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Wildlife Digital Photography

Tutor: David Noble-Rollin

20 Meeting Course starting 18 January 2017, 13:00-15:00

This practical 20-session course will introduce you to the basic techniques of how to take close up, landscape and bird photography. There will be ten field meetings to practice the photographic techniques, two indoor practical sessions with laptops plus classroom sessions covering bird, close-up and landscape photography. The course is aimed at those who have a digital camera but still tend to use it on the automatic settings who would like to understand how to take photographs and improve their natural history photography techniques. Students on the course who have laptops will be asked to bring them in. In order to get the most out of this course participants are encouraged to buy the software recommended for their computers (the first session requiring this will be in late February and we can give advice at the start of the course). Indoor meetings will be held in the Council Room of the Natural History Society in the Great North Museum: Hancock at 13:00-15:00. Outdoor meetings will be at various venues throughout the North East and at varying times indicated in the programme. Provisional Programme: Winter/Spring 2017 Wednesday 18 January Introduction to natural history photography and

discussion of the programme. We will be looking at the range of subjects and techniques required. Also examining the importance of the photographers’ attitude, natural history expertise and the difference between a picture and a snapshot. We will also go through the main functions on your cameras that will be used during the course.

Wednesday 25 January Bird photography. The different techniques that are used

to get good bird photographs including portraits, flight shots, record shots, behavior and action shots. The session will concentrate on the required camera settings to achieve sharp images and on how to get close enough to the subjects to photograph them.

Wednesday 1 February Field meeting: Bird photography visit to Bolam Lake

(Northumberland) to photograph common small birds and possibly swans and ducks. Meeting at the northeast car park at 13.00. (This is the car park with the visitor centre and toilet block).

Wednesday 8 February Landscape, Seascape and habitat photography. The

session will concentrate on the underlying principles of landscape photography, how they improve the resulting images and the use of different focal lengths of lens to

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achieve particular effects. It will include examples of the use of filters and HDR (high Dynamic Range) Software.

Wednesday 15 February Field Meeting: Landscape habitat photography on the

coast at Bamburgh Castle. This will be practical use of the techniques discussed the previous week.

Meeting instructions: Harkness Rocks (Stag Rocks) NU176 359 meet at Stag Rocks light house at 09.00am. To get there arriving from Seahouses at Bamburgh Village turn right on to the Wynding and follow the road until you reach the light house.

Wednesday 22 February Lightroom and Photoshop: including a demonstration of

editing tools. This will concentrate on the basic tools needed to improve digital pictures and will include the use of selective sharping, clone tools, exposure adjustment tools, digital graduated filter and the use of RAW and JPEG files. A work flow for RAW images will be demonstrated using Lightroom and Photoshop. By this point in the course students will have taken RAW images for use in previous practical sessions.

Wednesday 1 March Practical session: Lightroom and Photoshop This will

be the first practical indoor session using student and Society laptops to edit pictures taken on the course so far.

Wednesday 8 March Field Meeting: Field Craft: tracks and signs and

equipment for finding subjects and where to photograph them. This will be a session in Gosforth Park Nature Reserve looking at increasing students ability to find subjects. Demonstrations of moth traps, camera traps, Longworth live small mammal traps, use of hides and searching for macro subjects will be part of the session. Bob Wilkin has agreed to go with us and give us an introduction to the tracks and signs of the animals that live in the reserve.

Meet at reserve entrance at 13.00 Wednesday 15 March Field Meeting: Bird Photography. Newbiggin and

Cresswell Ponds. Meet at the car park next to St Bartholomew’s Church, Newbiggin at 13.00 (grid ref NZ318 880).

Wednesday 22 March Students’ work taken on the course. This session will be

looking at the work you have done during the practical sessions so that next term further improvements can be made. We will also be encouraging you to enter North East Wildlife Photography Competition 2017.

Spring Break

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Wednesday 3 May Close-up photography including depth of field

maximization, subject range, different techniques for static and moving subjects. Also a demonstration of focus stacking and its potential future in close-up and landscape photography

Wednesday 10 May Field Meeting: Bird Photography. Saltholme Wildlife

Reserve Teesmouth meet at 13.00.

Directions: Saltholme is 10 minutes from the A19; turn east off the A19 north of Stockton along the A689. After half a mile, take the A1185; in 4 miles join the A178 at a mini roundabout and take the third exit. The reserve entrance is 250 metres on the right-hand side.

Wednesday 17 May Presentation of your work: PowerPoint techniques,

creating your own books and preparing prints. This session will guide you through the different ways to present your work including how to prepare your work for the final session of the course.

Wednesday 24 May Practical session: using PowerPoint and Book Smart.

This practical session will be an opportunity to practice preparing a PowerPoint presentation, using the Book Smart to create a book of your pictures and comments and mounting prints for competitions.

Wednesday 31 May Field meeting: Close-up photography. Gosforth Park

Nature Reserve meet at 13.00 at Lake Lodge. This will be the first practical session for close-up and will concentrate on controlling depth of field and lighting of subjects. Moth traps will be set and early flowers and insects should be available to photograph.

Wednesday 7 June Field Meeting: Landscape Photography. Harthope

Valley Meet at the car park just north east of Langleeford at 13.00 Directions: Grid reference: NT94910 21967. Post code: NE71 6RG. It takes at least 15 minutes from Wooler to Langleeford

Wednesday 14 June Field Meeting: Landscape/close-up Photography. Holy

Island Meet in the main Carpark at 10.30. This will be a morning photographing flowers, insects and scenes around the Heugh and Castle area. The day will involve a reasonable amount of walking so equipment weight will have to be considered. This will be discussed before the meeting. The safe crossing times for the Island are 09.55 to 17.00

Wednesday 21 June Field Meeting: Bird Photography

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Farne Islands meet at Seahouses at the landward end of the pier at 12.30. The boat will leave at 13.00 and return approximately at between 16.30 and 17.00 The cost last year was: £17.00 for the boat per person and the National Trust landing fee is £8.00 (free to NT members you need to carry your card). An update will be given at the beginning of the course. Meet at the landward end of the pier at Seahouses around 12.30. The boat leaves at 13.00 (I will collect the money on the pier and pay for our tickets). We will be hoping to have 2 hours on the Inner Farne.

Wednesday 29 June Field Meeting: Close- up photography

Bishop Middleham Quarry meet at the entrance (NZ330326) nearest post code DL17 9EEE OS explorer Map no. 305. The former quarry is magnesian limestone and an SSSI, nationally recognised for the plant life it supports including a range of orchid species and home to a wide range of butterflies including the Durham Brown Argus.

Access and Parking: The reserve is situated 1 km north of Bishop Middleham Village on the minor road to the A117. Parking is available in the roadside lay-by opposite the entrance to the reserve. Enter the reserve through the kissing gate on the roadside

Wednesday 5 July Students’ work taken on the course. This will be devoted

to looking at your progress for the previous session. Your work should be take on the course and presented in PowerPoint.

Notes to Students: If you are thinking of buying a new camera it would be better to come to the class and discuss the type of camera that you are intending to buy with the tutor. If you have joined the class you can ask the office for my email and we can discuss the type of cameras you should be looking at to suit your personal requirements. Also the software needed will be discussed at the beginning of the course so again this is worthwhile leaving until the course starts.