Photography station now ready for testing....

I wanted to let you all know about our latest visitor facility - a dedicated photography station.  It is a short walk from the visitor centre and has bird feeders and natural perches to provide opportunities to get good images of some of the commoner species of bird at Lakenheath Fen.  We have thought about the location and setting to enable visitors to get good close up images of birds in a natural setting.  The station faces north, to give good lighting throughout the day.  We have built is as low as possible to try to prevent the screens shading the birds in the low winter sunshine.  As you can see from the photograph below it is made from timber and Norfolk grown reed panels to blend in with the landscape.  At present there are three seated and a single prone photography position in place to give you eye level photographs of the birds visiting the feeders.  We will add more seats in the next few weeks as well as putting down a stone base and further camouflage the station with netting to encourage the more elusive birds to feel comfortable.

Photography station - Dave Rogers

We have designed each seat so that a tripod can be used for those of you with large heavy telephoto lenses, with the front leg of the tripod able to fit through a gap in the screen.  We also have some bean bags available for hire in the Visitor Centre for those of you without a tripod but who want to get the sharpest images.  Why not give one a try!

Seated position with tripod and camera in place - Dave Rogers

After having the feeders out for a week the station is getting good numbers of great tits and blue tits visiting and lots of reed buntings.  Goldfinch have also been attracted in and over the last few days chaffinch, dunnock and pheasant have also been seen.

Blue tit - Dave Rogers

Great tit - Dave Rogers

Goldfinch - Dave Rogers

Male reed bunting - Dave Rogers

For those who are interested in the technicalities all the bird images were shot on a 1.5x cropped frame sensor camera using a 500mm lens on a tripod.  The images have been cropped to be square but there is no further cropping so the vertical resolution is as shot.  Once we have completed construction please do give us feedback on the location of the branches and feeders as these can be moved closer if required for frame filling shots.  Indeed we are interested in hearing constructive feedback on the photography station from users as a number of other reserves are interested in installing similar features for photographers.

Many thanks to all who have helped in the construction of this project but particularly wardens Emma and Alan and volunteers Cat and Ellie who have put a lot of time and effort into the project.

Dave Rogers

Site Manager