“Mirror, mirror on the wall…”

I held my latest wildlife photography workshop at the London Wetland Centre this morning in association with Handmade Workshops.

We had five people, and it was very enjoyable—I hope for them as well as for me!

I started out by taking everyone to the Kingfisher restaurant where we all had a drink and sat in one of the booths. I took them through a PowerPoint presentation on Wildlife Photography for an hour or so, covering all the basics including equipment, clothing, location, settings and rules of composition.

The point of the talk was to encourage everyone to experiment and do things differently for a change. That involved shooting in Manual mode with Auto ISO and using back-button focus.

We then went outside to see the otter feeding at 1100. The two Asian short-clawed otters were a bit late arriving, but they were very active and playful, so there were plenty of photo opportunities.

I tried to help people get the best possible shots. They were all using DSLRs or mirrorless cameras, so it was easy to see their basic settings on the LCD screens on top of the camera bodies.

My most common suggestion was that they needed to get down lower. The first rule of wildlife photography is to take shots at the level of the animal’s eyes—but it can be a bit hard on the knees!

After an hour or so, people went their separate ways to take pictures of the birds in various ponds and lakes, and I divided my time between them as best I could.

We ended up back in the restaurant for a review session, in which we had a look at everyone’s pictures and shared our feedback.

I offered a prize for the best photograph (as chosen by the whole group), and Gordon won it for this shot of an otter. Well done, Gordon! He gets a code for 25% off anything on my website, including books, podcasts, wallpaper, framed prints and lessons.

This is the second of the workshops I’ve run at the London Wetland Centre this year. If you’re interested in coming along to the final one, it takes place on Saturday, 5 November from 0930-1330. You can find out more details on my Events page, and you can book tickets through the Handmade Creative Workshops website.

If you’d like to order a framed print of one of my wildlife photographs, please visit the Prints page.

If you’d like to book a lesson or order an online photography course, please visit my Lessons and Courses pages.