My experience Photographing Ospreys at Horn Mill Trout Farm, near Rutland Water
It's 2:30 am when my alarm wrenches me awake.
It feels like I've only just got to sleep, but I force myself out of bed.
Once I've pulled my clothes on and grabbed my camera bag, I creep downstairs. I don't want to wake anyone else at this ungodly hour.
An hour later, I pull through the Horn Mill Trout Farm gate and park near a group of shadowy figures standing in the pre-dawn gloom.
"You made it, then. We were about to start without you!" says the organiser. I'm five minutes earlier than the start time but never mind. Note to self, if I ever visit again, make sure I’m extra early!
He leads us down the hill past serval ponds; the gentle sound of running water fills the darkness.
The seven other photographers and I are soon settled into a well-constructed wildlife hide beside the largest trout pond. After introducing ourselves in hushed whispers, we settle down to wait.
An hour passes, and the sky gradually lightens, but no sign of any wildlife.
Then, a red kite floats quietly over the pond, its eyes searching for a fishy breakfast. There seem to be no dead fish floating on the surface as it quickly moves on. As far as I know, kites will dive in and snatch any dead carrion they can, but they don't hunt live fish.
Another ten minutes pass, and I think we might be wasting our time here. A lot of effort has gone in to being here, and it’ll be such a shame to come away with nothing to show for it…
I'm jerked away from my thoughts by the crackle of a walkie-talkie.
"Osprey coming in from the south-west."
Everyone grabs their cameras and leans forward.
"Getting closer, definitely heading your way."
The organiser is sat in his pickup truck at the top of the hill where we entered, and from that vantage point, he can give us an early warning of any approaching ospreys.
Suddenly, we see it.
Except that can't be an Osprey; it's enormous!
I ready my camera while keeping an eye on the bird. It circles the pond once, and before anyone expects it, it dives.
With a splash that lasts mere seconds, the eagle emerges with a trout, and its strong wings carry it over our heads and out of sight.
There are excited gasps, and everyone starts chattering excitedly (while trying to remain as quiet as possible).
Once I recover from the shock of the suddenness of the whole thing, my next priority is my photos.
My camera shutter has been firing like a machine gun, and I'm sure I caught the entire thing.
I excitedly scroll through my pictures on the back of my camera.
Blurry.
Every single one. I missed focus.
I'm so annoyed with myself, and my frustration intensifies as we sit for another half an hour.
I put these negative thoughts out of my mind; there is still a chance of another Osprey hunting this morning.
I make a quick plan. I will stay zoomed out and shoot at the wide end of my lens now: 100 mm.
I'm sticking to a single focus point in the middle of the frame, and I will get that onto the next bird's head (if there is another one); come what may!
Another ten minutes pass, and then, the guy next to me nudges me and points out a kingfisher that has just landed on a perch a few meters away.
Bonus! It's the first Kingfisher I've ever seen, and I instantly grab some photos of it.
What surprises me is how bright the orange is on its chest; I've heard everyone talk about how bright the blue is on their back, and it is, but the orange is vivid, too.
I'm just focusing on getting photos of the Kingfisher when the walkie-talkie buzzes back to life. Another Osprey is coming in.
The Osprey lands in the tree, and I zoom in to take some photos of it. The Kingfisher is still in front of us, too. Now, I am trying to decide what to focus on!
I take a deep breath and focus on the Osprey. Sticking to my plan, I zoom out, ready for its dive. I follow it down.
I'll let the photos do the talking.
The next half-hour is action-packed. A juvenile Osprey came in next and tried to fish several times, unsuccessfully, and interacted with a heron before getting chased off by the dominant male Osprey.
Before we know it, the organiser opens the door and tells us the trout farm has to open for the day, and our session is over.
I'm buzzing as I step out into the morning light. It's the most incredible wildlife experience I've ever had, and I'll never forget it. I'm hooked!
My top tips for photographing Ospreys in England
If you’re planning a visit to Horn Mill Osprey Hide (and I highly recommend that you do) here are some tips:
Make sure you have your camera battery fully charged and bring a spare one fully charged as well if you have one. Bring as many SD cards as you have and make sure that you have emptied them before the shoot. Get your camera and lens assembled and take some test shots ahead of time to make sure everything is working as it should be.
Get there at least 30 minutes earlier than they tell you to.
For refence on this shoot I was using my Canon EOS 90D with an EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM
My recommended lens would be a 70-200mm f2.8, you don’t need much more reach than 200mm and it’s easier to follow these fast moving birds slightly wider anyway, you might need to crop in a bit afterwards. Also as the wider f2.8 aperture will let more light in, this is handy when shooting in low light conditions.
Use the fastest shutter speed on your camera, yes it takes a bit more time when culling images later but it increases your chances of getting a good shot. I shoot in short high speed bursts and try to adjust focus on each set of shots, that way if some of the bursts of photos miss focus, you don’t miss the entire action.
Settings wise, I’d recommend that you shoot in manual mode and adjust your exposure compensation to -1 whole stop. Set your aperture to wide open (e.g. f2.8 or depending on your lens you might be at f4 or f5.6) Put your ISO on auto. Then play with your shutter speed - you’ll need to adjust this throughout the shoot, take some test shots and see what affect it is having on your ISO. The faster the better to freeze motion, but you don’t really want your ISO going to far above 6400 if you can help it. I’d suggest that you start at between 1/1000 second and 1/2000 second and see how you get on.
Shoot everything as RAW files so that you have more control over editing them in Lightroom later - if you don’t have Lightroom yet you could shoot JPEG as well, but I personally don’t bother with JPEGs.
Enjoy yourself, this is one of the most amazing natural spectacles that you can witness in the UK!
My favourite shot from the session is below.
I love the fact that I captured (by chance) the Ospreys eyelid half open.
For reference my settings on this shot were as follows:
Focal length: 100mm (the 90D is a crop sensor camera so this is effectively 160mm on a full frame camera)
Shutter speed: 1/2000 second
Aperture: f4.5
ISO: 4000
Although my exposure compensation was -2/3 the highlights were slightly blown out, I don’t feel that it ruins the image but bear in mind that you do want to be underexposing to avoid this.
