OTP - The Birder and The Conservationist
Getting a photograph of both the birder and the conservationist was very difficult, sadly I was unable to photograph the conservationist as I had trouble even finding one, the people that work at my local nature reserve refused to have their portraits taken or even to be photographed whilst they are working. However the birder I was able to photograph a friend that I have encountered over at Rainham Marshes. They also asked for there to be no portrait but they was willing to do the other images. For this I mainly stayed in a photographic bird hide and got the images in there. I decided to get detail images of some of the equipment as well as them just doing what they would usually do. The landscape I got was of the actual reserve itself so that it shows the area in which I photographed in. Another shot that I really wanted was to have a bird feeding from a hand. Over at the marshes plenty of birds are usually willing to take food from the hand but due to the weather condition I couldn't. I needed to find another place so I decided to go greenwich park with a friend as I know that they birds and squirrels can be hand fed there and after being there for an hour of two I got the photograph I wanted. Another photograph I really wanted was a silhouette of a birder with warm golden colours behind coming from the setting sun. I could not complete this a the nature reserve due to the weather condition again, so I needed a friend to help. Once ready at the location we just waited for the sun to slowly set and then started shooting, I started messing around with the setting, changing both the shutter speed and the ISO and after putting it into photoshop, I got the image I wanted. All I needed now was a portrait, this was probably the hardest part, after asking and being refused at each location I went to I was running out of options. Until I went to the Greenwich Ecological Park, I went there for the people working there but yet I found another birder watching the wildlife around him, I walked up to him and asked for his portrait and he actually agreed, I was so happy when he said sure. Once the photograph was taken we talked about the area and how much wildlife has changed over the years and what can be done to help these kind of things, it really was a privilege to take his photograph and have a discussion with him.
