Jun 30

Jun 30 Interior Crocodile Alligator

Drone Photography, Street Photography, wildlife photography, landscape photography

So as the world is continuing to go to absolute shit, I bring you my next photo blog instalment for the month of June for you all to enjoy.

Kicking things off with the Black lives matters movement which hit the headlines in America (as if a global pandemic wasn’t enough) this month. Of course the UK had to get involved, with thousands taking to the streets in support of the movement. Bristol became fully involved one warm Sunday afternoon, with the removal and subsequent dumping in the harbour of the slave trader Edward Colston’s statue. An already divisive figure in Bristol due to his involvement in the slave trade, this was an easy target for protesters, who tore the statue down leaving an empty base and toppled name stone on the floor. I of course was on hand with my drone the following morning to get some images of the protests aftermath from above in one of my most stressful flights yet. Weaving through trees to get over the site to get a different angle of what went on below was tricky to say the least, especially as crowds started to form below to get their photo for the gram. What a way to kick off the month!

The remains of Edward Colston - DJI mavic Pro II

The remains of Edward Colston - 24-70mm F/2.8

With all the shenanigans going on in the world it was nice to get out into the countryside to take some photos with the 400mm F/5.6, but a lot of my ‘wildlife to photograph’ tick list for this year has sadly been scuppered somewhat by all the crazy world events. Finally though one totally by chance encounter with a colony of nest building house martins ticked one of these ‘things to photograph’ off my list this year, as these little guys happily went about their day while I stood under the closed pub they were nesting in. They were quite tricky to capture due to their dark head and wing colouration which almost perfectly blended in with the underside of the roof they were building their nests under, but a few images came out well enough to include here.

House Martin on half built nest - 400mm F5.6

House Martin nest building using mud - 400mm F5.6

On another trip to the coast I managed to get the drone up and about for a while. After struggling for a composition over the beach, I could see across the water a small island that I decided to try and get the drone over to. I am always nervous about flying too far away but I decided to push the drone to its limits and flew it nearly two miles out to sea to the small island. I later found out this was an abandoned pier known as Birnbeck Pier or ‘old pier’ that lies just off the coast near Clevedon, and is attached to the mainland by a now dilapidated condemned bridge. The Pier itself was left abandoned in 1979, and since then left to the elements which really have stripped the pier to a skeleton of its former self.

The Pier made for some amazing and interesting compositions as I flew above it, with all of its crumbling buildings, and stark rock edges that surrounded them. I knew I did not have much time so I quickly got some different perspective shots of the Pier which I think all look amazing when finished then headed back across the water just in time before the battery went dead.

A trip down to Cornwall to see family was also finally on the cards with rules relaxing, so off I went with camera and drone in hand .

RNLI car on Crantock Beach - DJI Mavic Pro II

While in Cornwall I had some time to take up my favourite position at my parents house which now sports a full bird table and various hangers to get some shots of the garden birds that frequent it.

Many of the birds were newly fledged chicks that were taking full advantage of the tables throughout the day.

Blue tit adult and juvenile blue tits and great tit feeding -400mm F/5.6

There is also now a visiting grey squirrel that has managed to work out just how to get up and feed on the feeders. He would happily pose for me on the wall before making his way onto the feeders to get his fill.

Back in Bristol, the summer seemed to have taken a distinct nosedive after such a long period of warm weather but this did not stop me travelling over to Avonmouth’s docks to try and get some drone shots of the imported cars that come into the docks in their thousands before being transported on.

Sadly the high winds meant that I was having a real struggle controlling the drone so only took a few shots before bringing it back. Fighting against the wind, I became worried I would not get it to return but luckily I was able to slowly force it back to where it took off. I love the lines and patterns the cars create so I will have to go back again when the weather is better to get some more like these, and also investigate the actual docks which I think will also make for some nice top down drone images.

FIN

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