Feathered Friends Owl Encounter

A few months ago, I discovered the existence of Feathered Friends, a community organisation which aims to improve upon the care of birds in captivity, and helping sick or injured birds experience wild flight again.

Feathered Friends offers people the opportunity to experience an encounter with owls, eagles and kites, and we decided that we wanted to experience an owl encounter.

We booked a private encounter, and on a beautiful autumn morning, we headed to the meeting place, which is a bushy grassland environment that could be in the middle of nowhere, but is just off a major arterial road.

It allows the birds to fly freely, and allows visitors to be close to nature, despite being right in the urban sprawl.

We were met by Max, one of the sanctuary’s staff, and he soon enough introduced us to Giselle, a female eastern barn owl.

Within moments of meeting Giselle, she was comfortable with us, and soon enough was perched on our hands, eating the raw chicken that Max had provided for her.

Giselle was also happy to pose for the camera, and I captured a pleasing image of her perched on a dead tree branch.

Giselle the Eastern Barn Owl

We were able to pet her and feel her soft plumage as Max taught us about eastern barn owls and what Feathered Friends does.

During our time with Giselle, there were several occasions on which Max took her some distance from me, and called her to flight directly towards me as I photographed her in flight.

Capturing birds in flight is not an easy form of photography, particularly when the type of camera that I use is simply not designed for action photography.  Despite that, I did land a couple of pleasing images as Giselle flew directly towards me.

Incoming

I love the intensity of Giselle‘s eyes set against the completely blurred background.

Morning Flight

In this later image, Giselle‘s position is much more pleasing, but the background is not quite as pleasing.

It was great to spend time with Giselle and learn about her and her species.  Little did we know that eastern barn owls are not uncommon, but sadly, their environment is shrinking due to urban expansion.

Our next encounter during our encounter was with a juvenile wedge-tailed eagle called Odin.

This is Odin:

Odin the Wedge-Tailed Eagle

At seven years of age, he still has his brown feathers.  As he gets older, he will lose his brown feathers and instead have black feathers.

Unfortunately Odin had a rough past, and lost his right eye due to his consumption of a red-bellied black snake.  Unfortunately in the process of devouring it as his meal, he did not kill the snake first, and it attacked him.

Odin is in a much better place now, in the care of Feathered Friends.

We got to hold and pet Odin, and his size is something to behold.  His weight, as he was perched on my arm, was around 3.5kg, which was roughly the same weight as my camera rig.

He unfortunately cannot fly and more, and while we did not see his full wing span, we were told that it is around 1.8m, or 6′ in the old money.

Odin was an impressive bird, and I landed just one pleasing image of him during the warmth of the morning light.

Our experience with Feathered Friends was fantastic, and we got to be up close and personal with two species of bird that many people will unfortunately never see, even at a distance.

A Visit to the Victoria & Albert Guesthouse

During our recent summer holidays, we had made plans to travel to the Blue Mountains in order to take a trip on the historic Zig Zag Railway.

Due to the nature of the travel, we needed to stop at Mount Victoria and interconnect with another train to Lithgow.

As we had a little under an hour on our hands before our train, I figured that we would see if there was a coffee shop in the area.  We had never stopped at Mount Victoria before, so it was a good opportunity to see what was around.

Just down the road was a building which looked like a coffee shop.  Sure enough, there was a coffee shop, but there was a lot more to it.

We had encountered the Victoria & Albert Guesthouse.

Built in 1868, the Victoria & Albert Guesthouse is a beautiful Victorian-period building which operates to this day as a hotel and restaurant.

We ordered our coffees, and proceeded to the main dining room.  As soon as I saw it, I knew that I needed to photograph the place properly.

While waiting for our warm drinks, we wandered around the various rooms on the ground floor, admiring the furnishings and atmosphere of the place.  Soon enough, our drinks were served in the main dining room.

Afterwards, I decided that I needed to speak to the staff in order to express my interest in photographing the place.  One of the managers gave me her card, and advised me of the best days for visiting.

I made contact during the following day, and soon enough, I had arranged a private photoshoot of the Victoria & Albert Guesthouse.

Five days after this unplanned visit, I headed out early in the morning for the long trip to Mount Victoria, and arrived at the guesthouse.

The staff gave me free rein to wander around photographing the various rooms.  As I had arrived early, and there were no guests staying at the time, I did not need to be concerned with people walking in front of my camera, as the only other people present were the staff members.

The first scene that I captured was the beautiful dining room.

The Dining Room

This was the room in which we had our hot drinks.  Our table was just to the right of this image.

Through the wide opening in the distance is an extra dining room and lounge.

Dining in Style

This beautiful dining room is one of the most striking features of the Victoria & Albert Guesthouse.

Adorned with an antique baby grand piano, a Victorian-era sofa, fireplace and beautiful tables and chairs, this room allows guests to dine in style whilst staying.

Just across from the main dining room, near to the entrance, is this magnificent waiting room.

The Waiting Room

This small waiting room provides a quaint and cosy place for people to wait for family and friends during a stay at this Victorian-period guesthouse.

Further inside, and overlooking the garden, is the lounge room:

The Lounge

The rear lounge a large and airy space which allows guests to rest and relax during their stay, over a game of chess, a nice warm or cold drink, or perhaps a book.

Lastly, I photographed a richly decorated, atmospheric room.

The Saloon Bar

This beautiful room, rich with antique furniture and decorations, is called the Saloon Bar, and while not a bar in its present form, it is a small, private sitting room.

The natural light beaming into this room creates a great airy atmosphere despite the dark walls and furniture.  It would make a superb location for a period-inspired portrait shoot.

It was fantastic to be able to visit the Victoria & Albert Guesthouse and essentially have the place to myself while I roamed around capturing the exquisite interiors of this heritage building.

Many thanks to Josie, Océane, Shane and the other staff for their hospitality during my visit.

These images were photographed on Dharug and Gundungurra land.

The ‘Birds at Home’ Project

Sometimes a photographic project emerges, when there was never an intention to embark upon a photographic project.

For me, what I call the ‘Birds at Home‘ project, is exactly that.

Every now and then, I will see a bird in our garden and feel inspired to try and capture a pleasing image of that bird.

Over the years, this happened numerous times, and it retrospectively became the Birds at Home Project.

As any experienced wildlife photographer will know, bird photography is very difficult, especially if the subject is small, skittish or both (and this is often the case).

It requires preparation, skill, patience, timing and sheer luck.

Our neighbourhood is unfortunately not one in which people are particularly inclined towards keeping plants, trees and gardens, but our yard consists of a variety of native Australian plants and trees, so this attracts many species of birds.

The project, which unintentionally commenced in 2018, is ongoing, and consists of photographs of wild birds that have come to visit our garden.  So far, I have photographed only six different species at the time of writing.

Many more have visited, but I have not photographed them.

Here is a look at the species of birds that I have photographed (to the time of publication of this article).

My first images consisted of the white-plumed honeyeaters that often visit us.

From that initial session, I published two images.

White-Plumed Honeyeater

Here, a white-plumed honeyeater is amongst the foliage of the native grevillea bushes that adorn our garden.

I like this image, as the honeyeater fills the frame, and is shown in its native habitat.

By contrast, I photographed another honeyeater sitting on the top of the fence.

Fence Sitter

The honeyeater is nicely posed, and its details are visible, but the man-made fence and background (the roof of another house) is not so appealing.

We are very fortunate to have rainbow lorikeets visiting us on a daily basis, and the vivid, attractive colours of these birds appeals to me both in a visual and photographic sense.

I have captured a number of them, but what I had longed to capture was a clean image of a rainbow lorikeet out in the open, set against an indistinct background.

By sheer luck, I achieved this image on one occasion.

Profile of a Rainbow Lorikeet

The rainbow lorikeet had been feeding in a grevillea, and flew away, landing on the top of the clothes line.  It was early on a summer evening, so the light was warm and soft, and I finally landed an image of the lorikeet in the setting that I wanted.

For comparison, here is another rainbow lorikeet photographed only three minutes earlier, positioned nicely in the grevillea.  I am not sure if it is the same lorikeet, as usually these birds visit in pairs or groups.

In His Element

One species of bird that I have only seen once is the silvereye.

After letting the cat outside in the afternoon sun, he started meowing at the tree in the corner.  I thought that there was nothing there, but alas, a tiny silvereye was feeding in our tree.

Silvereye Surprise

I headed back inside to grab a camera and lens, not expecting that the silvereye would still be present upon my return; but he was, and he seemed completely comfortable with me being within only a few metres of him.

A very common species of bird around here is the cinnamon spotted turtle dove.  We see these on an almost daily basis, and on one occasion, I decided to photograph one that was sitting on the back fence.

Cinnamon Spotted Turtle Dove

It was early on a summer evening, so the light was perfect for bird photography.

In 2020, our main dwarf wattle tree produced seed pods for the first time since we planted it, and it attracted flocks of little corellas on a daily basis.  It was the first occasion on which corellas had visited us, so I seized the opportunity during their time here, and captured one feeding on a pod.

Little Corella

The corellas had not returned here until 2023.  I did venture outside to photograph them, but on first inspection, there were no pleasing images.  I may need to re-visit the images and see if there is an image worth publishing.

My most recent image depicts a female superb fairywren.  Of late, superb fairywrens have been visiting our garden very frequently.

Of particular interest is the male, with his distinctive, vivid blue plumage.  I have seen a few males here, but fairywrens are constantly darting around, and I have not so far been able to successfully capture a pleasing image of a male.

On a gloomy and rainy day, I decided to head into our yard and engage in some bird photography.

I spotted this female superb fairywren, and as my luck would have it, the bird flew down to the tiles on the garden bed wall, and posed beautifully, staying still for just long enough for me to capture this image.

Female Superb Fairywren

My quest to capture a pleasing image of a male superb fairywren continues, as does my ‘Birds at Home‘ project.

Wildlife Photography Workshop with Peter Sharp

During the winter of 2023, I discovered by chance a wildlife photography workshop hosted by wildlife photographer Peter Sharp, and sponsored by Georges Cameras.

The workshop was to be held at the Sydney Zoo, a zoo which we have visited numerous times since it opened.

Always keen to take an opportunity to attend workshops, meet other photographers and augment my knowledge and experience, I booked two places.

The morning started early, and we were granted access to the zoo before the general public.

The first item of the day was breakfast at one of the zoo‘s eateries, after which we were taken to the outdoor auditorium, where Peter provided an introduction and a presentation of his work.  It was interesting to hear of his experiences and see the type of work that he produces.

Throughout the day, the various participants photographed different species of wildlife.  During some down time, I took the opportunity to photograph the meerkats at the smaller enclosure on the southern side of the zoo.  Previously I had only ever photographed these critters in the enclosure on the other side.

Meerkats are highly active, and rarely stay still for more than a second, so it took some perseverance to capture him looking towards his left, in the direction from which the sun was shining, so that I could capture a catchlight in the meerkat‘s eye.

My patience paid off, and from this lower angle, the meerkat is set against a pleasing defocused background as he looks around during sentry duty.

Looking Left

The main highlight of the workshop was specially arranged access to the area underneath the boardwalk overlooking the African wildlife section of the zoo.

One of the keepers — Dave — fed the lions in front of us.  We also had the opportunity to gain close proximity to the hyenas and the white rhino.

A distinct advantage of being under the boardwalk is the low angle.  One of the lions was sitting in the sun, and from the low angle, I was able to shoot upwards at him, but from this distance, it almost looks like we are at eye level.

The usual vantage point is on the boardwalk, high above the lion enclosure.  This means that photographers are looking down on the lions, which rarely makes for pleasing wildlife photography.

Afternoon Rest

I was not expecting to land any ‘wow-factor’ images on the day; instead, I saw it as an opportunity to attend a workshop and learn something from Peter, re-visit a zoo that we had been intending, meet some people, and just get out for the day.

I did land a couple of pleasing images, but overall it was a fun day.

Farewell to 2021

The year 2021 has, without a doubt, been my lowest year in terms of photographic output.

In the final days of the year 2021, I decided to head to a favourite location in Pyrmont, in order to photograph the relatively new Crown Sydney skyscraper alongside the three skyscrapers which form International Towers in the Barangaroo precinct.

The western side of the Sydney skyline is very photogenic, and it has changed significantly as I have photographed it over the years.

Here is one of the images that I captured:

Tall

During my time at this favourite spot of mine, a man passing through the area approached me and struck up a conversation.  He assumed that I was a professional photographer, and asked me a few questions about photography.

We got to talking about technique, composition, light and gear, and as it turns out, he has just got into photography, and has bought himself some very nice gear.

So, if Nathaniel from Gibraltar is reading this, thanks for the company and conversation, and for being interested in what I was doing and how I was doing it; and I hope that you pursue and enjoy photography as I have done.

Photographed on Gadigal land.

Some Rewarding Urban Birding

Earlier this year, I learned of an urban watering hole, at which various species of birds could be found.

During my first visit to this watering hole, I saw the potential, and decided that it would be a good location to visit at another time and photograph the bird life there.

Recently, after an afternoon thunderstorm, I thought that it might be a great opportunity to visit the watering hole and see if any birds were active.

The time before and after a storm can produce some amazing light, so I reached for my longest lens and headed to the watering hole, where I found two little black cormorants and an intermediate egret.

The watering hole contains a large, dead tree with a photogenic branch which allows birds to perch, and which is set against distant trees along a creek in the background.  Additionally, the vantage point faces east, which means that warm afternoon light illuminates the subject and the background.

On this particular visit, I was fortunate to find a little black cormorant drying his wings in the sunshine.

Drying My Wings

Photographing birds can be quite challenging, but photographing birds doing something interesting is even more challenging.

I was fortunate to capture this image of the cormorant with his wings spread out, drying after the deluge.

Here is another image of the cormorant, this time resting on the branch in the warmth of the afternoon sun.

Little Black Cormorant

Visiting the watering hole was worthwhile, and there are definitely more opportunities awaiting me on future visits.