Spring bloom
Karo - Pittosporum crassifolium It’s last light, golden fragments flung from scattered clouds in an icey blue sky painting the tallest reaches of a struggling karo tree that sits outside…
Brown quails
I get a real kick out of seeing these little birds. Brown quails are one of two introduced quail species in Aotearoa - originally from Australia, they have filled the…
Little shearwaters
Last week I started work on another part of my PhD project - monitoring the breeding success of little shearwaters. These wee birds are very cryptic. Unlike fluttering shearwaters, we…
Geckos in the ceiling
This week I’m back in the field again - looking for little shearwaters! One of the highlights of working on the islands (apart from all the birds!) is the amazing…
Hawking fantails
I've been really enjoying playing with my 300mm f/4 PF recently, getting used to a non-zoom lens for bird photography. I've been lab-bound for a while, escaping on the weekends…
Sitting with the Southern Royals
Come and sit with me in the tussock, looking out across the megaherb gardens on Campbell Island. Tuck down and nest in the golden grass, sheltered from the wind strafing…
Little goals
I've been trying to nail a nice riroriro Grey warbler photograph recently. There's a pair that shows up every now and then in my sparse urban garden, foraging in the…
Plastic Ocean
The dangers of plastics in our ecosystem is an issue that is becoming more mainstream knowledge. We've begun to realise that nothing that we throw 'away' truly vanishes - it…
Spotlit toutouwai
I wrote a post recently about OOFFE (Out-of-focus foreground elements!) and how they can help remove distractions in cluttered images. A weekend trip to Ecology bush at Tāwharanui was the…
Leaving Campbell Island
Leaving a harbour for the open sea can be daunting. We read forecasts and anticipate the swells and the wind, but experiencing the transition from stillwater to rolling ocean is…
Incoming!
Little zipping tūturuatu (Shore plover) are difficult to photograph in flight! They're very speedy wee birds. After spending a lot of time, and getting a lot of blurry images of…
A hike around Enderby Island – 2020
In 2015, Enderby island was my first boots-on-ground subantarctic island experience. It was Christmas Day. I opted to see as much of the island as possible on a circumnavigatory hike…
Little zooming legs
Even walking in a group, I usually end up on my own. At the back. Or way behind, distracted by patterns, plants, light, and of course, birds. I like taking…
Adding OOFFE to your images
Lets talk about OOFFE. By which I mean "Out-of-focus foreground elements". It's a terrible acronym, but the alternative is a mouthful! Typically in wildlife photography, you want a clear shot…
Dinner
This tiny titipounamu with his dinner is one of my favourite images from a weekend up in Arthur's Pass a few years ago. The light was gorgeous but gone inside…