Horsey Gap which is located in Norfolk county in North East of England, is home to the largest colonies of grey seals. From November to the end of January, the beach is crowded with seals and their new born pups. Grey seals can move at a speed of 35km/hr in water and 2km/hr on land.
Deer rut photography at Bradgate Park
I had previously visited Bradgate Park a few times back in October of 2018. You could read about it by clicking here. I had again planned to visit the park during the deer rutting season. This time with my new Canon EOS R6, I took the train from Sandwell and Dudley to Leicester train station and from there a taxi to get to a park.
One week in Anglesey
I had travelled to Holyhead, Anglesey via train. The train trip took around 4 hours from Smethwick train station which is near to where I live in West Bromwich. I was planning this trip for a long time and had wanted to visit a number of locations in Anglesey. Anglesey is small island of the North West coast of Wales. The places I wanted to visit and photograph where South Stacks in Holyhead, Newborough, Penmon and Penhros Country Park.
Testing the animal eye AF on the Canon EOS R6
Since I purchased the Canon EOS R6, I had taken a few nature photos at Sandwell Park which just a walking distance from my home in West Bromwich. The main intention was to try out how accurate the animal eye auto-focus was and I was quite happy with the way the camera would focus on the eye of the animal or bird even when moving. Here are some samples of what I had captured over the past couple of days.
Purchased the Canon EOS R6 at the Photography Show
I had recently attended the photography show at the NEC which usually is held every year at the NEC in or around March but due to covid, the event took place after a gap of two years and that too in the month of September.
It is an event catered to photographers of any kind from professionals to amateurs and the venue hosts various exhibitors displaying their products or services. One can go there and test out various equipment before making any purchase plus a lot of other activities take place during the show.
Buffalo photograhy at Jhilmil Jheel
Before arriving back in England, I had decided to do an overnight safari at Jhilmil Jheel. I was in the hope of actually photographing elephants and possibly sighting of leopard which are residents of the area but rarely seen. Anyhow after a morning and afternoon safari session, we were not even able to sight Chital or Sambar. This was a very disappointing trip in itself but even though I had decided to atleast make the most of it. We saw plenty of water buffalo which were either domesticated or feral or a mix of both. However even though they were also somewhat residents of the forest, it was great to observe them within this environment. The main difference between the domesticated and wild water buffaloes is that the wild ones have larger horns and weigh more than captive or domesticated ones.
Landscape Photography at Jim Corbett National Park
Other than photographing wildlife, one can get nice wide angle landscape shots. The best time is early morning or late evening because this is when you have soft golden light. Sometimes a telephoto lens even at 300mm can also capture amazing landscapes however for most shots during this trip, I had used both the Canon 17-40mm f/4 L lens and also the Canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6 L lens. Here is a selection of landscape shots taken during the trip.
Elephant photography at Jim Corbett National Park
Elephants are very easily seen here in the national park and are quite interesting animals to observe and photograph. These are social animals and the largest and oldest female in the herd known as the matriarch leads the group and the group follows her where ever she goes. The group consists of daughters of the matriarch and it’s offspring. The herd can include male elephants but until the age of 10 to 12 years. After that they achieve sexual maturity and in order to avoid inbreeding, they are expelled from the group by the matriarch. The matriarch is the one who makes decisions for the entire herd family because she is the oldest and most experienced. The animals have strong social bonds and they also help each other with social care. Anyway not too get too detailed in this post, I am sharing a number of photos which I took on this trip.
Tiger photography at Jim Corbett National Park
I had taken a cab from Dehradun to Ramnagar to join a few friends for a one week safari at Jim Corbett national park. The first night we had stayed at the “Corbett Green View Garden and Stay” guesthouse. The trip from Dehradun took around 5 hours and on arrival met up with Maneet Pal Singh, Samyak Kaninde and Manmohan Bindra, all three with a deep interest in wildlife photography. Anyhow on arrival at the guesthouse, I met up with them in the dining area after I had checked into my room. I paid the cab driver and after that he took off.
Day trip to Chilla zone
Few days back on a Sunday morning, me and a few others had decided to visit Chilla zone of Rajaji National Park. We left around 11:30 from Dehradun and arrived just within the hour. Gates did not open until 2:30pm so we had plenty of time. On this trip, we only opted to do the afternoon jeep safari. We did all the bookings on arrival. Jeep costs are Rs.2000 plus Rs.250 for vehicle road fee and an additional entrance fee of Rs.150 per person depending on the number of people there are for the safari.