Before I close this entry, I've just realised that I never updated you all with the results for the Marwell Wildlife Photography Competition 2011. I'm pleased to announced that my entry, Buckeroo, received runner up in the Adult Native category. Apparently the shot would of won if it wasn't for politics. Apparently a number of the judges deemed that New Forest Ponies are not TRUE wildlife as they are owned, despite the fact they roam free and foel on the forest.

At any rate I’m not complaining - the winning shot was one I personally voted for in the Peoples Choice awards. Congratulations to all the winners and other runners up. I look forward to entering again next year.

Anyway people stay tuned and I’ll leave you with a shot from a recent trip to Monkey World a few weeks back or a posing Lemur.

View More Photography by Justin Kercher at www.photography-prints.co.uk

Its been a long couple of months, and with the submission deadline in 2 days I decided to take a trip to the Marwell website to see if anything had changed. I was pleased to see one of my submissions being used as the image on the main Marwell website for promoting the competition. For some reason however, I felt compelled to review the competition rules.

I was then very alarmed to see that I had either missed one of the rules on my original submission, or they had been amended. The one clause I am referring to is that images must of been taken within the last year! All 5 of my submissions were now void and ineligible for entry.

I contact Marwell straight away to apologise for the cock up and inform them my images were in breach of rules. Thankfully they allowed me to submit five new images.

Now the main reason I am dropping a line here. Marwell have uploaded all competition entries to Flickr in order to allow people to 'vote' for their favorite images in order to win the 'Peoples Choice Award'. This is where all my followers come in.

I would like to ask all my supporters to take a trip to the Marwell Wildlife Flickr page, sign into your Flickr accounts and 'favorite' any images you think deserve to win the Peoples Choice Award. Do not feel you have to vote for my entries , but any support is greatly appreciated. It would be nice to win a competition for a change! Follow the link below to be taken to the Flickr page for voting.

Visit Marwell Wildlife Peoples Choice Award Photostream

Currently my entries appear on page 12 in the Flickr photostream. The original entries are still in the gallery due to the comments that have been placed on them - Please DO NOT VOTE on these images. They are in the later pages of the photo pool.

For easy reference, here are direct links to my entries.

I thank you all in advance for your on going support of my photographic work.

Thanks for now!

View More Photography by Justin Kercher at www.photography-prints.co.uk

Sorry about that! Have no idea why that restriction was on by default and I never spotted it during the page setup. doh!

Please feel free to like the page and spread the word amongst your friends.

In addition to this, the old 'Justin Kercher Photography' Facebook group is now no more. It has been completely removed so update your links with the url to the new page.

You can access the new page by clicking the Facebook icon in the top right of this website.

Thanks in advance to all, and apologies again for the inconvenience!

View More Photography by Justin Kercher at www.photography-prints.co.uk

I've also been busy with the website. The gallery system has been updated so that thumbnails are now automatically generated related to their orientation rather than generated from a portrait oriented cropped version. The only issue here is that users of IE7 and older will not see the thumbnails centralised within they're containers. I'm currently working on a CSS solution to that so bear with me. However those of you still on IE6 or 7 REALLY should upgrade. IE9 is now out for Vista+ so get on it!

I've also added Facebook 'Like' buttons to the FancyBox popup when visitors view an image in the gallery. Clicking the like button will share that image with all your Facebook friends so get clicking on this like buttons! And finally, the like button at the top of the website will allow you to 'Like' my new Facebook page where you can keep track of my photographic adventures, (for want of a better phrase).

View More Photography by Justin Kercher at www.photography-prints.co.uk

You'll all be pleased to know that I have just returned from a family holiday in Snowdonia. My favorite place in the UK for the last few years. The weather was scorching although this didn't bode well photography wise due to very heavy haze all week which resulted in quite boring sunrises and not a single sunset!

Regardless I worked hard, getting up and out the door at 4am every morning to capture some new landscape shots which I have posted in the Landscapes -> Snowdonia gallery for you to enjoy. If anyone has any comments or critique etc please feel free to contact me or drop a line on the Facebook page, (that's right - PAGE not GROUP).

I have just created a new page on Facebook as I will be ditching the official photography prints group. Facebook groups seem to have died so a re-launch is in order. I've updated the facebook link above and added a 'Like' button for your convenience. PLEASE spread the word to your friends and ask them to like the page as well! As I don't do photography for a living, I can't justify advertising so word of mouth is my best promotional tool!

Anyway's enjoy the new shots and hopefully you'll here from me with some new shots later in the week now the weathers picked up and sunrise is earlier in the morning.

View More Photography by Justin Kercher at www.photography-prints.co.uk

Basically whilst i'm at work, (working from home sat behind my computer coding), I will have my D300+17-55mm f2.8 tripod mounted and setup in my front garden, prefocused on one of the feeding stations. Usually I go out of my way to avoid bird feeders in my photos and opt for a near by perch. Unfortunatly I don't have this setup available at home (yet) and as this is purely for practice, what the hell.

Im not hoping for many shots at the moment as the birds need to get used to the presence of the camera in their garden, and to the sound of the camera shutter.

Hopefully with today's light I might get a worthwhile shot but i'm not putting too much hope into it yet. I had a play yesterday in poor light and got a few stationary shots of the tits on the feeder but not flight ones. I have a feeling i'll end up aiming at bigger birds for landing shots such as pigeons and a local collared dove. Its going to take time and patience but hopefully i'll get there.

Anything I do get will be posted in the gallery under 'X Remote LiveView Test'

View More Photography by Justin Kercher at www.photography-prints.co.uk

I came across an interesting gadget in town today and just had to buy one. A 'Hahnel Inspire Wireless LiveView Remote Control'. A while ago I was considering purchasing Nikon Camera Control Pro 2 so that I could rig my camera up outside my front door and get shots of the birds near the feeders when sat at my computer working. I decided against it however.

Looking round Southampton today after my usual trip to the coffee shop and my father started looking at what I had previously dismissed as just another ZigView live-view rip off. I never use live view. The viewfinder is all I need and its far more reliable than an LCD screen regardless of how high resolution it is. Anyway upon closer inspection I realised it was a wireless live view with a remote shutter control built in. I had to buy it for £180. I couldn't say no. I was intrigued.

At this point I didn't realise that the unit had its own built in camera in the transmitted module that sits on the camera. So that's handy for a number of reasons. The transmitter also has support for video input from your cameras AV output and combined with your D-SLR's LiveView mode, (providing it has one), It can transmit the live view video image to the hand held receiver so not only can you see what the transmitter sees, but what the camera sees as well.

Now this is pretty handy and I can already envisage a number of situations where it will be useful with wildlife photography.

• Wireless remote shutters have been around a while but you have no idea what the camera sees and it involves a certain amount of pot luck, and numerous wasted shots from holding down the shutter button when you think something might be in focus and in front of the camera. Now you can actually SEE what's in front of the camera and what the live view sees before you trigger the shutter. There's still going to be a bit of guess work but at least you can be sure for slower moving subjects before taking shots.
• Because its a remote shutter that works up to 60 metres away and because of the live view, i'll be able to get wide angle shots of timid wildlife that wouldn't of been possible before if I was present with the camera. I'm thinking squirrels and the likes here that can be quite difficult to approach, and getting close enough with a 10mm lens would be impossible except in a zoo or somewhere with extremely tame squirrels. Not just squirrels though but certain types of birds etc.
• Wide angle shots of birds landing on a branch near a well positioned feeding station
• Closer shots of more wild birds, including waders. Sticking the camera low down in the water and hiding somewhere to take the shots when something drifts in front of the camera without disturbing the subject or getting wet could be quite handy.

Ok so its not going to be used a great deal but its going to come in handy in some situations,(namely those above).

Using this sort of technique obviously requires presetting of exposure and composition and predicting where the subject will be when you trip the shutter, but that's been the case since remote shutters were invented. The unit allows autofocus but I can already see that pre focusing is probably going to be a big requirement in most scenarios. The delay in the received image although marginal, plus the time it takes for the camera to switch from LiveView to taking the actual shot means that adding af time could severely hinder your success.

Anyway hopefully i'll get a chance to use it sometime soon providing this blasted weather sorts itself out! Here's a pic of the transmitter mounted to my Nikon D300+200-400mm f4 VR, and the wireless receiver unit.Its a bad photo as it was taken in my room on my HTC Desire but you get the idea. I'll put a better picture up tomorrow when i'm outside somewhere.

Stay tuned for some pics from this new setup when the weathers better!

View More Photography by Justin Kercher at www.photography-prints.co.uk

Well as the title clearly states, I’ve spent the day playing with tits. And before you get excited, yes I mean birds. No, not a birds tits, just birds. As in blue tits, coal tits, long tailed tits and the like.

I ventured out this morning for sunrise at 6am and wound up at Keyhaven. The cloud cover was heavy so I left and headed on up to Barton on Sea, then to Mudeford etc. I then decided to go and check out Stanpit marsh as its the only reserve round here I’ve not visited. It’s quite nice. Open space with lot of winter waders and even some rabbits to play with.

Anyway the cloud broke and I had 10 minutes of the most incredible light i've seen in months. Only problem was there was bugger all in front of my lens to capture. Then the light disappeared and on cue, rain clouds appeared.
I cussed, mooched back to the car and opted to head into Southampton to my regular coffee shop for my usual Mocha. (If anyone is local, go checkout Nathan’s coffee shop near Bargate. Best coffee shop on the planet with the best coffee and the freshest baguettes. And no I’ve not been paid to say that).

I then grabbed a baguette and headed home. To my surprise the sun started shining at mid day so I decided ot head out with my camera to checkout the New Forest Wildlife, (previously the Otter and Owl Sanctuary).
I've been meaning to head there again for months to see the wolves and it was only two minutes up the road. I quickly discovered that wolf photography was out. The fences were too thick and electrified so I couldn't get my lens near enough to remove the bars from a shot. Besides there were no wolves out. A rotting deer carcass was the only scene of interest, although I was quite worried as it looked like the remains of Dottie, a friendly Sika Deer who used to follow everyone around the park and she wasn't around the place. I hope it wasn't her!

Anyway I retreated to the bird feeding stations that were alive with various tits and proceeded to stand there for the next two and a half hours to get used to my new ballhead and tripod with the telephoto mounted on it.
I obtained quite a few nice shots, and was quite happy to see a few long tail tits appearing, although I never got a chance to catch a shot of them.  A spotted woodpecker also made a brief landing in front of me but typically as soon as you get your eye to the viewfinder, it’s gone again.

You'll find the shots in the bird’s gallery under song birds. I keep thinking about renaming the category to garden birds - I think it might be more fitting. Let me know what you guys think.

Weather is looking promising for the morning but I can't decide where I want to go or what to shoot. I really should get some landscape or coastal work done but I’m bored of the local counties of Hampshire and Dorset. I Might venture into the South Downs if I have the fuel.

View More Photography by Justin Kercher at www.photography-prints.co.uk

Midnight on friday I set off for Donna Nook. I was already aware that there may be snow over the weekend and that the roads might be bad, but NOTHING was going to stop me from reaching Donna Nook. The only major photography trip i've done this year just HAD to go ahead.

Anyway I shall skip stories of various road closures and diversions that turned a 5.5 hour trip into a 6.5 hour trip and jump ahead.

I arrived at Donna Nook at 6.30am and was greeted with a snow covered car park. I had been hoping there would still be some snow around for my trip so I was happy. I opened the car door, stepped out and froze. Now anyone that goes shooting with me will testify that its rare for me to feel the cold, but I was sure as hell feeling it now. I glanced back at the trip computer in my car and realized it was -7º Celsius! I instantly had to throw my big warm and padded real tree camo jacket on and two pairs of very thick socks. So thick in fact that my shoe laces wouldn't tie and walking was very uncomfortable.

Anyway I took a walk out of the car park and down the path to the Wardens post that marks the start of the Donna Nook beach.  I peered over the rope of the sanctuary and sighed a relief - there were seals.  They were ice pops but still seals.

I then walked around the side to the main path and noticed a very large banner hanging between two poles blocking my path stating that the Wildlife trust do not want anyone on the beach for any reason. Now I totally understand and agree with this but I was quite worried i'd wasted a trip. More on this sign and the wildlife trust later.

Anyway I wondered back to the car and I looked up and paused. The sky was crystal clear and I have NEVER seen so many stars in my life. No light pollution out to sea on the east coast and I just had to get a shot to kill some time before sunrise. I spent ten minutes setting up my kit and framed a shot. Seeing as it was pitch black it took a while.  As there's little of interest in the car park and the beach was a no go at this point I settled for an exposure of the the Wildlife Trust 'Hut' welcoming people to Donna Nook.

I wanted to capture the stars without having any form of trail, so keeping the exposure time short was high priority. However I also wanted the hut and foreground in sharp focus so I had to compromise and settled form a time of 3 minutes, ISO800  @ f/8. I took the shot and stomped around the car park for 6 minutes waiting for the exposure and noise compensation to complete and went back to the camera. I pressed play and smiled in quiet content at the result.

So the trip was off to a good start I thought. I packed up kit and went back to the car to wait until sunrise.

At 7.45am I started gearing up, stuck my 400mm f4 onto my D300, slung the 15KG of other camera gear on my back, grabbed the tripod and made my way to the beach front. I went around the wildlife trust banner I mentioned earlier and stopped at the rope blocking entrance to the beach. I was in a complete moral dilemma as to whether I should go onto the beach whilst no one was around or just stay there and write the trip off.

The sun was coming up and after 15 minutes, the wildlife trust warden and his assistant showed up and we got chatting. He explained they have no authority to stop people going onto the beach but they're asking people not to, including photographers.

Now I totally understand and respect why they are doing this. There are too many photographers that insist on getting so close to seals that they can feel the seals breath on their face. This not only puts the photographer in danger but also puts the seals very life at risk, especially if that seal is a pup. (If you get your scent on a pup the mother will reject it or kill it outright). Apparently mortality rates at Donna Nook are 9% higher than last years.

The other reason is that the general public, whilst most don't, see photographers going out onto the beach and think its ok for them to. So they head out themselves and usually with a big group of people that are with them.

So I can understand entirely the points made by the wildlife trust. However I hold the view that, if your a serious photographer, have a telephoto lens, are on your own and not in a group, and that you have absolute respect for the seals wellbeing, learning about them and keeping your distance etc, it should be fine.

I explained all this to the warde, (mainly because I was going out regardless and I felt guilty about it), and stated that if lots of people turn up I shall leave the beach area and return to the car park. He seemed ok with this and so I set off. I'd missed a brutal sunrise whilst talking to the warden but wasn't going to miss the golden glow of morning light. I started out on to the snow covered dunes, locating seals and creeping up on them, taking a few shots and leaving them again.

After an hour, no one else except two other photographers had shown up at the car park and the two photographers had already made their way down the mile long beach to the sea line where the main colony of seals were. The sea at Donna Nook comes up the entire length of that mile so all the mud flats were frozen and the sand of the beach was an ice rink with frozen sea water. I decided I might as well make the most of the nice light and casually walked down to the main colony - most of which were sleeping.

When I got there, I was once again reminded why the Wildlife Trust are trying to keep people off the beach. The two photographers that had walked passed me were laying flat down, nose to nose with a seal pup. I kid you not, one of them was less than a foot away from the pups nose. Last year I encountered a spanish photographer terrorizing a seal pup by being this close and chasing it around everytime the pup tried to get away and I had a go at him about it. However I was too tired to get into arguments with ignorant photographers and so made my way further up the shoreline to concentrate on the main colony.

The light was getting harsh but I managed to get some lovely shots of the various pups, cows and bulls that were there. At one point I even had a suprise when a 'Little Stint' stepped boldly in front of my lens.

There was some sandy areas where the snow had been washed away by the retreating tide and I was happy - but god was I cold. At around 12pm I decided that I just had to head back to the car and get to the B&B to catch up with the owners, get changed and get some sleep so that I could spend the entire next day (sunday/today) shooting. I crashed around 3pm and woke up at 8pm for dinner with the hosts at the B&B. We then spent the evening talking until 10pm when I turned in.

During the evening I became aware of the bad snow that was hitting most of the country and I suddenly realized that I could get stranded in Lincolnshire. Normally I wouldn't care but I had work the next day and so with that in mind I got up at 7am, abandoned my plans for seal photography from sunrise to sunset and headed home. I was disappointed and very exhausted after having been on my feet for over 38 hours non-stop but I had to make the trip early in case of any hold ups and traffic. The situation with the snow appeared to be a myth until I hit A421 joining the M1 to the A1(M). Two lanes, one partially gritted the other totally snow covered, and very heavy fog. From this point on the trip started getting slower and slower. However I made it home somehow in less time than it took me to get there.

Anyway I got home safely, spent a few hours selecting and processing shots and through dreary eyes, have written this blog entry.

I hope you all enjoy the few shots I did manage to get from the snow covered Donna Nook. I'd love any feedback on the shots either on Flick, Facebook, DeviantArt of even from the photography prints guestbook.

I've uploaded a selection of shots to the Website and my Flickr Account. You can find them in the Wildlife->Grey Seals folder. Enjoy.

Before I close and hit the sack, I'd like to make a plea to all photographers who intend on visiting Donna Nook. If you go on the beach PLEASE ensure you respect the seals and ensure you:

• Are not loud.
• Are not in a big group of people.
• Do not get too close to the seals. Keep at least 10ft between you and them.
• Move slowly when approaching seals.
• Learn when a seal is becoming irritated by your presence. If they yawn, try to move away, hiss, roll over and wave you away or in any other way seem distressed by your presence, slowly move away and LEAVE THEM ALONE.

If you don't follow these rules, not only will you put the seals at risk but you'll ruin it for every other photographer. The Wildlife Trust may not have the power to close the beach off, but the RAF do. Its their property. It would be a shame for a great public wildlife reserve to be closed off due to ignorant people.

Ok thats my preaching bit done.

Right - I'm off to bed. One final shot as a goodbye from the seals of Donna Nook.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR TO ALL MY READERS!

View More Photography by Justin Kercher at www.photography-prints.co.uk

View More Photography by Justin Kercher at www.photography-prints.co.uk