News and updates

Over the past week I moved all my websites to a new server. It was a little nerve-wracking at times, but apart from a few missed emails due to a glitch at the host’s end, it seemed to go fairly smoothly.
I have now started on some changes to the site which I hope will make it even easier to find the photos and info you are after. The first area to get a bit of a makeover is the news and updates section. Apart from some styling tweaks, the exciting thing here is that you can now subscribe to this section to get RRS feeds. I intend to make more regular announcements of new additions to the gallery, as well as regular “feature photos”, where I’ll select some of my favourite shots and give you some of the details of their making. Subscribe and you’ll know straight away when I’ve added new content. Click the link in the new navigation panel on the left to get started.
As always, your feedback is always welcome.

Neil.

I have just uploaded the latest of a series of articles I’ve written about some of New Zealand’s wildlife, with tips on where and how to photograph them. This one focusses on Australasian gannets (Morus serrator)—magnificent birds that provide plenty of opportunities for beautiful portraits and photos of interesting behavior.

I hope you enjoy it.

As if conducting a choir, an Australasian gannet breaks hard to stop in mid air and fall clumsily in a crowded breeding colony at Cape Kidnappers. To see more photos like this, have a look at the gallery, and read my latest species profile article.

This is not a detailed camera review—there are countless photographers and writers with far more talent and experience in this regard than I will ever have. Nor do I have the time or inclination to take thousands of photos of test charts and running men in order to tear apart every custom function and analyse the last drop of performance. If you want a long list of specs, download and read the manual, or check out one of the many websites that repeat all that info. What follows is simply my thoughts to date on the EOS 1D Mark IV, the latest top shelf offering from Canon.

(read more…)

New Zealand storm-petrels are fast and highly maneuverable in flight, making them a challenge to shoot—with camera or net-gun.

It has been noticed that recently I have been a bit tardy with additions of new images. One of the things that has diverted some time from image processing has been the New Zealand storm-petrel project. These little sea birds had been considered extinct for more than 150 years but were rediscovered in 2003. Now that we know where and what to look for, they are regularly seen on pelagic bird watching trips in the Hauraki Gulf (off the north east coast of the North Island), however relatively little is known about them. One major concern is that no one knows where they breed, and this raises fears that mammalian predators or other events could have catastrophic impacts on what is almost certainly a perilously small population. Accordingly, finding the breeding site has been the focus of recent NZSP research. (read more…)

A rare feathered visitor was recently discovered by sharp-eyed birders in Auckland, and has been causing quite a bit of excitement in bird watching circles since. To many people it might look like just another gull—the sort that gathers at coastal carparks looking for handouts of potato chips and bread. Some might notice a bit of a black smudge on its head. To those interested in these things though, it is a Franklin’s Gull (Larus pipixcan), and when the Rare Birds Committee inevitably accept the identification it will be only the second of its kind recorded in New Zealand. (read more…)