# Yesterday on Skomer



## buckas (Jun 13, 2008)

Not many images as was mostly teaching, but here's some from yesterday :thumb:

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Wow what a day, superb scenery, amazing wildlife and a great bunch of guys!

After having previous work featured in PhotoPlus this year and living in the beautiful Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, I was asked by PhotoPlus to be the pro on their "PhotoPlus Apprentice" feature. It's a been a few months in the making and thankfully the weather was kind to us.

Reasonably early start ready to catch the first boat over with newly acquainted friends Peter & Jeff from PhotoPlus and Keith, the apprentice. The main task for the day was to tutor Keith on techniques how to capture coastal birds in flight and Skomer's inhabitants are no exception. Puffins, Razorbills, Guillemots, Manx Shearwater, wide selection of gulls and more are found in abundance on this small island off the Pembrokeshire Coast. After a steady boat trip across to the island we headed for The Wick which is a small cliff bay where the majority of the Puffins found on the island reside.

#1









Here we could get up close to the Puffins and go over some good techniques for wildlife & bird photography in general such as always focusing on the eye, try to get eye level with your subject to create a more intimate image (in this case lying on the ground to get the best angles) and also trying to make the subject 'pop' out of the image by isolating the subject from any distracting backgrounds. By following these simple rules it makes for a much more interesting and cleaner image.

#2









#3









We met up with the warden on the island (great bloke) midday and then headed to another part of the island to capture some different species of birds, here we spent quite a while photographing the birds in flight. A rather more tricky style of shooting to master, but by going over more techniques & settings with Keith, and setting the cameras up to capture these fast moving creatures; we both came away with some great images at the end of it.

#4









#5









#6









I'd like to thank PhotoPlus magazine; Peter & Jeff for inviting me to host their featured shoot and their hospitality throughout the day. Also thanks to Keith for being a great guy and 'Apprentice', glad you had fun and learnt some new techniques to take away with you for future.

_All shot with Canon 7D & 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM & 1.4x Ext
_

Cheers

drew


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## Brazo (Oct 27, 2005)

Awesome shots! Lovely 'bokeh'! Only learnt that term yesterday


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## partrir (Mar 31, 2009)

Beautiful shots. I've just bought the 70-200 2.8L....best £950 I've ever spent!

How do you find the 1.4x affects focusing on the 7D? I'm thinking about one, which would sit either on my 5DII or 1DIIn.

Take care

Rob


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## Guest (May 5, 2011)

Beautiful pictures and fascinating birds. Thanks for posting :thumb:.


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## Shiny (Apr 23, 2007)

Stunning Drewster!

#4 is awesome!

Sounds like the career is constantly going in the right directions which is superb for you. I'm really pleased for you mate.


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## pooma (Apr 12, 2008)

An awesome set and I love #4


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## Maxtor (Feb 23, 2007)

Stunning mate. I love your work. :thumb:

Maxtor.


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## buckas (Jun 13, 2008)

Brazo said:


> Awesome shots! Lovely 'bokeh'! Only learnt that term yesterday


Thanks :thumb:



partrir said:


> Beautiful shots. I've just bought the 70-200 2.8L....best £950 I've ever spent!
> 
> How do you find the 1.4x affects focusing on the 7D? I'm thinking about one, which would sit either on my 5DII or 1DIIn.
> 
> ...


Thanks, yeh slows it slightly - but only notice it on this kinda subject where you're trying to focus on a very fast small moving subject



BareFacedGeek said:


> Beautiful pictures and fascinating birds. Thanks for posting :thumb:.


Thanks :thumb:



Shiny said:


> Stunning Drewster!
> 
> #4 is awesome!
> 
> Sounds like the career is constantly going in the right directions which is superb for you. I'm really pleased for you mate.


Cheers matey, yeh getting there slowly - deffo one of the 'good' days, just need to be more of them! :thumb:



pooma said:


> An awesome set and I love #4


Thanks :thumb:



Maxtor said:


> Stunning mate. I love your work. :thumb:
> 
> Maxtor.


Cheers matey :thumb:

Issue 50 is out June 29th

drew


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## Peter_D (Mar 24, 2011)

Hi buckas, fancy a game of POOL tonight?


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## Buck (Jan 16, 2008)

Superb Drew - some really top notch shots there - out of interest, what processing have you applied to the shots


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## james_death (Aug 9, 2010)

Outstanding....:thumb:


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## Gruffs (Dec 10, 2007)

I think these top the last set you posted from Skomer ('twas a while ago).

If only i had the funds for a fast zoom or prime.


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## Rust.Bucket (Feb 11, 2011)

Amazing shots!
And even though I dont take photos, I learned something about how best to take photos of birds/animals etc. Thanks! (Will have to mention it to my girlfriend who enjoys taking a few snaps)


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## Pezza4u (Jun 7, 2007)

Stunning photos mate, really like these :thumb:


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## buckas (Jun 13, 2008)

cheekeemonkey said:


> Superb Drew - some really top notch shots there - out of interest, what processing have you applied to the shots


Thanks matey, mainly a bit of a contrast and colour boost but other than that straight out of camera.



Gruffs said:


> I think these top the last set you posted from Skomer ('twas a while ago).
> 
> If only i had the funds for a fast zoom or prime.


cheers fella, could've got most of these shots on the day with the f/4 versions to be fair, 2nd hand one is pretty well priced :thumb:



Rust.Bucket said:


> Amazing shots!
> And even though I dont take photos, I learned something about how best to take photos of birds/animals etc. Thanks! (Will have to mention it to my girlfriend who enjoys taking a few snaps)


:thumb:

cheers all

drew


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## n_d_fox (Apr 18, 2007)

No.2 for me... kind of looks like he's pushing out his chest and posing for the shot :thumb:


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