Why I'm not a nature photographer...

Two main reasons; 1. They're weird and 2. It would cost too much money. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh with the first reason as they are probably very nice people but they do seem to be very intense. I guess it's only birders that I've had contact with and I suppose they are very passionate about their hobby. I suppose to non-photographers I guess I'm probably a bit strange. OK, forget reason 1., maybe if I got really into this nature thing I would be just as strange and intense.

But reason 2. still holds true. Some of these guys had the long telephoto prime lenses with wide apertures and image stabilisation with a price tag of £5,000 to £10,000, and some of them had more than one of these lenses. The thing is you probably need these lenses to get the good quality images and I think that even if I had the money I couldn't contemplate spending so much on one lens. I think my whole kit bag including camera and 5 lenses tripod and all sorts of other accessories total around £3,000 and I think that is probably too much. Saying that the next lens I would like to buy weighs in at a shade over £1,000 and it's not a long telephoto at all.

Reading between the lines I guess it may be obvious that I've been to another nature reserve to take photos. This time the RSPB place at Old Moor near Barnsley. I think I'm reasonably happy to take long distance shots and crop them to the limit. I know the quality isn't there but I'm really a landscape photographer at heart so I'll have to let it go.

Not a vast amount of birds at the reserve but I had a bit of fun chopping out the interesting bits of the images and trying to identify what I'd caught. The images are on pages 3 & 4 in my Waterfowl Gallery.