Day of Photography at the Pond - Irish Wildlife Photography

Good morning folks, welcome back to another video. So I'm all set up, I have the camera here, bag's there and I'm at a beautiful pond up in Phoenix Park. We've got quite a lot of birds out there so I'm absolutely delighted. We've got some moorhens, we have the coots, we have ducks and what else have we got? There's a tough duck out there as well so there's quite a bit floating about. I've come up to Phoenix Park because I haven't been out with the camera now in nearly two months. I've just been so busy with work and everything else that comes along with life, so I haven't been out in a few months. So I've come up to Phoenix Park just to be able to take some photos because there's so much here. There's all the ponds and then you have the deer, but this morning I'm mainly here for the moorhens. I haven't photographed the moorhens properly, they're just a beautiful bird. They have this yellow and red beak and they kind of have this blue tint of feathers with these yellow feet. They're just a beautiful, beautiful bird. So that's the plan this morning, is to try and get some nice photos of these moorhens. It'd be nice to get them out of the water. There's quite a few kind of ploddering around on the grass and on the muck, just a bit out of the water. So I might see if I can get some photos of these guys out of the water, if not just in the water. But I really want to get some nice photos just showing their beautiful portrait of the yellow and red and see if I can get some of that blue in the chest as well. But they're absolutely gorgeous. There's actually one out of the water there now. I don't know if you can see him. Just tip my finger. Let me see, can I get a picture There he is. See him? Big quick photo. There he is. See? So they're coming out of the water, which is a good sign. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to crack on here. I'm all set up. I have the frying pan with the gimbal head on it, just so I can get nice and low. I have the bag there, camera here and this is where I'm going for. I'm going to stay here because I like, I don't like real grass in my photos. So I'm staying in this muck and the background then might get some nice bokeh coming through these trees. And there's another one coming out of the water there. See him? So this is perfect. This is the perfect spot. So I'm going to stay here for about an hour or so and see if I can get some nice photos. I'll try to get some footage as well, but let's crack on and see can we get some nice photos of these moorhens today. So before I shoot over to the pond, I'm just here in all these reeds and there's one or two wrens just floating about, just hopping from reed to reed. Now I don't have any tripod because I'm just handheld. So I'm just going to stand here and see, can I pull off some shots I don't know if you can see, but they're just moving around in here and then they're coming up. I can see one there now. I can see one. He's just hopping around in the reeds. So I'm going to stay here me hunkers and just see, can I get a few shots of him? One. Oh, there's the other one. There's two. Two wrens. Look at this. Look, right beside me. He's just come out of here. No fear. Right. Let's see. Can we get a photo of this wren? Got lucky there. Look at these just on the reeds. Now it's a bit far out look, but I got them. These are zoomed in quite a lot, but look at that. There we go. Got them. So I got the wren. Right. Better head back. Excuse me. Better head over to this other pond because time is ticking and I need to head over to this other pond because I want to see if there's any tough ducks over there. So I'm going to pack everything up and head over to the other pond. So I'll catch us over there. The ducks. This pond loops around in a big circle. So what I'm going to do is I'm just going to go for a little walk around to a full circle, see what there is, find a spot to get comfortable and sit for 45 minutes, half an hour and see if I get lucky. Oh, there's a wagtail. Where's he gone? Where's he gone? There he is. You see, can I get a bit of footage of this wagtail? He's sitting on a branch over there. He's very far away, but what a beautiful bird. Where's he gone? Did he fly? Did he leave already? A split second. He's gone. Oh no, he's there. I got distracted there for a few minutes with that wagtail. He's the other side of the pond, just on the branch. So I can't get any good photos or footage of him. He's so small. He needs to be quite close. But I'm going to do a lap around this pond, see what I can see, see if they're worth photographing and then I'll set myself down for a bit and see if I can get any nice photos. So I'm going to do a lap of this pond and I'll catch up with you in a minute. So I'm still just sitting here, just right on the edge of the water. You can probably see them there. The tough ducks don't want to come anywhere near me. I'll show you. See them there, the white? I'll zoom in on this. See them? They're just sitting up there, right at this tree here. And every time I go, I got up and walked around and they just swim over here. And then when I come over here, they swim back over there. So I'm just going to play the waiting game now. I thought they might be used to people being up here in Phoenix Park and kind of come over thinking I might have some food or something. But no, they're not playing ball. They're just staying well away from me. So I'm just going to have to chill. There's three males and two females and they don't want anything to do with me. So I'm just going to sit down here now and just chill for maybe I'll give it 20 minutes and I'll just see if they'll start to swim towards me or kind of close enough that I can get some photos. But they're not really playing ball. But I'm going to get a bit of footage here while I'm here. It's going to be quite far away, but hey, I'll get a bit of footage and hopefully I'll get lucky and I'll get close enough that I can get some photos. So let's just chill. I'm going to chill. I'm going to get some footage here and see if I can capture that yellow eye with the tuft of feathers at the back of the head. But I'm going to get some footage and I'll catch up with you in a bit. I was sinking. My feet and everything was just sinking on the edge of the pond. But the tuft ducks just are playing ball. But I did get a few photos. Look at that. So I got a few nice ones of the male tuft duck. Absolutely over the moon with some of them. There you have it. So I got the male tuft duck and then I got some nice ones of that little wren this morning. Look at them. Look at the wren. I think I got some of the wren singing actually. There, look at that. So I got some nice ones of the wren singing and also we got some nice photos of the moorhen out of the pond earlier today. I haven't been out with this camera in the guts of two months and I'm glad I came up here this morning because I knew I'd definitely get the photograph something if I came up here. So we got the moorhen, I got some nice photos of the wren and we got that male tuft duck. So I got three photos this morning. I'm sure there's more in there because I did get off some photos of the female tuft duck and I got quite a lot of photos of the the wren and the moorhen in and out of the water. So god I'm delighted. So I'm gonna call it a day. I better get home but there's loads of deer. All the deer are just literally stone throw out there. There's about 200 of them just literally right out there. I'm not gonna bother photographing the deer but I'm just gonna shoot home. I got what I came for. I seen a lovely photo on Instagram of a moorhen there last week. I forgot who posted it. I should have taken note but it was beautiful and it was a moorhen in the water. So I just wanted, I knew there was moorhens up here so I wanted to come up and see if I could get some photos and wanted to try get them out of the water. So I'm absolutely delighted I got that photo this morning but I'm gonna call it a day. I'll definitely throw some of those photos over on the Instagram at seanmeadphotography. I'll put a link to the Instagram down below and on the website as well at seanmeadphoto.com but now next weekend I'm going to be back out again with the camera but next weekend I'm going to head out the beach and I'm going to see if I can get some coastal birds. So that's the plan for next weekend but for now I'm going to get a cup of coffee and head home. So hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching and sure I'll see you on the next one.