Wales 2011, Red Kites

Ive been vacationing in Wales the last two weeks. Offcourse i humped along a big bag of photo-gear. In the first week we visited two places where they feed the Red Kite. A beautifull sight to see.

And a heck of a workout with your camera, those birds move fast!!

I took these first three at the Red Kite feeding center in Llanddeusant. It was a very cloudy day with horrible light. Also the place where they dump the found is some sort of an enclosure with a fence, so no good pics of a Red Kite with its claws out that day...









It also didnt help that when i took my backpack out of the car my 7D with 300mm attached bounced on the ground... Along with two extra lenses i had in there... Scared the crap out of me. Always check if the bag is zipped up!! Luckily no harm was done to the equipment.

The other place was Bwlch Nant yr Arian. (Dont try to pronounce that, you'll break your tongue.)

This is an awesome place. Lovely to walk around, and with good views on the feeding. Before the feeding started i took some pics of a mamma-duck with 4 ducklings.



During the feeding they decided they wanted their share of the goodies too! So, in the middle of the mayhem of about 60 kites feeding, mamma duck brought her younglings on the shore...











Last year we were at the same place, and then we witnessed a Kite snatching a duckling... So we thought this wouldnt end well. But! After all the little ducks had enough to eat they all went back in the water. Still... Bad parenting on mamma ducks part, in my opinion...





All of the above were taken with the 7D with 300 F/2.8 IS USM on a tripod with swinghead. (Yes, i brought it along!)


I also took this landscape with the Sigma 10-20mm;



This is the view from the parking lot. Stunning, eh?

Another update soon!

Tripods/Monopods/Gimbalheads

Pretty soon after i got into photography i bought a tripod; A Giottos MT9251, with a MH7001 ballhead. Price/quality was excellent in my opinion. Certainly for the starting photographer. It came in a cordura carrying bag, which i still use today.










I still have the tripod and the ballhead, but they are separated these days. Ive placed the ballhead on a Manfrotto 679B Monopod, and the tripod is equipped with a Naturestuff NEK-4 Gimbal head. When i got more and more into wildlife photography, and added the 300mm F/2.8 IS USM L to my lens line-up i bought the Gimbal.



I attached my 100-400L for picture purposes;

Attaching the lens this way to the gimbal served no other purpose then to see if it was possible".

It uses regular Arca-Swiss compatible lensplates. The gimbalhead comes with one plate. If you want more, i recommend E-bay. The loose plates are a tad overpriced compared to the gimbal itself, in my opinion.

I did loads of research on the web on many brands of gimbalheads. Jobu, Redged, Wimberley... All great stuff. But at a hefty price. So, when a dutch
webshop offered these NEK-4's, i thought id take a chance. For half the money of a Wimberley i got this one. At first inspection i found it to be very well
made, with tight tolerances. Not the piece of chinese cr*p i was halfheartedly expecting, really.







After my purchase i found out the one of the dutch wildlife photographers i admire endorses this product, but under a different name.



Since then i havent taken it with me as often as i would have liked/needed it. I usually carry the monopod for quick shots. Downside of that being that
you can never take your hands of the camera. One of my 2011 new years resolutions; Carry it along more often, quite being lazy. ;)

I believe that these are made by Triopo in China. Really sucky website alert! The quality of the website does not resemble the quality of the gimbal..

If you are in the market for a gimbalhead, you might want to look at these. The difference in price is staggering.

You can get it here. Im not affiliated with this site in any way.

Monopod;
The Manfrotto 679B monopod coupled with the Giottos ballhead MH7001 is with me pretty much allways when im out shooting. It supports the heaviest combo that i have, a gripped 7D with the 300mm F/2.8 perfectly.