Just a photo blog today cos i had fun shooting them, and as much fun as the iphone hipstamatic was for the Walk the Wight blog, i definitely needed the 7D for these next shots!

Taken at the Owl Centre in Muncaster, in the Lake district. A fabulous place to visit, run by the ‘World Owl Trust’, another group of people working really hard to help endangered creatures.

All the shots here are watermarked lo-res web versions, if you are interested in using hi-res images for any reason please visit the wildlife gallery on my website, I will make a donation to the world owl trust for any sales made.

©2010 Jason Swain, All Rights Reserved
These images are not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.

So… more fun shooting red squirrels than surfers? well you got to do something when the sea is flat for weeks on end.

It’s not more fun than surfing itself, i can just about remember how much i love that, and it’s been so long since we had good waves to take photos of (6th feb) that i might have just forgotten the fun of doing that. But for the last few days, dawn patrol has been in my back garden with red, and i’ve been more excited about that than i remember being watching the action at Compton or Freshwater Bay.

It started with the squirrel box that i got for my last birthday (thanks freya) and lots of expert advice from Paul Blackley (who has to be the best wildlife photographer on the Island in my book). The fact that i got the Canon 7d now and it can shoot at 8fps and up to IOS 6400 helps too, but the secret mostly consists of a big bag of hazelnuts and a lot of patience.

After a while i’ve learnt the routes he takes, and where he likes to bury the nuts, but its the way he bounces around at high speed and constantly keeps you guessing what he will do next that makes it such good fun to try and catch with a camera. There is a similarity there with surf photography, but i’ve found that after watching and taking pics for years, i can usually read the wave and anticipate what a surfer will do next,  compared to that a squirrel is just a lot more random and so in that way, exciting.

These shots (except the obvious ‘urban acid’ surfing edit) are all shot in RAW and posted here as mostly sooc (straight out of camera) apart from the odd crop and in a few cases a little tweak to the contrast or exposure. In addition to being the first action shots with the new 7D, it’s also the first time i’ve used lightroom (beta 3.2) for managing the files and i’m liking the really subtle control and streamlined workflow its given me.

And because i couldn’t ignore surfing completely, i’ve chucked in an edit of one of my favourite photos from the last good swell.

Hope you like the pics, comments, feedback and criticism are all welcome in the comments box below!