I don’t think I’ve done a blog yet about Lake Okareka, which is ridiculous considering the amount of time I’ve spent there over the years. Not 20 minutes away from home, it’s a fantastic place to get some nice bird photos. There’s a hide along the boardwalk that Welcome Swallows nest in, but Dad and I prefer to stay out in the open, as the birds often aren’t too bothered by us. We sometimes take a low chair or waterproof jacket to sit on so we can position ourselves low in the reeds to get a nice angle on the birds on the lake. It’s always worth waiting until the sun has gone down entirely, as sometimes there’ll be a short burst of lovely warm light just before it sets.

Yesterday was the first time we’d visited all summer, and I was overwhelmed by the number of birds there were, mainly Paradise Ducks and Canada Geese. The geese were moulting and had no flight feathers, normally they fly between the hills and the lake to feed. There was also a profusion of flax in bloom, which was feeding handfuls of Tui. I was getting used to a new monopod, which is wonderfully lighter than the one I used to use. Dad and I both made the mistake of starting to shoot in JPEGs, as we had been calibrating lenses and hadn’t checked our settings before we started shooting, assuming them to be on RAW as usual. Never assume! Always check your settings before you start to shoot!

Okareka is good practice for me for a number of things. The different backgrounds mean that I have to adjust my exposure compensation to get correctly exposed birds – which is especially difficult with black male Paradise Ducks and their white-headed females. The females need minus exposure compensation to keep their heads from over-exposing, while the males need a bit of positive exposure compensation so that the details in their dark feathers aren’t lost. It’s also good for catching flying birds, so anticipating what the birds will do and having the speed to catch them is vital.