Info - Oliver Gent WildLife Photography

How it was made

Profile;

I am a recent graduate from the University of Manchester. Away from university I grew up, and still live, in Cumbria. Living and working in countryside and rural environments for most of my life has helped me to develop my passion for studying wildlife. My interest in working in the media industry began when I was younger when I used to take local youth drama classes where me and my friend would make amateur films on our phones. At University I studied Zoology which gave me a good base knowledge of wildlife and animal behaviour/physiology.

The locations;
Leighton Moss - an RSPB reserve in Lancashire. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and an area which I frequented when I was younger. It is known for its high diversity of bird fauna and also its populations of deer.

Gummer's How - a hill which is where one of the most popular walks in the Lake District is. It is very well known due to its panoramic views of the Lake District and also of Morecambe Bay. An excellent spot for landscape shots.

Helvellyn - the third highest mountain in the Lake District. It is home to two famous ridges; Striding Edge and Swirral Edge. There are numerous flocks of sheep and a number of birds, however as this is a very well-frequented walk the availability of wildlife is limited.

Rusland Valley - a valley in the southern-most part of the Lake District. It is a less well-known part of the Lakes, which is strange considering its proximity to Windermere, however this makes it ideal for pictures of wildlife. It is home to large population of Roe Deer and also a number of bird species such as buzzards and barn owls.

Humphrey Head - a hill that looks out over Morecambe Bay. It is thought that this is the location where the last wolf was killed. Although you won't see any wolves, if you go down early enough before the walkers you can see a number of rabbits and also large populations of birds.

West Midlands Safari Park - a safari park in Worcestershire. An easy place to see some exotic species.

The equipment;

Digiscoping; A telescope with a digiscoping adapter was used for long distance shots. This was especially useful for deer and birds which were far away and we have to sit patiently in order to shoot. The camera that was used was a Nikon Coolpix 4500, 4.0 megapixels and 4x zoom with a nikkor 7.85-32mm and f2.6-5.1 lens. This is an old school camera that is regularly utilised by digiscoping enthusiasts.

Macrophotography; two cameras were used for this. The first was a Nikon Coolpix D3200 with a nikkor 18-55mm f3.3-4.5 lens. The second was a Canon 550d with a canon 24mm f2.8 lens.

General Shots; The rest of the shots were taken using the two cameras listed under macrophotography.

Editing; For this I used Adobe Lightroom software down at the University of Worcester. They kindly showed me a few basic editing techniques and it highlighted how important this stage of the process is.