Amateur Photographer - UK (2020-05-16)

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Testbench IN THE FIELD

M

ost of us are
familiar with that
fl eeting moment
when a
sparrowhawk weaving through the
washing line and over the fence
both arrives and is gone quicker
than you can say its name. But
view one up close and you see a
captivating intensity transmitted
through yellow staring eyes. But a
nervous tension means the click of
a shutter or camera movement
and the opportunity is lost. Other
than having a lucky encounter, to
have good repeated opportunities
for photography requires being a
little inventive. This is the story of
how I created that opportunity
with a little bit of innovation.
Wildlife photography has
evolved from its earliest
beginnings nearly 150 years ago
through ingenuity. Back in the
1890s the pioneering Kearton
brothers gained celebrity status

as nature photographers through

the wacky ways they got close to

birds, most famously using a

hollowed-out cow as a hide. This

was as much for practical reasons

as it was a marketing ploy to

generate public interest in their

pictures. Less well-known

photographers were already using

simple cloth hides to conceal

themselves with no less success.

For a century the simple cloth

hide changed little – small

innovations in design arrived with

new materials and pole

constructions to make erection

quicker and simpler, yet the basic

design has survived and is still

used today. To photograph some

of our shyest birds of prey some

photographers have gone to great

lengths building wooden and

sometimes stone hides to conceal

themselves. But the issue of lens

movement has always hampered

this type of photography.

Wildlife expert David Tipling

reveals his secret to photographing

some of nature’s shyest species

Time to

hide

In 2005 a Spanish nature

photographer by the name of José

B Ruiz built a raised pool at his

home in Alicante to which he

attached a hide. This style of pool

became known as a refl ection

pool but the hide was the real

game-changer. Instead of having

his lens stick out the front, José sat

behind a sheet of refl ective

one-way glass. He was invisible to

the birds and the glass helped

dampen the sound of his camera’s

shutter. Nervous species could be

photographed acting naturally in

their environment, oblivious of

human presence.

This photograph of an

Eurasian sparrowhawk

catching a male blackbird

was taken a few feet from

David’s hide in Norfolk

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III,

Olympus M.Zuiko 12-40mm F2.8 PRO

A view looking back at

David’s woodland hide. The

pool of water attracts many

different species of birds