What a great evening. @Padlock and his wife invited us over for a spot of badger watching. We needed our passports as we headed North on the M25 into Hertfordshire. It was pretty nippy although we had very comfortable chairs in the hide. Initially 4 rats kept us amused and I had worried that they would be todays photo. However within half an hour of arrival the scene in front of us became something out of a Disney movie. At one point we had 3 rats, 6 badgers, 2 foxes, a Muntjac deer and numerous rabbits in front of us. Even a robin put in an appearance earlier on.
Although our main aim was to actually see the badgers, obviously we wanted to photograph them as well. There was some very low level floodlighting which I could not overcome on the white balance which is why I have concerted to black and white. We also soon discovered that manual focus was the way forward as the light was so low although it was still difficult to see to do this. I used the highest ever ISO setting at 25,600 and found my 'fast' lens 24-700mm f/2.8 was the best for me as the shutter speed was much lower than I really should have used.
So, I don't think I'll be entering this for this years Wildlife Photography competition but I'm really pleased to have seen the badgers close up! Thank you to @Padlock for organising the evening and it was a great pub dinner afterwards.
Wow how wonderful to be able to see these!! I love the idea of the Disney Movie - to see all those animals together - my idea of heaven!! Fav for this fab capture!!
@pamknowler@tristansmum Thank you both for the faves - I really appreciate it. You re right, it was good just to see the badgers, we got greedy and wanted photos!
March 24th, 2015
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