46 23 November 2019 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113
Photo Insight
T
he patience and
determination
of wildlife
photographers can
never be underestimated. As
you’ll already know if you’ve
read the Wildlife Photographer
of the Year feature on page
22, some will go to extreme
lengths for the shot they want.
Tracey Lund has been
photographing wildlife for the
past 15 years, since a trip to
Africa in 2004 spurred her
on to dedicate every spare
moment to her passion.
I caught up with Tracey at
this year’s HIP Fest in Hull,
where Tracey is from. Later,
a packed room would be
enthralled by her varied
wildlife images, but it’s this
one, thanks to picking up fi rst
prize in the Natural World &
Wildlife Category and the
overall fi rst prize in the
National Awards (UK) in this
year’s Sony World Photography
Awards Open competition, that
I’m keen to fi nd out about.
‘I planned it with Richard
Shucksmith, the award-
winning wildlife photographer
who is a guide over in Shetland,’
she tells me. ‘I wanted to get
into underwater photography,
but because I haven’t quite got
the money to branch out into
this area, I hired his equipment.
‘We took the boat out off the
coast of Noss, which is where
the main gannet colony is. As
soon as they see the boat they
know what’s going to happen.
‘You have to set the camera
up as you want it, then put it
into the underwater housing –
you can’t change the settings
once it’s in the housing. After
that the camera was attached
to a polecam, and I hung
off the side of the boat!
Meanwhile, Richard threw
locally sourced fi sh into the
water to attract the birds.
‘As soon as I thought they
were in range of the camera,
I’d take a picture from the pole.
I can’t see what I’m shooting,
so over the course of the
afternoon I took around 1,800
images. Only two of them were
usable, the rest of them were
just bubbles, or heads, or beaks
and so on.
‘I was using a fi sheye lens,
which was set to f/11 to try
and get everything as sharp as
possible. Because the water is
so clear, it’s nice and bright
so the ISO doesn’t need to be
too high, either. The shutter
speed was 1/500 second, but
it was just trial and error.
Every now and then we would
take the camera out to check,
but otherwise it’s a
guessing game.’Amy Davies fi nds out more about
this incredible shot that garnered a
Sony World Photography Award
Tracey Lund
Tracey is a telecommunications engineer with a passion for
wildlife photography. Her plaudits include prizes from the
Sony World Photography Awards, British Photography
Awards, and Bird Photographer of the Year. To see more
pictures, visit traceylundphotography.co.uk, or to find
out more about the Sony WPAs, see worldphoto.org.Under water
Gannets
By Tracey Lund
© TRACEY LUNDJust to add to the challenge,
despite being a dedicated
Canon user, the hired gear was
all Nikon equipment. Normally
she shoots with two Canon
EOS 7D Mark II bodies paired
typically with a 100-400mm
f/4.5-5.6 lens or a 300mm f/2.8
lens. Here, however, it was a
full-frame Nikon D4, paired
with a fi sheye lens – you can’t
really get more diff erent.
Tracey is a photographer who
uses entering competitions tospur her on, learn from and
challenge herself. It’s fair to say
that this particular image has
had a mixed reaction.
‘I entered it into one
photography society that I’m a
member of, and basically they
were going to disqualify it.
They stated that it wasn’t
photography because I didn’t
look through the viewfi nder. At
another society, it won a judges’
award. It also got me the
People’s Choice Award in the