Cameras and kit: best buys for wildlife photographers
guardian.co.ukWe turn our focus on the best-value digital cameras and equipment to help capture that perfect wildlife shot
Photograph: Jill Insley
We are surrounded by foxes: there is a smart-looking vixen sitting a couple of yards in front of us looking hungry, while an old dog fox is just to the right. Another couple are sitting on the road to the left and when I carefully look to the rear, there’s another squatted behind us. I know foxes are getting more confident around humans, but this is ridiculous.
We are at Pitsea landfill in Essex, a site run by Veolia Environmental Services and the location for part of the BBC’s Springwatch this year, with Chris Gomersall, who was staff photographer for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds for 14 years. Gomersall is showing us how to make the most of wildlife photography opportunities in the hope that we can take a picture worthy of entering the next Veolia Environnement wildlife photographer of the year competition.
We start off on the landfill site itself, which is quite tricky. The background is a load of rubbish, quite literally, and not the plain canvas that is ideal for showing wildlife in its full glory, while the sky is a leaden grey colour. On the plus side the bulldozers keep obligingly putting the flocks of gulls into flight.
guardian.co.uk
My epic trip to Grays, Thurrock.
Yesterday, my work ran out of till rolls, so we had to phone another store to lend us some. The nearest store that would lend them to us was the Grays branch, just over 20 miles away. So, yours truly get roped into picking them up before her shift started today. Fair enough, they’re paying my expenses and I’m getting paid for the time too. The whole journey, there and back, was supposed to take me an hour and a half. I was getting paid from 10:30am, and I had to aim to be back by 12.
This morning, I got the 10:20 train that I was supposed to get. We went 2 stops, and just as we where about to go under the bridge to pull into the next station (Leigh-on-Sea) we stop. That’s not really unusual, it’s not a huge line, so sometimes you have to wait a bit. After about 20 minutes, the driver starts speaking over the tannoy, saying there’s a fault, and he was trying to fix it . Another 15-20 minutes go by, and he says that they’re gonna have to get another train to push us into the station. 10 minutes later, we start moving again. Once we’re at the station, he said something, I didn’t quite hear him properly, but I think he said there was an “epic fault” and we had to get off. They sent another train for us, so everyone hops on that one, but they didn’t tell us that when it got to Pitsea, it was going to go in the wrong direction. They only announced it as the doors were about to close. Luckily I was standing by the door, so I was able to jump off quickly, and go over the foot bridge and get to the other platform before the train I needed came.
Finally got to the other shop at 11:50, got what I needed and left. Grays high street must be the only high street in the U.K without a McD’s, so I couldn’t get the milkshake and fries I’d been craving (thanks to Tessie), so I got a sandwich from Greggs, and was back at the station by 12, only for my return train to be delayed until 12:15. The rest of the way back went without a hitch, and I was at work by 1pm.
Essex Traffic -.-
Got on the bus at 8.14 today to go to my college in Basildon, woke up to my mate Ella ringing me to tell me to go home because Pitsea is flooded and I wouldnt be able to get through, and then realised I had been on the bloody bus for an hour and was only at tarpots (which is supposed to take 10 minutes lol since I live in Canvey) apparantly theres been accidents here too. College was definately not made for today lol x
