Welcome to my website.
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Hi, my name's Danny and I have been interested in wildlife since I was a child and have been involved in wildlife photography since 2006, this is a renewed interest as I gave up photography when I had 35 mm TTL cameras in the 70s, this was due to work and raising a family. I retired in 2010 after some forty two years in horticulture, so this gives me a fair amount of time to carry out such pursuits as birding and other wildlife interests.
I was inspired by the work of the great Eric Hoskings who I met at the ''Scrape'' at Minsmere in 1973, he was a pleasant chap who was keen to give advice on wildlife photography. At the end of that day, the warden entered the hide at the ''Scrape'' and told use that it was closing time, Eric turned to my friend Jim and I and inquired if we had saw the Red-backed Shrike that was not far from the hide, as we had not he asked if we could have time to view the bird, saying ''we can't have these two chaps going back to Glasgow without seeing the Shrike'', we were given time, saw the bird and went home happy and I've not seen one since.
I lived in the Barrhead area up until October 2019 and used the surrounding countryside in the pursuit of wildlife, despite the title of this site, I have other favourite areas about the U.K. such as the Moray coast, the Wig and Scar at Loch Ryan, Argyll, Norfolk and the Farne Islands to name just a few and in recent years I've spent a fair bit of time down in South Ayrshire and this is where I now live at the moment.
The site will contain images mainly of birds, but will also include mammals, insects, spiders, wild flora and a miscellaneous section for any other subject. I started to take digital images around 2006 with small bridge cameras which came with their own little printer. However I soon found them to be very limited and moved to my first digital SLR which was a Nikon D60. I soon found that it couldn't take more than a 200mm lens and had also left too much to be desired in other features. I wanted to photograph birds and other wildlife like in the 1970's so needed to change and this change came with the Nikon D90. This model could take a decent telephoto lens, was faster and had so many great features built in. Some years after, I added another Nikon camera to my collection of gadgets, this was the Nikon D5300 which was yet another step foreward and impressed me to a point that later on I purchased a second D5300 so I could have two cameras going at the same time.
The lenses used range from macro, wide angle, various telephoto up to 500mm, I did use a x2 tele-converter at times but I did not like the results and stopped using it. As I mentioned, I now have a 500mm lens that I got just this year (2016) as a birthday present from my wife and the results are amazing, so no need for that converter now.
Although I often walk about searching for subjects to photograph, I also use hides and camouflage and in the case of the fox in the snow in the mammals section, I called this fox in during winter of 2010 while semi concealed in a holly bush, it was a still day and it came in like a collie dog allowing several shots. I do not use calls or recordings of bird song to lure birds to the lens, this would cause the birds too much disturbance when they should be feeding and holding territories, my motto is ''Birds first-photos last'', I keep disturbance of birds to an absolute minimum and even then I would much rather go without that image.
I mentioned being in horticulture as a career, well the only gardening I do now is for wildlife at home where most plants grown are strictly for the insects. If birding is my biggest interest, then insects are a close second, especially butterflies and moths. On sunny days of summer the garden is ideal for photography and on days of limited time, with the right plants, shrubs, some water like a small pond, nest boxes and a feeding station, the subjects won't be faraway.
All images are subject to U.K. copyright laws and remain the property of Daniel.G. Jenks /Barrheadbirder at all times, no images may be downloaded or used without my express permission for any purpose whatsoever, if you are interested in any of my work to use or purchase, please contact me.
I was inspired by the work of the great Eric Hoskings who I met at the ''Scrape'' at Minsmere in 1973, he was a pleasant chap who was keen to give advice on wildlife photography. At the end of that day, the warden entered the hide at the ''Scrape'' and told use that it was closing time, Eric turned to my friend Jim and I and inquired if we had saw the Red-backed Shrike that was not far from the hide, as we had not he asked if we could have time to view the bird, saying ''we can't have these two chaps going back to Glasgow without seeing the Shrike'', we were given time, saw the bird and went home happy and I've not seen one since.
I lived in the Barrhead area up until October 2019 and used the surrounding countryside in the pursuit of wildlife, despite the title of this site, I have other favourite areas about the U.K. such as the Moray coast, the Wig and Scar at Loch Ryan, Argyll, Norfolk and the Farne Islands to name just a few and in recent years I've spent a fair bit of time down in South Ayrshire and this is where I now live at the moment.
The site will contain images mainly of birds, but will also include mammals, insects, spiders, wild flora and a miscellaneous section for any other subject. I started to take digital images around 2006 with small bridge cameras which came with their own little printer. However I soon found them to be very limited and moved to my first digital SLR which was a Nikon D60. I soon found that it couldn't take more than a 200mm lens and had also left too much to be desired in other features. I wanted to photograph birds and other wildlife like in the 1970's so needed to change and this change came with the Nikon D90. This model could take a decent telephoto lens, was faster and had so many great features built in. Some years after, I added another Nikon camera to my collection of gadgets, this was the Nikon D5300 which was yet another step foreward and impressed me to a point that later on I purchased a second D5300 so I could have two cameras going at the same time.
The lenses used range from macro, wide angle, various telephoto up to 500mm, I did use a x2 tele-converter at times but I did not like the results and stopped using it. As I mentioned, I now have a 500mm lens that I got just this year (2016) as a birthday present from my wife and the results are amazing, so no need for that converter now.
Although I often walk about searching for subjects to photograph, I also use hides and camouflage and in the case of the fox in the snow in the mammals section, I called this fox in during winter of 2010 while semi concealed in a holly bush, it was a still day and it came in like a collie dog allowing several shots. I do not use calls or recordings of bird song to lure birds to the lens, this would cause the birds too much disturbance when they should be feeding and holding territories, my motto is ''Birds first-photos last'', I keep disturbance of birds to an absolute minimum and even then I would much rather go without that image.
I mentioned being in horticulture as a career, well the only gardening I do now is for wildlife at home where most plants grown are strictly for the insects. If birding is my biggest interest, then insects are a close second, especially butterflies and moths. On sunny days of summer the garden is ideal for photography and on days of limited time, with the right plants, shrubs, some water like a small pond, nest boxes and a feeding station, the subjects won't be faraway.
All images are subject to U.K. copyright laws and remain the property of Daniel.G. Jenks /Barrheadbirder at all times, no images may be downloaded or used without my express permission for any purpose whatsoever, if you are interested in any of my work to use or purchase, please contact me.