were regularly using them & perching in the surrounding trees. After a severe cut of sub standard images, i ended up with 37 keepers of a species that i had, up to now, not been able to photograph well. All in all a successful trip!

February 09- Welcome to our new blog!

Welcome to our new blog, where you can catch up on what we have been up to. We will update as often as we can with tips, interesting sightings, photography & wildlife related news. Thanks for visiting & we hope you will enjoy!

Feb 09
Snowy weather at the start of the month had many photographers grabbing their gear & heading out into the wild. My first thoughts were to drive around, spotting hares that would undoubtedly stand out like a sore thumb against the white background. The truth could not have been more different! All the usual haunts were checked & not a single hare was seen. Could they have realised that they do indeed stand out & chosen heavier cover?

Once the wintery showers had cleared & travel to sites further away was once again an option, I decided that I ought to check up on the Short-eared owls that regularly winter at Aust wharf. A reasonably bright afternoon came & a quick dash up the M5 saw me setting up my tripod between the two Severn crossings, on the road along the edge of the salt marsh. I was not to be disappointed. Three owls quartered the marsh at various times during the afternoon, dodging each other, the local Carrion crows & a pair of feisty Kestrels. Unfortunately, they never really came close enough for decent images. I have been back several times since & managed to capture some of the shots that you can view in the galleries. However, one disturbing occurrence at this site that I witnessed, involved a pair of “birdwatchers” that intentionally flushed the roosting owls. Spreading out, they quartered the marsh until they found the birds, one shouting to the other as they rose in front of him. They then proceeded to chase them around, repeatedly flushing them. When they walked back to their car, I felt the need to tell them what I thought of them. You would have thought they would have put the bird’s welfare first & foremost & waited along the road edge like the dozen or so responsible birders & photographers. Patience eventually paid off & two owls showed well about an hour after the selfish pair had departed. Please if visiting this site in the next month or so, before the birds migrate north, do not disturb them. They will eventually start hunting & you will be rewarded with excellent views of this magnificent bird from the road. Keep an eye on http://www.severnsidebirds.co.uk/ for the up to date sightings.

It’s getting near to that time of year again........Badger time! Late march & early April are when the cubs that were born in the depths of winter, start to explore their surroundings. With this in mind, I checked out the sett, located in a private wood that I have the owner’s permission to enter. Approaching slowly & quietly, I was pleased to see paw prints & shallow holes near the sett. Badgers do not hibernate, but tend to stay underground during cold weather, so it was a bit of a surprise to see quite so much activity this early in the year. I will start putting down a little feed in an area, away from the sett, during March. They are less nervous away from the sett & become quite accustomed to a person over time, even coming up to sniff my boots in the past. If previous years are anything to go by, a week or so baiting an area will clear any vegetation that may get in the way of my lens & get them almost running to get to the treats laid out for them. This begs the question what to feed them? Well, the bulk of the feed that I put down is peanuts. I usually mix in some raisins & sugar puffs also. Peanut butter smeared onto logs is another favourite. Even custard creams, though they tend to get eaten before getting to the site! The trick is to only put down enough to hold them for a little while, to allow them to go off & search for natural food & not become dependent on handouts. Please bear in mind that badgers & there setts are protected by law. See http://www.badger.org.uk/_Attachments/Resources/47_S4.pdf for details.

Due to an ongoing favour for a friend & the chance of some free firewood, I have been tied up a bit on my days off this month. Once the job was complete & a day before I was due back on shift, I decided to have a day out. The question was, where to go? I settled on a trip to the Forest of Dean. I knew from past visits that there are various places where feeders are hung & these attract a good variety of woodland birds. A friend had told me that Hawfinches are regularly seen around the feeders at New fancy view (an old coal mining slag heap used as a raptor watch point near Parkend). I arrived during constant drizzle consoled myself to the fact that it was my last day off & I was going to enjoy myself even if it was raining! I pulled the car up slowly, close to the feeders, opened the window & placed the bean bag on top of the glass. The lens already was fitted with a Wildlife watching supplies rain cover. A quick check, that I was further than the minimum focussing distance & I was ready., Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Coal, Blue & Great tit were the first visitors shortly after my arrival. These were quickly followed by Nuthatch & the bird of the day Brambling. A total of 3 males & 2 females joined the mixed flock below the feeders. Unfortunately, no Hawfinches presented themselves while I was there. 2 miles up the road towards Speech house hotel, is the Cyril Hart arboretum. The car park has as its center piece, a large fallen log. Seed is regularly spread across the top & many woodland species can be seen & photographed here. Great-spotted woodpecker, Robins, Blackbirds, Greenfinch, Nuthatch, Chaffinch, Treecreeper, Brambling & Great, Blue & Coal tits frequented the log. In a quieter corner, a pair of Jays sat in the low branches, spying on the numerous Grey squirrels. Nuts that were buried by the squirrels were promptly nicked by the jays! A little seed placed on top of a stump quickly aroused their curiosity and I managed a few shots. By now the sun had come out & a pair of Ravens annoyed the sheep, resting between the trees. A stop on the way home at Aust was the perfect end to a great chilled out day.