Another great day down at Turbary. We had a great display this week as just about every flying bird was out, the Kite, Peregrine, Steppe Eagle...you name it, they were all out. Superb!

Oh this weekend’s trip to Turbary was what I have been waiting for sooooo long, to watch the first flight of the awe inspiring Steppe Eagle! Man, this creature is quite simply breath taking, ITS HUGE! The only downside was, with all the bad weather, high winds, rain and cloud, meant that in flight shots were a no, no. But hopefully we can get some more in the coming weeks/months.

This weekends shoot from Turbary Woods, another brilliant day!! This time we had the two Harris Hawks out together and they were simply breathtaking. Lots more in flight shots this time, I'm still pretty new to this type of photography, but I am picking up some effective techniques each week, its about learning the flight patterns of each bird as much as it is nailing the right setting every time. There is soooo much to take into account, the bird, the flight path, are they flying in or/and out of shadow, do they hover on landing, do they swoop low, jump up on take off or drop low...sooo much...cant wait to see what these pics will look like 6 months from now!

Well, I have now become Turbary Woods Resident Charity Photographer and am spending loads of time with them to get some ace shots that will be appearing on their posters. I finally picked up my new 300mm ultrasonic lens, meaning that I can get some much better in flight shots...take a look...

OH MY GOD, what an awesome day out this was!!! I stumbled upon an amazing little bird of prey sanctuary in Preston, what a phenomenal find, it is wonderful place called Turbary Woods, run by a dedicated bunch of devoted charity workers who are crazy about birds of prey. They have a breathtaking collection of beautiful hawks, buzzards, owls, you name it, it’s amazing. Anyway, I got loads of chances to get close up with my 300mm and get some beautiful portraits...I just need to refine my in flight shots, they are so hard to get spot on. If you are nearby, I highly recommend going down, there’s a daily show too at 2pm where they fly about 5-6 birds! I’ll be going back again as soon as possible!

A bit of a plane thing going on here at the moment, this one is grand old BAC Lightning, what a cool lookin shape! This old bird looks like something out of a comic book, the angular shapes make for a killer image. I love taking photo's of planes :)

This was an awesome day out. I went for a good saunter around Duxford Air Museum (with my good old dad, and yes the subject is aircraft again) with my camera poised ready for a shot. I came across this wonderfully ugly MI-24 Hind, a battered, war torn old Soviet helicopter gunship with a sick cannon on the front of it. The texture of this beast was amazing, you could almost smell the history teaming out of the rivets, imagining it returning from some immense soviet mission and then being sat out in the freezing conditions covered in snow. Anyway, enough silly garble, top chopper, wicked texture, awesomely massive spinning gun, wow!

Ok, ok, boring I know, another Harrier Jump Jet...but they are sooo cool! This one is propped up like a toy in Manchester's wonderful Imperial War Museum, so I just had to shoot it.

My life long dream was to be an RAF fighter pilot (to those who know me..very funny I know what your laughing at ;) but being cursed with poor vision it has always had to stay a dream. I saw this wonderful harrier parked up outside R.A.F. Wittering down south and just had to shoot it.

This shot was a tough one, I took roughly 40 shots from just about ever angle I could find through a hotel window overlooking London. From here it was a case of trying to stitch the images together, not easy even with autostitch it took some time to get right. The end effect though is one of my personal favorites.

This is a montage of two photo's at different exposures. One highly underexposed to get the detail in the clouds and one slightly overexposed to pull the detail out of the Abbey. I wanted to achieve a really 'movie' look with this one, kinda 300'ish. I heavily desaturated the final image, toned it a little and burnt the edges in quite dramatically. I think I like the outcome...I think.

I'm really getting into this movie style photography! First I did the Bolton Abbey shots and now this one. Its actually one of the office buildings outside Euston Station. I was actually apprehended taking this one and had to ask for permission to continue! The worlds gone crazy.

Taken from the window of a plane, I spotted the French Alps cheekily peeking out of the clouds, grabbed the camera and took a couple of shots.

These pictures were taken of my lovely wife up on the moors one late evening as the sun was dying away, her hair caught the wind...just as quickly my finger caught the button on my camera. Lucky!

Okay, here's a strange one. These shots were taken in a bathroom in a lovely hotel in Tunbridge Wells while on a business trip. I walked into the bathroom and was rather impressed by the old school décor, I saw the taps, turned them on and started clicking. I really like these, they make me think of old Alfred Hitchcock movies for some reason?!? Psycho maybe?

I decided to have a play with my new 300mm zoom lens when I spotted my neighbour Mr Crow, taking a rest in a tree behind my home. Perfect.